Compendium of Buddhist Literature

Contents: Introduction. I. Buddhist Canonical Literature. 1. Pitaka. 2. Classification of Tipitaka. 3. Post-Canonical Works. 4. Sanskrit Tripitaka and other Canonical Versions. II. Survey of Buddhist Texts: 5. Pali Canonical Texts. 6. Post-Canonical Literature. 7. Mahayana Literature. III. Buddhist Scholars. 9. Pali Scholars. 10. Sanskrit Scholars. Bibliography. Index.

The world’s largest book is inscribed on 729 marble slabs, each being 5ft tall and 31/2 ft wide, and each has 80 to 100 lines on either side, front and back. These texts, originally written in gold during the long and prosperous reign of King Mindon Min of Mandalay, were vandalized and plundered by the British troops in 1885.

The Theravadin Tipitaka, written in Pali, survives in entirely. The Sarvastivadin Tripitaka, however, originally composed in Hybrid Sanskrit, now survives in Sanskrit, Chinese and Tibetan. Although the Sarvastivadin Tripitaka has remarkable similarity of contents with the first two Pali Pitkas, yet, it differs significantly when compared with the Pali Abhdhamma Pitaka, both for its contents as well as for the classification of the texts. The Pali Abhidhamma Pitaka comprises Dhammasangani, Vibhanga, Dhatukatha, Puggalapannatti, kathavatthu, Patthana and Yamaka. Although, the Sanskritised Ahidharma Pitaka, also classified into seven, namely, Sangitipariyayapada, Dharmasakandha, Dhatukayapatha, Prajnptipada, Vijnanapada, Prakaranapada and Jnanaprasthana is by no means, regarded as the Sanskrit rendition of the Pali texts as us commonly believed. (Jacket)