The Dhammapada Commentary is one of the best known Pali Commentaries written on the stanzas of the Dhammapada, a Buddhist canonical text which for its popularity and sacredness is often called the Gita of the Buddhists and has been enlisted as a representative Buddhist text of UNESCO collection. The Dhammapada Commentary (in Pali, Dhammapad-Attha-Katha) is ascribed to Buddhaghosa, the greatest of all the Buddhist scholastics. The commentary purports to tell us “where, when, why, for what purpose, with reference to what situation, with reference to what person or persons†Buddha uttered each one of these stanzas. In doing so, the author of the Commentary narrates 299 legends or stories. These stories are the prepondering element of the Commentary, and it is these which are here translated. Further, it may be added that this present commentary is typical of the Pali commentaries, which allows the free and natural growth of the stories unlike its Vedic or Sanskrit counterparts, where the growth of the stories are ‘subordinated’ by over emphasis on interpretations and explanations of a term at the cost of readability for a common man and woman.
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