Six stages of the passage of Theravāda Pali Canon

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Six stages of the passage of Theravāda Pali Canon

From the Buddha’s mouth to digitalisation

By Dr. Ari Ubeysekara

Introduction

Buddhism is the teaching of the Lord Gautama Buddha who lived and preached in Northern India during the sixth and fifth centuries BC. Theravāda Buddhism, “Thera” meaning elders and “Vāda” meaning doctrine and hence the “Doctrine of the Elders” is the most conservative and oldest known tradition of Buddhism which is based on the original doctrine of Gautama Buddha recorded in the form of three baskets (tipitaka). The Tipitaka is recorded in the Pali language which is identified with the Magadhi language. The Magadhi language is believed to have been the spoken language in the ancient Indian kingdom of Magadha where the Buddha lived and preached. Theravāda Buddhism is also known as “Southern Buddhism” as it is mainly practised by the Buddhists in South and Southeast Asian countries such as Sri Lanka, Myanmar (Burma), Thailand, Cambodia and Laos.

Since the first Buddhist council that was held three months after the passing away of the Buddha, the Buddha’s teachings were categorised into the now well-known Pali Canon consisting of the three baskets. The teaching of the Gautama Buddha which is believed to consist of around 84,000 items is contained in the three baskets (tipitaka).

  1. Basket of the disciplinary rules for the monastic community (vinaya pitaka)
  2. Basket of the discourses (sutta pitaka)
  3. Basket of the Buddha’s higher teaching (abhidhamma pitaka)

The basket of the disciplinary rules (vinaya pitaka) consists of five books:

  1. Major offences (pārājikā pāli)
  2. Minor offences (pācittiya pāli)
  3. Greater section (mahāvagga pāli)
  4. Lesser section (cūlavagga pāli)
  5. Summary and classification (parivāra pāli)

The basket of the discourses (sutta pitaka) consists of five collections (nikāya):

  1. Collection of long discourses (dīgha nikāya)
  2. Collection of middle length discourses (majjhima nikāya)
  3. Collection of connected discourses (samyutta nikāya)
  4. Collection of numerical discourses (anguttara nikāya)
  5. Collection of minor discourses (khuddaka nikāya)

The basket of the higher teaching (abhidhamma pitaka) consists of seven books:

  1. The book of classification (dhammasanganī)
  2. The book of analysis (vibhanga)
  3. Discussion with reference to elements (dhāthukathā)
  4. Description of individuals (puggalapannatti)
  5. Points of controversy (kathāvatthu)
  6. The book of pairs (yamaka)
  7. The book of conditional relations (patthāna)

The basket of the disciplinary rules (vinaya pitaka) contains the rules of discipline laid down by the Buddha for Buddhist monks and nuns. While the novice monks and nuns have to observe the ten precepts of moral discipline, Buddhist monks who have received higher ordination (upasampadā) are expected to observe 227 rules of discipline and Buddhist nuns are expected to observe  311 rules of discipline.

The 227 disciplinary rules for Buddhist monks consist of the following eight groups:

  1. Four rules which, if broken, will lead to expulsion from the bhikkhu community (pārājikā)
  2. Thirteen rules which, if broken, will lead to meetings with the bhikkhus (sanghādisesa)
  3. Two rules which are indefinite (aniyata)
  4. Thirty rules which, if broken, will lead to redemption and penalty (nissaggiya—pācittiya)
  5. Ninety two rules which, if broken, will lead to redemption (pācittiya)
  6. Four rules which, if broken, will require a confession (pātidesanīya)
  7. Seventy five rules concerning proper behaviour (sekhiya)
  8. Seven procedures for settling legal issues (adhikaranasamatha)

The 311 disciplinary rules for Buddhist nuns consist of the following seven groups:

  1. Eight rules which, if broken, will lead to expulsion from the bhikkhuni community (pārājikā)
  2. Seventeen rules which, if broken, will lead to meetings with the bhikkhunis (sanghādisesa)
  3. Thirty rules which, if broken, will lead to redemption and penalty (nissaggiya—pācittiya)
  4. One hundred and sixty six  rules which, if broken, will lead to redemption (pācittiya)
  5. Eight rules which, if broken, will require a confession (pātidesanīya)
  6. Seventy five rules concerning proper behaviour (sekhiya)
  7. Seven procedures for settling legal issues (adhikaranasamatha)

In addition to describing the disciplinary rules, basket of the disciplinary rules also includes the details of the incidents of misbehaviour by the monks and nuns that prompted the Buddha to lay down a certain rule.  

