Tripiṭaka

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The Tripiṭaka (Sanskrit; Devanagari: त्रिपिटक; Bengali: ত্রিপিটক ; lit. three baskets) is the Sanskrit term used by Westerners for a Buddhist canon of scriptures^[1]. Asian Buddhists of the Theravada Buddhist school use the term Tipitaka to refer to the Pali Canon. Other Buddhist schools use other terms for their own collection of scriptures, such as Kangyur (Tibetan Buddhism) and 大藏經 Dà Zàng Jīng (Far East Mahayana Buddhism).

Each of the Early Buddhist Schools had their own recension of the Tripitaka, which mainly differed on the subject of Abhidhamma. In terms of Vinaya and Sutras, the contents were remarkably similar.

Early Buddhism

The Tripitaka writings of some or all the Early Buddhist Schools, which were originally memorized and recited orally by disciples, fall into three general categories and are traditionally classified in three baskets (tri-piṭaka). The following is the most common order.

The first category, the Vinaya Piṭaka, was the code of ethics to be obeyed by the early saṅgha, monks and nuns. According to the scriptural account, these were invented on a day-to-day basis as the Buddha encountered various behavior problems with the monks.

The second category, the Sūtra Piṭaka (literally "basket of threads", Pāli: Sutta Piṭaka), consists primarily of accounts of the Buddha's teachings. The Sūtra Piṭaka has numerous subdivisions: it contains more than 10,000 sūtras.

The third category is the Abhidharma Piṭaka. This is applied to very different collections in different versions of the Tripiṭaka. In the Pāli Canon of the Theravāda there is an Abhidhamma Piṭaka consisting of seven books. An Abhidharma Piṭaka of the Sarvāstivāda school survives, also in seven books, six in Chinese and one in Tibetan. These are different books from the Pali ones though there are some common material and ideas. Another work surviving in Chinese, the Śāriputrābhidharmaśāstra, may be all or part of another Abhidharma Piṭaka. At least some other early schools of Buddhism had Abhidharma Piṭakas, which are now lost.

According to some sources, some early schools of Buddhism had five or seven pitakas.^[2] According to some scholars, some early schools of Buddhism had no Abhidharma.

Mahayana Buddhism

In the Mahāyāna a mixed attitude to the term Tripiṭaka developed. On the one hand, a major Mahāyāna scripture, the Lotus Sutra, uses the term to refer to the above literature of the early schools, as distinct from the Mahāyāna's own scriptures, and this usage became quite common in the tradition. On the other hand, the term Tripiṭaka had tended to become synonymous with Buddhist scriptures, and thus continued to be used for the Chinese and Tibetan collections, even though their contents do not really fit the pattern of three piṭakas.^[3] In the Chinese tradition, the texts are classified in a variety of ways,^[4] most of which have in fact four or even more piṭakas or other divisions. In the few that attempt to follow a genuine threefold division the term Abhidharma Pitaka is used to refer vaguely to non-canonical literature, whether Indian or Chinese, with only the other two piṭakas being regarded as strictly canonical. In the Tibetan tradition, on the other hand, when attempts are made to explain the application of the term Tripiṭaka to the Kanjur, the Tibetan canon of scripture, the Abhidharma Piṭaka is considered as consisting of the Prajñāpāramitā.

The Chinese form of Tripiṭaka, "Sanzang" (三藏), was sometimes used as an honorary title for a Buddhist monk who has mastered all the Tripiṭaka canons, most notably in the case of the Tang Dynasty monk Xuanzang, whose pilgrimage to India to study and bring Buddhist text back to China was portrayed in the novel Journey to the West as "Tang Sanzang". Due to the popularity of the novel, the term in "Sanzang" is often erroneously understood as a name of the monk Xuanzang. One such screen version of this is the popular 1979 Monkey (TV series).

Versions

• Tipiṭaka (Pali Canon) of the Theravada school.

