A question about Buddhaghosa

Q & A
1

It is an oft repeated, and therefore suspicious, claim that the pali canon is in more or less it’s present state by the time of Buddhaghosa.

Does anyone know what the actual evidence is for this claim, and where I should look for it in the secondary literature?

Does Buddhaghosa provide a list of suttas? or is the idea more that since the suttas all have a commentary that they must have been fixed at that time, and if so, what is the actual manuscript witness or other evidence that these commentaries where not composed over centuries rather than by a “lone genius”, i.e how do we know the commentaries haven’t grown with the suttas themselves, other than thier own internal claim to be the work of Buddhaghosa?

I have a vague memory of B M Law discussing this somewhere, if someone could remind me that would be great but I am also especially interested in scholarship on this issue of more recent provenance than the middle of the last century.

2

Oh, and have found a copy of this;

So thanks @Sphairos !!

Any other recommendations, especially those with a historical focus will be much appreciated.

3

i.e Gamage says; “Since Buddhaghosa is considered to have lived in the 5th c. ce, it is probable that his pupil Buddhamitta lived in around the 5th–6thc. ce.”

without further elaboration.

Does anyone know of an online source for the pali of the Mahāvaṃsa?

4

PSA: If you have more to add to your post, you can edit it. There is no need to keep posting to your own thread.

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5

thanks for the tip @Snowbird ! Any suggestions on good recent historical schoalrship on Buddhaghosa?

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6

Nope. You might get more traction on a forum dedicated to Classical Theravada.

Have you done a search on academia.edu? https://www.academia.edu/search?q=Buddhaghosa

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