Pali Canon/Bibliography

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For items specific to particular parts of the Canon see the appropriate headings in the Addendum subpage.

Editions of the Canon

As no full bibliography seems to be available, this listing may be incomplete.

• Sinhalese textual family: as Theravada mainly spread from Ceylon to SE Asia, this is in a sense the oldest, with the qualification that parts of the Canon were lost and had to be reimported
  • [BJT]: Buddhajayanti Tripitaka Granthamālā/Series (Sinhalese/English title pages; the word jayanti does not appear in Pali dictionaries and has several meanings in Sinhalese), 52 volumes in 58, Sinhalese script with Sinhalese translation on facing pages, published under the patronage of (the government of) Ceylon/Sri Lanka (various wordings in different volumes), [Colombo?], 1957-1989. Apparently lacking in coordination between editors of different volumes..
    • apparently complete set of images at [1]
    • an unproofread digitization is available at [2], [3], [4]; this transcript makes changes in the text
  • Pali text series published by the trustees of the Simon Hewavitarne Bequest. This includes texts other than the Canon
  • At least one volume has appeared in the All-Ceylon Buddhist Congress Tripiṭaka Pāḷi Series.
• Burmese textual family: this involves a fair amount of "normalization"
  • 38 volumes, Burmese script, Philip H. Ripley, Haṃsavatī Press, Rangoon, 1900. The first complete printed edition of the Canon, it was copied from the inscriptions approved by the 5th Council. Sponsored by the British authorities
  • Burmese script, Tampadipa Time Press, 1912
  • Chaṭṭha Saṅgīti Piṭaka [6th Council Pitaka; this council was held in Rangoon from 1954 to 1956 by all 5 Theravada countries], 40 volumes. As of 1968, the Burmese government did not permit any other edition to be published. German Pali scholar Professor Dr Oskar von Hinüber describes CSP as an excellent edition.
    • 1st edition/impression, Burmese script, 1954-6
    • 2nd edition/impression, Burmese script, 1958-60
    • [5]: digital transcript by Vipassana Research Institute, Igatpuri, India
    • Latin-script edition, Ministry of Religious Affairs, Yangon, 2008.
      • [6]: pdfs ; downloadable free of charge from [7]; also at [8]
  • Nālandā Devanāgarī Pāli Granthamālā/Series (devanagari/English title pages), ed Bhikkhu J. Kashyap, 39 volumes in 41, devanagari script, Pali Publication Board (Government of Bihar), [Nalanda, Bihar, India?], 1957–1961. Based mainly on the 6th Council edition.
  • Mahācūḷātepiṭakaṃ, 45 volumes, Thai script, Mahācūḷālaṅkaraṇarājavidyālaya [Mahachulalongkorn Royal University], [Bangkok?], 1960-1990; based on the 6th Council edition.
  • Mahāsaṅgīti Tipiṭaka Buddhavasse 2500 [Great Council Tipiṭaka in Buddha Year 2500; the council ended at the beginning of 2500 in the calendar used in Burma and Ceylon, though it was still 2499 in Thailand], 40 volumes, Latin script, Dhamma Society Fund [sponsored by the Supreme Patriarch of Thailand], Bangkok, 2005. Text transcribed from the 6th Council edition, but more collation; a few differences in volume divisions.
    • digital version at [9]
  • A devanagari printing of the VRI has been published (c. 1993-8), with commentaries and subcommentaries added.
• Thai–Khmer textual family: according to Professor von Hinüber, intermediate between the Sinhalese and Burmese editions. According to Dr Wynne, in general, close to the Burmese.
  • 39 volumes, Thai script, with tone markers, 1893/4. The first printed edition of the Canon, but incomplete, probably because not all was ready by the jubilee. A review of this edition was published in Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society, new series, volume XXX.
  • Mon script, Bangkok, 1940; states that it is based on the above.
  • Syāmaraṭṭhassa Tepiṭakaṃ [Tepiṭaka of the Kingdom of Siam], 45 volumes, Thai script, without tone markers; completion of 1893/4 edition
    • [1st edition], Mahāmakuṭarājavidyālaya [Mahamongkut Royal University], Bangkok, 1925–1928
    • [2nd edition/printing], c. 1960: more collation
    • reissues also known in 1980 and 1995
  • Braḥ Traipiṭakapāḷi, 110 volumes, Khmer script, with Khmer translation on facing pages, [Cambodian Royal National Library], Phnom Penh, 1931-1969. The Khmers Rouges burnt every set in the country, with only a few surviving elsewhere.
    • pdfs
  • Dayyaraṭṭhassa Saṅgītitepiṭakaṃ [Thai Kingdom Council Tepiṭaka], 45 volumes, Thai script, 1987
  • The Bhumibalo project aims at printing all Pali texts surviving in manuscripts in Thailand
• Eclectic editions
  • Pāli Canon in Pāli (Tipiṭaka), Latin script, Pali Text Society, Bristol, 56 volumes; the standard Western scholarly edition, originally issued 1877-1927; a few volumes replaced by new editions, and index volumes added, since then; according to Dr Wynne, in general, fairly close to the Sinhalese
  • The Dhammakaya project (Thailand) has so far produced only a sample volume

