The Sutta Nipāta[1] (lit.'Section of the Suttas') is a Buddhist scripture, a sutta collection in the Khuddaka Nikaya, part of the Sutta Pitaka of the Pali Canon of Theravada Buddhism. Sutta Nipata is a collection of discourses of Buddha. It is part of an early corpus of Buddhist literature. Chalmers[2] explains that sutta means a consecutive thread of teaching and Oldenberg explained that nipata denotes a small collection.[3]
Antiquity
Calcutta-Bairat Rock inscription
Chalmers says that the materials of the Sutta Nipata are not of equal antiquity but it contains some of the oldest Buddhist compositions.[2] Bharat Singh Upadhyaya,[4] Maurice Winternitz,[5] and Hajime Nakamura[6] are other prominent Buddhist scholars who regard its poetry to have originated in the beginnings of Buddhism. A commentary on Sutta Nipata, called Niddesa, is included in the canon itself which points to the antiquity of the text. Bhabru or Calcutta-Bairat inscription of Ashoka also mentions many texts from this scripture.
Bimbisara meets Bussha, SanchiAsita predcting the greatness of gautam Buddha as described in nalaka sutta of Sutta Nipata, Museum Reitberg
Some scholars[9] believe that it describes the oldest of all Buddhist practices. Others such as Bhikkhu Bodhi[10] and K. R. Norman[11] agree that it contains much early material. In the Chinese Buddhist canon, a version of the Aṭṭhakavagga has survived. Fragmentary materials from a Sanskrit version of the Nipata also survive.[12] The Niddesa, a commentary in two parts on the contents of the Atthaka Vagga and portions of the Parayana Vagga, is included in the Pali Canon as a book of the Khuddaka Nikāya. This commentary is traditionally attributed to Śāriputra, and its presence in the canon is regarded as evidence of the relatively early composition of the Sutta Nipata.[13] Many of the Buddhist legends originate in the Suttanipata such as prediction by Asita on the birth of gautam buddha in the Nalaka sutta or the legendar meeting of King Bimbisara with Gautam Buddha.
English translations
The Silent Sages of Old, Suttas from the Suttanipāta by Ven. Ñāṇadīpa Mahāthera, 2018
Tr V. Fausbøll, in Sacred Books of the East, volume X, Clarendon/Oxford, 1881; reprinted by Motilal Banarsidass, Delhi (?and by Dover, New York)
Woven cadences of early Buddhists, transl. by E. M. Hare. Sacred Books of the Buddhists vol.15, repr. - London: Oxford University Press, 1947 Internet Archive (PDF 11.4 MB)
The Group of Discourses, tr K. R. Norman, 1984, Pali Text Society[2], Bristol; the original edition included alternative translations by I. B. Horner & Walpola Rahula; these are currently available in the paperback edition under the title The Rhinoceros Horn and Other Early Buddhist Poems; the current edition under the original title omits these, but includes instead the translator's notes, not included in the paperback
Tr Saddhatissa, Curzon, London/Humanities Press, New York, 1985
Tr N. A. Jayawickrama, University of Kelaniya, 2001
The Discourse Collection Selected Texts from the Sutta Nipata, by John D. Ireland, Access to Insight (BCBS Edition), 2013. Available for free download here
Rhinoceros Sutta, widely considered one of the earliest Buddhist texts
References
Citations
^When referencing suttas from the Sutta Nipāta the case-sensitive abbreviation "Sn" is used. This is distinguished from the abbreviation "SN" which traditionally refers to the Pali canon's Samyutta Nikaya.
^Norman, KR. The Rhinoceros Horn and Other Early Buddhist Poems (Sutta-Nipata), 1985.
^Hoernle, A. F. Rudolf, The Sutta Nipata in a Sanskrit Version from Eastern Turkestan, The Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland (Oct., 1916), pp. 709-732 Published by: Cambridge University Press
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