Buddhist texts are religious texts that belong to, or are associated with, Buddhism and its traditions. There is no single textual collection for all of Buddhism. Instead, there are three main Buddhist Canons: the Pāli Canon of the Theravāda tradition, the Chinese Buddhist Canon used in East Asian Buddhist tradition, and the Tibetan Buddhist Canon used in Indo-Tibetan Buddhism.
The earliest Buddhist texts were not committed to writing until some centuries after the death of Gautama Buddha. The oldest surviving Buddhist manuscripts are the Gandhāran Buddhist texts, found in Pakistan and written in Gāndhārī, they date from the first century BCE to the third century CE. The first Buddhist texts were initially passed on orally by Buddhist monastics, but were later written down and composed as manuscripts in various Indo-Aryan languages (such as Pāli, Gāndhārī, and Buddhist Hybrid Sanskrit). These texts were collected into various collections and translated into other languages such as Buddhist Chinese (fójiào hànyǔ 佛教漢語) and Classical Tibetan as Buddhism spread outside of India.
Buddhist texts can be categorized in a number of ways. The Western terms "scripture" and "canonical" are applied to Buddhism in inconsistent ways by Western scholars: for example, one authority refers to "scriptures and other canonical texts", while another says that scriptures can be categorized into canonical, commentarial, and pseudo-canonical. Buddhist traditions have generally divided these texts with their own categories and divisions, such as that between buddhavacana "word of the Buddha," many of which are known as "sutras", and other texts, such as "shastras" (treatises) or "Abhidharma".Macmillan Encyclopedia of Buddhism (Volume One), p. 142Bechert & Gombrich, World of Buddhism, Thames & Hudson, London, 1984, p. 79
These religious texts were written in different languages, methods and writing systems. Memorizing, reciting and copying the texts was seen as spiritually valuable. Even after the development and adoption of printing by Buddhist institutions, Buddhists continued to copy them by hand as a spiritual exercise, a practice known as sutra copying.Lyons, Martyn, Books: A Living History, J. Paul Getty Museum, 2011, p. 33
In an effort to preserve these scriptures, Asian Buddhist institutions were at the forefront of the adoption of Chinese technologies related to bookmaking, including paper, and block printing which were often deployed on a large scale. Because of this, the first surviving example of a printed text is a Buddhist charm, the first full printed book is the Buddhist Diamond Sutra (c. 868) and the first hand colored print is an illustration of Guanyin dated to 947.Kieschnick, John (2003) "The Impact of Buddhism on Chinese Material Culture" pp. 177-181. Princeton University Press
Buddhavacana The concept of buddhavacana (word of the Buddha) is important in understanding how Buddhists classify and see their texts. Buddhavacana texts have special status as sacred scripture and are generally seen as in accord with the teachings of the historical Buddha, which is termed "the Dharma". According to Donald Lopez, the criteria for determining what should be considered buddhavacana were developed at an early stage, and that the early formulations do not suggest that Dharma is limited to what was spoken by the historical Buddha.Lopez, Donald. Elaborations on Emptiness: Uses of the Heart Sutra. 1998. p. 28 Another term for "buddha word" is the "dispensation of the Buddha" (buddhānuśāsanam).Buswell, Robert E; Lopez, Donald S. The Princeton Dictionary of Buddhism, p. 156. Princeton University Press, Nov 24, 2013.
The Mahāsāṃghika and the Mūlasarvāstivāda considered both the Buddha's discourses and those of his disciples to be buddhavacana. A number of different beings such as Buddhas, disciples of the Buddha, ṛṣis, and devas were considered capable of transmitting buddhavacana. According to early Buddhist sources like the Mahāpadesasutta, a text said by someone other than the Buddha may be certified as true buddhavacana by four "great references to authority" (mahāpadeśa): (1) the buddha himself (who often certified the statements of others as buddhavacana in the sutras), (2) a sangha of wise elders, (3) a small group of specialist monks (dharmadharas or vinayadharas), or (4) one elder knowledgeable in the Dharma.Lopez, Donald. Elaborations on Emptiness: Uses of the Heart Sutra. 1998. p. 29Skilton, Andrew. A Concise History of Buddhism. 2004. p. 83Buswell, Robert E; Lopez, Donald S. The Princeton Dictionary of Buddhism, p. 155. Princeton University Press, Nov 24, 2013. The content of such a discourse was then to be collated with the sūtras, compared with the Vinaya, and evaluated against the nature of the Dharma. This allowed a certain flexibility in the compilation of the Buddhist canons, which were not necessarily closed after the Buddha's death.
In Theravāda Buddhism, the standard collection of buddhavacana is the Pāli Canon, also known as the Tripiṭaka ("three baskets"). Generally speaking, the Theravāda school rejects the Mahāyāna sūtras as buddhavacana (word of the Buddha), and do not study or see these texts as reliable sources.Karen Pechilis, Selva J. Raj (2013). South Asian Religions: Tradition and Today, p. 115. Routledge. In East Asian Buddhism, what is considered buddhavacana is collected in the Chinese Buddhist canon; the most common edition of this is the Taishō Tripiṭaka, itself based on the Tripiṭaka Koreana. This collection, unlike the Pāli Tripiṭaka, contains Mahāyāna sūtras, Śāstras (scholastic treatises), and Esoteric Buddhist literature.