The basket of the discourses (sutta pitaka) contains mainly the discourses delivered by the Buddha during the forty five year period from His Enlightenment to His passing away (parinibbāna). The Sutta Pitaka also contains a few discourses delivered by the chief Arahants such as Venerable Sāriputta, Venerable Mahā Moggallāna and Venerable Ānanda. It is divided into five collections (nikāya):

  1. Collection of long discourses (dīgha nikāya): consisting of 34 long discourses such as Brahmajāla sutta, Sāmannaphala sutta, Mahāparinibbāna sutta, Mahāsatipatthāna sutta, etc., divided into three sections (vaggas).
  2. Collection of middle length discourses (majjhima nikāya): consisting of 152 middle length discourses divided into three parts consisting of 50, 50 and 52 discourses respectively. Each part consists of 5 sections (vaggas) with around 10 discourses in each section.
  3. Collection of connected discourses (samyutta nikāya): consisting of over 7,000 discourses divided into five sections (vaggas) and grouped into 56 specific doctrines or themes (samyuttas).
  4. Collection of numerical discourses (anguttara nikāya): consisting of over 9,000 discourses in 11 groups (nipātas) grouped numerically from one to eleven.
  5. Collection of minor discourses (khuddaka nikāya): consisting of 15 divisions of a variety of small discourses and others such as Khuddaka pātha, Dhammapada, jātaka stories, udāna, itivuttaka, sutta nipātha, vimānavatthu, petavatthu, theragāthā, therigāthā, niddesa, patisambhidā magga, apadāna, Buddhavamsa and cariya pitaka.

It should be noted that the collection of the minor discourses (Khuddka Nikāya) in the Burmese Tipitaka consists of eighteen books including the three books of Nettippakarana, Petakopadesa and Milindapanha (questions of Milinda).

The basket of the higher teaching (abhidhamma pitaka) contains an analysis of the Buddha’s higher teachings in which the Buddha discussed the ultimate realities (paramattha dhamma) of all existing phenomena classified into four factors:

  1. The mind (citta)
  2. The mental factors that arise along with the mind (cetasika)
  3. Materiality or physical phenomena (rūpa)
  4. The final goal of the unconditioned state of Bliss (nibbāna) (1)

Six stages of the passage of Theravada Pali Canon

The original teaching of the Buddha that was preached by the Buddha himself during the Buddha’s life time was available only to the individuals, groups of individuals or bigger congregations of individuals who heard them directly from the Buddha’s mouth. Those listeners may have consisted of the Buddha’s monastic disciples such as monks and nuns, lay people who were devotees or non-devotees of the Buddha as well as non-human beings such as deities from the celestial worlds. However, now, 2,600 years later, the Buddha’s teaching is  accessible to anyone anywhere in the world, who wants to listen to them or read them through various forms of media including the internet. The passage of the Buddha’s teaching contained in the Theravāda Pali Canon from the Buddha’s mouth to the present day digitalisation can be considered to have taken place in six stages.

  1. Stage one: Teaching delivered through the Buddha’s mouth.
  2. Stage two: Teaching maintained through memorisation and oral transmission by the Buddhist monks.
  3. Stage three: Teaching written down on palm leaves.
  4. Stage four: Teaching engraved on marble slabs.
  5. Stage five: Teaching made available in print form.
  6. Stage six: Teaching made available on the internet.

