A new set of six maps showing the main schools of Buddhist Art in India and their provenance, together with further information about the schools. 

A text and translation of this popular Burmese chanting text, written in high medieval Pali, which praises the Buddha in 28 verses, together with a short word-commentary extracted from the Tika, and a metrical analysis. 

I have just made a new page to hold the flipbooks that are available on the Ancient Buddhist Texts site. It makes a rather attractive presentation of these books, which load what is basically a pdf file page-by-page, making it easy and quick to read. Mainly these are works from the English Only section of the website, and as such represent only a fraction of the works available. 

The following story is extracted from the Dhammapada Commentary to verse 290. A Jātaka story told by the Buddha that shows Independently Awakened Ones (Paccekabuddha) do teach, and it is possible to attain Awakening with them. 

Text and Translation (help with reading the original) (htm, pdf, epub and mobi) 

Translation in English Only (htm, flip-book, pdf, epub, mobi and mp3) 

An expanded edition (now nearly 700 verses) of the first translation into English of any section from the Extended version of the Mahāvaṁsa. It tells the story of King Asoka's early life, his conversion to Buddhism, the holding of the 3rd Recital, and the sending out of the Missions, with special reference regarding the mission to Sri Lanka and the establishment of the Bhikkhunī Sangha there. 

There are two versions: 

Text and Translation (help with reading the original) (htm, flip-book, pdf, epub and mobi) 

Translation in English Only (htm, flip-book, pdf, epub, mobi and mp3) 

45 texts from the Texts and Translations section are now available as eBooks in pdf, epub and mobi formats. 

A series of maps showing the expansion of India: From the Buddha to Asoka. 

Plus a map of Anuradhapura at the time of King Devanampiyatissa. 

The Growth of the Buddha Sāsana Maps Completely Revised:
Sāsanavaḍḍhana (11 maps), August 2012. 

A text and translation of some important verses in the Apadāna and their commentary explaining why the Buddha suffered in his last life: he underwent a long period of almost deadly austerities, he was slandered on more than one occasion, he had to eat horse-food, he was cut by rocks, splinters and knives and suffered headaches, backaches and dysentry. 

There are three versions: 

Established Text in Pāḷi Only (shows all variant readings) 

Text and Translation (help with reading the original) 

Translation in English Only (htm, flip-book, pdf, epub, mobi and mp3) 

A summary of the changes

Mahāsatipaṭṭhānasuttaṁ, The Long Discourse about the Ways of Attending to Mindfulness (DN 22):

• separating the variant readings into a Pāli Text edition.
• completing revising and expanding the annotation in the Text and Translation edition.
• updating the English Only edition from MN 10 to DN 22, and including simplified annotation.
• updating the mp3 recordings of the material available on the English Only edition.

Satipaṭṭhānavibhaṅgo, The Analysis of the Ways of Attending to Mindfulness (Vibh. 7):

• separating the variant readings into a Pāli Text edition.
• completing revising the annotation in the Text and Translation edition.
• updating the English Only edition, and including simplified annotation.
• making completely new recordings of the Pāli Text and of the English Only editions.

Abhidhammamātikā, The Matrix from the Abstract Teaching:

• Text and Translation
• English Only

A translation of the first eight of the explanations in Ledi Sayadaw's Niruttidīpanī, which deal with the sound-system and pronunciation in Pāḷi. 

Ten short but profound discourses from the Thematic Discourses (Saṁyuttanikāya) in the Pāḷi Canon in which Māra tries to tempt or distract various Arahat nuns but only gets fine rebukes from the nuns for his trouble. Some of the most memorable teaching in verse is found in this collection. 

There are a number of versions of this work: Pāḷi Text; Text and Translation; Translation Only; and also as Audio files

Here is a simple but ingenious calculator written by Ven. Yuttadhammo for working out the correct times for monastic dawnrise and midday in the Theravāda tradition. 

A short chanting text outlining the great Nuns and their achievements as listed by the Buddha in the first section of the Aṅguttaranikāya. 

I have now included readings for all the examples given in my paper on Pāḷi Metres. This should give a better idea of how the metres sound when read (thanks to Ven. Khemaratana for the idea). 

These are a couple of javascript forms to make conversion between the Christian and Buddhist eras more conveneint. Just enter either a Buddhist era date or a Christian era date in the form and convert for an instant result. 

A reading of the Classical Metres found at the end of each chapter of the Mahāvaṁsa: 18 different metres are illustrated in a total of 68 verses. 

You can listen and read the text here. 

I have updated the website so that it is now using the Yahoo! Media Player, which is very fast and unobtrusive. At the same time this has given me the opportunity to update the Audio page so that it is easier to navigate. 

I have just completed a reading of the Dhammapada in Pāḷi, one of the best-loved books in the Canon, featuring verses written in different metres: Siloka, Tuṭṭhubha, Jagatī, Vetālīya and Opacchandasaka. 

