Dhammasattha

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Dhammasattha is the Pāli name of a genre of Buddhist legal literature found in Western Mainland Southeast Asia (modern Laos, Myanmar (Burma), and Thailand) principally written in Pāli, Myanmar (Burmese), Mon, or Tai languages, or in a bilingual Pāli-vernacular nissaya style.

"Sattha" is the Pāli cognate of the Sanskrit term for knowledge or treatise, "śāstra". Dhamma-sattha translates as "treatise on the law (dhamma)". The vernacular Myanmar (Burmese) term, transliterated as "dhammasāt" or "dhammasat" (pronounced in modern Myanmar (Burmese) as "dhammathat"), is historically derived from Sanskrit via Pāli. The Tai and Mon terms, typically romanized as "thammasāt" or "dhammasāt", respectively, also derive from Sanskrit.

Dhammasattha texts have their origins in the Brahmanical dharmaśāstra literature, although they are very significantly influenced by the local Pāli Buddhist traditions and literature of Theravāda Southeast Asia.

"Dhammasāt" is first mentioned in a Burmese inscription from 13th century C.E. Bagan (Pagan), Myanmar (Burma), although it is likely that dhammasattha texts were transmitted throughout parts of Southeast Asia earlier. Certain dhammasatthas claim to have been written during the first millennium C.E.

There is an extensive tradition of dhammasattha exegesis, particularly in Myanmar (Burma). Hundreds of dhammasattha, commentaries, and related legal texts are extant in palm-leaf and paper manuscript form.