TRIPITAKA (TRIPIṬAKA). - T. means the three baskets, that is, the three collections that constitute the Pāli Buddhist Canon: the Vinaya-pitaka or basket of discipline; the Sutta-pitaka or basket of sermons; and the Abhidhamma-pitaka or basket of metaphysics.
The T. is written in Pāli, the literary language, derived from a dialect akin to Sanskrit, that was spoken in Magadha, today Bihar, in the 6th century B.C., and was therefore called Magadhese. A native of Magadha, the Buddha will have preached in Magadhi, and it was in the same dialect that the first abbreviated Canon must have been disseminated which, according to tradition, was composed by the elder Kaśyapa and by other personal disciples of the Buddha, gathered in council at Rājagṛha (today Rājgir) a few months after the death of the Perfect One (Tathāgata).
This first council would have limited itself to fixing the disciplinary rules of the monastic Order and the text of the sermons, in order to prevent distortions of the word of the Enlightened One, apt to stir up discord in the community. The Abhidhamma-pitaka, which is an emanation of the Sutta-pitaka, insofar as it aims to give an abstract and systematic form to the teachings contained in the sermons, freeing them from occasional and accessory parts, is less ancient than the other two pitakas. The chroniclers of Ceylon assign it to the 3rd century because the last chapter, entitled Kathāvatthu (points of controversy), is attributed to Tissa Moggalliputta, head of the Third Council (243 B.C.). But the prevailing opinion is that the Abhidhamma-pitaka, a work of a scholastic character, is the fruit of a centuries-long elaboration, which came to completion when the Canon was put into writing. The importance of the Third Council lies in having begun that work of propaganda which made Buddhism a universal religion. To Ceylon there went as a missionary Mahinda, son of King Aśoka Priyadarsin (ca. 294-232 B.C.), a follower and protector of Buddhism. The amplifications of the legend, according to which Mahinda arrived on the island in flight with other monks, must not prevent us from considering his voyage to Ceylon a historical truth, where he expounded and disseminated the Canon sanctioned by the Third Council, which remained, like the ancient one, entrusted to the memory of the Sinhalese monks and handed down orally. It was put into writing during the reign of Vattagamani, in the 1st century B.C. Sinhalese Buddhists believe that the present T., the canonical text of Hinayāna Buddhism (v. BUDDHISMO) in Ceylon, in Burma, in Cambodia, in Siam, in Laos, is identical to that sanctioned by the First Council a few months after the death of the Buddha. This is in contrast with the same tradition, which affirms that at Rājagṛha only the first two pitakas were composed, and not in Pāli, but in Magadhi, the dialect spoken by the Buddha and his disciples. The question whether the language of the T. reached Ceylon already transformed into Pāli, the sacred language, or whether it completed its evolution during the 160 years that elapsed between the arrival of Mahinda on the island and the drafting of the Canon, is insoluble for lack of data. It is certain that the language of the T. was considered sacred, and this character of it, together with the diversity of the dialect of Ceylon, which was Sinhalese, protected the Canon from all contamination. As for the value of the word "pāli" (f.), opinions differ, but the simplest explanation is perhaps the one that confers on the term the meaning of "series," starting from its original sense of line. "A series of texts, and the language in which they are written." The T. is in fact a sylloge of texts, often not only heterogeneous, but of different ages.
Vinaya-pitaka, "the basket of discipline," contains: I. the Sutta-vibhanga or "classification of the rules"; II. the Khandhaka or "chapters"; and III. the Parivāra or "accessory part." The Sutta-vibhanga includes the text of the Pātimokha, a monastic penal code of 227 articles, of which it is the commentary, and not only explains the sins included therein, but also says on what occasion the fault was indicated by the Buddha himself and the respective sanction prescribed. The Pātimokha is divided into two parts, one of which concerns the monks and the other the nuns; sins are of two kinds: those that bring about expulsion from the Order and those susceptible of expiation. The Parivāra is a kind of summary index of the preceding two works, to which it was added at a much later age. Monthly, on the evening of the new moon and of the full moon, the monks and nuns of the district gathered in a convent or elsewhere for a solemn session. No one was to be absent. Respectively the eldest monk, or the eldest nun, presided over the meeting and addressed to those assembled the ritual words: "Let him who has committed sin confess it, let him who is not guilty be silent." He read the list of sins, which began with the most serious and ended with those that were remitted by simple public confession. The Chapters, divided into two sections (vagga), the great (Mahā-vagga) and the small (Culla-vagga), can be considered a complement to the Sutta-vibhanga insofar as they treat of admission to the Order of monks and nuns, of the conduct they must maintain, of their manner of dress, etc. Precepts and counsels are also in this work attributed to the Buddha and preceded by a story, without doubt invented. These narratives are devoid of importance even from the literary point of view, but the chapters that concern the legendary life of the Buddha have quite another interest. In beautiful archaic language, the Mahā-vagga (I, 1-24) recounts how the Buddha obtained clairvoyance (badhi) and acquired his first disciples by effecting conversions, among which very important were those of Sāriputta and Moggalliana, destined to share with the Perfect One the primacy in the Order. The Mahā-vagga has likewise handed down to us also the text of the sermon of Benares, the first of the Enlightened One, and other important notices, such as the visit he made to his father and his consort, during which he admitted his son to the Order at the age of only 7 years. The foundation of the female Order, at the request of his widowed stepmother, is instead related by the Culla-vagga.
Sutta-pitaka, "the basket of discourses (and dialogues)," is the richest source of information regarding the religion (dhamma) professed by the Buddha and his disciples. It consists of 5 collections (nikāya). The first contains 34 long discourses; the second those of medium length, 152; the third the discourses in groups, in which, that is, the suttas that have special characteristics in common (theme, speaker, protagonist, etc.) are gathered into 56 groups, each with a title appropriate to its character; the fourth collection is that of the "Plus One," where, that is, the treatment bears first on single themes, then paired, then ternary, always increasing by one up to eleven, in ch. XI and last. The chapter of paired themes treats, for example, of the two motives of dwelling in the forest, of the two kinds of Buddha, etc.; that of ternary themes bears on the three messengers of the gods, on the three kinds of silence, etc.; the fifth and last collection, of 15 works, is improperly called that of the short texts, because it welcomes, together with short poems, some of the most voluminous works of Pāli literature. While the first nikāyas, predominantly didactic in character, are in prose, here and there interrupted by stanzas that are quotations or teachings in verse, for mnemonic purposes, while in the fifth poetry predominates, which in more than one text, such as the Dhammaapada, "words on religion," the Thera-and Theri-gāthā, stanzas of the monks and the nuns, the Suttanipāta, a collection of sermons, deserves the name of true, great poetry. In the Sutta-pitaka particular importance is given to the Mahāpari nibhāna-sutta (I, 16), or "great discourse on absolute nirvāpa (v.) (of the Buddha)," which is the detailed history of the last three months of the Enlightened One's life; the group of dialogues on the causal nexus (III, 12) and the Jātaka (V, 10), or history of the previous births (of the Buddha), some of which are represented in bas-reliefs of the Stūpas of Bharhut and Sānchi, which date back to the 3rd century B.C.
Bibliography
Ferdinando Belloni Filippi