Philosophy of language in the Five Nikayas
by K.T.S. Sarao | 2013 | 141,449 words
This page relates ‘Khuddaka Nikaya (Collection of Little Texts)’ of the study of the Philosophy of language in the Five Nikayas, from the perspective of linguistics. The Five Nikayas, in Theravada Buddhism, refers to the five books of the Sutta Pitaka (“Basket of Sutra”), which itself is the second division of the Pali Tipitaka of the Buddhist Canon (literature).
2.5(f). Khuddaka Nikāya (Collection of Little Texts)
The Khuddaka Nikāya ‘Collection of Little Texts’, the fifth great Collection of the Buddha’s discourses following the Dīgha Nikāya, Majjhima Nikāya, Saṃyutta Nikāya, and Āṅguttara Nikāya in the Sutta Pitaka of the Pāli Canon, is a wide-ranging collection of fifteen books containing complete Suttas, verses, and smaller fragments of Dhamma teachings.
The subcategories of Khuddaka Nikāya are divided as below.
i. Khuddakapātha ‘Minor Text/Readings’,
ii. Dhammapada ‘Verses of Dhamma’,
iii. Udāna ‘Solemn Utterances’,
iv. Itivuttaka; ‘Thus it was said’,
v. Sutta Nipāta ‘Collection of Suttas’,
vi. Vimānavatthu ‘Stories of the [heavy] mansions’,
vii. Petavatthu ‘Stories of the departed’,
viii. Theragāthā ‘Songs of the male Elders, i.e., Arahants’,
ix. Therigāthā ‘Songs of the female Elders, i.e., Arahants’,
x. Jātaka ‘Birth-stories, i.e., Tales of former life of the Buddha’,
xi. Niddesa ‘Exposition’,
xii. Paṭisambhidā Magga ‘Path of Discrimination’,
xiii. Apadāna ‘Tradition, i.e., Legend’,
xiv. Buddhavaṃsa ‘Chronicle of Buddha’,
xv. Cariyāpiṭaka ‘Basket of Conduct’.