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.

• Ceylon/Sri Lanka
  • 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.
• Burma/Myanmar
  • 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 this as an excellent edition. There seems to be disagreement among scholars on whether the text of this edition is Burmese or eclectic
    • 1st edition/impression, Burmese script, 1954-6
    • 2nd edition/impression, Burmese script, 1958-60
    • at least two other revisions
    • [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]
• India
  • 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.
  • A devanagari transcript of the 6th Council edition has been published (c. 1993-8), with commentaries and subcommentaries added.
• Siam/Thailand
  • 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 king's jubilee, which this edition was intended to celebrate. 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; according to Professor von Hinüber, intermediate between the Sinhalese and Burmese editions. According to Dr Wynne, in general, close to the Burmese.
    • [1st edition], Mahāmakuṭarājavidyālaya [Mahamongkut Royal University], Bangkok, 1925–1928
    • [2nd edition/printing], c. 1960: more collation
    • reissues also mentioned in 1980, 1982 (or are these one printing over a few years?), 1995 and 2009
  • Dayyaraṭṭhassa Saṅgītitepiṭakaṃ [Thai Kingdom Council Tepiṭaka], 45 volumes, Thai script, 1987
  • 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]
  • The Bhumibalo project aims at printing all Pali texts surviving in manuscripts in Thailand
  • The Dhammakaya project has so far produced only a sample volume
• Cambodia
  • 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
• Britain
  • 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

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 Vedāntic Buddhism of the Buddha: a Collection of Historical Texts, translated from the original Pāli and edited 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: an Anthology, edited by I. B. Horner, Ananda Semage, Colombo, 1963
• The Life of the Buddha As It Appears in the Pali Canon, the Oldest Authentic Record, translation from the Pali, selection of material, and arrangement, by Bhikkhu Ñāṇamoli, Buddhist Publication Society, Kandy, Sri Lanka, 1972: [10]

Selections from the last two pitakas

• Buddhist Meditation: an Anthology of Texts from the Pali Canon, Sarah Shaw, Routledge, London / New York, 2006: [11]

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

Secondary sources

Surveys/outlines:

• A History of Pāli Literature, by Bimala Churn Law, volume I, Kegan Paul, Trench, Trubner, London, 1933; [12]
• 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), pages 15-107
• 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. [13], [14], [15], [16]
• A Handbook of Pali Literature, Oskar von Hinüber, Walter de Gruyter, Berlin, 1996, pages 10-155
• An Analysis of the Pāli Canon, edited by Russell Webb, Buddhist Publication Society, Kandy, Sri Lanka, 3rd edition, 2008; [17]; includes extensive bibliography
• New Guide to the Tipitaka. A Complete Reference to the Pâli Buddhist Canon, Matthew Meghaprasara, Sangha of Books, Delhi, 2013

Studies:

• Die Āryā-Strophen des Pali-Kanons: metrisch hergestellt und textgeschichtlich untersucht von L. Alsdorf, Wiesbaden: Steiner in Komm, 1968
• Pāli-Kanon und ostasiatische Kunst, Fausta Nowotny, Köln, 1975
• Der Pāli-Kanon, Fausta Nowotny, Köln, 1976

On editions:

• review of 1893/4 edition, Robert Chalmers, Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society (New Series), volume XXX (number 1), pages 1-10
• "Zu einigen neueren Ausgaben des Pāli-Tipiṭaka", Frank-Richard Hamm, Zeitschrift der Deutschen Morgenländischen Gesellschaft, 112 (neue Folge, Band 37), 1962, pages 353-378; translated as "On some recent editions of the Pāli Tipiṭaka", in German Scholars on India: Contributions to Indian Studies, ed Cultural Department of the Embassy of the Federal Republic of Germany, New Delhi, volume I, pub Chowkhamba Sanskrit Series Office, Varanasi, 1973, pages 123-135; the German original is available on Jstor for those with access
• "Thoughts about 'European editions' of Pāli texts", Nalini Balbir, Thai International Journal of Buddhist Studies, volume 1 (2009), pages 1-19
• "A preliminary report on the critical edition of the Pāli Canon being prepared at Wat Phra Dhammakāya", Alexander Wynne, Thai International Journal of Buddhist Studies, volume IV (2013), 135-70

Other:

• Pāli Tipiṭakaḿ Concordance, Being a Concordance in Pāli to the Three Baskets of Buddhist Scriptures in the Indian Order of Letters, listed by F. L. Woodward and others, arranged & edited by E. M. Hare and others, PTS; originally issued in fascicles, reprinted in 3 volumes, unfinished