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The History of Buddhist Thought c28.s1.t3: B. Sutta-Piṭaka (Dhamma)

The History of Buddhist Thought c28.s1.t3

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B. Sutta-Piṭaka (Dhamma)

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The doctrinal portion, the Dhamma (Dharma), exists in four or five collections called in Pāli Nikāyas, in the other schools Āgamas. The separate discourses are usually known as suttas (sūtras) or suttantas (sūtrāntas), but an earlier term used in the suttas themselves is *dhammapariyāya*, “ section of doctrine.”² The separation of this portion into four or five collections is as early at least as the third century B.C., as the term *pañcanekāyika*, “knowing the five Nikāyas,” shows. This classification appears to have been a purely formal one due to convenience in committing to memory, the groupings being into (1) long suttas, (2) medium long, (3) grouped suttas, (4) suttas arranged on a numerical principle. It is not surprising that there should be other doctrinal works which did not fit into the fourfold scheme. The Theravādins formed them into a fifth Nikāya, but much of the material existed also in other schools, and among the Sarvāstivādins, a school with a long continuous growth in India, there was an enormous development, as will be seen in the discussion of the nine Angas. The Pāli order and arrangement is as follows :—

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² *Suttanta*, as has been shown by Mr. E. H. Johnston, is a collective term formed from *sutta*, but there is no real difference of meaning. The difference appears to be due to the usage of different classes of reciters of portions of the Scriptures. The term *sutta* (sūtra), lit. “ thread ”, refers in brahminical works to short aphoristic sentences intended to be committed to memory. With the Buddhists it is any part of this division of the Scriptures, which

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1. *Dīgha-Nikāya* (*Dīrghāgama*)

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The collection of long discourses, thirty-four suttas arranged in three *vaggas* or series.

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1–13. *Sīlakkhandha-vagga*.—Each of these has incorporated in it a list of moral rules known as the Silas. Most of the suttas describe the training of the monk in three stages, beginning with these moral rules, proceeding to the practice of concentration (*samādhi*), and ending with *paññā*, the full knowledge of the arahat. Several of them discuss the views of the brahmins on sacrifice and sacred knowledge, the doctrines of various religious schools, the value of caste and self-mortification, and expound leading doctrines.

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14–23. *Mahā-vagga*.—Most of these suttas are not properly discourses but legends. The most important is the *Mahā-parinibbāna-sutta*, an account of the last days and death of Buddha and the distribution of his relics. Two others are really portions or extensions of this, the *Mahāsudassana-sutta*, in which Buddha on his death-bed tells of his former existence as king Sudassana, and the *Janavasabha-sutta*, an extension of another discourse which Buddha delivered on his last

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may be a discourse or poem, but which is always given as a separate utterance of Buddha or a disciple. Its earlier sense is seen in the *Pātimokkha*, where it is applied to each Vinaya rule, and in the title *Sutta-vibhanga*. The term *dhammapariyāya* was used by Asoka in the form *dhammapaliyāya* in the edict in which he recommends portions of Scripture to the monks and nuns for study. *Inscriptions of Asoka*, ed. Hultzsch, p. 173. Dr. Walleser holds that *sutta* is from Skt. *sūkta*, “well spoken, a hymn,” and this certainly fits the discourses very well, but when the Canon was turned into Sanskrit nothing was known of this derivation, nor do the Jains recognize it.

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journey. Other legends are the *Mahāpadāna-sutta*, an account of the last seven Buddhas with the life of Vipassin Buddha down to the beginning of his preaching; *Mahā-govinda-sutta*, a previous life of Buddha as Mahā-govinda, recorded by a heavenly musician, who went up to the heaven of Brahmā to hear it; *Mahā-Samaya-sutta*, the “great Assembly” of gods who visit Buddha, and who are described by him in a long poem. The most important doctrinal discourses are the *Mahānidāna-sutta* on the Chain of Causation, the *Mahā-Satipaṭṭhāna-sutta*, on the four contemplations with commentary on the Four Truths, and *Pāyāsi-sutta* given by the elder Kumārakassapa, on the doctrine of a future life and reward of actions.

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24-34. *Pāṭika-vagga*.—This is the most miscellaneous section, and it indicates that definite doctrinal beliefs about the nature of a Buddha had become much developed by the time the collection was made. Two suttas show Buddha explaining the origin and development of the universe (after its periodical destruction) and the differentiation of castes. There is the legend of the universal king (*cakkavattin*), a prophecy about the next Buddha (Metteya or Maitreya), a discourse on the thirty-two bodily marks of a universal king (which are also the marks of a Buddha), and a spell to serve as protection against evil spirits, which was given to Buddha by the Four Great Kings. It became the Buddha-word when Buddha repeated it to the monks. The *Sigālovāda-sutta*, the one discourse addressed to a layman, is really a poem with a prose commentary. The last two, *Sangīti* and *Dasuttara*, are long lists of classified doctrinal terms, and are ascribed to Sāriputta.

