Suttas in a chronological order?

If we confine ourselves to the self-referential content of the suttas themselves, then I believe it is only a very tiny number of them whose approximate time of delivery can be ascertained (assuming of course that one accepts the self-referential content as trustworthy). These would comprise a handful delivered in the earliest period of the Buddha’s teaching career and whose order can be found in the Vinaya’s Mahāvagga; a couple relating to the time of the Parinibbāna; and a few given by disciples after the Parinibbāna. Besides these there are also some suttas where one can make reasonable inferences from what one knows about the characters in them. For example, if Devadatta puts in an appearance and is represented as a monk in good standing, then one can take it that it pertains to a time before the errant disciple’s schism.

For those who trust them, the commentaries to the suttas occasionally contain statements to the effect that “this was taught in such and such year after the Buddha’s awakening” or “… in the first/middle/last period after the Buddha’s awakening”, but such statements are rather infrequent and certainly not sufficient to permit a chronology of the suttas as a whole.

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