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Abbreviations
and
Sutta Reference Numbers

See also: Glossary of Pali & Buddhist Terms and the Index by Subject


Abbreviations

The following abbreviations appear frequently throughout the pages of Access to Insight:

Pali Texts:

ANAnguttara Nikaya
CvCullavagga
DhpDhammapada
DhpADhammapada-atthakatha (commentary to the Dhammapada)
DNDigha Nikaya
ItiItivuttaka
KhpKhuddakapatha
KhpAKhuddakapatha-atthakatha (commentary to the Khuddakapatha)
KNKhuddaka Nikaya
MNMajjhima Nikaya
MvMahavagga
NdNiddesa
SnSutta Nipata
SNSamyutta Nikaya
ThagTheragatha
ThigTherigatha
UdUdana

Miscellaneous:

BGSThe Book of Gradual Sayings, F.L. Woodward and E.M. Hare, trans. (Oxford: Pali Text Society, 1994)
BPSBuddhist Publication Society (Sri Lanka)
CDBThe Connected Discourses of the Buddha: A New Translation of the Samyutta Nikaya, Bhikkhu Bodhi, trans. (Boston: Wisdom Publications, 2000)
Comm, ComyCommentary
PTSPali Text Society (UK)
SktSanskrit
»Indicates a hypertext link to another website
{}In the suttas and their brief summaries, the braces enclose an alternate sutta reference number (see below) -- usually either the PTS Pali volume and page number or the verse number.
&Because Pali has many ways of expressing the conjunction "and," Thanissaro Bhikkhu has chosen to make frequent use in his sutta translations of the ampersand (&) to join lists of words and short phrases, while using the word "and" to join long phrases and clauses.

Sutta Reference Numbers

Over the years, Pali and Buddhist scholars have used a variety of numbering schemes when referring to suttas and other texts in the Tipitaka.[1] On this website I use the following convention to identify texts within the Sutta Pitaka:

Readers who are accustomed to other numbering systems or who wish to compare these translations against the original Pali texts may wish to refer to the alternative reference numbers that appear in braces {}. These consist either of the corresponding volume and starting page number in the PTS printed Pali edition (in the case of DN, MN, SN, and AN) or the verse numbers (in Ud, Sn, Thag, and Thig). These common points of reference can also help resolve discrepancies between different editions of the Tipitaka (for example, AN III.66 in the Thai Tipitaka is the same sutta as AN III.65 in the Burmese). The braces may also contain additional notes concerning a text's location within the Tipitaka.

Notes:

1. For a review of the numbering systems used by many Pali scholars, see "The Contents and Structure of the Pali Canon and its Commentaries," by the UK Association for Buddhist Studies at the University of Sunderland » http://www.sunderland.ac.uk/~os0dwe/bs12.html. [Go back]

2. The Connected Discourses of the Buddha: A New Translation of the Samyutta Nikaya, Bhikkhu Bodhi, trans. (Boston: Wisdom Publications, 2000), p. 23. [Go back]

3. 9,557 and 8,777: Handbook of Pali Literature, by Somapala Jayawardhana (Colombo: Karunaratne & Sons, 1994), p. 12. 2,308: An Analysis of the Pali Canon, Russell Webb, ed. (Kandy: Buddhist Publication Society, 1975), p. 26. [Go back]


Revised: Tue 16 April 2002
http://www.accesstoinsight.org/abbrev.html