Stage one: Teaching delivered through the Buddha’s mouth

Lord Gautama Buddha gained enlightenment as a Samma Sambuddha at the age of 35 years, while meditating under the Bodhi tree in a place called Bodh Gaya in India, on the full moon day of the month of May in 528 BC. Having decided to preach the doctrine that was discovered by the Buddha so that others could also liberate themselves from suffering, the Buddha delivered the very first sermon called “Dhammachakkappavattana sutta” meaning “Turning of the Wheel of Truth”. It was delivered at the Deer Park, near Varanasi, India, on the full moon day of the month of July, to a group of five ascetics who had supported the Buddha during the six years prior to becoming the Buddha. In this sermon the Buddha emphasised the need to follow the Middle Path avoiding the two extremes of self-indulgence and self-mortification, explained the four Noble Truths and discussed the Noble Eight-fold Path that needs to be cultivated in order to escape from the cycle of birth and death (samsāra).

The four Noble Truths

  1. The truth of universal suffering (dukkha sacca)
  2. The truth of the origin of suffering (samudaya sacca)
  3. The truth of the cessation of suffering (nirodha sacca)
  4. The path leading to the cessation of suffering (magga sacca)

The path leading to the cessation of suffering is known as the Middle Path or the Noble Eight-fold Path.

The Noble Eight-fold Path

  1. Right view (sammā ditthi)
  2. Right intention (sammā sankappa)
  3. Right speech (sammā vācā)
  4. Right action (sammā kammantha)
  5. Right livelihood (sammā ājīva)
  6. Right effort (sammā vāyāma)
  7. Right mindfulness (sammā sati)
  8. Right concentration (sammā samādhi)

Throughout the ministry of forty five years from enlightenment at the age of thirty five to passing away at the age of eighty, Lord Gautama Buddha, through compassion for other beings, travelled from place to place mainly in North Eastern India, teaching the path out of suffering to a diverse range of people. They included kings and rulers, followers of other religions and ordinary people from all walks of life as well as celestial beings. After listening to the Buddha’s teaching, vast numbers of people became Buddha’s disciples and followers, many of whom attained various stages of the path of liberation or Nibbana and escaped from human suffering and the cycle of birth and death. During the three months of the rainy season, the Buddha used to stay at one monastery and teach the doctrine to whoever visited that monastery.

During the life time of the Buddha and until the first Buddhist council that was held three months after the Buddha’s passing away, all of the Buddha’s teachings were categorised into nine parts or angas based upon their form and style known as the nine-fold dispensation of the Buddha (navānga buddha sāsana or navānga satthusāsana).

Nine-fold dispensation of the Buddha (navānga buddha sāsana):

  1. Discourses (sutta) in prose
  2. Mixed prose and verse (geyya)
  3. Elaboration of brief teachings (veyyākarana)
  4. Verses (gāthā)
  5. Inspired utterances (udāna) mostly in verse
  6. Sayings of the Blessed one (itivuttaka) in mixed prose and verse
  7. Birth stories (jātaka) – Buddha’s previous lives as a Buddha aspirant (bodhisatta)
  8. Extraordinary things or miracles (abbhūtadhamma)
  9. Analysis (vedalla)

From the proceedings of the first Buddhist council recorded in the Buddhist literature, Venerable Ānanda who was the Buddha’s chief attendant for 25 years and was also known as the “Treasurer of the Dhamma”, is believed to have known by heart all the discourses delivered by the Buddha. Another senior monk named Venerable Upāli is believed to have known all of the disciplinary rules that the Buddha had laid down on different occasions. Seven years after the enlightenment, the Buddha is believed to have delivered the Abhidhamma to an audience of deities including his late mother in the Tāvatimsa heaven. The last discourse delivered by the Buddha to an assembled group of monks prior to passing away at the age of eighty years, is recorded as the “Mahā Parinibbāna sutta” in the collection of the long discourses of the Buddha (Dīgha Nikāya). As recorded in the Mahā Parinibbāna sutta, the last words that were uttered by the Buddha were:

“Handa dāni, bhikkhave, āmantayāmi vo,

  Well now monks, I exhort you

  Vayadhammā sankhārā

  All compounded things are subject to decay

  Appamādena sampādethā

  Strive with diligence”

