Suttasangaha, the lost book of Khuddaka Nikaya

There is an ancient book known as “Suttasangaha,” which was formerly included in Khuddaka Nikaya (of Suttapitaka) in the Sri Lankan Tipitaka, or at least this is what I heard somewhere…

I try to find this book Suttasangaha but cannot find it. Is it available anywhere? What I have is a verbatim (Pali-Burmese) translation in Pali-Burmese, which is not very beautiful to read (very useful if I don’t understand something, but not for simple reading). There is also the Sinhalese (Sri Lanka) translation of Suttasangaha Commentary, which I have as well.

The introduction to Suttasangaha Commentary says that these are the suttas that the Buddha taught to people upon which the people became Enlightened on the spot. I believe that this collection is therefore worthy of study.

I searched by Google the list of the suttas in mentioned in Suttasangaha, so that could learn what to read and memorize as number one thing to help me get free from all fetters and support others on their Path. However, I found nothing. Therefore, I made my list according to the headings in the Sinhalese Suttasangaha Commentary, but it’s only handwritten.

I would like to give it to you and if you have the time and enthusiasm, you could create a table (preferably online, e.g., in Google Spreadsheet) with the order number, sutta name, Tipitaka address/reference, and a link in SuttaCentral to read it right away. :blush:

Well, if nobody does it, I think I will do it… but no idea when. :upside_down_face: I also would like to suggest that Suttasangaha could somehow be searched and found (perhaps in Thailand??) and included in the SuttaCentral’s main Tipitaka tree, possibly right below Milindapanha.

But note, that Suttasangaha was NOT included as a Khuddaka Nikaya book by the Sixth Buddhist Council. Either the council didn’t know about it - which is possible because Burmese don’t know much about it - or it was maybe deemed unnecessary because I think all of the suttas there are already included in the Nikayas or Vinaya Pitaka.

Summary -

  1. Do you know where I can get Suttasangaha as a standalone book? (Not a commentary or a verbatim translation?) In any language, preferably Pali/Sinhalese/Burmese?
  2. Would you be interested in making a comprehensive list of the suttas mentioned in Suttasangaha, and if so, may I know the deadline when you’d like to have it done? It is a great opportunity to gain a big Dhamma dana merit. :grin: (Link to my handwritten list is here - https://archive.org/download/sutta-sangaha-discourse-list-with-references/SuttaSangaha%20discourse%20list%20with%20references.pdf
  3. Can I dream that Suttasangaha may be included in Suttacentral’s main Tipitaka tree, so me and anyone else just comes, clicks - Suttapitaka - Khuddaka Nikaya - SuttaSangaha and gets the list ready to read (and become Enlightened) right away? :heart_eyes:
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You would have easily found it if you’d searched using the spelling Suttasaṃgaha. When googling for a Pali text with ‘ṅg’ or ‘ṅk’ in the title it’s always a good idea to try the spellings ‘ṃg’ and ‘ṃk’ too.

:smile:

The 1957 romanised Pali edition of Chaudhuri and Guha is available online and comes with quite an informative introduction:

Suttasaṃgaha

And this is what Oscar von Hinuber has to say about it in his Handbook of Pali Literature:

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Reference Table of Pali Literature by Bhikkhu Nyanatusita may be of interest if you aren’t already familiar.

https://www.bps.lk/library-search-select.php?id=mi013

(you have to click on the X in the small table to download the pdf)

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Somehow I never understood how to use these tables of literature. So, I find there a book that I need, and then… what should I do? (Almost all that is available free online I already have or know about. Whenever I search something from these tables it either doesn’t seem to exist or it is no more in stock but available only if my sponsors buy it. How do you buy/get a book which is not in stock? :upside_down_face: )

Sometimes when I see these tables I feel like little Copperfield window-shopping books… No way to get it, no way to read it. Let me know how do you find these tables useful. :sun_with_face:

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And I see that Ven. Ānandajoti has uploaded a scan of its atthakathā in Sinhala script.

https://www.pali-text-images.net/bjt/05-suttatthakatha/44-suttasangahatthakatha.htm

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This is a reprint from 1929, in 2010.

I have a new version which is original from 2008. I brought all set of the Sinhala Commentaries from Sri Lanka to Myanmar. :sun_with_face: Good to know that there is yet another version. :sun_with_face:

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Bhante,

Have the table that you suggested, already being put together and available?

5 posts were split to a new topic: Translations of Khuddaka Nikaya

I am just going to mention this, because it seems to have been not really stated explicitly in the answers.

The Suttasangaha is a compilation of texts, mostly suttas, with some Vinaya, Abhidhamma, and commentarial material. The presence of commentarial excerpts means that it cannot have been compiled earlier than about the 6th century CE. This puts it much later than any canonical text.

The latest text that is often admitted as canonical is the Milindapanha, which is dated half a millennium earlier. But even the Milinda, as well as the Netti and Petakopadesa, are not always admitted as canonical, so the latest universally accepted canonical texts would date from about the 2nd century BCE.

The editors of the roman edition of the Suttasangaha, Ramaprasad Chaudhuri and Devaprasad Guha, estimate on admittedly tenuous grounds that it was compiled in the 13th century, not long after the reign of Parakkamabahu I, by the monk Ariyavamsa in the Mahavihara at Anuradhapura.

Thus it cannot be considered a canonical text in any meaningful sense, although it was perhaps included as such by mistake at some point.

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Yes I agree that is not canonical book. Although it is a great compilation for what I read in the introduction, because it includes the suttas following the gradual talk.

This is the kind of book that I was suggesting in my previous post.

https://discourse.suttacentral.net/t/how-to-introduce-buddhism/26927

I’m very happy that someone put it together centuries ago and would be great to have easy access to that compilation in English with a table as Bhante @sarana suggested or in some other form. That’s why I’m asking if this is already available.

Dear Venerable @Dhammanando ,
Thank you very much for the Pali transcript of Suttasangaha, it is what I asked for, but I see from the later comments in this post that more is to be done… :star2:

These are Pali versions of Suttasamgaha. Although they are helpful somehow because they are not included in the Chaṭṭhasaṅgayana Software or other electronic Tipiṭaka Pali Readers, I wonder if there is also an English translation.

English translation would make it easy for both teachers and students to have a systematically organized collection of Buddhist discourses, a kind of ancient Buddhist guidebook for a beginner, that helps the practitioner achieve a basic understanding of Dhamma and gain preliminary insight into the Four Noble Truths. The unique nature of Suttasaṃgaha/Suttasaṅgaha is that it illustrates how the Buddha Himself guided His students (esp. laypeople) on the Path, through gradual discourses, from the very beginning until the very attainment of Stream-Entry. I am not aware of any other such gradual, systematic collection, which would be arranged according to the Buddha’s didactic system as we have it mentioned in the early Pāḷi discourses.

If we could also have an English translation, it would help just so much, venerable sir. :rainbow: