Nikāya
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Nikāya is a word of meaning 'collection,' 'assemblage,' 'class' or 'group' in both Pali and Sanskrit.[1] It is most commonly used in English in reference to Buddhist texts but also refers to Theravada monastic divisions.
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[edit] Text collections
In the Theravada canon (in particular, the "Discourse Basket" or Sutta Pitaka) the meaning of nikaya is roughly equivalent to the English "collection", and is used to describe groupings of discourses according to theme, length, or other categories. For example, the Sutta Pitaka is broken up into five nikayas:
- the Digha Nikaya, the collection of long (Pali: digha) discourses
- the Majjhima Nikaya, the collection of middle-length (majjhima) discourses
- the Samyutta Nikaya, the collection of thematically linked (samyutta) discourses
- the Anguttara Nikaya, the "gradual collection" (discourses grouped by content enumerations)
- the Khuddaka Nikaya, the "minor collection"
The non-Theravada equivalent is āgama, and thus the Sutta Pitaka of the Pali Canon is sometimes referred to as "the Agamas" by Mahayana Buddhists, or as "the Nikayas" in the company of Theravada Buddhists.
[edit] Monastic divisions
Among the Theravada nations of Southeast Asia and Sri Lanka, nikaya is also used as the term for a monastic division or lineage; these groupings are also sometimes called 'monastic fraternities' or 'frateries'. Nikayas may emerge among monastic groupings as a result of royal or government patronage (such as the Dhammayuttika Nikaya of Thailand, due to the national origin of their ordination lineage (the Siyam Nikaya of Sri Lanka), because of differences in the interpretation of the monastic code, or due to other factors (such as the Amarapura Nikaya in Sri Lanka, which emerged as a reaction to caste restrictions within the Siyam Nikaya). These divisions do not rise to the level of forming separate sects within the Theravada tradition, because they do not typically follow different doctrines or monastic codes, nor do these divisions extend to the laity.
[edit] See also
[edit] Notes
- ^ Rhys Davids & Stede (1921-25), p. 352, entry for "Nikāya" at http://dsal.uchicago.edu/cgi-bin/philologic/getobject.pl?c.2:1:6.pali (retrieved 2007-11-06).
[edit] Bibliography
- Rhys Davids, T.W. & William Stede (eds.) (1921-5). The Pali Text Society’s Pali–English Dictionary. Chipstead: Pali Text Society. A general on-line search engine for the PED is available at http://dsal.uchicago.edu/dictionaries/pali/.
