Translator: Varado Bhikkhu
1: On the Snake (Uraga Sutta)
2. With Dhaniya (Dhaniya Sutta)
3. On the Rhinoceros Horn (Khaggavisāṇa Sutta)
4. With Kasi Bharadvaja (Kasibhāradvāja Sutta)
5. With Cunda (Cunda Sutta)
6. On Spiritual Ruination (Parābhava Sutta)
7. On the Wretch (Vasala Sutta)
8. On Goodwill (Metta Sutta)
9. With Hemavata (Hemavata Sutta)
10 With Āḷavaka (Āḷavaka Sutta)
11. On Victory (Vijaya Sutta)
12. On the Sage (Muni Sutta)
1. On Gem-like Qualities (Ratana Sutta)
2. On What is Rotten (Āmagandha Sutta)
3. On Scruples (Hiri Sutta)
4. On What is Supremely Auspicious (Maṅgala Sutta)
5. With Sūciloma (Sūciloma Sutta)
6. On Living Righteously (Dhammacariya Sutta)
7. On the Righteous Brahmans (Brāhmaṇadhammika Sutta)
8. On the Boat (Nāvā Sutta)
9. On What Observances (Kiṃsīla Sutta)
10. On Arising (Uṭṭhāna Sutta)
11. With Rāhula (Rāhula Sutta)
12. On Nigrodhakappa (Nigrodhakappa Sutta)
13. On Properly Fulfilling the Ideals of Religious Asceticism (Sammāparibbājanīya Sutta)
14. With Dhammika (Dhammika Sutta)
1. On Going Forth Into The Ascetic Life (Pabbajjā Sutta)
2. On Inward Striving (Padhāna Sutta)
3. On Well-Spoken Speech (Subhāsita Sutta)
4. With Sundarika Bhāradvāja (Sundarikabhāradvāja Sutta)
5. With Māgha (Māgha Sutta)
6. With Sabhiya (Sabhiya Sutta)
7. With Sela (Sela Sutta)
8. On the Arrow (Salla Sutta)
9. With Vāseṭṭha (Vāseṭṭha Sutta)
10. With Kokālika (Kokālika Sutta)
11. With Nālaka (Nālaka Sutta)
12. On the Pairs (Dvayatānupassanā Sutta)
1. On Sensuous Pleasure (Kāma Sutta)
2. On the Inner Recesses of the Heart (Guhaṭṭhaka Sutta)
3. On the Evil-Minded (Duṭṭhaṭṭhaka Sutta)
4. On the Purified (Suddhaṭṭhaka Sutta)
5. On the Highest (Paramaṭṭhaka Sutta)
6. On Decrepitude (Jarā Sutta)
7. With Tissa Metteyya (Tissametteyya Sutta)
8. Addressed to Pasūra (Pasūra Sutta)
9. With Māgandiya (Māgandiya Sutta)
10. Before the Body’s Destruction (Purābheda Sutta)
11. On Quarrels and Disputes (Kalahavivāda Sutta)
12. Lesser Discourse on Battle Formations (Cūḷabyūha Sutta)
13. Greater Discourse on Battle Formations (Mahābyūha Sutta)
14. The Quick Discourse (Tuvaṭaka Sutta)
15. On Violence (Attadaṇḍa Sutta)
16. With Sāriputta (Sāriputta Sutta)
1. Introductory Verses (Vatthugāthā)
2. Ajita’s Questions (Ajitamāṇavapucchā)
3. Tissametteyya’s Questions (Tissametteyyamāṇavapucchā)
4. Puṇṇaka’s Questions (Puṇṇakamāṇavapucchā)
5. Mettagū’s Questions (Mettagūmāṇavapucchā)
6. Dhotaka’s Questions (Dhotakamāṇavapucchā)
7. Upasīva’s Questions (Upasīvamāṇavapucchā)
8. Nanda’s Questions (Nandamāṇavapucchā)
9. Hemaka’s Questions (Hemakamāṇavapucchā)
10. Todeyya’s Questions (Todeyyamāṇavapucchā)
11. Kappa’s Questions (Kappamāṇavapucchā)
12. Jatukaṇṇī’s Questions (Jatukaṇṇīmāṇavapucchā)
13. Bhadrāvudha’s Questions (Bhadrāvudhamāṇavapucchā)
14. Udaya’s Questions (Udayamāṇavapucchā)
15. Posāla’s Questions (Posālamāṇavapucchā)
16. Mogharāja’s Questions (Mogharājamāṇavapucchā)
17. Piṅgiya’s Questions (Piṅgiyamāṇavapucchā)
18. Verses in Praise of The Way to the Far Shore (Pārāyanatthutigāthā)
19. Verses Recited on The Way to the Far Shore (Pārāyanānugītigāthā)
I have had many advantages in translating this text, including, for example, my faithful supporters who have seen me through years of studying with nothing to show for it, and, for example, many anonymous helpers, from the thousands of brothers and sisters in the religious life over many hundreds of years freely giving of their lives to the Buddha’s religion, down to the producers of resources made freely available on the internet in the modern day. There are countless people to thank, and all must share the merit of this work. No translator has either the power or brains to do it alone, nor the ability to credit all the people he is indebted to. However, I should mention two prominent advantages I have had. The first is K.R. Norman’s translation of the text, the Group of Discourses, which I have so closely followed, that this translation became an apprenticeship for me. I owe him a great debt of gratitude. The second advantage is my own Glossary.
