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Udana and Itivuttaka (English)

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Author: Masefield, Dr. Peter
Publisher: Pali Text Society
Publication Date:
Product Type: Hardcover Book
Pages: 324
ISBN 13: 978-0860135012

ISBN 10: 860135012

Language: English

SKU:

SKU:PTS:DIS135012

Description

Please note: PTS members must order directly from the PTS.

A  translation by Dr. Peter Masefield of the Udana and Itivuttaka from the Pali.  These used to be sold in separate books but are now sold together in book. 

The Udana is a collection of 'solemn utterances' made by the Buddha on special occasions, and accounts of their circumstances.  It contains many central teachings. 

The Itivuttaka, a collection of 112 short discourses of the Buddha in both prose and verse, takes its name from the statement at the beginning of each of its discourses: this (iti) was said (vuttam) by the Blessed One.  The collection as a whole is attributed to a laywoman named Khujjuttara, who worked in the palace of King Udena of Kosambi as a servant to one of his queens, Samavati.  Because the Queen could not leave the palace to hear the Buddha's discourses, Khujjuttara went in her place, memorized what the Buddha said, and then returned to the palace to teach the Queen and her 500 ladies-in-waiting.  For her efforts, the Buddha cited Khujjuttara as the foremost of his laywomen disciples in terms of her learning.  She was also an effective teacher: when the inner apartments of the palace later burned down, killing the Queen and her entourage, the Buddha commented that all of the women had reached at least the first stage of Awakening.  

An earlier translation by F.L.Woodward, Verses of Uplift, can be found in Minor Antholgies, Vol 2

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