In Buddhist symbolism, the Tripitaka or Tipiṭaka is the traditional term for Buddhist scriptures. The canonical version of Theravada Buddhism is generally known in English as the Pali Canon. Mahayana Buddhism also holds the Tripitaka to be authoritative but, unlike Theravadins, also includes in its canon several derivative publications and commentaries that were composed much later.
The Tripiṭaka was composed between approximately 550 BCE and approximately the beginning of the Common Era, probably first written down in the 1st century BCE. The Dipavamsa states that during the reign of Valagamba of Anuradhapura (29-17 BCE), monks who had previously remembered the Tripiṭaka and its commentary orally now wrote them down in books, due to the threat posed by famine and war.
The Mahavamsa also briefly refers to the writing of the canon and commentaries at this time. Each Buddhist sub-tradition had its own Tripiṭaka for its monasteries, written by its sangha, each set consisting of 32 books, in three parts or baskets of teachings: Vinaya Piṭaka (“Basket of Discipline“), Sutra Piṭaka (“Basket of Discourse“) and Abhidharma Piṭaka (“Basket of Special Doctrine“).
1. Etymology
Tripiṭaka literally translates as “Three Baskets”or pita, meaning “basket or box made of bamboo or wood.” The “three baskets”were originally the receptacles for the palm-leaf manuscripts in which the Sutta Piṭaka, the Vinaya Piṭaka, and the Abhidhamma Piṭaka, the three divisions that constitute the Pali Canon, were preserved. These terms are also written without diacritics as Tripitaka and Tipitaka in academic literature.
1. Origins of the Tripitaka
Buddhist chronicles say that after the Buddha’s death (around the 4th century BCE), his senior disciples gathered at the First Buddhist Council to discuss the future of the sangha, the community of monks and nuns, and the dharma, in this case, the Buddha’s teachings.
A monk named Upali recited the Buddha’s rules for monks and nuns from memory, and the Buddha’s cousin and assistant, Ananda, recited the Buddha’s sermons. The assembly accepted these recitations as the precise teachings of the Buddha, and they became known as the Sutra-pitaka and the Vinaya.
The Abhidharma is the third pitaka, or “basket,” and is said to have been added during the Third Buddhist Council, ca. 250 CE. Although the Abhidharma is traditionally attributed to the historical Buddha, it was probably composed at least a century after his death by an unknown author.
2. Variations of the Tripitaka
At first, these texts were preserved by being memorized and chanted, and as Buddhism spread throughout Asia, lineages emerged in various languages. However, today we only have two reasonably complete versions of the Tripitaka.
What came to be called the Pali Canon is the Pali Tipitaka, preserved in the Pali language. This canon was committed to writing in the 1st century BCE in Sri Lanka. Today, the Pali Canon is the biblical canon for Theravada Buddhism.
There were probably several lineages of Sanskrit chants, which survive today only in fragments. The Sanskrit Tripitaka we have today was reconstructed mainly from early Chinese translations, and for this reason, it is called Tripitaka in Chinese.
The Sanskrit/Chinese version of the Sutra-pitaka is also called Agamas. There are two Sanskrit versions of the Vinaya, called Mulasarvastivada Vinaya (followed in Tibetan Buddhism) and Dharmaguptaka Vinaya (followed in other schools of Mahayana Buddhism).
These were named after the early schools of Buddhism in which they were preserved.
The Chinese/Sanskrit version of the Abhidharma that we have today is called Sarvastivada Abhidharma, in honor of the Sarvastivada school of Buddhism that preserved it.
For more information on Tibetan and Mahayana scriptures, see the Chinese Mahayana Canon and the Tibetan Canon.
3. Chronology
The dating of the Tripiṭaka is unclear. The current structure and contents of the Pali Canon took shape in the 3rd century BCE, after which it continued to be transmitted orally from generation to generation (much like the Vedas and the early Upanishads) until it was finally put into writing.
There were eighteen schools of Buddhism, and their Tripiṭakas were written by that time. However, with the exception of one version that has survived in its entirety and others of which parts have survived, all of these texts are lost to history or have not yet been found.
The Tripiṭaka was first compiled and written down during the reign of King Walagambahu of Sri Lanka (1st century CE). According to Sri Lankan sources, more than 1,000 monks who had attained Arahantship were involved in the task.
The resulting texts were translated into four related Indo-European languages of South Asia: Sanskrit, Pali, Paisaci, and Prakrit, sometime between the 1st century BCE and the 7th century CE.
Portions of these were later translated into various East Asian languages, such as Chinese, Tibetan, and Mongolian, by visiting scholars, which, although extensive, are incomplete.
4. In the Theravada school
Buddhists of the Theravada school use the Pali variant Tipiṭaka to refer to what is commonly known in English as the Pali Canon.
5. China
An organized collection of Buddhist texts began to emerge in the 6th century, based on the structure of early bibliographies of Buddhist texts. However, it was Zhisheng’s“Catalogue of the Kaiyuan Era”in 730 that provided the enduring structure.
Zhisheng introduced the basic six-part division with sutra, vinaya, and abhidharma belonging to Mahayana and Hinayana.
Zhisheng’s catalog was probably decisive because it was used to reconstruct the Canon after the persecutions of 845 CE, but it was also considered a “perfect synthesis of the entire four-hundred-year development of a Chinese form of the canon.”
6. As a title
In Chinese symbolism, this is notable in the case of the Tang dynasty monk Xuanzang, whose pilgrimage to India to study and bring Buddhist texts to China was portrayed in the novel Journey to the West as “Tang Sanzang” (Master of Tripiṭaka of the Tang Dynasty).
Due to the popularity of the novel, the term “sanzang” is often mistakenly understood as a name for the monk Xuanzang. One such screen version is the popular 1979 television series.
The modern Indian scholar Rahul Sankrityayan is sometimes referred to as Tripiṭakacharya in reflection of his familiarity with the Tripiṭaka.
7. Are these scriptures faithful to the original version?
Comparison of the Pali and Chinese tripitakas reveals many discrepancies. Some corresponding texts at least resemble each other closely, but some are considerably different. The Pali Canon contains a number of sutras found nowhere else.
And there is no way of knowing how much of today’s Pali Canon corresponds to the version originally written more than two thousand years ago, which has been lost in time. Buddhist scholars spend a great deal of time debating the origins of the various texts.
It should be remembered that Buddhism is not a “revealed” religion, which means that the scriptures are not supposed to be the revealed wisdom of a god. Buddhists have not sworn to accept every word as literal truth.