I first attempted to translate the Aṭṭhakavagga in 2005. In writing notes for it at that time, I realised that many of my renderings of terms were based on superficial analysis, and not worthy of much confidence. So in 2009 I embarked on a seven year project of assembling an Illustrated Glossary of Pāli Terms with an index of 300 words and phrases, focused primarily on what I considered problematic and puzzling. This gave me a much firmer basis to translate not just the Aṭṭhakavagga, but the whole Suttanipāta.
Readers embarking on studying the Suttanipāta should note it has two types of suttas: some are for reading, some for studying. In other words, some are easy, and some are not. About the former, nothing needs to be said. About the latter, we should explain what is so challenging.
1) Some texts are effectively lists of terms that would seem intended to be the basis for discussion or contemplation, to be read reflectively and repeatedly, not just for conveying information. Abundant use of the non-sequitur is a prominent feature here, which can have a dizzying effect.
2) Some texts involve the most advanced and abstruse aspects of the Buddha’s teaching. I have provided notes to these, where some form of commentary seemed necessary or helpful. For those who approach the task at speed, these notes may seem to compound the difficulty, not simplify it.
3) The most frustrating difficulty for the reader is that in translating, I have applied the research results from the Glossary, and have invited the reader to follow me down these new and unfamiliar paths. Thus, words like taṇhā, viññāṇa, and saṅkhāra are all cast anew. By way of explanation, I have repeatedly sent readers back to the Glossary. This is not comfortable or comforting, but those who persist will hopefully find that I have not been unfair in providing all the necessary materials for people to consider the issues for themselves.
As regards punctuation marks, each Pāli verse of the Suttanipāta comprises four, five or six segments, called pādas. In the Vipassana Research Institute edition these pādas are published in two or three lines, each line comprised of two pādas, separated by a comma, and the end of lines are marked with semi-colons and fullstops. These punctuation marks are not necessarily helpful―and are sometimes positively unhelpful―in elucidating meaning. In the Pāli verses published with our translation, we have therefore included no punctuation marks at all.
As regards parenthetical material, most Pāli versions have included phrases that identify the speakers with words like ‘iccāyasmā ajito’ or ‘ajitā ti bhagavā.’ These phrases are ‘hypermetric and are therefore presumably additions to the [original] text,’ says Norman (GD p.146, n.18-29). We exclude the phrases from our version of the Pāli.
For the Pāli accompanying my own translations, guided by Norman’s notes, I have removed all metri causa readings, though with some exceptions. See below. This is justified because the focus of my interest is different from his. Understanding the Buddha’s teachings is difficult enough for the average reader without having to struggle with a stream of misspellings, to be explained with the help of distant footnotes. Norman’s research is precious for different reasons, for example, to correct mistakes in the transmission of texts, and to choose between versions. But non-authoritative editions like ours are in the enviable position of being able to provide a text that is useable outside the walls of academia. It would be presumptious for us to assume any differently, that ours should or could be in any way considered a critical text. But those scholars would surely not criticise us for saying that the average reader is unlikely to be much interested in certain aspects of their work, and that it is not inappropriate for editions like ours to provide readers with what is valuable to them, and with what true scholars would never dream of giving them, namely a spelling that accords with the dictionaries and grammar books they are likely to have at hand, or which are freely available on the internet. Some may complain that, in such correcting, one is occasionally obliged to decide between possible different meanings. But as interpretation is anyway a translators work, this objection is hardly valid.
In correcting metri causa readings I have often been guided by Norman’s comments, but not where they appear unsupported by the main body of scholarship. For example, Norman considers the -gū suffix to be metri causa for -gu. Although the idea is attractive, it is not generally supported by the dictionaries and grammars. DOP merely notes it as a variant reading (sv Anta). I have also avoided correcting va, which can stand for ca, eva, vā, or iva. The translation makes it clear in which way I have interpreted it.
Bhikkhu Varado
Sri Lanka, Vassa 2017
• BDPPN: Buddhist Dictionary of Pāli Proper Names by Malalasekara (Pāli Text Society, 1937-8).
• DOP: A Dictionary of Pāli, Part 1 by M. Cone (Pāli Text Society, 2001).
• GD: Group of Discourses by K.R. Norman (Pāli Text Society, 2006).
• IGPT: Illustrated Glossary of Pāli Terms by Varado Bhikkhu
• PED: Pāli-English Dictionary by T.W. Rhys Davids & W. Stede (Pāli Text Society).
• PGPL: A Practical Grammar of the Pāli Language by C. Duroiselle (Buddha Dharma Education Association, 1997).