Mahāyāna Buddhist sources generally tended to be more liberal in their interpretation of buddhavacana, allowing for more texts to be included (especially the Mahāyāna sūtras). As such, Mahayana sources often see buddhavacana as referring to statements which are well spoken and thus reflect the truth of the Dharma. For example, the Adhyāśayasañcodanasūtra states: "All which is well-spoken, Maitreya, is spoken by the Buddha." According to the sūtra, "well spoken" (subhāsita) means that inspired speech should be seen as buddhavacana if it is in accord with four principles:
being meaningful and not meaningless, being principled and not unprincipled, bringing about the extinction of the defilements and not their increase, it explains the qualities and benefits of nirvana, not the qualities and benefits of samsara.
According to Hsuan Hua from the tradition of Chinese Buddhism, there are five types of beings who may speak the sutras of Buddhism: a Buddha, a disciple of a Buddha, a deva, a ṛṣi, or an emanation of one of these beings; however, they must first receive certification from a buddha that its contents are true Dharma.Hsuan Hua. The Buddha speaks of Amitabha Sutra: A General Explanation. 2003. p. 2 Then these sutras may be properly regarded as buddhavacana. Sometimes texts that are considered commentaries by some are regarded by others as buddhavacana.For example, Hōnen, the founder of Japanese Pure Land, says that the writings of Shan-tao come from Amitābha Buddha and are of the same value as sutras. in: Eliot, Japanese Buddhism, Edward Arnold, London, 1935, p. 6
In Indo-Tibetan Buddhism, what is considered buddhavacana is collected in the Kangyur ('The Translation of the Word'). The East Asian and Tibetan Buddhist Canons always combined buddhavacana with other literature in their standard collected editions. However, the general view of what is and is not buddhavacana is broadly similar between East Asian Buddhism and Tibetan Buddhism. The Tibetan Kangyur, which belongs to the various schools of Tibetan Vajrayāna Buddhism, in addition to containing sutras and Vinaya, also contains Buddhist tantras and other related Tantric literature.
The texts of the early Buddhist schools
Early Buddhist texts
The earliest Buddhist texts were passed down orally in Middle Indo-Aryan languages called Prakrits, including Gāndhārī language, the early Magadhan language and Pāli through the use of repetition, communal recitation and mnemonic devices.Gethin, Rupert; The Foundations of Buddhism, 1998; pp 39–41 These texts were later compiled into canons and written down in manuscripts. For example, the Pāli Canon was preserved in Sri Lanka where it was first written down in the first century BCE.Gethin, Rupert; The Foundations of Buddhism, 1998; p. 42
There are early texts from various Buddhist schools, the largest collections are from the Theravāda and Sarvāstivāda schools, but there are also full texts and fragments from the Dharmaguptaka, Mahāsāṅghika, Mahīśāsaka, Mūlasarvāstivāda, and others. The most widely studied early Buddhist material are the first four Pāli Nikayas, as well as the corresponding Chinese Āgamas.Shulman, Eviatar. Mindful Wisdom: The Sati-paṭṭhāna-sutta on Mindfulness, Memory, and Liberation. Vol. 49, No. 4 (May 2010), pp. 393-420 The modern study of early pre-sectarian Buddhism often relies on comparative scholarship using these various early Buddhist sources.e.g. "Mun-keat, Choong (2000), The Fundamental Teachings of Early Buddhism" and "Analayo. Early Buddhist Meditation Studies (Volume 1)"
Various scholars of Buddhist studies such as Richard Gombrich, Akira Hirakawa, Alexander Wynne, and A. K. Warder hold that early Buddhist texts contain material that could possibly be traced to the historical Buddha himself or at least to the early years of pre-sectarian Buddhism.Wynne, Alexander. Did the Buddha exist? JOCBS. 2019(16): 98-148. In Mahāyāna Buddhism, these texts are sometimes referred to as "Hinayana" or "Śrāvakayāna".
Although many versions of the texts of the early Buddhist schools exist, the only complete collection of texts to survive in a Middle Indo-Aryan language is the Tipiṭaka (triple basket) of the Theravāda school.Bodhi, In the Buddha's words, p. 13 The other (parts of) extant versions of the Tripitakas of early schools include the Chinese Āgamas, which includes collections by the Sarvāstivāda and the Dharmaguptaka. The Chinese Buddhist canon contains a complete collection of early sutras in Chinese translation, their content is very similar to the Pali, differing in detail but not in the core doctrinal content.Analayo (2011). A Comparative Study of the Majjhima-nikāya. Dharma Drum Academic Publisher. p. 891. The Tibetan canon contains some of these early texts as well, but not as complete collections. The earliest known Buddhist manuscripts containing early Buddhist texts are the Gandharan Buddhist Texts, dated to the 1st century BCE and constitute the Buddhist textual tradition of Gandharan Buddhism which was an important link between Indian and East Asian Buddhism. Parts of what is likely to be the canon of the Dharmaguptaka can be found among these Gandharan Buddhist Texts.
There are different genres of early Buddhist texts, including prose "suttas" (Sanskrit: sūtra, discourses), disciplinary works (Vinaya), various forms of verse compositions (such as gāthā and udāna), mixed prose and verse works (geya), and also lists (matika) of monastic rules or doctrinal topics. A large portion of Early Buddhist literature is part of the "sutta" or "sutra" genre. The Sūtras (Sanskrit; Pāli: Sutta) are mostly discourses attributed to the Buddha or one of his close disciples. They are considered to be buddhavacana by all schools. The Buddha's discourses were perhaps originally organised according to the style in which they were delivered. They were later organized into collections called Nikāyas ('volumes') or Āgamas ('scriptures'), which were further collected into the Sūtra Piṭaka ("Basket of Discourses") of the canons of the early Buddhist schools.