There are several Buddhist canons, which refers to the various scriptural collections of Buddhist sacred scriptures or the various Buddhist scriptural canons. Tipitaka Encyclopædia Britannica (2015)"Buddhist Books and Texts: Canon and Canonization." Lewis Lancaster, Encyclopedia of Religion, 2nd edition, pg 1252 Some of these collections are also called Tipiṭaka () or Tripiṭaka () , meaning "Triple Basket", a traditional term for the three main divisions of some ancient canons. In ancient India, there were several Buddhist scriptural canons that were organized into three main textual divisions: Vinaya (monastic rule), Sutra (which contains teachings of the Buddha) and Abhidharma (which are more systematic and scholastic works). For example, the Theravada Tipiṭaka is composed of the Vinaya Piṭaka, the Sutta Piṭaka, and the Abhidhamma Piṭaka. In East Asian Buddhism meanwhile, the traditional term for the canon is Great Storage of Scriptures (traditional Chinese: 大藏經; pinyin: Dàzàngjīng).Jiang Wu, "The Chinese Buddhist Canon" in The Wiley Blackwell Companion to East and Inner Asian Buddhism, p. 299, Wiley-Blackwell (2014).
The Pali Language Pāli Tipiṭaka maintained by the Theravāda tradition in Southeast Asia, the Chinese Buddhist Canon (written in Buddhist Chinese) maintained by the East Asian Buddhist tradition, and the Tibetan Buddhist Canon maintained by the Tibetan Buddhist tradition in Classical Tibetan are the three main important scriptural canons in the contemporary Buddhist world. The Sanskrit Nepalese canon, particularly its Buddhist Sanskrit literature has also been very important for modern Buddhist studies scholarship since it contains many surviving Sanskrit manuscripts. The Mongolian Buddhist canon (mostly a translation from the Tibetan into Classical Mongolian) is also important in Mongolian Buddhism.
While Tripiṭaka is one common term to refer to the scriptural collections of the various Buddhist schools, most Buddhist scriptural canons (apart from the Pāli Canon) do not really follow the strict division into three piṭakas.Mizuno, Essentials of Buddhism, 1972, English version by Ritik Bhadana, Tokyo, 1996 Indeed, many of the ancient Indian Buddhist schools had canons with four or five divisions rather than three. Likewise, neither the East Asian Buddhist canon nor the Tibetan canon is organized in a traditional Indian Tripiṭaka schema.
Textual categories
Tipiṭaka (Pāli), or Tripiṭaka (Sanskrit: त्रिपिटक), means "Three Baskets". It is a compound of the Pali ti or Sanskrit word of tri (त्रि), meaning "three", and piṭaka (पिटक), meaning "basket". These "three baskets" recall the receptacles of palm-leaf manuscripts and refer to three important textual divisions of early Buddhist literature: Suttas, the Vinaya, and the Abhidhamma.An Introduction to Buddhism: Teachings, History and Practices; Peter Harvey, Cambridge University Press,2012.
Sutras were the doctrinal teachings in aphoristic or narrative format. The historical Buddha delivered all of his sermons in Magadhi Prakrit. This language was related to other Prakrits like Pali, though its exact nature is not fully known. The sutras were transmitted orally until eventually being written down in the first century BCE. Even within the Sūtra Piṭaka it is possible to detect older and later texts.
The Vinaya Piṭaka appears to have grown gradually as a commentary and justification of the monastic code (Prātimokṣa), which presupposes a transition from a community of wandering mendicants (the Sūtra Piṭaka period) to a more sedentary monastic community (the Vinaya Piṭaka period). These monastic codes have been transmitted across generations by vinayadharas, that is, "Bearers of the Discipline". The Vinaya focuses on the rules and regulations, or the morals and ethics, of monastic life that range from dress code and dietary rules to prohibitions of certain personal conducts.Korean Buddhism has its own unique characteristics different from other countries , koreapost.com, Jun 16, 2019.
The Abhidharma refers to more scholastic philosophical works. Many of these texts are later than the sutras and are school specific. Hence, the Sarvastivada school's Abhidharma Pitaka contains a completely different set of texts than the Theravada school's Abhidhamma collection.
While these three textual categories were very common in the canons of the early Buddhist schools, they were not the only ones. Some schools also had additional Pitakas other than the main three. These extra Pitakas included collections of incantations, magical spells or Dhāraṇī which were called Vidyādhāra Piṭaka, Mantra Piṭaka or Dhāraṇī Piṭaka. Likewise, some Buddhist schools in India also maintained Bodhisattva Piṭakas, which contained texts that were later termed "Mahayana".
The twelvefold division The Dvādaśāṅga ("twelvefold [scriptural] division") refers to a traditional Indian classification scheme for the Buddhist scriptures, especially in early Indian Buddhism. It outlines twelve distinct types of discourse (aṅga, “limb” or “category”) found in the Buddha's teachings. These categories are likely earlier than the later scriptural divisions. This twelvefold division appears in both Śrāvakayāna and Mahāyāna sources, including the Lalitavistara, the Mahāyāna Sūtrālaṃkāra, and the Chinese Āgama and Mahāyāna sūtra traditions. Some textual traditions have slightly different lists of aṅgas. Pali sources, for example, generally only list nine aṅgas. The aṅga categories served both as a cataloging method and as a doctrinal affirmation of the Buddha's varied pedagogical methods. According to Bhikkhu Anālayo, in early Buddhist usage the aṅgas refer to textual types rather than fulfilling the purpose of forming textual collections.
