One of the great spiritual events or processes in the history of Buddhism — and, thereby, in the religious history of the world — was the compilation and canonization of the Buddhist scriptures known as the Tripitaka (Sanskrit for “Three Baskets”). In the Buddhist East, this canonization process had essentially the same cultural and spiritual impact that the canonization of the Hebrew and Christian Bibles had in the West.
In their medieval form, Buddhist scriptures are divided into “three baskets” (tri-pitaka) or categories, much as the Hebrew Bible is divided into the three parts known as the Law, the Writings and the Prophets. The three Buddhist scriptural divisions are the “Sermons” (Sutras) of the Buddha, the “Higher Teachings” (Abidharma) or philosophical and exoteric interpretations of Buddhist doctrines, and the “Regulations” (Vinaya) for monastic life.
The Buddha’s original spoken teachings were in a fifth-century B.C. Indian language group called Prakrit, which did not leave extensive ancient written remains. Instead of Prakrit, though, those teachings of Buddha were translated into Sanskrit, the scholarly language of northern India at the time. (This is similar to the situation in the West, where, although Christ originally taught in spoken Judeo-Aramaic, his teachings survive only in Greek, into which they were translated at a very early date in order to reach the broadest literate audience possible.) These Sanskrit teachings were widely memorized, copied and transmitted among Buddhist scholars and monks in northern India in the following centuries.
However, as Buddhism declined and nearly disappeared in northern India by the A.D. 13th century, most of the fragile Sanskrit Buddhist manuscripts — written on perishable palm leaf paper — were lost. Fortunately, though, these early texts were also preserved in another, related, Indian language known as Pali, the only language in which the ancient Tripitaka scripture survives complete.
According to Buddhist traditions, Buddhism was introduced into Sri Lanka by Mahinda, the son of the Indian emperor (and Buddhist convert) Ashoka, and his twin sister, Sangamitta. After the conversion of the Sri Lankan king Devanampiya Tissa in the mid-third century B.C., Sri Lankan Buddhist missionaries, monks and converts began to memorize and transmit the Buddha’s teachings orally for several centuries. The Tripitaka canon was first formalized in the first century B.C., based on the collections and recommendations of the Fourth Buddhist Council in Sri Lanka. An ongoing famine and war in this period led to fears that death might overtake the holy men and women who had memorized the Buddha’s teachings, so it was decided to record the scripture on palm leaf paper in order to ensure the survival of these precious doctrines.
This transcription was undertaken at the Aluvihare monastery and cave-temple in Matale, Sri Lanka, in the first century B.C. Ascetic Buddhist monks had originally taken shelter in caves near Matale, which eventually became their permanent home, and these caves were transformed into shrines and rock-cut temples. The monks of Aluvihare, gathering in these cave-temples, spent years transcribing the memorized Buddhist scripture, recording its teachings in the Pali language.
The cave-temple at Aluvihare, where this transcription occurred, is still venerated by Sri Lankan Buddhists today as a most sacred shrine. The monastery is set amidst the crags of a mountain on the outskirts of Matale, where a stupa marks the location of the ancient monastery. A small cave or niche in the side of the cliffs is remembered as the actual site of the translation. Inside, sculptures depict Sri Lankan king Walagamba patronizing the monks and their transcription efforts, and a monk is depicted copying the scriptures into a palm leaf book. Nearby, a library houses an ancient manuscript copy of the Tripitaka. There, the monastic scribal art of copying these Buddhist scriptures by hand still continues, carrying on a tradition more than two millennia old.
From the Aluvihare monastery, the Pali version of Tripitaka scripture was copied and translated into many different languages as Buddhism spread throughout south and east Asia in the following centuries. And this transmission and translation process continues today. Much of the Pali version of the Tripitaka, considered the most complete and authoritative, has been translated into English by the Pali Text Society (see palitext.com).
Abridged anthologies of these Buddhist scriptures in English can be found in Rupert Gethin’s “Sayings of the Buddha,” John Holder’s “Early Buddhist Discourses,” Donald Lopez’s “Buddhist Scriptures” and Dwight Goddard’s “A Buddhist Bible.”
Daniel Peterson founded BYU's Middle Eastern Texts Initiative, chairs The Interpreter Foundation and blogs on Patheos. William Hamblin is the author of several books on premodern history. They speak only for themselves.