When were the sutras written?

shanyin

We they all written after the Buddha died?

treederwright

about 200 years by an arrogant monk with a great memory , According to Thich Nhat Hanh

Jason

shanyin wrote: »

We they all written after the Buddha died?

Yes. Pali itself doesn't have its own script as it was originally a spoken language. It's said that the Buddha's teachings themselves were passed down orally for hundreds of years (as was the tradition in India at that time) before they were written down phonetically in various Indic scripts such as Brahmi, Devanagari, Kharosthi, etc. Some of the oldest fragments of Buddhist texts ever found are written in the Kharosthi script and in Gandhari, an Indic language similar to Pali, Sanskrit, etc.

What we know today as the Pali Canon of Theravada, however, was passed down orally for the first five hundred years after the Buddha's death and, according to the Sinhalese chronicles, written down in the reign of King Vattagamini (last century B.C.E.) in Sri Lanka at the fourth Buddhist council, most likely in Sinhala.

For references concerning the Pali Canon being an oral tradition for the first five hundred years after the Buddha's death, I suggest Theravada Buddhism by Proffesor Richard Gombrich, Beginnings: the Pali Suttas by Samanera Bodhesako, Buddhism in Sri Lanka by H.R. Perera, The Path of Purification by Ven. Bhikkhu Nanamoli, and the Sinhalese chronicles where it states that the Pali Canon was written down in the reign of King Vattagamini (last century B.C.E.) in Sri Lanka, at the fourth Buddhist council.

Valtiel

about 200 years by an arrogant monk with a great memory , According to Thich Nhat Hanh

What teh fack? I mean I know what you're referring to but I haven't heard it told in quite that way before. xD

jinzang

The tradition says that after Buddha died a council of 500 arhats gathered. Ananda recited the teachings of Buddha he remembered. (He is the "I" in "Thus have I heard.") Utpali recited the Vinaya. And both were memorized and recited by the council and passed down orally. Thus says the tradition, I have no idea what modern scholarship says.

shanyin

OK, because I've been reading the Sutra with the name something like the Total Annihalation of the Dhamma. It is a sutra some people think is fake. In it the Buddha aparently says the Sarungama sutra will be destroyed in the Dhamma ending age. I was wondering how he could have known of it's existence 500 years in advace.