The ''Udānavarga'' is an early Buddhist collection of topically organized chapters ( sa, varga) of aphoristic verses or "utterances" (Sanskrit: ''udāna'') attributed to the

Buddha Siddhartha Gautama, most commonly referred to as the Buddha, was a śramaṇa, wandering ascetic and religious teacher who lived in South Asia during the 6th or 5th century BCE and founded Buddhism. According to Buddhist tradition, he was ...

and his disciples. While not part of the

Pali 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 ''Udānavarga'' has many chapter titles, verses and an overall format similar to those found in the Pali Canon's

Dhammapada The Dhammapada (Pāli; sa, धर्मपद, Dharmapada) is a collection of sayings of the Buddha in verse form and one of the most widely read and best known Buddhist scriptures. The original version of the Dhammapada is in the Khuddaka ...

and ''

Udāna The ''Udāna'' is a Buddhist scripture, part of the Pali Canon of Theravada Buddhism. It is included there in the Sutta Pitaka's Khuddaka Nikaya. The title might be translated "inspired utterances". The book comprises 80 such utterances, most i ...

''. At this time, there exist one

Sanskrit Sanskrit (; attributively , ; nominally , , ) is a classical language belonging to the Indo-Aryan branch of the Indo-European languages. It arose in South Asia after its predecessor languages had diffused there from the northwest in the late ...

recension, two Chinese recensions and two or three Tibetan recensions of the ''Udānavarga''.

Content

The ''Udānavarga'' has around 1100 verses in 33 chapters. The chapter titles are: # Anityavarga # Kāmavarga # Tṛṣṇāvarga # Apramādavarga # Priyavarga # Śīlavarga # Sucaritavarga # Vācavarga # Karmavarga # Śraddhāvargas # Śramaṇavarga # Mārgavarga # Satkāravarga # Drohavarga # Smṛtivarga # Prakirṇakavarga # Udakavarga # Puṣpavarga # Aśvavarga # Krodhavarga # Tathāgatavarga # Śrutavarga # Ātmavarga # Peyālavarga # Mitravarga # Nirvāṇavarga # Paśyavarga # Pāpavarga # Yugavarga # Sukhavarga # Cittavarga # Bhikṣuvarga # Brāhmaṇavarga Comparatively, the most common version of the Dhammapada, in

Pali 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 ...

, has 423 verses in 26 chapters. Comparing the ''Udānavarga'', Pali Dhammapada and the Gandhari Dharmapada, Brough (2001) identifies that the texts have in common 330 to 340 verses, 16 chapter headings and an underlying structure.

History

The ''Udānavarga'' is attributed by Brough to the Sarvāstivādins. Hinüber suggests that a text similar to the Pali Canon's ''Udāna'' formed the original core of the Sanskrit ''Udānavarga'', to which verses from the

were added.Hinüber (2000), pp. 45 (§89), 46 (§91). Brough allows for the hypothesis that the ''Udānavarga'', the Pali Dhammapada and the Gandhari Dharmapada all have a "common ancestor" but underlines that there is no evidence that any one of these three texts might have been the "primitive Dharmapada" from which the other two evolved. The

Tibetan Buddhist Tibetan Buddhism (also referred to as Indo-Tibetan Buddhism, Lamaism, Lamaistic Buddhism, Himalayan Buddhism, and Northern Buddhism) is the form of Buddhism practiced in Tibet and Bhutan, where it is the dominant religion. It is also in majo ...

and Chinese Buddhist canons' recensions are traditionally said to have been compiled by

Dharmatrāta Dharmatrāta (धर्मत्रात or धर्मतार) or possibly Dharmatara or Dharmatāra, is the name of successive Sarvāstivāda teachers and authors. The name is usually transliterated into Chinese as 達磨多羅 and transla ...

Notes

References

Citations

Sources

* Ānandajoti Bhikkhu (2nd rev., 2007)
'' A Comparative Edition of the Dhammapada''
Pali text with parallels from Sanskritised Prakrit * Bernhard, Franz (ed.) (1965). ''Udānavarga.'' Göttingen: Vandenhoek & Ruprecht. Retrieved 2008-09-18 in an expanded format by Ānandajoti Bhikkhu (version 2.1, January 2006) from "Ancient Buddhist Texts" at http://www.ancient-buddhist-texts.net/Buddhist-Texts/S1-Udanavarga/index.htm. * * Hinüber, Oskar von (2000). ''A Handbook of Pāli Literature''. Berlin: Walter de Gruyter. .

External links

* "

'". Theosophy Library. * "

'". The Pāḷi Dhammapada and all the parallels in Middle Indo-Aryan * "

'". The Udānavarga (Sanskrit)
Multilingual edition of Udānavarga in the Bibliotheca Polyglotta
{{Buddhism topics Early Buddhist texts