The Buddhist Pali canon known as the Tripitaka consists of which three parts?
- A.Vinaya, Sutta and Abhidhamma Pitakas
- B.Vinaya, Jataka and Abhidhamma Pitakas
- C.Sutta, Jataka and Anga Pitakas
- D.Anga, Upanga and Sutta Pitakas
Correct answer
Explanation
The correct answer is A, the Vinaya, Sutta and Abhidhamma Pitakas. Pitaka means basket, so the canon is called the three baskets. The Vinaya Pitaka contains the rules of discipline for monks and nuns, the Sutta Pitaka holds the discourses of the Buddha, and the Abhidhamma Pitaka deals with philosophy and the analysis of mind and matter.
Option B replaces the Sutta with the Jataka, which is the common error: the Jataka tales of the Buddha's earlier births are not a fourth basket but form part of the Sutta Pitaka. Option C mixes the Jataka with the Angas, and Option D uses Anga and Upanga, which are divisions of the Jain canon written in Prakrit, not of the Buddhist one. A further fact worth carrying is that the Milindapanho, the dialogue between the monk Nagasena and the Indo-Greek king Menander, is a Pali work outside the canon.
Read the full article: Classical Indian Literature: Books, Authors and Patrons
Practice Questions
View allThe Arthashastra, the ancient treatise on statecraft and administration, was written by whom?
- A.Vishakhadatta
- B.Kautilya
- C.Banabhatta
- D.Megasthenes
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The Arthashastra sets out the duties of a king, the working of ministers and spies, taxation, law, trade, agriculture and warfare, and it is one of the main sources for Mauryan administration.
Read the full explanation →Which of the following works was NOT written by Kalidasa?
- A.Meghaduta
- B.Raghuvamsha
- C.Mrichchhakatika
- D.Kumarasambhava
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That play, whose title means the little clay cart, was written by Shudraka, and it is unusual among Sanskrit dramas because its hero is an impoverished merchant and its plot turns on ordinary city life rather than on gods and kings.
Read the full explanation →Who was the author of Harshacharita and Kadambari?
- A.Banabhatta
- B.Bilhana
- C.Dandin
- D.Bhasa
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The Harshacharita is a biography of his patron and one of the earliest historical biographies written in Sanskrit, while Kadambari is a romance in ornate prose and is often described as one of the first novels in any Indian language.
Read the full explanation →Rajatarangini, a chronicle of the kings of Kashmir, was composed by whom?
- A.Somadeva
- B.Jayadeva
- C.Kalhana
- D.Kshemendra
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He wrote the Rajatarangini, whose name means the river of kings, in Kashmir in the twelfth century. Because he arranged rulers in order of time and used inscriptions, coins and earlier records, the work is treated as the earliest piece of history writing in India in the modern sense.
Read the full explanation →The Sanskrit grammar Ashtadhyayi was composed by whom?
- A.Patanjali
- B.Panini
- C.Amarasimha
- D.Bharata Muni
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The Ashtadhyayi, meaning the work in eight chapters, fixed the rules of Sanskrit in a set of short formulas and is admired as the earliest scientific grammar of any language, since it describes the whole language through a compact system of rules.
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