Stage two: Teaching maintained through memorisation and oral transmission by the Buddhist monks

Soon after the passing away of the Buddha in 483 BC, there was a serious concern among the senior Arahant monks whether there was a danger in maintaining the Buddha’s teaching (dhamma) and the disciplinary rules (vinaya) laid down by the Buddha in it’s pure form. This followed a disparaging comment about the Buddha made by a certain monk named Subhadda which was overheard by a senior Arahant monk named Mahā Kassapa. Following discussions among the senior Arahant monks, it was decided to hold a Buddhist council as soon as possible to recite, rehearse and agree on the Buddha’s teaching and rules of discipline to prevent their decline by the actions of some disciples who may disregard, change or misinterpret them.

So the first Buddhist council was held three months after the passing away of the Buddha. It was held at a place called Sattapanni Rock Cave situated on one of the hills near the city of Rajagaha, the capital of the kingdom of Magadha which is now called Rājgiri in North East India. It was sponsored by King Ajāsatta and was attended by 500 Arahant monks. Venerable Mahā Kassapa was the presiding monk of the council who questioned Venerable Upāli about the disciplinary rules and Venerable Ānanda about the discourses. For each rule of discipline, Venerable Upāli was questioned at length with regard to the particular incident, the person involved, the offence committed, where and when it happened, how one is to be found guilty or innocent etc. Having listened to them, the assembly of the Arahant monks discussed them and unanimously approved them to be a true recital of the monastic rules (Vinaya) as laid down by the Buddha. Venerable Ānanda gave the details of all of the Buddha’s discourses from his perfect memory and the 500 Arahant monks unanimously agreed that it was essentially a true recital of the discourses that the Buddha had preached on different occasions to different individuals and groups of individuals.

Then the teaching of the Buddha was divided into the three baskets (Tipitaka):  basket of the disciplinary rules for the monastic community (Vinaya Pitaka), basket of the discourses (Sutta Pitaka) and the basket of the Buddha’s higher teaching (Abhidhamma Pitaka). Because there were no methods available at that time to record in writing, the disciplinary rules (vinaya) and the Buddhist doctrine (dhamma) that were agreed upon at the Council were assigned to groups of Buddhist monks to recite and memorise them so that they will be maintained from generation to generation through an oral tradition. The disciplinary rules were assigned to Venerable Upāli and his disciples while the Buddha’s discourses which were divided into five collections (Nikāyas) were assigned as follows;

  1. Collection of long discourses (Dīgha Nikāya) to Venerable Ānanda and his pupil monks
  2. Collection of middle length discourses (Majjhima Nikāya) to Venerable Sāriputta’s pupil monks
  3. Collection of connected discourses (Samyutta Nikāya) to Venerable Mahā Kassapa and his pupil monks
  4. Collection of numerical discourses (Anguttara Nikāya) to Venerable Anuruddha and his pupil monks
  5. Collection of minor discourses (Khuddaka Nikāya) to all the above groups

The monks who undertook the task of memorising and reciting the Pali Canon to ensure it’s preservation were known as “Reciters” (bhānaka). As such the monks who memorised and recited the Dīgha Nikāya were known as “Reciters of the long discourses” (dīghabhānaka). Similarly, the reciters of the Majjhima Nikāya, Samyutta Nikāya and Anguttara Nikāya were known as Majjhimabhānaka, Samyuttabhānaka and Anguttarabhānaka respectively. It is believed that groups of monks who had learned and memorised a particular collection of discourses used to meet regularly and recite them as a group to make sure that it was maintained in a pure and pristine form.

Stage three: Teaching written down on palm leaves

Following the third Buddhist Council which was held in Patna, India in the 3rd century BC, Arahant Mahinda, son of King Ashoka who sponsored the Buddhist council, went to Ceylon (Sri Lanka) taking the orally maintained Pali Canon with him. After listening to his teaching the local king called Devanam Piya Tissa converted to Buddhism. With royal patronage, Buddhism established well in Sri Lanka. Soon afterwards King Ashoka’s daughter Arahant Sanghamitta went to Sri Lanka carrying a sapling of the Bodhi tree under which Gautama Buddha had meditated and gained enlightenment.

