The Buddhist Texts Book

Buddhist texts were initially passed on orally by monks, but were later written down and composed as manuscripts in various Indo-Aryan languages which were then translated into other local languages as Buddhism spread. They can be categorized in a number of ways. The Western terms ”scripture” and “canonical” are applied to Buddhism in inconsistent ways by Western Scholars: for example, one authority refers to “scriptures and other canonical texts”, while another says that scriptures can be categorized into canonical, commentarial, and pseudo-canonical. Buddhist traditions have generally divided these texts with their own categories and divisions, such as that between buddhavacana “word of the Buddha”, many of which are known as “Sutras”, and other texts, such as shastras (treatises) or Abhidharma. Buddhism came to China in the 1st century C.E. the development of Buddhism in China and the recording of the teaching as the Chinese Canon is one of the great achievement of human civilization. The Sanskrit texts of different traditions were taken to China and the translation of the texts into Chinese went on from 200 C.E. to about 1200 C.E. at first non-Chinese and later Chinese monks, working individually and in teams, carried on the translation work. State translation projects were established. Original Chinese Sutra were added. This book contains the fundamental and basic information of subject and the selection of contents makes it an appropriate textbook for the students.