The Apadāna is a collection of biographical stories found in the Khuddaka Nikaya of the Pāli Canon , the scriptures of Theravada Buddhism. G.P. Malalasekera describes it as 'a Buddhist Vitae Sanctorum' of Buddhist monks and nuns who lived during the lifetime of the Buddha.
10-705: It is thought to be one of the latest additions to the canon. The exact meaning of the title Apadāna is not known. Perhaps it means 'life history' or 'legend'. In Pāli it has the additional, older meaning of advice or moral instruction. Dr Sally Cutler has suggested the word originally meant 'reapings', i.e. of the results of karma. The title is sometimes translated as the Biographical Stories , or simply as The Stories . The Apadāna consists of about 600 poems (between 589 and 603 in different editions), mostly biographical stories of senior Buddhist monks and nuns, but also of Buddhas and solitary Buddhas. Many of
20-521: A final form. A variety of early and late poetic meters are employed, and K.R. Norman suggests that the inclusion of miracle stories and congregations of gods are indicative of later additions. Some of the verses in the collection seem to mirror contemporary secular poetry of their time, with romantic lyrics replaced with religious imagery. Notable texts from the Theragatha include the eighth poem of chapter sixteen, consisting of verses recited by
30-494: A variety of different circumstances in different parts of India, before finally recounting the story of their present birth and how they came to be disciples of the Buddha. These stories of the previous lives of famous and not so famous monks and nuns may have been meant to provide moral examples to lay followers who wished to live as Buddhists but were unable or unwilling to undertake ordination as bhikkhus or bhikkhunis. The text
40-680: Is divided into four sections: A complete translation of the Apadāna into English has now been made by Jonathan S. Walters: Legends of the Buddhist Saints: Apadānapāli [2] , Whitman College, 2017. The following parts have also been translated into English. Italian translations: Theragatha The Theragāthā ( Verses of the Elder Monks ) is a Buddhist text , a collection of short poems in Pali attributed to members of
50-600: The early Buddhist sangha . It is classified as part of the Khuddaka Nikaya , the collection of minor books in the Sutta Pitaka . A similar text, the Therigatha , contains verses attributed to early Buddhist nuns. Theragatha is a Pali word, constructed from the words thera (elder, masculine) and gāthā (verse). The Theragatha consists of 264 poems, organized into 21 chapters. Chapters are based on
60-421: The number of verses in the poem, but beyond chapter 16 the chapter headings are only a rough guide. Various figures for the number of total verses in the collection are given- the oral tradition claimed 1360, 1294 are mentioned in summaries within the text, but a plain count of the verses gives a number of 1279. This may be because different versions of the Theragatha were combined to produce the current version of
70-432: The reformed killer Angulimala , and the third poem of chapter seventeen, in which the Buddha's cousin and retainer Ananda mourns the passing of his master. Many of the verses of the Theragatha concern the attempts of monks to overcome the temptations of Mara . A single commentary attributed to Dhammapala covers both the Theragatha and Therigatha. In one case, a poem appears to have been split with verses attributed to
80-544: The same monks. Most of the monks in the Theragatha lived during the time of the Buddha, but the collection seems to have continued to grow until at least the Third Buddhist Council . The omission of similar verses that were included in the Milindapanha suggests that while chapters continued to be added to the Theragatha for a period of 300 years or so, the collection was ultimately closed and put in
90-557: The stories of monks and nuns are expansions of, or otherwise related to, verses presented in the Theragatha and Therigatha as having been spoken by senior members of the early Sangha . The Apadāna is a parallel to the Jātaka commentary, in which the Buddha recounts his previous lives. Most Apadāna stories follow a fairly predictable outline, in which the speaker recounts their meritorious deeds in previous births as ethical individuals in
100-413: The text. While most of the verses are spoken by the monk to whom they are attributed, some seem to have become associated with them in other ways- some verses are addressed to the monk the poem is named for, and a collection of verses associated with Ananda contains a mix of verses recited by or to Ananda on various occasions. Several verses in the Theragatha appear elsewhere in the canon, attributed to
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