A Comparative Edition of the Dhammapada

iv
Preface
The present work gathers together all the Middle Indo-Aryan (MIA) parallels to the Pāḷi
Dhammapada found in the surviving remains of the various Buddhist traditions, and
studies the principles underlying the way the collection has been organised and
assembled.
Part 1 of this book presents an abstract of the parallels to give a clear overview of how
the various versions relate to each other. There are detailed notes discussing such matters
as the titles of the chapters, the content and sequence of the verses, and the way the
material has been collected and organised.
Part 2 is the main portion of the book and contains the text of the Pāḷi Dhammapada
itself, along with all the parallels that have been collected here. When presented in this
way the complex relationships between the various texts becomes evident.
There is also a complete Comparative Index to the Dhammapada verses presented here,
which acts as a kind of comparative vocabulary of the texts, showing the morphology of
the words in the various recensions of the verses.
Acknowledgements
This work was originally published on my website www.ancient-buddhist-texts.net in
2004. For the printed edition a new Introduction has been written; and the Studies have
been somewhat revised in the light of various comments I have received from readers and
scholars. The electronic edition of this text has also been updated.
I am very grateful to Professor R. S. Bucknell, who read through the Introductions and
Studies of both the main text and the Appendix, which helped me clarify the text. I am
also indebted to Dr. Andrew Glass and Ven. Anālayo who read through the Introduction
and whose scholarship helped me correct a number of oversights, and generally improve
the text.
I would also like to thank the Head of the Department of Pali and Buddhist Studies at the
University of Peradeniya, Dr. G. Somaratne, for being so supportive of the publication of
this work; and I am grateful to Mr. Kulatunga of Printel Private Limited for undertaking
to publish this work.
In compiling this work I have been greatly assisted by the labours of previous scholars,
amongst whom I should mention J. Brough (The Gāndhārī Dharmapada), F. Bernhard
(Udānavarga), M. Cone (Patna Dharmapada), O. von Hinüber and K.R. Norman
(Dhammapada), K.L. Dhammajoti (The Chinese Version of Dhammapada), and the
unknown author of an article on The Origin of Dhammapada Verses (Buddhist Studies
Review 6, 2 - 1989), all of whom gave parallels to the various texts. During the course of
research for this work I was also able to find some other parallels that had not previously
been listed.
In preparing the main work I have had to prepare 4 major texts, and extracts from 4
others, and then compile it all. Although every care has been taken to ensure accuracy, it