29 Facts About Buddhist texts

1.

Buddhist texts are those religious texts which belong to the Buddhist tradition.

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2.

The earliest Buddhist texts were not committed to writing until some centuries after the death of Gautama Buddha.

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3.

The oldest surviving Buddhist manuscripts are the Gandharan Buddhist texts, found in Afghanistan and written in Gandhari, they date from the first century BCE to the third century CE.

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4.

The first Buddhist texts were initially passed on orally by Buddhist monastics, but were later written down and composed as manuscripts in various Indo-Aryan languages and collected into various Buddhist Canons.

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5.

These religious Buddhist texts were written in different languages, methods and writing systems.

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6.

Buddhavacana Buddhist texts have special status as sacred scripture and are generally seen as in accord with the teachings of the historical Buddha, which is termed "the Dharma".

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7.

Sometimes Buddhist texts that are considered commentaries by some are regarded by others as buddhavacana.

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8.

These Buddhist texts were later compiled into canons and written down in manuscripts.

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9.

The most widely studied early Buddhist texts material are the first four Pali Nikayas, as well as the corresponding Chinese Agamas.

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10.

Warder hold that early Buddhist texts contain material that could possibly be traced to the historical Buddha himself or at least to the early years of pre-sectarian Buddhism.

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11.

In Mahayana Buddhism, these Buddhist texts are sometimes referred to as "Hinayana" or "Sravakayana".

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12.

The Chinese Buddhist texts canon contains a complete collection of early sutras in Chinese translation, their content is very similar to the Pali, differing in detail but not in the core doctrinal content.

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13.

The earliest known Buddhist manuscripts containing early Buddhist texts are the Gandharan Buddhist Texts, dated to the 1st century BCE and constitute the Buddhist textual tradition of Gandharan Buddhism which was an important link between Indian and East Asian Buddhism.

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14.

The prominent modern scholar of Abhidharma, Erich Frauwallner has said that these Buddhist texts systems are "among the major achievements of the classical period of Indian philosophy.

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15.

Early Buddhist schools preserved other types of texts which developed in later periods, which were variously seen as canonical or not, depending on the tradition.

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16.

One of the largest category of Buddhist texts that were neither Sutra, Vinaya nor Abhidharma includes various collections of stories such as the Jataka tales and the Avadanas.

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17.

The different Buddhist texts schools had their own collections of these tales and often disagreed on which stories were canonical.

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18.

Buddhist texts poetry is a broad genre with numerous forms and has been composed in many languages, including Sanskrit, Tibetan, Chinese and Japanese.

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19.

Buddhist texts poetry was written in popular Indian languages, such as Tamil and Apabhramsa.

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20.

These Buddhist texts depict a dialogue between the monk Nagasena, and the Indo-Greek King Menander.

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21.

Sri Lankan literature in the vernacular contains many Buddhist texts works, including as classical Sinhala poems such as the Muvadevavata and the Sasadavata (The Story of the Bodhisattva's Birth as a Hare, 12th century) as well as prose works like the Dhampiyatuva gatapadaya (Commentary on the Blessed Doctrine), a commentary on words and phrases in the Pali Dhammapada.

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22.

One of these Buddhist texts has been published in English by the Pali Text Society as "Manual of a Mystic".

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23.

Burmese Buddhist texts literature developed unique poetic forms form the 1450s onwards, a major type of poetry is the which are long and embellished translations of Pali Buddhist texts works, mainly jatakas.

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24.

Mahayana Buddhists explained the emergence of these new texts by arguing that they had been transmitted in secret, via lineages of supernatural beings until people were ready to hear them, or by stating that they had been revealed directly through visions and meditative experiences to a select few.

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25.

Such overlap is not confined to "neighbouring" yanas: at least nine "Sravakayana" Buddhist texts can be found in the tantra divisions of some editions of the Kangyur.

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26.

Some Mahayana Buddhist texts contain dharani, which are chants that are believed to have magical and spiritual power.

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27.

Buddhist texts produced the Pramana-samuccaya, and later Dharmakirti wrote the Pramana-varttika, which was a commentary and reworking of the Dignaga text.

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28.

Buddhist texts poetry was an important contribution to the literature of the tradition.

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29.

Many of the terma Buddhist texts are said to have been written by Padmasambhava, who is particularly important to the Nyingmas.

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