Paracanonical Texts (Theravada Buddhism)

Paracanonical Texts (Theravada Buddhism)

The term "paracanonical texts" is used by Western scholars to refer to various texts on the fringes of the Pali Canon of Theravada Buddhism (cf. Apocrypha), most often to refer to the following texts sometimes regarded as included in the Pali Canon's Khuddaka Nikaya:

• Suttasamgaha (abbrev. "Suttas"; "Sutta Compendium")
• Nettipakarana (abbrev. "Nett"; "Book of Guidance")
• Petakopadesa (abbrev. "Peṭ"; "Instruction on the Tipitaka")
• Milindapañha (abbrev. "Mil"; "Questions of Milinda")

The Suttasamgaha includes selected texts primarily from the Pali Canon. The Nettipakarana and the Petakopadesa are introductions to the teachings of Buddhism; these books present methods of interpretation that lead to the knowledge of the good law (saddhamma). Milindapañhā, written in the style of the Pali suttas, contains a dialogue between the Indo-Greek king Menander (in Pāli, Milinda) and the Thera Nāgasena, which throws a flood of light on certain important points of Buddhism.

The term is also sometimes applied to the Patimokkha, which is not in the Canon as such, though a commentary on it is, in which much of the text is embedded.

Other terms with similar meanings include "semi-canonical" and "quasi-canonical".