You can also follow the readings along with the text. 

This is a revised edition of one of my earliest textual studies, the corrections are somewhat superficial and the conclusions are unchanged, but I have greatly improved the indexing, and added some new comments.

I have also read this text in in Pāḷi, and those files are now being made available also in the Audio section. 

This book is one of the most useful compiliations on the moral life of the layman that can be found. It is drawn mainly from the great verses collections in the Pāḷi Nikāyas and almost all aspects of the lay life have been covered. 

The Text and Translation edition presents the text with the Pāḷi and the translation line by line, and gives a translation of the alternative readings, whenever they differ from the adopted text. This is useful for students, who want to gain access to the original language, but for whom a translation is still a necessary help. 

The English edition is for those who simply want to read and understand the teachings that are contained in the verses, or are seeking advice on the best way of living their everyday lives. I have included the Pāḷi in this edition, but I have deliberately avoided annotation here so that the message can be better conveyed, and also because this section is being published as audio .mp3 files, where annotation is superfluous. This edition is also available in .epub and .mobi formats for your eReader. 

The Pāḷi edition shows the complete framework for the establishment of the text, including all the metrical information that helped in choosing the readings. There is also a reading of the text in Pāḷi for those who are interested in understanding the rhythm of the verses. 

There is also a reading of the text in Pāḷi. 

All of the texts in the English only section have now been converted to epub abd mobi format, which will make them easily readable on iPod, Barnes & Noble, Sony, Kindle and many other eReaders. Wherever you go you can now take some Dhamma with you. 

A short and memorable poem retelling the Buddha story from Birth to the Parinibbāna in 10 chapters and less than 400 lines. A reading of the poem is also available in the Audio section. 

The following essay is drawn from the book: The Beginnings of Buddhist Art and other essays in Indian and Central-Asian Archeology by A. Foucher. It is the first in the book, and historically the most important as Foucher herein proposed the Hellenic origin of the Buddha image, which is still (with some modifications) the accepted theory. 

A reading of nine short pieces collected together at the beginning of the Khuddakanikāya, the 5th Nikaya in the Pāḷi Canon. They include the Discourse on the Blessings (Maṅgalasutta); the Discourse on the Treasures (Ratanasutta); and The Discourse on Friendliness Meditation (Mettasutta) 

The texts were prepared many years ago, but have been slightly revised while making the recordings.

An established Text, a Text and Translation and an English Only version of this Jātaka Story. A reading of this discourse is also available in the Audio section. The story concerns an ascetic who is brought up in innocence of the world. He gains great power and this worries Sakka, who sends a princess to seduce him.

A Text and Translation and an English Only version of this Jātaka Story. A reading of this discourse is also available in the Audio section. The story is about a lack of water resources which nearly leads to a war. The Buddha intervenes and thereby bloodshed is spared.

3 Reading of translations I made from Sanskritised Prākr̥t texts last year.

The first is The Journey from Uruvilvā to Rṣipatana translated from the Mahāvastu, which traces the Buddha's journey from the place of Awakening to the scene of the First Discourse. 

The second is of The Discourse that Set the Dharma-Wheel Rolling an alternative rescension of the First Discourse from Lalitavistara. 

The third is The Explanation and Analysis of Conditional Origination from the Beginning which gives an different analysis of the formula than is found in the Pāḷi texts. 

The texts themselves have also been corrected and updated. 

3 Reading of translations I made from Doctrinal texts over the years.

The first is a reading of The Discourse about Suitable Deeds (AN 4.61). 

The second is of The Second Discourse giving an Analysis of the Faculties (SN 48.10). 

The third is The First Discourse on the Bases for Talk (AN 10.69). 

The texts themselves have also been corrected and updated. 

Reading of translations I made from the Abhidhamma texts a couple of years ago. The first one is of the Abstract Matrix which opens Dhammasaṅgaṇī, and which forms a kind of questionnaire against which various factors are tested. 

The second is The Analysis of the Ways of Attending to Mindfulness from the 7th section of the Vibhaṅga, which looks at Mindfulness from the point of view of the Discourses, the Abstract Teaching and the Questionnaire. 

The texts themselves have also been corrected and updated. 

I have now made a new ITM font, which is Unicode-compliant. See the Fonts & Downloads page for details. I have also updated the conversion script which now works much better than before. 

Bhikkhu Pesala, who first requested the pages be made available in Unicode, has also very kindly made an ITM_Verajja font, which has a much more extensive character set (991 glyphs as against 336 in ITM_TFY_UNI). If you are going to use Unicode then I strongly suggest you install one or other of these fonts. 

I have now included a script that allows the reader to view the website in Unicode. See the Fonts & Downloads page for details.