only of these texts, huge in themselves. The commen-
taries on the Vinaya-pitaka,on the Abhidhammapitaka,
and on part of the Khuddakanikayaare anonymous.
A commentary of uncertain date (probably between
450 and 600 C.E.) on seven of the collections of the
Khuddakanikayawas composed by Dhammapala (al-
though Lance Cousins has recently suggested Jotipala
as the author of this commentary). It is important to
note that Dhammapala’s sequence of Khuddakanikaya
texts deviates from the one common in the Mahavi-
hara, and that he used a different recension of two
texts, suggesting that he was following traditions of
South Indian Pali literature, which probably flourished
through the first millennium C.E., but is now almost
completely lost.
Subcommentaries constitute another layer of Pali
literature. After older subcommentaries on the Abhid-
hammapitaka(ascribed to Ananda) and on Buddha-
ghosa’s commentaries (ascribed to Dhammapala), the
next subcommentaries were written during the reign
of Parakkamabahu I (r. 1153–1186), who reformed
and unified the Buddhist order in Sri Lanka. Conse-
quently, much weight was put on explaining the
Vinayapitaka.This task was entrusted by the king to
Sariputta and his disciples.
Pali literature in Southeast Asia
With Theravada also firmly established in Southeast-
Asia (Burma [Myanmar], Thailand, and Cambodia),
new branches of Pali literature developed. During a
short period in the late fifteenth and early sixteenth
centuries, Pali literature flourished in Chiang Mai
(Northern Thailand). A chronicle of Buddhist teach-
ing concentrating on developments in Southeast Asia,
the Jinakalamalinl(Garland of the Epochs of the Con-
querer) by Ratanapañña, and subcommentaries to the
Vinayapitakaand Abhidhammapitakaby Ñanakitti
indicate a remarkable, but short-lived, literary activity.
At the same time, cosmological texts such as the
Cakkavaladlpanl(Elucidation of the World Systems),
composed in 1520 by Siriman ̇gala, brought new ele-
ments into Pali literature.
Another literary genre that flourished in this period
(and that remains particularly popular in Thailand) is
the jataka. Numerous apocryphal jatakas were written in
vernacular languages, as well as in Pali. The best known
Pali collection is the Paññasajataka(Fifty Jatakas),
which formally imitates the canonical collection. This
was also the time when the oldest extant Pali manu-
scripts were copied in ancient Lan Na(Northern Thai-
land). Palm leaf manuscripts are also known from Sri
Lanka and Burma, mostly copied during the eighteenth
and nineteenth centuries. A singular exception is a
fragment of a Pali manuscript preserved in Kathmandu
containing four folios from the Vinayapitakawritten
during the eighth or ninth century in Northern India.
In Burma, a long and fruitful philological activity
began with Aggavamsa’s Saddanlticomposed in 1154.
This grammatical treatise deeply influenced the whole
later Pali tradition. Strong emphasis was also put on
explaining the Abhidhammapitaka and on writing
handbooks on Abhidhammamatters.Conclusion
It is striking that the older Pali literature is almost ex-
clusively confined to the canon and its commentaries.
Handbooks on the Vinayapitakaor Abhidhammapitaka,
such as those written by Buddhadatta, a contemporary
of Buddhaghosa, or on HERMENEUTICS, such as the
Petakopadesa(Instruction Concerning the Tipitaka) and
the Nettipakarana(Guide to Interpretation), both pre-
dating Buddhaghosa, are rare exceptions, as are the
chronicles. It is only after the twelfth century that Pali
literature began to develop outside (and beside) the
canon. However, these later literary activities, particu-
larly the later literature from Southeast Asia, are com-
paratively little studied. When Pali studies began in
Europe with the publication of a Pali grammar by
Eugène Burnouf (1801–1852) and Christian Lassen
(1800–1876) in 1826, emphasis was on research on
older literature. The canon was first printed after T.
W. Rhys Davids (1834–1922) founded the Pali Text
Society in 1881; the society continues to publish trans-
lations and canonical and commentarial texts in Pali.See also:Entries on specific countries; Commentarial
Literature; Languages; Sinhala, Buddhist Literature inBibliography
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