Agganna Sutta: The Discourse on What is Primary (An Annotated Translation from Pali)

Agganna Sutta, part of Digha Nikaya, is one of the early texts of Buddhism. It has seen a couple of English translations, if not more, since the 19th century. It was even referred to as the Buddhist ‘Book of Genesis’. Each translation presents the original text in different shade. The present translation by Steven Collins focuses its attention on the hidden realities of the text. He is also quite sensitive to the sheer poetic energy of the text; he has managed to capture the beauty of the cosmic imagery of the original without resorting to the easily available ‘poetic’ mode of translation. This text can be read as one of the important achievements of ancient Indian literature, where the binary opposition between literature and philosophical narrative collapses.