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2. *Majjhima-Nikaya* (*Madhyamāgama*)

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The division of discourses of medium length, 152 suttas in fifteen vaggas. There is the same description as in the *Digha* of the life of the monk in the three stages of morality, concentration, and enlightenment. This in several suttas is brought into connection with the story of Buddha’s enlightenment and first preaching. There are several other legends of Buddha’s life, his descent from heaven and his birth (No. 123), his debates with the Jains (Nos. 35, 56, 58, 79, 101, 104), his foster-mother as a nun (No. 146), the schism of Devadatta (Nos. 29, 58), and several discussions on caste (Nos. 84, 93, 96). Some are in the form of commentaries, and several show a tendency to the Abhidhamma style of exposition with classified lists of terms. Twenty-one of them are attributed to disciples.

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3. *Saṃyutta-Nikāya* (*Saṃyuktāgama*)

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The division of “ connected ” suttas in five vaggas divided into groups (saṃyuttas) and these again into smaller vaggas of separate suttas. Many short poems and scraps of verse are collected in the first, called :—

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(1) *Sagātha-vagga*, “ series with verses.” They are grouped in saṃyuttas according to the characters appearing in them, the gods, the king of the Kosalas, Māra, etc.

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(2) *Nidāna-vagga*, this, like the following, does not indicate the subject of the whole, but only of the first ten saṃyuttas on the Nidānas, the twelve links of the Chain of Causation.

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(3) *Khandha-vagga*, beginning with suttas on the five khandhas.

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(4) *Saḷāyatana-vagga*, beginning with suttas on the six senses.

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(5) *Mahā-vagga*, “ the great series,” beginning with suttas on the Eightfold Path.

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4. *Aṅguttara-Nikāya* (*Ekottarikāgama*)

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*Aṅguttara* means “ (one) member beyond ”, and *ekottarika* “ having one (member) beyond ”. The division is purely numerical, beginning with suttas discussing lists of one thing, lists of two, three, etc., up to eleven. The first gives a list of the one sight, the one sound, the one scent, etc., which occupies the thought of a man or woman. The last is a list of the eleven good and eleven bad qualities of a herdsman, and the corresponding qualities of a monk. It is in eleven *nipātas* (groups), each divided into vaggas, which usually contain ten suttas.

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5. *Khuddaka-Nikāya*

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The division of minor works. The contents of this Nikāya have varied at different times. The following fifteen are at present recognized in Ceylon :—

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and the latter on the fifth vagga (*Pārāyaṇa*) and on the *Khaggavisāṇa-sutta* in the first vagga. They contain much Abhidhamma material.

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(12) *Paṭisambhidā-magga*. “The way of analysis,” an analysis of various concepts, knowledge, heresy, the practice of breathing while meditating, etc. In method and material it is really an Abhidhamma work.

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(13) *Apadāna*. Accounts in verse of the lives and previous lives of monks and nuns.

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(14) *Buddhavamsa*. “History of the Buddhas,” in which, in response to a question by Sāriputta, Buddha gives an account in verse of his first forming in the presence of Dīpankara Buddha the resolve to become a Buddha, with the life of Dīpankara and the succeeding twenty-four Buddhas, including an account of himself.

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(15) *Cariyā-piṭaka*. “The basket of conduct,” i.e. the conduct of the future Buddha in order to attain the ten Perfections (*pāramī*), forming thirty-five tales from the *Jātaka* versified. Only seven of the ten Perfections are illustrated.

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There has never been any general agreement even among the Theravādins about the number of works in this Piṭaka. The whole fifteen are mentioned in Buddhaghosa’s commentary on the Vinaya, but in the Chinese translation of this commentary No. 1 is omitted, showing that the original text of Buddhaghosa did not admit it.¹

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¹ No. 1, consisting of a series of short texts mostly from the suttas, was intended for novices. When they were once collected into a separate book it would be almost inevitable that it should be treated as Scripture.

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He also records two earlier traditions, one that the reciters of the Dīgha omitted the first and the last three, calling the rest the “Minor book” (*khuddaka-gantha*) which they placed in the Abhidhamma-piṭaka; the other that the reciters of the Majjhima included all but the first, and placed them in the Sutta-piṭaka. The Siam edition omits 6–10 as well as the last three.

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The four Āgamas of the Sarvāstivādins have been compared with the corresponding Nikāyas by Professor Anesaki,² and in more detail by Professor C. Akanuma.¹ The result is to show a close correspondence in the case of the Dīgha. The Chinese has thirty suttas, two of which are not found in the Pāli. Several of those in the Pāli Dīgha are in other books of the Chinese. The order of the suttas is different, but the same vaggas were known, for the ten in the Chinese which come last correspond to the Sīla-vagga. In the Majjhima there are 222 suttas as against 152 in the Pāli, and nineteen of them are not in the Chinese. The material also varies more than in the Dīgha, for many suttas of the Chinese Majjhima occur in the Pāli Saṃyutta and Anguttara, and *vice versa*. The differences are greatest in these two last. We may conclude that there was once a common stock of suttas learnt by heart. Probably differences in what was remembered had already begun between the two schools. The beginnings of the classification must have originated while the schools were in close connection, but it evidently went on and was completed in each independently.

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² *Some problems of the textual history of the Buddhist Scriptures*; and *The four Buddhist Āgamas in Chinese*. Trans. As. Soc. Japan, xxxv, parts 2, 3, 1908; *Le sagātha-vagga du Saṃyutta-nikaya et ses versions chinoises*. Muséon, 1905, pp. 23 ff.

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¹ The comparative catalogue of Chinese Āgamas and Pāli Nikāyas. (In Japanese.) Nagoya, Japan, 1929.

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