The Khuddaka NikÃÂya () is the last of the five NikÃÂyas, or collections, in the Sutta Piá¹Âaka, which is one of the "three baskets" that compose the PÃÂli Tipiá¹Âaka, the sacred scriptures of TherevÃÂda Buddhism. This nikÃÂya consists of a various number of books, depending on the recension: fifteen in Thailand, fifteen in Sri Lanka (following Buddhaghosa's list), or eighteen in Burma, covering a wide variety of topics. It is attributed to the Buddha and his chief disciples.
The word ' in the title means âÂÂsmallâ in PÃÂli and ' is âÂÂcollectionâÂÂ. The equivalent collection in the Chinese and Tibetan canons is the Ká¹£udraka ÃÂgama, but there is substantial variation among the collections.
Hirakawa Akira has stated that the Khuddaka NikÃÂya represents a stage in the development of the PÃÂli Canon/ÃÂgamas in which new material was not added any more to the rest of the Sutta Piá¹Âaka, but was added to a 'Khuddaka Piá¹Âaka' instead. This Khuddaka Piá¹Âaka was the repository for materials that were left out of the four ÃÂgamas/NikÃÂyas (the Dëgha NikÃÂya, Majjhima NikÃÂya, Saá¹Âyutta NikÃÂya and Aá¹ guttara NikÃÂya) and thus included both early and late texts. Some of the other schools that included a Khuddaka Piá¹Âaka in their canons were the Mahëà ÂÃÂsaka, Dharmaguptaka and MahÃÂsÃÂá¹Âghika. The Khuddaka NikÃÂya of the TheravÃÂda school is the only complete extant example of such a Khuddaka Piá¹Âaka. Some texts from the Dharmaguptaka Ká¹£udraka ÃÂgama are preserved in Chinese and Tibetan translation, and fragments of Gandhari versions have also been discovered.
On the dating of the various books in the Khuddaka NikÃÂya, Oliver Abeynayake notes that:
This nikÃÂya contains some or all of the following texts:
The introduction to the Sumaá¹ galavilÃÂsinë, the commentary on the Dëgha NikÃÂya compiled in the fourth or fifth century by Buddhaghosa on the basis of earlier commentaries that no longer survive, says that the reciters of the Dëgha listed 2-12 in this nikÃÂya, while the reciters of the Majjhima NikÃÂya listed 2-15. Later, it gives a listing of the contents of the Canon also found in the introductions to the commentaries on the Vinaya and Abhidhamma Piá¹Âakas, which gives 1-15 for this nikÃÂya, though it also includes an alternative classification in which the Vinaya and Abhidhamma are also included in this nikÃÂya, so that the five nikÃÂyas are a classification of the whole Canon, not just the Sutta Piá¹Âaka. Scholars conclude on the basis of these lists that 13-15 were added later, and 1 later still.
Both surviving subcommentaries on the passage about reciters explain the apparent difference between the reciters as being, not a substantive disagreement on the contents of the Canon, but merely a nominal one on its classification. Thus they say for example that the Dëgha reciters did regard 15 as canonical but counted it as part of 10 instead of a separate book. Similarly, the more recent subcommentary, compiled by the head of the Burmese SaṠgha about two centuries ago, says that 16 and 17 were counted as part of 11 and/or 12.
The full list of 18 books is included in the inscriptions approved by the Burmese Fifth Buddhist council and in the printed edition of the text recited at the Sixth Council.
The following translations include material from at least two books of the Khuddaka NikÃÂya. For translations of individual books, see the separate articles.