The ''Apadāna'' is a collection of biographical stories found in the
Khuddaka Nikaya of the
Pāli Canon
The Pāli Canon is the standard collection of scriptures in the Theravada Buddhist tradition, as preserved in the Pāli language. It is the most complete extant early Buddhist canon. It derives mainly from the Tamrashatiya school.
During th ...
, the scriptures of
Theravada
''Theravāda'' () ( si, ථේරවාදය, my, ထေရဝါဒ, th, เถรวาท, km, ថេរវាទ, lo, ເຖຣະວາດ, pi, , ) is the most commonly accepted name of Buddhism's oldest existing school. The school' ...
Buddhism. G.P. Malalasekera describes it as 'a Buddhist Vitae Sanctorum' of Buddhist monks and nuns who lived during the lifetime of the Buddha.
It is thought to be one of the latest additions to the canon. The exact meaning of the title ''Apadāna'' is not known. Perhaps it means 'life history' or 'legend'. In
Pāli
Pali () is a Middle Indo-Aryan liturgical language native to the Indian subcontinent. It is widely studied because it is the language of the Buddhist ''Pāli Canon'' or ''Tipiṭaka'' as well as the sacred language of ''Theravāda'' Buddhism ...
it has the additional, older meaning of advice or moral instruction. Dr Sally Cutler has suggested the word originally meant 'reapings', i.e. of the results of karma. The title is sometimes translated as the ''Biographical Stories'', or simply as ''The Stories''.
The ''Apadāna'' consists of about 600 poems (between 589 and 603 in different editions), mostly biographical stories of senior Buddhist monks and nuns, but also of Buddhas and solitary Buddhas. Many of the stories of monks and nuns are expansions of, or otherwise related to, verses presented in the
Theragatha
The ''Theragatha'' (''Verses of the Elder Monks'') is a Buddhist text, a collection of short poems in Pali attributed to members of the early Buddhist sangha. It is classified as part of the Khuddaka Nikaya, the collection of minor books in the ...
and
Therigatha as having been spoken by senior members of the early
Sangha
Sangha is a Sanskrit word used in many Indian languages, including Pali meaning "association", "assembly", "company" or "community"; Sangha is often used as a surname across these languages. It was historically used in a political context t ...
. The Apadāna is a parallel to the Jātaka commentary, in which the Buddha recounts his previous lives.
Most Apadāna stories follow a fairly predictable outline, in which the speaker recounts their meritorious deeds in previous births as ethical individuals in a variety of different circumstances in different parts of India, before finally recounting the story of their present birth and how they came to be disciples of the Buddha. These stories of the previous lives of famous and not so famous monks and nuns may have been meant to provide moral examples to lay followers who wished to live as
Buddhist
Buddhism ( , ), also known as Buddha Dharma and Dharmavinaya (), is an Indian religion or philosophical tradition based on teachings attributed to the Buddha. It originated in northern India as a -movement in the 5th century BCE, and ...
s but were unable or unwilling to undertake ordination as bhikkhus or bhikkhunis.
The text is divided into four sections:
* 1. Buddha-apadāna: A praise of the previous Buddhas and their Buddha fields (buddhakkhetta). 1 chapter of 82 verses (in the Burmese Sixth Council edition)
* 2. Paccekabuddha-apadāna: Ānanda questions the Buddha about the enlightenment of solitary Buddhas (paccekabuddha). 1 chapter of 47 verses.
* 3. Thera-apadāna: 55 chapters of 10 apadānas of senior monks. In total 547 verses.
* 4. Therī-apadāna: 4 chapters of 10 apadānas of senior nuns. In total 40 verses.
[Oskar von Hinüber, ''Handbook of Pali Literature'', New Delhi 1996: 61.]
Translations
A complete translation of the ''Apadāna'' into English has now been made by Jonathan S. Walters: ''Legends of the Buddhist Saints: Apadānapāli''
Whitman College, 2017.
The following parts have also been translated into English.
* Buddhapadāna (the 1st), tr. Dwijendralal Barua, in ''B.C. Law Volume'', Part II, Bhandarkar Oriental Research Institute, Poona, 1946, pages 186–9. Available a
* Mahapajāpati-gotami-theriyapadāna in Jonathan Walters ''Gotami's Story'' in ''Buddhism in Practice'', Donald S. Lopez Jr., Ed. Princeton University Press, Princeton, NJ. 1995. .
* Paccekabuddhapadāna (the 2nd), tr Ria Kloppenborg, in ''The Paccekabuddha'', E. J. Brill, Leiden, 1974
* Raṭṭhapālapadāna, tr Mabel Bode, in “The Legend of Raṭṭhapāla in the Pali Apadāna and Buddhaghosa's Commentary.” In ''Melanges d'Indianisme: offerts par ses élèves à Sylvain Lévi'', Paris, 1911: 183–192.
* Pubbakammapilotikabuddhapadāna, in ''The Udāna Commentary'', tr Peter Masefield,
Pali Text Society
Bristol, volume II.
* Pubbakammapilotikabuddhapadāna, in ''Pubbakammapilotika-Buddhāpadānaṁ: The Traditions about the Buddha (known as) The Connection with Previous Deeds or Why the Buddha Suffered. A text and translation of the verses in Apadāna 39.10 and their commentary in Visuddhajanavilāsiṇī'' by Ānandajoti Bhikkhu, 2012. Available a
* Raṭṭhapālapadāna, tr Mabel Bode, in ''Mélanges d'Indianisme offerts par ses élèves à S. Lévi'', 1911, Paris.
* 25 of the last 40 apadānas (of the nuns) are included in ''Commentary on Verses of Theris'', tr William Pruitt, 1998, Pali Text Society, Bristol.
Italian translations:
* Puṇṇakattherapadāna, tr Antonella Serena Comba in "Santo, mercante e navigatore: la storia di Pūrṇa nel buddhismo indiano", in A. S. Comba, "La storia di Pūrṇa", Lulu, Raleigh 2014, pp. 16–18.
See also
*
Avadāna
Avadāna (Sanskrit; Pali cognate: ''Apadāna'') is the name given to a type of Buddhist literature correlating past lives' virtuous deeds to subsequent lives' events.
Richard Salomon described them as "stories, usually narrated by the Buddha, ...
- broad cross-Buddhist-school Pali and Sanskrit literature including Apadāna-like material
References
Further reading
* Mellick, Sally. ''A critical edition, with translation, of selected portions of the Pali Apadana'', 1994, A2f, D.Phil., Oxford, 44–6. Unpublished Phd thesis.
* Walters, Jonathan S. ''Gotami's Story'' in ''Buddhism in Practice'', Donald S. Lopez Jr., Ed. Princeton University Press, Princeton, NJ. 1995. ..
External links
Description in ''Dictionary of Pali Proper Names''
Khuddaka Nikaya
Buddhist hagiography
{{Buddhism-book-stub