Translations of Tripiṭaka |
|
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English | Three Baskets |
Pali | Tipiṭaka |
Sanskrit | त्रिपिटक Tripiṭaka |
Bengali | ত্রিপিটক |
Burmese | ပိဋကတ် သုံးပုံ [pḭdəɡaʔ θóʊɴbòʊɴ] |
Chinese |
三藏 (Pinyin: sānzàng) |
Japanese |
三蔵 (さんぞう) (rōmaji: sanzō) |
Khmer | ព្រះត្រៃបិដក |
Korean |
삼장 (三臧) (RR: samjang) |
Sinhala | |
Thai | พระไตรปิฎก |
Vietnamese | Tam tạng |
Glossary of Buddhism |
Tripiṭaka, also referred to as Tipiṭaka or Pali Canon, is the traditional term for the Buddhist scriptures. These are canonical texts revered as exclusively authoritative in Theravada Buddhism. The Mahayana Buddhism also reveres them as authoritative but, unlike Theravadins, it also reveres various derivative literature and commentaries that were composed much later.
The Tripitakas were composed between about 500 BCE to about the start of the common era, likely written down for the first time in the 1st century BCE. Each Buddhist sub-tradition had its own Tripitaka for its monasteries, written by its sangha, each set consisting of 32 books, in three parts or baskets of teachings: (1) the basket of expected discipline from monks (Vinaya Piṭaka), (2) basket of discourse (Sūtra Piṭaka, Nikayas), and (3) basket of special doctrine (Abhidharma Piṭaka). The structure, the code of conduct and moral virtues in the Vinaya basket particularly, have similarities to some of the surviving Dharmasutra texts of Hinduism. Much of the surviving Tripitaka literature is in Pali, some in Sanskrit, as well as other local Asian languages.
Tripiṭaka (Sanskrit: त्रिपिटक), also called Tipiṭaka (Pali), means Three Baskets. It is a compound Sanskrit word of tra (त्र) meaning three, and pitaka (पिटक) or pita (पिट) meaning "basket or box made from bamboo or wood" and "collection of writings", according to Monier-Williams. These terms are also spelled without diacritics as Tripitaka and Tipitaka in scholarly literature.
The dating of the Tripitakas is unclear. Max Muller states that the texts were likely composed in the third century BCE, but transmitted orally from generation to generation just like the Vedas and the early Upanishads. The first version, suggests Muller, was very likely reduced to writing in the 1st century BCE (nearly 500 years after the time of Buddha).