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PREFACE

Scholars interested in Buddhism have no doubt felt a great want of an exhaustive treatment of Pali literature. I have, therefore, attempted for the first time to supply the need of a detailed and systematic history of Pali literature in two volumes. Drs. M. H. Bode and G. P. Malalasekera have published their respective monographs on the Pali literature of Burma and of Ceylon. Drs. Geiger and Winternits have also given us a brief survey of Pali literature in respective works, ” Pali Literaturund sprache ” and “ Geschichte der Indischen Literatur die Buddhistische literatur und die Heiligen texte dei Jainas (1920) ”. But my treatment of the subject is entirely different from those of my predecessors. The first volume deals with the chronology and general history of the Pali Pitakas. In the Introduction to this volume I have briefly discussed the origin of Pali and the importance of the study of Pali as one of the Indian languages. A systematic and oritical treatment of the puzzling problem of the chronology of tho Pali canon follows next, throwing a new light on this intricate and difficult subject.

I have tried to discuss at some length the date and com­position of each and every book included in the Pali canon. This volume contains a critical exposition of tho Vinaya Pitaka. An elaborate treatment of the Sutta Pitaka consisting of tho five nikiyas, the Digha, Majjhima, Samyutta, Anguttara, and Khuddaka has received the attention it deserves. I have also taken care to point out the peculiarities of the style and language in which each suttanta has been written. Under each suttanta and under each nikaya the ancient and modem literature hitherto published has been noticed. In tho section on the Abhidhamma Pitaka, I have noted the significance and importance of the Abhidhamma treatises not without paying attention to the style and language of the Abhidhamma texts. The Pali counter­parts of the Abhidhamma books of the Sarvastivada School have been dealt with in the last chapter of the first volume.

I have everywhere considered it worth while to mention the available printed editions, manuscripts, and different recensions of each sutta noting the points of textual variations wherever possible. An attempt has been made to collect the parallel passages by way of comparison from other literatures wherever found.

CONTENTS

FOREWORD 

PREFACE

INTRODUCTION

CHAPTER I :

CHRONOLOGY OF THE PALI CANON

CHAPTER II :

CANONICAL PALI LITERATURE

SECTION I — VINAYA PITAKA

SECTION II — SUTTA PITAKA

1. DIGHA NIKAYA
2. MAJJHIMA NIKAYA
3. SAMYUTTA NIKAYA
4. ANGUTTARA NIKAYA
5. KHUDDAKA NIKAYA

SECTION III — ABHIDHAMMA PITAKA

CHAPTER III :

PALI COUNTERPARTS OF THE SEVEN ABHIDHAMMA TREATISES OF THE SARVASTIVADA SCHOOL

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