The Well Known Buddhist Texts

Buddhist holy books are religious texts that are associated with the Buddhist faith. Buddha’s teachings were delivered orally. He taught for 45 years, tailoring his sermons to the necessities of the students, and the texts were duplicated. Magadhi is thought to be the language in which he spoke. The teachings were memorised by the Sangha and passed down accurately from generation to generation through group recitations.

It took several centuries after Gautama Buddha’s death for the earliest Buddhist writings to be written down. The oldest surviving Buddhist holy book is the Gandharan Buddhist Scriptures, discovered in Afghanistan and written in the Gandhara language. Buddhist monastics passed down the early Buddhist teachings orally, but they were later documented and assembled as manuscripts in a variety of Indo-Aryan languages (like Pali and Gandhar) and grouped up into multiple Buddhist Canons. As Buddhism started gaining significance outside of India, these texts were adapted into other dialects like Buddhist Chinese and Classical Tibetan.

The Pali Canon

The instructions were initially written down in Pali around 25 B.C.E. at the Fourth Council in Sri Lanka. Following the Councils, the Tripitaka is a collection of writings organised into three sections:

1.Vinaya Pitaka

The Vinaya Pitaka contains 227 rules of behaviour and discipline that apply to monks and nuns in their monastic lives. It is divided into three parts, and each part includes explanations of the circumstances in which a rule was enacted, and exceptions to the rule were also mentioned.

2.Sutta Pitaka

The main teaching, or Dhamma, is included in the Sutta Pitaka. It is divided into five collections, also known as Nikayas. Long teachings are called Digha Nikaya, while moderately long ones are called Majjhima Nikaya; groups of short teachings are known as Samyutta Nikaya, a collection of shorter writings in verse and prose is known as Angutta Nikaya. Angutta Nikaya is a collection of various shorter poems and prose compositions.

3.Abhidhamma Pitaka.

The higher or advanced teaching is divided into seven Buddhist teaching books in the Abhidhamma Pitaka. This appears to be the monks’ scholastic effort, as it involves a philosophical examination and systematisation of the doctrine.

The Sanskrit Canon

Oral Sanskrit was used to deliver instructions in India orally. The Buddhist discourses were written down in Sanskrit at the Fourth Council in India in the first century C.E. and came to be known as the Sanskrit Canon. The Pali and Sanskrit Canons trace their origins to Buddha’s first teachings.

The Pali Canon’s three divisions were followed by the Sanskrit Tripitaka or Canon:

• Vinaya Vaibasha – It contains instructions on  monastic rules
• Sutra Vaibasha – The five Agamas of the Dharma matched to the Pali Canon’s five Nikayas
• Abhidharma Vaibasha – the philosophical analysis of a scholarly kind that differed from the essence of the Pali Canon

In India, the Sanskrit Canon does not exist in its complete form in India, although it is available in Chinese, Japanese, and Tibetan translations. Archaeologists in Central Asia have discovered sections of it.

Mahayana Texts

The Mahayana teaching embraced the teachings of the Sanskrit Canon. The revised Sutras were based on earlier writings and added additional material to combine the Mahayana ideas.

Nine new Sutras stand out among the thousands that were written.

The following are four of the most well-known and significant Sutras:

• The Wisdom and Perfection Sutra is also known as the Prajnaparamita Sutra. It outlined the Emptiness teachings.
• Lotus Sutra is another name for Saddharma Pundarika Sutra. It describes how the teachings are all one and praises the Bodhisattva. This Sutra is highly acclaimed In China and Japan, and it is regarded as the highest teaching by Mahayana.
• According to the Vimalakirtinirdesa Sutra, a layman has the possibility to become a Bodhisattva.
• According to the Sukhavati Sutra, all believers had access to Buddha Amida’s land.

Tantric Texts

New Tantric Buddhist texts dealing with new themes arose as Tantric Buddhism grew in popularity. They deal with:

1. Kriya tantra – It means ceremonies and rites
2. Carya tantra –It refers to practical rites
3. Yoga tantra – It means the practice of yoga
4. Anuttarayoga tantra –It relates to higher mysticism

Personal instruction is emphasised in Tantric Buddhism. Tibetan Buddhism and related works are tough to read and comprehend, so they must always be complemented by verbal explanations.

Examples of tantric texts are:

The first is Hevajra and Guhya Samaja Tantra, also known as the Union of the Buddha’s Triple Body, and the second is Kalachakra tantra, which means Wheel of Time.

Chinese, Korean and Japanese Texts

In the first century C.E., Buddhism came to China. One of the major triumphs of human civilisation is the establishment of Buddhism in China and thus the preservation of its lessons as the Chinese Canon. From 200 C.E. to 1200 C.E., Sanskrit books from various traditions were transported to China and translated into Chinese. 

The original Chinese Sutras were included in the Vinaya, Abhidharma and Sutra Pitakas. The Chinese pioneered woodblock printing in the eighth century to make multiple copies of the Sutras. The Diamond Sutra, which dates from 868 C.E., is the world’s oldest printed book.

Around the 10th century C.E., the Chinese Tripitaka was first transcribed into Korean. Later, the Korean Tripitaka was printed. The Chinese Tripitaka was duplicated and sent to Japan. Sutra duplication became a major religious activity in Japan. In the seventeenth century, it was first published. In the preceding century, the Chinese Tripitaka and the Pali Tripitaka were both translated into Japanese.

Tibetan and Mongolian Canon

The Sanskrit works were translated into Tibetan and released in 333 volumes in the 14th century. The Tibetan literature is divided into two sections:

• Kanjur comprises Tantric works as well as the Vinaya, Sutra, and Abhidharma.
• Tanjur includes hymns, commentaries on the primary scriptures, and works on grammar,  medicine, and several distinct topics.

In 1410 C.E., the first edition was released in Beijing. In the 18th century C.E., the Tibetan Tripitaka was translated into Mongolian.

Conclusion

In the 5th century B.C.E., Buddha lived and taught in northeast India and attained salvation in his eightieth year. The term “Buddha” is not a name, it is a title that means “Awakened One” or “Enlightened One,”. The person who became “the Buddha” of our age was Siddhartha Gautama. He is not considered to be the only Buddha, as Buddhas have appeared previously in time and will continue to do so in the future. They aren’t deity incarnations but rather humans who have perfected their ethical and spiritual qualities throughout many lives. We have seen how the Buddhist holy books were passed down over generations.

Furthermore, as a result of the growing popularity of Buddhist studies, several Buddhist texts have been issued by Asian scholars in a variety of locations during the last 2,500 years.