Sanskrit Tripi?aka, the total canon of the southern schools of Buddhism, somewhat pejoratively dubbed H┤nay─na (Lesser Vehicle) by the self-styled Mah─y─na (Greater Vehicle) schools; for the latter, the canon constitutes a preliminary body of teachings, analogous to the Old Testament in Christianity. The books of this southern canon were nearly all written in India within 500 years of the time of the Buddha (between about 500 BC and the beginning of the Christian Era). They appeared in two languages—in P─li within the Therav─da (Way of the Elders) school, which now predominates in Sri Lanka (Ceylon) and Southeast Asia, and in Sanskrit among the Sarv─stiv─da (Doctrine That All Is Real), Mah─sa?ghika (Great Community), and other schools that did not survive the demise of Buddhism in India. The P─li texts constitute the entire surviving body of literature in that language. Each school had its own canonical collection that differed somewhat from others in the contents of particular texts, which texts it included, and the ordering of texts within the canon. There was more agreement on the first two sections, the Vinaya Pi?aka (Sanskrit and P─li: “Basket of Discipline”) and the Sutta Pi?aka (P─li: “Basket of Discourse”; Sanskrit: S┗tra Pi?aka) than on the third, the Abhidhamma Pi?aka (P─li: “Basket of Special [or Further] Doctrine”; Sanskrit: Abhidharma Pi?aka). The first of the three, which is also the earliest and smallest, provides for the regulation of monastic life. The second and largest contains the H┤nay─na-sutta (Sanskrit: s┗tra) literature—i.e., sermons and doctrinal and ethical discourses attributed to the Buddha or, in a few cases, to his disciples. (The basic texts produced by Mah─y─na schools are also called s┗tras and are often considered to have been revealed by the Buddha after he had passed into Nirv─?a.) The Abhidhamma (or Abhidharma) Pi?aka, which was apparently accepted only by the Sarv─stiv─dins and the Therav─dins—and in two quite different forms—is basically a schematization of doctrinal material from the suttas. All three sections of the canon contain, as well, an abundance of legends and other narratives. |