The monks in Sri Lanka learned and memorised the Pali Canon and continued to maintain it through oral transmission. During the reign of a king named Valagambahu, his kingdom was repeatedly invaded by rulers from South India. A number of South Indian rulers ruled for 14 years until the kingdom was re-captured by King Valagambahu, but by then there had been a decline in the Buddhist doctrine and the practice. There was also a severe famine in Sri Lanka which lasted for nearly 12 years and had been described as one of the worse famines to have taken place in the country. Thousands of Buddhist monks died of starvation and Buddhist temples were abandoned while those who could leave the country went to neighbouring India. Even during the famine, groups of dedicated Buddhist monks through great sacrifice and sometimes surviving in the jungle feeding on roots and leaves of trees, continued to recite and memorise the complete Tipitaka in order to protect and preserve it.

When the famine was finally over, there was a concern among the surviving Buddhist monks that should a similar situation arise again in the country, there is the danger that the Theravāda Pali Canon could not be maintained through the oral tradition. By that time, the techniques of writing had also improved and hence a decision was taken to write down the entire Theravāda Pali Canon on palm leaves so that it will not be lost even if the Buddhist monks who were expected to memorise it did not survive for some reason. The monks suggested to King Valagambahu that a Buddhist council is held to recite the Pali Buddhist Canon and to write it down on palm leaves. The king agreed and sponsored the fourth Buddhist council which was held in Sri Lanka in the 1st century BC.

According to Nikāya Sangraha, a Sinhalese book from the 14th century AD dealing with the Buddhist order, the fourth Buddhist council first took place at the Mahāvihāra in Anuradhapura. Then five hundred Buddhist monks led by the elder Venerable Mahārakkhitha met in the Āloka Lena, Matale, to recite the entire Theravāda Pali Canon and to write it down with it’s commentaries on palm leaves. Strips of dried palm leaves were used to write the scriptures with a metal stylus and then rubbed over with carbon ink. The pages were kept in order with a thread passed through the pages and with painted wooden covers fixed at the ends. So the Theravāda Pali Canon which had been maintained from generation to generation of Buddhist monks through oral transmission since the time of the 1st Buddhist council held in the 5th century BC, was written down on palm leaves for the first time. Copies of the Pali Canon written on palm leaves were sent from Sri Lanka to other Theravada Buddhist countries in South Asia.

Stage four: Teaching engraved on marble slabs

Theravada tradition of Buddhism is said to have arrived in Southern Burma through the Buddhist missionaries Sona and Uttara sent by King Ashoka following the 3rd Buddhist council held in the 3rd century BC. Burma was ruled by King Mindon for a period of 25 years from 1853 to 1878. He was a pious king and his reign has been described as a golden age in the history of Burma in relation to it’s religious and cultural developments. King Mindon developed the new capital Mandalay in 1857 and was keen to make it a center of Buddhist teaching. There was a concern that the Buddha’s original teaching may have suffered alterations and adaptations over time. Last time the whole of the Buddhist doctrine was recited and agreed upon by an assembly of learned Buddhist monks was nearly 20 centuries ago at the fourth Buddhist council held in Sri Lanka during the 1st century BC. King Mindon also had concerns about the possible negative effects on Buddhism and the Buddha’s teaching following the invasion of Burma by the British in the middle of the 19th century. There was also a concern that the palm leaves, on which the Pali Canon consisting of all of the Buddha’s teaching was written down, at the fourth Buddhist council in Sri Lanka may not last long. Hence King Mindon wanted to have the Pali Canon engraved on marble slabs to make sure that they will last longer.

