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Early Buddhism

Scriptures

Pali Canon Āgamas Gandharan texts

Councils

1st Council 2nd Council 3rd Council 4th Council

Schools

First Sangha ├ Mahāsāṃghika └ Sthaviravāda     ├ Sarvāstivāda     └ Vibhajjavāda         ├ Theravāda         └ Dharma-              guptaka

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In Buddhism, āgama (Sanskrit and Pali for "sacred work"¹ or "scripture"²) refers to a set of Early Buddhist scriptures preserved in the Chinese Mahayana tradition. These scriptures parallel the first four collections (nikāyas) of the Pali Canon's millenia-old grouping of discourses, the Sutta Piṭika.

Contents 1 Meaning 2 History 3 Extant collections 4 See also 5 Notes 6 Sources 7 External links

Meaning

In Buddhism, the term 'agama' is used to refer to a collection of discourses (Sanskrit: sutra; Pali: sutta) of the early Buddhist schools, which were preserved in the Chinese Mahayana tradition. These sutras correspond to the first four Nikayas of the Sutta-Pitaka of the Pali Canon, which are also occasionally called agamas. In this sense, 'agama' is a synonym for one of the meanings of nikaya. Many of the agama sutras belong to the Sarvastivadin canon.

Sometimes the word 'agama' is used to refer not to a specific scripture, but to a class of scripture. In this case, its meaning can also encompass the Sutta-pitaka, which the Theravada tradition holds to be the oldest and most historically accurate representation of the teachings of Gautama Buddha.³

History

Four collections of agamas appear in the East Asian Mahayana Canon: the Cháng Ahánjīng (長阿含經), the Zhōng Ahánjīng (中阿含經), the Zá Ahánjīng (雜阿含經), and the Ekottara Agama or Zēngyī Ahánjīng (增一阿含經).⁴ These correspond to the Digha Nikaya, the Majjhima Nikaya, the Samyutta Nikaya, and the Anguttara Nikaya of the Pali Canon, respectively.

The agamas were translated from their original languages to Chinese. This version is currently available in the Chinese Buddhist Canon.

According to the MacMillan Encyclopedia of Buddhism (2004):⁵

"According to tradition, the Buddha's discourses were already collected by the time of the first council, held shortly after the Buddha's death ... Scholars, however, see the texts as continually growing in number and size from an unknown nucleus, thereby undergoing various changes in language and content ..."

Given the deduced evolution of the texts over time, the agamas are commonly compared to the Pali Canon's Sutta Pitaka in an attempt to identify possible changes and root phrasings. The agamas' existence and similarity to the Sutta Pitaka is sometimes used by scholars to assess to what degree these teachings are a historically authentic representation of the Canon of Early Buddhism.⁶ Sometimes also the differences between them are used to cast an alternative meaning on the accepted meaning of a sutta in either of the two recensions.

Extant collections

The Agamas contain the following scriptures in Chinese translation:

1. Madhyama Agama (corresponding to Majjhima Nikaya) and Samyukta Agama (corresponding to Samyutta Nikaya), probably of the Sarvastivāda.
2. Dirgha Agama (corresponding to Digha Nikaya), probably of the Dharmaguptaka.
3. Ekottara Agama (corresponding to Anguttara Nikaya) possibly of the Mahāsaṅghika, although this is contested.

In addition, there is a substantial quantity of Agama-style texts outside of the main collections. These are found in various sources:

1. Partial Agama collections and independent suttas within the Chinese canon.
2. Small groups of suttas or independent suttas within the Tibetan canon.
3. Suttas reconstructed from ancient manuscripts in Sanskrit, Gandhari, or other ancient Indic languages.
4. Passages and quotes from Agama suttas preserved within Mahayana Sutras, Abhidharma texts, later commentaries, and so on.
5. Isolated phrases preserved in inscriptions. For example, the Ashoka pillar at Lumbini declares iha budhe jāte, a quote from the Mahaparinibbana Sutta.

See also

• Early Buddhist schools
• Mindstream

Notes

Sources

• Ānandajoti Bhikkhu (2004). The Uraga Sutta. Retrieved 13 Dec 2008 from "Ancient Buddhist Texts" at http://www.ancient-buddhist-texts.net/Buddhist-Texts/C4-Uraga-Verses/index.htm.

• Brough, John (2001). The Gāndhārī Dharmapada. Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass Publishers Private Limited.

• Monier-Williams, Monier (1899, 1964). A Sanskrit-English Dictionary. London: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-864308-X. Retrieved 12 Dec 2008 from "Cologne University" at http://www.sanskrit-lexicon.uni-koeln.de/scans/MWScan/index.php?sfx=pdf.

• Norman, K.R. (1983). Pali Literature: Including the Canonical Literature in Prakrit and Sanskrit of All the Hinayana Schools of Buddhism. Wiesbaden: Otto Harrassowitz.

• Rhys Davids, T.W. & William Stede (eds.) (1921-5). The Pali Text Society’s Pali–English Dictionary. Chipstead: Pali Text Society. Retrieved 12 Dec 2008 from "U. Chicago" at http://dsal.uchicago.edu/dictionaries/pali/.

External links

• The Āgama Sūtra Translation Project

Wikipedia content modification information:

• This page was last modified on 14 December 2008, at 18:32.

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