• Tripiṭaka preserved in the East-Asian Mahayana tradition (Chinese translations):

1. The Āgamas contain the Madhyama Āgama (corresponding to the Pali Majjhima Nikāya) and Saṃyukta Āgama (corresponding to the Pali Saṃyutta Nikāya) of the Sārvāstivāda. There is also an incomplete Chinese translation of the Saṃyukta Āgama of the Kāśyapīya school. A comparison of the Sarvāstivādin, Kāśyapīya, and Theravadin Saṃyukta Āgama/Saṃyutta Nikāya texts reveals a considerable consistency of content, although each recension contains texts not found in the others. The Madhyama Āgama of the Sarvāstivāda school contains 222 sūtras, in contrast to the 152 suttas in the Pāli Majjhima Nikāya.
2. The Āgamas contains the Dīrgha Āgama (corresponding to the Pali Dīgha Nikāya) of (probably) the Dharmaguptaka. It contains 30 sūtras in contrast to the 34 suttas of the Theravadin Dīgha Nikāya.
3. The Āgamas contain the Ekottara Āgama (corresponding to the Pali Aṅguttara Nikāya) thought to be from either the Mahāsaṅghika or Sarvāstivādin canons.
4. The Vinaya Piṭakas of Sārvāstivāda, Mahāsaṅghika, Dharmaguptaka, Mahīśāsaka.
5. Mahāyāna sūtras and some Buddhist tantras

• The Kangyur of the Tibetan Buddhist tradition, which contains (in Tibetan translation):

1. The Mūlasārvāstivādin Vinaya Piṭaka,
2. portions of the Saṃyukta, Madhyama, and Dīrgha Āgamas of the Sarvāstivādin recension (all in the fifth section of the Kangyur),
3. Mahāyāna sūtras and tantras are also included in translation, along with some surviving Sanskrit texts.

• The Gandharan Buddhist texts contains some books and fragments of the Tipiṭaka of (probably) the Dharmaguptaka school.
• The Gilgit Manuscript contains vinaya texts and Āgamas primarily from the Mulasarvastivada, along with Mahayana texts.^[5][6]

Notes

1. ^ www.mapsofworld.com/referrals/books/non-printed-books/religious-books/buddhist-religious-books.html
2. ^ Journal of the Pali Text Society, volume XVI, page 114
3. ^ Mizuno, Essentials of Buddhism, 1972, English version pub Kosei, Tokyo, 1996
4. ^ Nanjio, Catalogue of the Chinese Translations of the Buddhist Tripitaka, Clarendon, Oxford, 1883
5. ^ MEMORY OF THE WORLD REGISTER Gilgit manuscripts
6. ^ GILGIT MANUSCRIPT- PIECING TOGETHER FRAGMENTS OF HISTORY

External links

Pali Tipitaka:

• Online Sutta Correspondence Project Extensive list of corresponding materials found between Pali Canon, the Agamas and individual sutras preserved in Chinese, the occasional sutra translations contained in the Tibetan Kanjur, and the numerous published fragments of sutras in Sanskrit and related languages English
• Access to Insight has many suttas translated into English
• Tipitaka Network
• List of Pali Canon Suttas translated into English (ongoing)
• The Pali Tipitaka Project(texts in 7 Asian languages)
• The Sri Lanka Tripitaka Project Pali Canons has a searchable database of the Pali texts
• The Vietnamese Nikaaya(continuing, text in Vitenamese)
• Search in English translations of the Tipitaka

East-Asian tradition:

• English translations of many Mahayana Buddhism texts
• BuddhaNet's eBook Library(English pdfs)
• WWW Database of Chinese Buddhist texts (English index of some East Asian Tripitakas)
• The full Chinese language canon and extended canon (includes downloadable CD .iso)

Tibetan tradition:

• Kangyur & Tengyur Projects (Tibetan texts)

Tripitaka Collections: Extensive list of online tripitakas