Udana Varga
The Udānavarga is an early Buddhist collection of topically organized chapters (Sanskrit: varga) of aphoristic verses or "utterances" (Sanskrit: udāna) attributed to the Buddha and his disciples. While not part of the Pali Canon, the Udānavarga has many chapter titles, verses and an overall format similar to those found in the Pali Canon's Dhammapada and Udāna. At this time, there exist one Sanskrit recension, two Chinese recensions and two or three Tibetan recensions of the Udānavarga.
The Udānavarga has around 1100 verses in 33 chapters. The chapter titles are:
Anityavarga
Kāmavarga
Tṛṣṇāvarga
Apramādavarga
Priyavarga
Śīlavarga
Sucaritavarga
Vācavarga
Karmavarga
Śraddhāvargas
Śramaṇavarga
Mārgavarga
Satkāravarga
Drohavarga
Smṛtivarga
Prakirṇakavarga
Udakavarga
Puṣpavarga
Aśvavarga
Krodhavarga
Tathāgatavarga
Śrutavarga
Ātmavarga
Peyālavarga
Mitravarga
Nirvāṇavarga
Paśyavarga
Pāpavarga
Yugavarga
Sukhavarga
Cittavarga
Bhikṣuvarga
Brāhmaṇavarga
Comparatively, the most common version of the Dhammapada, in Pali, has 423 verses in 26 chapters. Comparing the Udānavarga, Pali Dhammapada and the Gandhari Dharmapada, Brough (2001) identifies that the texts have in common 330 to 340 verses, 16 chapter headings and an underlying structure.
History
The Udānavarga is attributed by Brough to the Sarvāstivādins.
Hinuber suggests that a text similar to the Pali Canon's Udāna formed the original core of the Sanskrit Udānavarga, to which verses from the Dhammapada were added.[6] Brough allows for the hypothesis that the Udānavarga, the Pali Dhammapada and the Gandhari Dharmapada all have a "common ancestor" but underlines that there is no evidence that any one of these three texts might have been the "primitive Dharmapada" from which the other two evolved.
The Tibetan Buddhist and Chinese Buddhist canons' recensions are traditionally said to have been compiled by Dharmatrāta.
