The ' () is a Buddhist scripture, a sutta collection in the Khuddaka Nikaya, 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 ...

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.

Sections

The ''Sutta Nipāta'' is divided into five sections: Uraga Vagga ("The Chapter on the Serpent") Cūla Vagga ("The Minor Chapter") Mahā Vagga ("The Great Chapter") Atthaka Vagga "The Chapter of Octads" Parayana Vagga ("The Chapter on the Way Beyond")

Context

Some scholars believe that it describes the oldest of all Buddhist practices. Others such as

Bhikkhu Bodhi Bhikkhu Bodhi (born December 10, 1944), born Jeffrey Block, is an American Theravada Buddhist monk, ordained in Sri Lanka and currently teaching in the New York and New Jersey area. He was appointed the second president of the Buddhist Publ ...

and

K. R. Norman Kenneth Roy Norman FBA (1925–2020) was a British philologist. He was Professor Emeritus of Indian Studies at the University of Cambridge, and was a leading authority on Pali and other Middle Indo-Aryan languages. Life Norman was educated at ...

agree that it contains much early material. In the Chinese Buddhist canon, a version of the Aṭṭhakavagga has survived. Fragmentary materials from a

Sanskrit Sanskrit (; attributively , ; nominally , , ) is a classical language belonging to the Indo-Aryan languages, Indo-Aryan branch of the Indo-European languages. It arose in South Asia after its predecessor languages had Trans-cultural diffusion ...

version of the Nipata also survive. The

Niddesa The Niddesa (abbrev., "Nidd") is a Buddhist scripture, part of the Pali Canon of Theravada Buddhism. It is included there in the Sutta Pitaka's Khuddaka Nikaya. It is in the form of a commentary on parts of the Suttanipata. The tradition ascribe ...

, a commentary in two parts on the contents of the Atthaka Vagga and portions of the Parayana Vagga, is included in the

as a book of the

Khuddaka Nikāya The Khuddaka Nikāya () is the last of the five nikayas, or collections, in the Sutta Pitaka, which is one of the "three baskets" that compose the Pali Tipitaka, the scriptures of Theravada Buddhism. This nikaya consists of fifteen (Thailand), ...

. This commentary is traditionally attributed to

Śāriputra Śāriputra ( sa, शारिपुत्र; Tibetan: ཤཱ་རིའི་བུ་, Pali: ''Sāriputta'', lit. "the son of Śāri", born Upatiṣya, Pali: ''Upatissa'') was one of the top disciples of the Buddha. He is considered the fir ...

, and its presence in the canon is regarded as evidence of the relatively early composition of the Sutta Nipata.

English Translations

* ''The Silent Sages of Old'', ''Suttas from the Suttanipāta'' '' by Ven. Ñāṇadīpa Mahāthera'', 2018 * Tr V. Fausbøll, in ''

Sacred Books of the East The ''Sacred Books of the East'' is a monumental 50-volume set of English translations of Asian religious texts, edited by Max Müller and published by the Oxford University Press between 1879 and 1910. It incorporates the essential sacred texts ...

'', volume X, Clarendon/Oxford, 1881; reprinted by Motilal Banarsidass, Delhi (?and by Dover, New York) * ''Buddha’s Teachings being the Sutta-nipāta or Discourse-Collection'', tr.

Robert Chalmers Robert Chalmers, 1st Baron Chalmers, (18 August 1858 – 17 November 1938) was a British civil servant, and a Pali and Buddhist scholar. In later life, he served as the Master of Peterhouse, Cambridge. Background and education Chalmers was b ...

Delhi Delhi, officially the National Capital Territory (NCT) of Delhi, is a city and a union territory of India containing New Delhi, the capital of India. Straddling the Yamuna river, primarily its western or right bank, Delhi shares borders w ...

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area, the List of countries and dependencies by population, second-most populous ...

, Motilal Barnasidass Publishers, 1932 (reprint in 1997), 300 p., .''Buddha’s Teachings being the Sutta-nipāta or Discourse-Collection'', read online

. * Woven cadences of early Buddhists, transl. by E. M. Hare. Sacred Books of the Buddhists vol.15, repr. - London: Oxford University Press, 194
Internet Archive
(PDF 11.4 MB) * ''The Group of Discourses'', tr

, 1984, Pali Text Society

Bristol; the original edition included alternative translations by I. B. Horner & Walpola Rahula; these are currently available in the paperback edition under the title ''The Rhinoceros Horn and Other Early Buddhist Poems''; the current edition under the original title omits these, but includes instead the translator's notes, not included in the paperback * Tr Saddhatissa, Curzon, London/Humanities Press, New York, 1985 * Tr N. A. Jayawickrama, University of Kelaniya, 2001 * ''The Discourse Collection Selected Texts from the Sutta Nipata'', by John D. Ireland, Access to Insight (BCBS Edition), 2013. Available for free downloa
here
*

German Translation

* Tr Nyanaponika, Verlag Beyerlein & Steinschulte, D 95236 Stammbach, Germany, 3. Auflage 1996

References

Citations

Sources

External links

Sutta Nipata
(

Access to Insight Access to Insight is a Theravada Buddhist website providing access to many translated texts from the Tipitaka, and contemporary materials published by the Buddhist Publication Society and many teachers from the Thai Forest Tradition. History ...

)
Sutta Nipata Lectures
taught by

Translations at dhammatalks.orgSuttanipāta - Anthology of Discourses at suttacentral.net
Khuddaka Nikaya {{Buddhist-text-stub