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Tripitaka
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The (Sanskrit; Devanagari: ????????; Bengali: ???????? ; lit. three baskets) is the Sanskrit term used by Westerners for a Buddhist canon of scriptures. Asian Buddhists of the Theravada Buddhist school use the term Tipitaka to refer to the Pali Canon. Other Buddhist schools use other terms for their own collection of scriptures, such as Kangyur (Tibetan Buddhism) and ??? Dā Zāng Jing (Chinese Mahayana Buddhism).
Each of the Early Buddhist Schools had their own recension of the Tripitaka, which mainly differed on the subject of Abhidhamma.
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The (Sanskrit; Devanagari: ????????; Bengali: ???????? ; lit. three baskets) is the Sanskrit term used by Westerners for a Buddhist canon of scriptures. Asian Buddhists of the Theravada Buddhist school use the term Tipitaka to refer to the Pali Canon. Other Buddhist schools use other terms for their own collection of scriptures, such as Kangyur (Tibetan Buddhism) and ??? Dā Zāng Jing (Chinese Mahayana Buddhism).
Each of the Early Buddhist Schools had their own recension of the Tripitaka, which mainly differed on the subject of Abhidhamma. In terms of Vinaya and Sutras, the contents were remarkably similar.
Early Buddhism
The Tripitaka writings of some or all the Early Buddhist Schools, which were originally memorized and recited orally by disciples, fall into three general categories and are traditionally classified in three baskets (). The following is the most common order.
The first category, the , was the code of ethics to be obeyed by the early , monks and nuns. According to the scriptural account, these were invented on a day-to-day basis as the Buddha encountered various behavior problems with the monks.
The second category, the (literally "basket of threads", Pali: ), consists primarily of accounts of the Buddha's teachings. The has numerous subdivisions: it contains more than 10,000 sutras.
The third category is the . This is applied to very different collections in different versions of the . In the Pali Canon of the Theravada there is an consisting of seven books. An of the Sarvastivada school survives, also in seven books, six in Chinese and one in Tibetan. These are different books from the Pali ones though there are some common material and ideas. Another work surviving in Chinese, the Sariputrabhidharmasastra, may be all or part of another . At least some other early schools of Buddhism had , which are now lost.
According to some sources, some early schools of Buddhism had five or seven pitakas. According to some scholars, some early schools of Buddhism had no Abhidharma.
Mahayana Buddhism
In the Mahayana a mixed attitude to the term developed. On the one hand, a major Mahayana scripture, the Lotus Sutra, uses the term to refer to the above literature of the early schools, as distinct from the Mahayana's own scriptures, and this usage became quite common in the tradition. On the other hand, the term had tended to become synonymous with Buddhist scriptures, and thus continued to be used for the Chinese and Tibetan collections, even though their contents do not really fit the pattern of three . In the Chinese tradition, the texts are classified in a variety of ways, most of which have in fact four or even more or other divisions. In the few that attempt to follow a genuine threefold division the term Abhidharma Pitaka is used to refer vaguely to non-canonical literature, whether Indian or Chinese, with only the other two being regarded as strictly canonical. In the Tibetan tradition, on the other hand, when attempts are made to explain the application of the term to the Kanjur, the Tibetan canon of scripture, the is considered as consisting of the Prajņaparamita.
The Chinese form of , "Sanzang", was sometimes used as an honorary title for a Buddhist monk who has mastered all the canons, most notably in the case of the Tang Dynasty monk Xuanzang, whose pilgrimage to India to study and bring Buddhist text back to China was portrayed in the novel Journey to the West as "Tang Sanzang". Due to the popularity of the novel, the term in "Sanzang" is often erroneously understood as a name of the monk Xuanzang. One such screen version of this is the popular 1979 Monkey (TV series).
Versions
- preserved in the East-Asian Mahayana tradition (Chinese translations):
- The Agamas contain the Madhyama Agama (corresponding to the Pali Majjhima Nikaya) and Sa?yukta Agama (corresponding to the Pali ) of the Sarvastivada. There is also an incomplete Chinese translation of the Sa?yukta Agama of the Kasyapiya school. A comparison of the Sarvastivadin, Kasyapiya, and Theravadin Sa?yukta Agama/Sa?yutta Nikaya texts reveals a considerable consistency of content, although each recension contains texts not found in the others. The Madhyama Agama of the Sarvastivada school contains 222 sutras, in contrast to the 152 suttas in the Pali Majjhima Nikaya.
- The Agamas contains the Dirgha Agama (corresponding to the Pali Digha Nikaya) of (probably) the Dharmaguptaka. It contains 30 sutras in contrast to the 34 suttas of the Theravadin Digha Nikaya.
- The Agamas contain the Ekottara Agama (corresponding to the Pali ) thought to be from either the or Sarvastivadin canons.
- The of Sarvastivada, , Dharmaguptaka, Mahisasaka.
- Mahayana sutras and some Buddhist tantras
- The ,
- portions of the Sa?yukta, Madhyama, and Dirgha Agamas of the Sarvastivadin recension (all in the fifth section of the Kangyur),
- Mahayana sutras and tantras are also included in translation, along with some surviving Sanskrit texts.
- The Gandharan Buddhist texts contains some books and fragments of the of (probably) the Dharmaguptaka school.
- The Gilgit Buddhist texts contain vinaya texts and Agamas primarily from the Mulasarvastivada, along with Mahayana texts.
External links
Pali Tipitaka:
- has many suttas translated into English
- (ongoing)
- (texts in 7 Asian languages)
- has a
- (continuing, text in Vitenamese)
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East-Asian tradition:
- (English pdfs)
- (English index of some East Asian Tripitakas)
- (includes downloadable CD .iso)
Tibetan tradition:
Tripitaka Collections:
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