Early Buddhist Texts: Their Composition and Transmission
Open accessAbstract
This article discusses the composition and transmission of early Buddhist texts with specific reference to sutras. After briefly summarizing the main reasons why it is likely that these oral compositions were designed to be memorized and transmitted verbatim, I will discuss the main types of changes that these texts underwent in the course of their transmission and the reasons such changes occurred, then attempt to give an account of the challenge that change, particularly intentional change, posed to the oral transmission of fixed, memorized texts.
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References 27 · Cited by 4
- Authors
- Allon, M.
- Affiliations
- The University of Sydney (AU)
- Corresponding author
- Allon, Mark
- Venue
- Journal of Indian Philosophy
- Published
- 2022-01-26
- Volume
- 50
- Issue
- 4
- Pages
- 523-556
- ISSN
- 0022-1791 (ISSN-L)
- 1573-0395
- PMC
- PMC8789374
- OpenAlex
- W4210808109
- Cited by
- 4
- References
- 27
- Citations by year
- 2026: 1 · 2024: 1 · 2023: 1 · 2022: 1
- FWCI
- 5.41
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- bronze
- doi.org
- Licence
- Locations
- Journal of Indian Philosophy (publishedVersion)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Funders
- Hebrew University of Jerusalem
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Arts and Humanities › Religious studies › Indian and Buddhist Studies
- Social Sciences › Arts and Humanities › Language and Linguistics › Classical Studies and Philology
- Social Sciences › Arts and Humanities › Religious studies › Biblical Studies and Interpretation
- Keywords
- early Buddhist texts, sutras, oral transmission, textual transmission, textual change, memorization, intentional change, Buddhist scriptures
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