Pali Canon/Bibliography

Please sort and annotate in a user-friendly manner. For formatting, consider using automated reference wikification.

Editions of the Canon

• 1st Siamese edition (incomplete), 39 volumes, 1893. This edition is now available in electronic form at [1].
• 1st Burmese edition, based on the Fifth Council inscriptions, 1900, 38 volumes. It was later superseded by the Sixth Council edition.
• Pali Text Society edition, 1877-1927, 57 volumes, including index volumes. Individual volumes and subsets are also available separately. Details can be found on the Society's website. A few volumes have been replaced with new editions since 1927.
  • CD-ROM from Dhammakaya Foundation, Thailand: 1st edition no longer available; 2nd edition in preparation
• 2nd Siamese edition, 45 volumes, 1925-1928. It is more accurate than the PTS edition, but gives fewer variant readings.
  • CD-ROM available from BUDSIR (BUDdhist Studies Information Retrieval), Mahidol University, Thailand
  • it is also supposed to be available online at [2], with options for Latin, Thai, Sinhalese and devanagari scripts, but there seem to be problems with accessing this site.
• Sixth Council edition, 1954-1956, 40 volumes. This is more accurate than the Siamese edition, but with fewer variant readings. Recently, in addition to the original Burmese script edition, Latin and devanagari versions have appeared in print. Three online transcripts are now available:
  • [3]: sponsored by the Supreme Patriarch of Thailand, displays in Latin script
  • [4]: has options for a variety of scripts; downloadable free of charge.
  • [5]: pdfs of a Latin-script printing; downloadable free of charge from [6]
• Nalanda edition (first Indian edition), 39 nominal volumes in 41 actual volumes (in devanagari script), 1957-1961. It was based mainly on the 6th Council text. It gradually went out of print.
• Khmer edition: This is a parallel-text edition, with Khmer translations on facing pages. 1931-1969. The Khmers Rouges burnt every set in the country, with only a few surviving elsewhere.
• Buddha Jayanti edition: This Sinhalese edition is another parallel-text one, 1958-?1993, 52 nominal volumes in 58 actual volumes.
  • An electronic transcript, not yet fully proofread, is currently available as a searchable database at [7], apparently public-domain; however, this seems to omit the Maha Niddesa and Puggalapannatti
• Bhumibalo edition (Thailand) This is a currently ongoing project.

Translations

• Pali Canon in English Translation, 1895- , in progress, 43 volumes so far, Pali Text Society, Bristol; for details see website.

Anthologies:

• Buddhist Suttas, ed & tr T. W. Rhys Davids, Sacred Books of the East, volume XI, Clarendon/Oxford, 1881; reprinted by Book Tree, Escondido, California
• Some Sayings of the Buddha, ed & tr F. L. Woodward, Oxford World Classics, 1924
• The Life of Gotama the Buddha, ed E. H. Brewster, Kegan Paul, Trench, Trubner & Co., London, 1926
• Buddhist Scriptures, ed & tr E. J. Thomas, Wisdom of the East Series, John Murray, London, 1931
• The Word of the Buddha, ed & tr Nyanatiloka, 1935
• The Vedantic Buddhism of the Buddha, ed & tr J. G. Jennings, pub Geoffrey Cumberlege, London, 1947
• The Living Thoughts of Gotama the Buddha, ed Ananda K. Coomaraswamy & I.B. Horner, Cassell, London, 1948
• The Lion's Roar, ed & tr David Maurice, Rider, London, 1962
• Early Buddhist Poetry, ed I. B. Horner, Ananda Semage, Colombo, 1963
• The Life of the Buddha, ed & tr Nanamoli, Buddhist Publication Society, Kandy, Sri Lanka, 1972
• The Book of Protection, tr Piyadassi, Buddhist Publication Society, Kandy, Sri Lanka, 1981; translation of paritta
• In the Buddha's Words, ed & tr Bodhi, Wisdom Pubns, 2005
• Early Buddhist Discourses, ed & tr John J. Holder, 2006
• Basic Teachings of the Buddha, ed & tr Glenn Wallis, Modern Library, New York, 2007
• Sayings of the Buddha, ed & tr Rupert Gethin, Oxford University Press, 2008

Secondary sources

• History of Pali Literature, B. C. Law, volume I
• Analysis of the Pali Canon, Russell Webb, Buddhist Publication Society, Kandy, Sri Lanka
• Pali Literature, K. R. Norman, Otto Harrassowitz, Wiesbaden, 1983
• Handbook of Pali Literature, Oskar von Hinüber, Walter de Gruyter, Berlin, 1996
• Guide to Tipitaka, Ko Lay, originally published in Burma, reprinted in Thailand, now pdf
  • downloadable from
    • [8]
    • [9]
  • viewable online at [10]