Translations

• Pali Canon in English Translation, 1895- , in progress, 42 volumes so far, Pali Text Society, Bristol; for details see website.

Selections from all three pitakas:

• The Lion's Roar: an Anthology of the Buddha's Teachings Selected from the Pāḷi Canon, David Maurice, Rider, London, 1962; American printing Citadel, New York, 1967;

Selections from the first two pitakas:

• Buddhist Scriptures: a Selection Translated from the Pāli with Introduction by E. J. Thomas, Wisdom of the East Series, John Murray, London, 1913
• Some Sayings of the Buddha According to the Pali Canon, translated by F.L. Woodward, Oxford World Classics, 1924; reprinted Buddhist Society, London, 1974
• The Life of Gotama the Buddha, Compiled Exclusively from the Pali Canon by E. H. Brewster, Kegan, Paul, Trench, Trubner, London, 1926
• The Vedantic Buddhism of the Buddha: a Collection of Historical Texts, translated from the original Pāli and editied by J. G. Jennings, Geoffrey Cumberlege, London, 1947
• The Living Thoughts of Gotama the Buddha, presented by Ananda K. Coomaraswamy & I.B. Horner, Cassell, London, 1948
• Early Buddhist Poetry, ed I. B. Horner, Ananda Semage, Colombo, 1963
• The Life of the Buddha As It Appears in the Pali Canon, the Oldest Authentic Record, ed & tr Nanamoli, Buddhist Publication Society, Kandy, Sri Lanka, 1972: [10]

Selections from the last two pitakas

• Buddhist Meditation: an Anthology of Texts from the Pali Canon, ed & tr Sarah Shaw, Routledge, 2006: [11]

(For selections from the Suttantapitaka only, see the appropriate heading in the Addendum subpage.)

Secondary sources

Books specifically about the Canon:

• A History of Pāli Literature, by Bimala Churn Law, volume I, Kegan Paul, Trench, Trubner, London, 1933; [12]
• An Analysis of the Pāli Canon, edited by Russell Webb, Buddhist Publication Society, Kandy, Sri Lanka, 3rd edition, 2008; [13]; includes extensive bibliography
• Guide to Tipiṭaka, compiled by U Ko Lay, Burma Piṭaka Association, Rangoon, 1986; reprinted in India, Malaysia, Taiwan and Thailand; now online at numerous websites, e.g. [14], [15], [16], [17]
• New Guide to the Tipitaka. A Complete Reference to the Pâli Buddhist Canon, Matthew Meghaprasara, Sangha of Books, Delhi, 2013

More general books:

• Pāli Literature: Including the Canonical Literature in Prakrit and Sanskrit of All the Hīnayāna Schools of Buddhism, K.R. Norman, Otto Harrassowitz, Wiesbaden, 1983 (volume 7, fascicle 2 of History of Indian Literature)
• A Handbook of Pali Literature, Oskar von Hinüber, Walter de Gruyter, Berlin, 1996