So the fifth Buddhist council was held in 1871 in the city of Ratana-pun, at Mandalay, Burma (Myanmar) under the patronage of King Mindon. It was attended by 2,400 monks who recited the whole of the Theravāda Pali Canon which took just over 5 months to complete. Then it was approved by the attending monks as the true version of the three baskets of Buddha’s teaching (Tipitaka). As per the wishes of King Mindon who wanted the Buddhist scriptures engraved on marble slabs so that they will last longer, the Pali Canon was engraved on 729 marble slabs which were five and half feet in height, three and half feet in width and five inches in thickness. One more marble slab was added in which the details of the project of engraving the Buddhist texts were engraved making a total of 730 marble slabs.

Each marble slab was housed in a separate small pagoda about three meters tall with a roof to protect it from the sun and rain. These small pagodas were built in a special ground around a central pagoda called Kutho-daw pagoda, meaning the Royal Merit Pagoda, at the foot of the Mandalay hill which was also built by King Mindon. This set of 729 marble slabs in which the whole of the Theravāda Pali Canon is engraved in Burmese script is supposed to be the largest book in the world.

Stage five: Teaching made available in print form

From the late nineteenth century onwards, the Theravāda Pali Canon began to be edited and printed in sets of books. As Pali is a spoken language with no script of it’s own, it was printed in different scripts such as Thai, Burmese, Sinhalese and English depending on where it was printed. In Thailand, a project to have the Pali Canon printed in Thai script was set in motion by King Rama V which was completed in the 1890’s producing a set of 39 volumes. During the reign of another king named Rama VII in the 1920’s, the Thai Pali Canon was reprinted producing a set of 45 volumes.

The first complete printed edition of the Pali Canon in the Burmese script consisting of 38 volumes was published in 1900. The sixth Buddhist council attended by 2,500 Buddhist monks from eight Theravāda countries was held in Yangon, Myanmar from 1954 to 1956. The participating monks went through the complete Theravāda Pali Canon and their commentaries, re-edited them wherever it was necessary and finally recited the approved version of the Theravāda Pali Canon. The final version of the Pali Canon was published in the Burmese script consisting of 52 treatises in 40 volumes. It was also transcribed into the native script of the other participating countries such as Sri Lanka, Thailand, Cambodia, Laos, India, and Vietnam except India. In 1990, Vipassana Research Institute based at Igatpuri, India, began a project to print the Theravāda Pali Canon and it’s commentaries in Devanagari so that it would be easily available to interested readers in India as well.

The Pali Tipitaka in the Sinhala script and it’s Sinhala translation known as the Buddha Jayanthi Edition of Tipitaka was sponsored by the government of Sri Lanka and was published during the period from 1956 to 1990. It consists of 40 volumes and 57 books and the last volume was published in 1990.

The Pali Text Society (PTS) was established in London, United Kingdom, by T. W. Rhys Davids in 1881 to foster and promote the study of the Pali Canon and it’s commentaries. They published edited Pali texts and the commentaries in Roman characters as well as  translations of the texts in English language. By 1896, the PTS had published 34 volumes and by 1922, when it’s founder Rhys Davids died, it had published 64 separate texts in 94 volumes exceeding 26,000 pages. Texts of the Pali Canon and it’s commentaries have also been translated and printed in several other languages such as German and French.

Stage six: Teaching made available on the internet

Since the introduction of the internet during the last century, the printed versions of the Theravāda Pali Canon, commentaries to them and translations into several languages have been digitalised.  At present there are numerous websites from different sources that can be accessed to read the Theravāda Pali Canon and the commentaries, some of which are free to access while some do charge a subscription fee.

In 1996, through the cooperation between the Pali Text Society in London and Dhammakāya Foundation in Thailand, the Pali scriptures and some of the Pali commentaries were digitalised as PALITEXT version 1.0: CD-ROM Database of the Entire Buddhist Pali Canon. In 2005, World Tipitaka Edition, (2005), 40 volumes, was published by the Dhamma Society Fund under the patronage of the Supreme Patriarch of Thailand. It is claimed that this version includes the full extent of the changes made to the Canon at the sixth Buddhist council held in Burma from 1954 to 1956.

