Khuddaka Nikaya
| Pali Canon |
|---|
| Vinaya Pitaka |
| Sutta Pitaka (Nikayas) |
| Abhidhamma Pitaka |
| See also: Early Buddhist Texts, Agamas |
The Khuddaka Nikāya (‘Minor Collection’) is the last of the five nikayas ("collections") in the Sutta Pitaka of the Pali Canon. This nikaya consists of fifteen (Thailand), seventeen (Sri Lanka), or eighteen books (Burma) in different editions on various topics attributed to the Buddha and his chief disciples.
The Pali term khuddaka in the title means "small"; and nikāya means "collection".
The Ksudraka Agama is a parallel collection from the Sanskrit tradition.
Historical Development
Professor Hirakawa Akira has stated[1] that the Khuddaka Nikaya represent a stage in the development of the Pali Canon / Agamas in which new material was not added any more to the rest of the Sutta Pitaka, but was added to a 'Khuddaka Pitaka' instead. This Khuddaka Pitaka was the repository for materials that were left out of the four Agamas/Nikayas (the Digha Nikaya, Majjhima Nikaya, Samyutta Nikaya and Anguttara Nikaya) and thus included both early and late texts. Some of the other schools that included a Khuddaka Pitaka in their canons were the Mahisasaka, Dharmaguptaka and Mahasanghika. The Khuddaka Nikaya of the Theravada school is the only complete extant example of such a Khuddaka Pitaka.[1] Some texts from the Dharmaguptaka Kṣudraka Āgama are preserved in Chinese and Tibetan translation, and fragments of Gandhari versions have also been discovered.[2]
On the dating of the various books in the Khuddaka Nikaya, Oliver Abeynayake notes that:
The Khuddaka Nikaya can easily be divided into two strata, one being early and the other late. The texts Sutta Nipata, Itivuttaka, Dhammapada, Therigatha (Theragatha), Udana and Jataka belong to the early stratum. The texts Khuddakapatha, Vimanavatthu, Petavatthu, Niddesa, Patisambhida, Apadana, Buddhavamsa and Cariyapitaka can be categorized in the later stratum.[3]
Contents
The Khuddaka Nikaya contains the following texts:
- Khuddakapatha
- Dhammapada
- Udana
- Itivuttaka
- Suttanipata
- Vimanavatthu
- Petavatthu
- Theragatha
- Therigatha
- Jataka
- Niddesa
- Patisambhidamagga
- Apadana
- Buddhavamsa
- Cariyapitaka
- Nettipakarana or Netti (included in Burmese and Sinhalese editions, but not in Thai edition)
- Petakopadesa (included in Burmese and Sinhalese editions, but not in Thai edition)
- Milindapanha (included in Burmese edition, but not in Sinhalese and Thai editions)
The full list of 18 books are included in the inscriptions approved by the Burmese Fifth Council and in the printed edition of the text recited at the Sixth Council.
The final three texts in the list above (16-18) are typically regarded as Paracanonical texts.
Translations
- Bhikkhu Sujato (trans.), Minor Collection, published online at SuttaCentral
- Psalms of the Early Buddhists, 9 & 8 tr C. A. F. Rhys Davids, Pali Text Society, Bristol; originally published separately
- Minor Anthologies of the Pali Canon, 1931–75, 4 volumes, Pali Text Society, Bristol; translations of 2, 1, 3, 4, 14, 15, 6, 7
- The Udana and the Itivuttaka, tr John D. Ireland, Buddhist Publication Society, Kandy, Sri Lanka; originally published separately
Notes
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 A History of Indian Buddhism, Hirakawa Akira, translated and edited by Paul Groner, Motilal Banarsidass Publishers, Delhi, 1993, page 128
- ↑ Andrew Skilton (2004). A Concise History of Buddhism. Windhorse Publications. p. 82. ISBN 0-904766-92-6.
- ↑ A textual and Historical Analysis of the Khuddaka Nikaya – Oliver Abeynayake Ph. D. , Colombo, First Edition – 1984, p. 113.
External links
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