Dhammapada
Also known as: Path of Dhamma, Path of the Dharma, Sayings of the Buddha, Dharmapada
A concise anthology of 423 verses from the Pali Canon offering practical ethics and insight on mind, conduct, and liberation. It distills Buddhist doctrine into memorable, aphoristic stanzas.
Description
The Dhammapada, a book of the Khuddaka Nikāya, collects short Pali verses on conduct, meditation, wisdom, and the path to Nibbāna. Organized into 26 thematic chapters, its stanzas contrast the wise and the foolish, heedfulness and negligence, hatred and compassion, craving and release. The work functions less as narrative than as distilled teaching, shaping monastic and lay practice across the Theravāda world. Its pithy formulations—on impermanence, non-harm, self-mastery, and the primacy of mind—became a portable scripture widely memorized, recited, and translated.
Historiography
Preserved in the Pali Canon’s Khuddaka Nikāya, the Dhammapada has close parallels in the Gāndhārī Dharmapada, the Patna Dharmapada, and the Sanskrit Udānavarga, indicating an early shared verse tradition. The oldest surviving Buddhist manuscripts—Gāndhārī birch-bark scrolls (1st c. CE)—contain cognate materials. Extensive translation began in the 19th–20th centuries (e.g., Fausböll, Müller) and continued with critical editions and modern renderings (e.g., K. R. Norman, Thanissaro Bhikkhu). The text’s aphoristic form fostered wide liturgical and pedagogical use.
Date Notes
Verses attributed to the historical Buddha and early community; committed to writing in Sri Lanka when the Pali Canon was redacted at Aluvihara.
Major Characters
- Buddha
Myths
- The Path of Dharma
- Impermanence and the Mind
- The Wise and the Foolish
- Ethics and Liberation
Notable Quotes
Mind precedes all things; by mind they are led, formed, and set in motion.
Hatred is never appeased by hatred; by non-hatred alone is hatred appeased.
Not doing any evil, cultivating the good, purifying one’s mind—this is the teaching of the Buddhas.
All conditioned things are impermanent—when one sees this with wisdom, one turns away from suffering.
Facts
- A verse anthology in the Pali Canon’s Khuddaka Nikāya.
- Contains 423 verses arranged into 26 thematic chapters.
- Widely memorized and recited across Theravāda traditions.
- Shares close parallels with Udānavarga and multiple Dharmapada recensions.
- Earliest cognate manuscripts appear in Gāndhārī on birch-bark scrolls (1st century CE).
- Emphasizes ethical conduct, mental cultivation, and insight leading to Nibbāna.
- Frequently cited in monastic instruction and lay sermons.
- Its aphoristic form supports diverse translation traditions and commentaries.