Abhayagiri
A major ancient monastic complex in Anurādhapura.Sri Lanka.also known as Uttaravihāra. Founded by King Vaṭṭagāmaṇi Abhaya in the 1st century bce it consisted of a monastery (vihāra) and a stūpa.but ...
Āgama
(Skt.). One of the four sections of the Sanskrit Buddhist canon that coincide with those of the Pāli Canon. Thus the Sanskrit Dīrgha Āgama corresponds to the Pāli Dīgha Nikāya; the Madhyama Āgama to ...
āhāra
(Pāli, nutriment).Four kinds of ‘food’ in the literal and figurative senses listed in Pāli sources. These are: (1) solid food that nourishes the body (kabaliṇkārāhāra); (2) sensory and mental ...
Amarapura Nikāya
One of the three major Nikāyas (monastic lineages) of modern Sri Lanka.taking its name from the city of Amarapura in Burma with which it is associated. It broke off from the Syāma Nikāya in 1803. Its ...
amarāvikkhepika
(Pāli).An ‘eel-wriggler’, or disputant who uses sophistry to avoid stating a definite position on an any issue. An example of such a philosopher is Sañjaya Belaṭṭhaputta, one of the so-called Six ...
Anussava
(Pāli),Anus̄rava (Skt., ‘that which has been heard or reported’). Tradition: according to early Buddhism, that which is passed on by word of mouth from one person to another and ...
Buddhaghoṣa
(Pāli, Skt., ‘Buddha-voice’).Theravādin Buddhist, who was born in a brahman family at the end of the 4th cent., traditionally at Bodhgāya. He wrote commentaries on many works in the ...
Dhammapāla
Author of fourteen important commentarial works on Pāli texts. A native of south India he lived some time after Buddhaghoṣa, and composed a subcommentary on Buddhaghoṣa's commentaries on the four ...
Dhammasaṇgaṇī
The first book of the Abhidharma Piṭaka of the Pāli Canon, which appears to have been also called Dhammasaṇgaha. Being a compilation from various sources, it deals with more or less the same topics ...
Eighteen Schools of Early Buddhism
As Buddhism spread throughout India.a diversity of schools developed over the first 400 years, some based on major doctrinal differences and others merely as regional variants. Retrospectively, ...
Khuddaka Nikāya
(Pāli, The Minor Collection).The fifth and last division (Nikāya) of the Sūtra Piṭaka, containing a miscellaneous collection of both early and later canonical works. The texts are predominantly in ...
Majjhima nikāya
(Skt., Madhyamāgama).The Middle Length (second) Collection (nikāya) of the Sutta/Sūtra-piṭaka of the Pāli (Buddhist) canon (see also BUDDHIST SCRIPTURES). The Pāli canon contains 150 sūtras, the ...
Pāli Canon
The earliest collections of Buddhist authoritative texts, more usually known as Tipiṭaka (Tripiṭaka), ‘Three Baskets’, because the palm-leaf manuscripts were traditionally kept in three different ...
paritta
Pāli term meaning ‘protection’ and referring to various formulae which are recited for protection or blessing. The term also denotes the collection of such texts, as well as the ritual at which the ...
Saṃyutta Nikāya
(Pāli). The ‘Connected Discourses’, the third of the five divisions (Nikāya) of the Sūtra Piṭaka of the Pāli Canon. It consists of 7,762 suttas arranged thematically in 56 groups, called saṃyuttas. ...
Sautrāntika
An early school whose origins and tenets are obscure. Vasumitra mentions a school called the Saṃkrāntikas, ascribing to it specific teachings concerning rebirth (saṃkrānti) and no other teachings. ...
Shwegyin
One of the two main sects (gaing) or monastic divisions (nikāya) in the Burmese Saṃgha founded during the reign of King Mindon (1852–77). In 1980, 7.1 per cent of all monks in Burma belonged to the ...
Southeast Asia
Southeast Asia is a vast, diverse, complex, and dynamic mosaic of interacting religions and ecologies. Geopolitically, the region encompasses all of the countries East of India and south of China. ...
sutra
A rule or aphorism in Sanskrit literature, or a set of these on grammar or Hindu law or philosophy; also, a Buddhist or Jainist scripture. The word comes from Sanskrit sūtra ‘thread, rule’, from siv ...
Sūtra PiṠaka
(Skt; Pāli, Sutta Piṭaka). The collection or ‘basket’ of the discourses delivered or purported to have been delivered by the Buddha. An overall division into two types of Sūtra Piṭaka may be ...
