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Āgama (Buddhism)

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For other uses of the term Agama, see Agama.

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In Buddhism, an āgama (Sanskrit and Pali for "sacred work"[1] or "scripture"[2]) is a collection of Early Buddhist scriptures, of which there are four, which together comprise the Sutra Pitika of the Sanskritic early schools. The various schools had different recensions of each agama, and the four agamas parallel the first four collections (nikāyas) of the Sutta Piṭika of the Theravadin school's Pali Canon. Āgamas of various schools, primarily the Sarvāstivāda, are preserved in their entirety in Chinese translation, although portions survive in Sanskrit and in Tibetan translation.

Contents

[edit] Meaning

In Buddhism, the term 'agama' is used to refer to a collection of discourses (Sanskrit: sutra; Pali: sutta) of the early Buddhist schools, which were preserved in the Chinese Mahayana tradition. These sutras correspond to the first four Nikayas of the Sutta-Pitaka of the Pali Canon, which are also occasionally called agamas. In this sense, 'agama' is a synonym for one of the meanings of nikaya. Many of the agama sutras belong to the Sarvastivadin canon.

Sometimes the word 'agama' is used to refer not to a specific scripture, but to a class of scripture. In this case, its meaning can also encompass the Sutta-pitaka, which the Theravada tradition holds to be the oldest and most historically accurate representation of the teachings of Gautama Buddha.[3]

[edit] History

According to the MacMillan Encyclopedia of Buddhism (2004):[4]

"According to tradition, the Buddha's discourses were already collected by the time of the first council, held shortly after the Buddha's death ... Scholars, however, see the texts as continually growing in number and size from an unknown nucleus, thereby undergoing various changes in language and content ..."

It is clear that, among the early schools, at a minimum the Sarvāstivāda, Kāśyapīya, Mahāsaṃghika, Dharmagupta had recensions of the four agamas that differed at least somewhat. The agamas are also commonly compared to the Pali Canon's Sutta Pitaka in an attempt to identify possible changes and root phrasings. The agamas' existence and similarity to the Sutta Pitaka is sometimes used by scholars to assess to what degree these teachings are a historically authentic representation of the Canon of Early Buddhism.[5] Sometimes also the differences between them are used to cast an alternative meaning on the accepted meaning of a sutta in either of the two recensions.

Four collections of agamas appear in the East Asian Mahayana Canon: the Cháng Ahánjīng (長阿含經), the Zhōng Ahánjīng (中阿含經), the Zá Ahánjīng (雜阿含經), and the Ekottara Agama or Zēngyī Ahánjīng (增一阿含經).

Complete Chinese translations of each of the agamas are to be found in the Chinese Buddhist Canon.

[edit] The Four Āgamas

There are four extant collections of Āgamas. They are preserved in their entirety only in Chinese translation (Agama: 阿含經), although small portions of all four have recently been discovered in Sanskrit, and portions of three of the four Āgamas are preserved in Tibetan.[6] It is not known if any schools had an equivalent to the Khuddaka Nikāya, the fifth Nikāya of the Pāli Canon. The four extent Āgamas are:

  1. The Saṃyukta Āgama ("Connected Discourses", Zá Ahánjīng 雜阿含經 Taishō 99)[7] (corresponding to Saṃyutta Nikāya). A Chinese translation of the complete Saṃyukta Āgama of the Sarvāstivāda (說一切有部) school was done by Guṇabhadra (求那跋陀羅) in the Song state (宋) [435-443CE]4 (although two folios are missing). Portions of the Sarvāstivāda Saṃyukta Āgama also survive in Tibetan translation. There is also an incomplete Chinese translation of the Saṃyukta Āgama (別譯雜阿含經 Taishō 100) of the Kāśyapīya (飲光部) school by an unknown translator [circa the Three Qin (三秦) period, 352-431CE][8]. A comparison of the Sarvāstivādin, Kāśyapīya, and Theravadin texts reveals a considerable consistency of content, although each recension contains texts not found in the others.
  2. The Madhyama Āgama ("Middle-length Discourses," Zhōng Ahánjīng 中阿含經, Taishō 26)[9] (corresponding to Majjhima Nikāya). A complete translation of the Madhyama Āgama of the Sarvāstivāda school was done by Saṃghadeva (僧伽提婆) in the Eastern Jin dynasty (東晉) [397-398CE]. The Madhyama Āgama of the Sarvāstivāda school contains 222 sūtras, in contrast to the 152 suttas in the Pāli Majjhima Nikāya. Portions of the Sarvāstivāda Madhyama Āgama also survive in Tibetan translation.
  3. The Dīrgha Āgama ("Long Discourses," Cháng Ahánjīng 長阿含經 Taishō 1)[10] (corresponding to Dīgha Nikāya). A complete version of the Dīrgha Āgama of the Dharmagupta (法藏部) school was done Buddhayaśas (佛陀耶舍) and Zhu Fonian (竺佛念) in the Late Qin dynasty (後秦) [413CE]. It contains 30 sūtras in contrast to the 34 suttas of the Theravadin Dīgha Nikāya. A "very substantial" portion of the Sarvāstivādin Dīrgha Āgama survives in Sanskrit,[11] and portions survive in Tibetan translation.
  4. The Ekottara Āgama ("Increased by One Discourses," Zēngyī Ahánjīng, 增壹阿含經 Taishō 125)[12] (corresponding to Anguttara Nikāya). A complete version, translated by Dharmanandi (曇摩難提) of the Fu Qin state (苻秦) [397CE] and altered by Saṃghadeva in the Eastern Jin (東晉), is thought to be from either the Mahāsaṃghika (大眾部) or Sarvāstivādin canons. It contains some mahāyāna philosophy. According to Keown, "there is considerable disparity between the Pāli and the Sarvāstivādin versions, with more than two-thirds of the sūtras found in one but not the other compilation, which suggests that much of this portion of the Sūtra Piṭaka was not formed until a fairly late date."[13]