The twelve aṅgas are:
Sūtra (lit. "thread") – Discourses in prose, often beginning with an introduction (called a nidāna) that starts with the phrase “Thus have I heard” which indicates it is being recounted and remembered by Ānanda. These present the direct teachings of the Buddha. Geya (lit. "song") – Mixed prose and verse; teachings are first presented in prose, followed by verses summarizing or elaborating the point. Gāthā (Verses) – typically standalone didactic verses or poems. Nidāna – Introductory explanations of the events that lead to the teaching of a particular discourse. Itivṛttaka ("As it was spoken") – Accounts of past lives of the Buddha's disciples, or sayings of the Buddha taught in specific circumstances. Jātaka – Past life stories, narrating the Buddha's previous lives as a bodhisattva. Abhutadharma – Accounts of the marvelous or supernatural, such as Buddha's miracles. Avadāna – Exemplary stories, usually of virtuous deeds and karmic results, often involving previous lives. Upadeśa – Detailed doctrinal teachings or instructions, usually in question and answer format. A classic teaching is typically analyzed in more extensive detail than in other scriptures. Udāna ("Inspired utterances"), often spontaneous exclamations made by the Buddha under specific circumstances without being asked by anyone. Vaipulya, "expanded" scriptures, technically meaning broad in scope, but in Mahayana traditions, this almost always refers to Mahayana sutras Vyākaraṇa ("prophecy", or "prediction") – Predictions, often foretelling the future awakening of disciples.
Early canons
Each of the early Buddhist Schools likely had their own versions of the Tripiṭaka. According to some sources, there were some Indian schools of Buddhism that had five or seven piṭakas.Skilling, Peter (1992), The Raksa Literature of the Sravakayana, Journal of the Pali Text Society, volume XVI, page 114
According to Yijing, an 8th-century Chinese pilgrim to India, the Nikaya Buddhist schools kept different sets of canonical texts with some intentional or unintentional dissimilarities. Yijing notes four main textual collections among the non-Mahayana schools:Zhihua Yao (2012) The Buddhist Theory of Self-Cognition, pp. 8-9. Routledge.
The Mahāsāṃghika Tripiṭaka (amounting to 300,000 slokas), which were maintained in a Prakrit language or Hybrid Sanskrit The Sarvāstivāda Tripiṭaka (also 300,000 slokas), which was maintained in Sanskrit The Sthavira Tripiṭaka (also 300,000 slokas), the Pali canon is one version of this Tripiṭaka which belonged to the Southern Theravada school The Saṃmitīya Tripiṭaka (in about 200,000 slokas), some of the original texts of which have survived in the original language
Yijing notes that though there were numerous sub-schools and sects, the sub-sects shared the Tripiṭaka of their mother tradition (which he termed the "four principal schools of continuous tradition" or the "arya" traditions).Zhihua Yao (2012) The Buddhist Theory of Self-Cognition, p. 9. Routledge. However, this does not mean that the various sub-schools did not possess their own unique Tripiṭaka. Xuanzang is said to have brought to China the Tripiṭaka of seven different schools, including those of the above-mentioned schools as well as the Dharmaguptaka, Kāśyapīya, and Mahīśāsaka.
According to A. K. Warder, the Tibetan historian Bu-ston said that around or before the 1st century CE there were eighteen schools of Buddhism each with their own Tripiṭaka transcribed into written form. However, except for one version that has survived in full and others, of which parts have survived, most of these texts are lost to history or yet to be found.
Mahāsāṃghika The Mahāsāṃghika (Great Community) were a major early Buddhist branch, arising from the first schism in the Buddhist sangha (which occurred at some point around the time of Ashoka). While there is no single complete collection from any of the Mahāsāṃghika school branches, there are several surviving texts including the Mahāvastu (Great Event), the Mahāsāṃghika Vinaya (translated into Chinese by Buddhabhadra and Faxian in 416 CE, Taishō Tripiṭaka 1425), the Lokānuvartanā sūtra (Taishō No. 807) and the Śariputraparipṛcchā (Taisho 1465).Xing, Guang, The Lokānuvartanā Sūtra, Journal of Buddhist Studies, Vol IV, 2006.Zhan Ru [湛如]. Mahāsāṃghika and Mahāyāna: An Analysis of Faxian and the Translation of the Mahāsāṃghika Vinaya (Chin. Mohe Sengqi Lü)*, Peking University.
Various ancient sources (like Bhāvaviveka, and Paramārtha) also indicate that the different branches of the Mahāsāṃghika tradition (such as the Bahuśrutīya) had a Bodhisattva Piṭaka in their canon.Baruah, Bibhuti. Buddhist Sects and Sectarianism. 2008. p. 48Walser, Joseph. Nāgārjuna in Context: Mahāyāna Buddhism and Early Indian Culture. 2005. p. 53 The 6th century CE Indian monk Paramārtha wrote that 200 years after the parinirvāṇa of the Buddha, much of the Mahāsāṃghika school moved north of Rājagṛha, where they became divided over whether the Mahāyāna sūtras should be incorporated formally into their Tripiṭaka. According to this account, they split into three groups based upon the relative manner and degree to which they accepted the authority of these Mahāyāna texts. Paramārtha states that the Kukkuṭika sect did not accept the Mahāyāna sūtras as buddhavacana ("word of the Buddha"), while the Lokottaravāda sect and the Ekavyāvahārika sect did accept the Mahāyāna sūtras as buddhavacana.Sree Padma. Barber, Anthony W. Buddhism in the Krishna River Valley of Andhra. 2008. p. 68. Also in the 6th century CE, Avalokitavrata writes of the Mahāsāṃghikas using a "Great Āgama Piṭaka," which is then associated with Mahāyāna sūtras such as the Prajñāparamitā and the Daśabhūmika Sūtra.