Research topic: Buddhist literature

Buddhist literature During his lifetime the Buddha taught not in Vedic Sanskrit, which had become unintelligible to the people, but in his own NE Indian dialect; he also encouraged his monks to propagate his teachings in the vernacular. After his death, the Buddhist canon was formulated and transmitted by oral tradition, and it was written down in several versions in the 2d and 1st cent. BC Its main divisions, called pitakas [baskets], are the Vinaya or monastic rules, the Sutra (Pali Sutta ) or discourses of the Buddha, and the Abhidharma (Pali Abhidhamma ) or scholastic metaphysics.... Read more