In addition, there is a substantial quantity of Agama-style texts outside of the main collections. These are found in various sources:

  1. Partial Āgama collections and independent sutras within the Chinese canon.
  2. Small groups of sutras or independent sutras within the Tibetan canon.
  3. Sutras reconstructed from ancient manuscripts in Sanskrit, Gandhari, or other ancient Indic languages.
  4. Passages and quotes from Agama sutras preserved within Mahayana Sutras, Abhidharma texts, later commentaries, and so on.
  5. Isolated phrases preserved in inscriptions. For example, the Ashoka pillar at Lumbini declares iha budhe jāte, a quote from the Mahaparinirvana Sutra.

[edit] See also

[edit] Notes

 This article includes a list of references, related reading or external links, but its sources remain unclear because it lacks inline citations. Please improve this article by introducing more precise citations where appropriate. (February 2008)
  1. ^ Monier-Williams (1899), p. 129, see "Āgama," retrieved 12 Dec 2008 from "U. Cologne" at http://www.sanskrit-lexicon.uni-koeln.de/scans/MWScan/MWScanpdf/mw0129-Akhara.pdf.
  2. ^ Rhys Davids & Stede (1921-25), p. 95, entry for "Āgama," retrieved 12 Dec 2008 from "U. Chicago" at http://dsal.uchicago.edu/cgi-bin/philologic/getobject.pl?c.0:1:2582.pali.
  3. ^ The traditional Theravada view regarding the authenticity of the Pali Canon is contested by some modern scholars such as Brough (2001) whose own methodology involves triangulating the texts of the Pali Canon and the āgamas to make inferences about pre-sectarian texts.
  4. ^ MacMillan, Encyclopedia of Buddhism, vol. 1, p. 10.
  5. ^ See, e.g., Norman (1983), Brough (2001) and Ānandajoti (2004) regarding the authenticity of the Pali Canon's Dhammapada, Sutta Nipata and other texts when juxtaposed with other non-Pali early Buddhist texts.
  6. ^ A Dictionary of Buddhism, by Damien Keown, Oxford University Press: 2004
  7. ^ Muller, Charles. Digital Dictionary of Buddhism, entry on 阿含經
  8. ^ A Dictionary of Buddhism, by Damien Keown, Oxford University Press: 2004
  9. ^ Muller, Charles. Digital Dictionary of Buddhism, entry on 阿含經
  10. ^ Muller, Charles. Digital Dictionary of Buddhism, entry on 阿含經
  11. ^ Between the Empires: Society in India 300 BCE to 400 CE by Patrick Olivelle. Oxford University Press, 2006 ISBN 0195305329 pg 356
  12. ^ Muller, Charles. Digital Dictionary of Buddhism, entry on 阿含經
  13. ^ A Dictionary of Buddhism, by Damien Keown, Oxford University Press: 2004

[edit] Sources

  • Brough, John (2001). The Gāndhārī Dharmapada. Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass Publishers Private Limited.
  • Norman, K.R. (1983). Pali Literature: Including the Canonical Literature in Prakrit and Sanskrit of All the Hinayana Schools of Buddhism. Wiesbaden: Otto Harrassowitz.

[edit] External links


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