BUDDHIST LITERATURE. [PART 1]: UPSC Daily Important Topic |10 April 2022

BUDDHIST LITERATURE. [PART 1]

Canonical buddhist texts.

✓Canonical texts are the books which lay down the basic tenets and principles of a religion.

✓Various Buddhist schools classify their canonical literature in different ways, some into 9 or 12 Angas, others into 3 Pitakas.

✓ There are Pali, Chinese, and Tibetan versions of the Tipitaka. The Pali Tipitaka of the Theravada school is the oldest of them all.

∆Tripitaka:

The Tipitaka consists of three books :-

1. The Sutta Pitaka contains the Buddha’s discourses on various doctrinal issues in dialogue form.

2. The Vinaya Pitaka has rules monks and nuns of the sangha (monastic order).

3. The Abhidhamma Pitaka is later work, and contains a thorough study  and systemization of the teachings of the Sutta Pitaka.

✓Three Pitakas are divided into books known as the Nikayas.

✓ For instance, the Sutta Pitaka consists of five Nikayas— the Digha, Majjhima, Samyutta, Anguttara, and Khuddaka Nikayas.