THE DhammaPada is one of the fifteen important treatises that comprise
the Khuddaka Nikăya, the fifth Smaller Collection of the Sutta Pitaka,
the Basket of Discourses.
The DhammaPada consists of 423 melodious Păli verses, uttered by the
Buddha on about 300 occasions, to suit the temperaments of the listeners
in the course of his preaching tours during his ministry of forty-five
years. Circumstances that leed to these noble utterances are presented
in the form of short or long stories, together with traditional
interpretations of the Păli verses and technical terms, in the
voluminous commentary written by Buddhaghosa.