There are several websites where a reader can access the whole of the Pali Tipitaka, it’s commentaries as well as translations in the Burmese language. The final version of the entire Pali Canon that was agreed at the end of the sixth Buddhist council held in Yangon from 1954 to 1956, was first printed in the Burmese script and then made available on the internet. The Myanmar Manuscript Digital Library (MMDL) launched in 2019, is a growing collection of open access Pali and Pali-Burmese manuscripts that can be accessed by scholars from all over the world.

The Buddha Jayanthi edition of the Pali Canon in the Sinhalese script including parallel Sinhalese translations has been digitalised though not yet fully proofread, and is available at Journal of Buddhist Ethics. In a recent project named “Sinhalese Palm Leaf Manuscripts Digitalisation” based in the United Kingdom, old palm leaf manuscripts in which the Pali Canon is written in the Sinhalese script are digitalised at the British library in London and the John Rylands Research Institute and Library of the University of Manchester. These digitalised manuscripts are freely available on the internet.

Sutta Central is a website started by the Australian monk Bhikkhu Sujāto, which is specially focused on the scriptures of the earliest period of Buddhism. It hosts texts in more than thirty languages and is claimed to be the largest collection of early Buddhist texts ever made.  It hosts the Buddhist texts in the original languages, translations in modern languages, and extensive sets of parallels that show the relationship between them. The texts of the Theravāda Pali Canon is the version from the sixth Buddhist council in Burma. All of the material published on this site are freely accessible through <https://suttacentral.net/?lang=en&gt;

A website providing a digital reproduction of the authenticated Theravāda Tipitaka texts from the sixth Buddhist council is published by the Vipassana Research Institute based in Igatpūri, India. It can be accessed at <Tipitaka.org>.

A freely accessible website named “Access to Insight” which is  a Theravāda Buddhist website, was started in 1993. It provides access to many translated texts from the Theravāda Pali Canon and also contemporary material published by the Buddhist Publication Society in Sri Lanka and by many teachers from the Thai Forest Tradition. Most of the translations are from the basket of discourses (sutta pitaka) translated by Bhikkhu Thanissāro. The website can be accessed through http://www.accesstoinsight.org.

BUDSIR on Internet, that originated from the Mahidol University in Thailand with the intention of facilitating all interested persons to retrieve information about the Theravāda Tipitaka, now has several versions. It is claimed to contain 45 volumes of Tipitaka in Thai translation, 45 volumes of Tipitaka in Thai Pali and Romanized Pali, 70 volumes of commentaries in Thai Pali and Romanized Pali, as well as Tipitaka and commentaries in Devanagari, Burmese, Khmer and Sinhalese language.

The Theravāda Pali Canon is also known as the “Tipitaka” as it contains the three baskets of the Buddha’s teachings: basket of the disciplinary rules for the monastic community (vinaya pitaka), basket of the discourses (sutta pitaka) and the basket of the Buddha’s higher teaching (abhidhamma pitaka). It is generally agreed that the Theravāda Tipitaka is the earliest and most accurate collection of the teachings of Lord Gautama Buddha during his ministry of 45 years.  During the life time of the Buddha in the 6th and 5th century BC, the Buddha’s teaching was available only to those who heard it directly from the Buddha or from the Buddha’s senior disciples who had learned it from the Buddha. Two thousand six hundred years later, the Buddha’s teaching can be accessed on the internet by anyone from anywhere in the world. This passage can be attributed to the gradual advancement of science and technology, and the medium of communication during this period. It is considered in this article that the passage of the Buddha’s teaching in the form of the Pali Canon from the Buddha’s mouth to present day digitalisation has taken place in six stages. With further advancement of science and technology, and the medium of communication, one may wonder what the next stage of the passage of Theravāda Pali Canon would be.

References

  1. Webb, Russell 1975, ‘An Analysis of the Pali Canon’, Wheel Publication No: 217/218/219/220, Buddhist Publication Society, Kandy, Sri Lanka.
    1. https://drarisworld.wordpress.com/2018/01/13/past-buddhist-councils-in-theravada-buddhism/

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