Paritta

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Paritta (Pāli, Sinhalese, pirit, from Skt., pari + □trā to protect). A formula which is to be recited for protection or blessing; the non-canonical collection of such formulae; and the ritual at which the collection of this formulae or specific portions thereof are recited. Paritta is a Buddhist healing and blessing rite. Originally adopted to cater to the extrareligious needs of the new converts to Buddhism, both from the brahmanic and the non-brahmanic religious followings, it has absorbed into itself many features of the protective, healing, and blessing rites of those religions.

The Pāli texts used in the paritta rites form a separate text consisting of twenty-nine sūtras of mixed length. While all these belong to different texts of the five Nikāya collections, the majority are associated with individual instances of healing or blessing. All such texts may have been incorporated into a single text after the paritta attained ritual significance.

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