suttantas

Updated: May 15, 2025

Apprehensions are expressed that suttas will be lost if monks neglect to learn them by heart . From inscriptions of the third century B.C. are quoted words like Petakî, a reciter of the Pitakas or perhaps of one Pitaka: Suttântika and Suttântakinî, a man or woman who recites the suttantas: Pancanekâyika, one who recites the five Nikâyas.

Sir Charles Eliot - Hinduism and Buddhism, An Historical Sketch, Vol. 1

But even in the two older collections, the Dîgha and the Majjhima, we have not reached the lowest stratum. The first thirteen suttantas of the Dîgha all contain a very ancient tractate on morality, and the Sâmaññaphala and following sections of the Dîgha and also some suttas of the Majjhima contain either in whole or in part a treatise on progress in the holy life.

Sir Charles Eliot - Hinduism and Buddhism, An Historical Sketch, Vol. 1