The Petakopadesa () is a Buddhist scripture, sometimes included in the Khuddaka Nikaya of the Pali Canon of Theravada Buddhism.
The nature of this book is a matter of some disagreement among scholars. The translator, supported by Professor George Bond of Northwestern University, holds it is a guide to those who understand the teaching in presenting it to others. However, A. K. Warder, Professor Emeritus of Sanskrit in the University of Toronto, maintains that it covers all aspects of interpretation, not just that.
The text is often connected to another para-canonical text, the Nettipakaraá¹Âa. Oskar von Hinüber suggests that both of these texts originated from outside the Theravada tradition as handbooks on the interpretation of the sutras.
According to the chapter colophons, the book was composed by the Buddha's disciple Kaccana (or Kaccayana). Scholars do not take this literally, though the translator mentions that the methods may go back to him.
Warder, in his examination of the Paá¹ÂisambhidÃÂmagga Gaá¹Âá¹Âhipada in the Introduction to the Path of Discrimination, notes: âÂÂThe Gaá¹Âá¹Âhipada (p. 106), however, provides the positive information that this Peá¹Âaka is a book of the Mahiá¹ÂsÃÂsakas, an aá¹Âá¹Âhakathà("commentary") made for the purpose of the Suttantapiá¹Âaka. This implies that it was a work similar to the Peá¹Âakopadesa ⦠Thus both schools had a recension of this work, but differing in such details as this. â¦âÂÂ. The passage in the Gaá¹Âá¹Âhipada is Suttante piá¹ÂakatthÃÂya kataá¹Âá¹Âhakathàpeá¹Âakaá¹ mahiá¹ÂsakÃÂnaá¹ gantho.
This book was regarded as canonical by the head of the Burmese sangha about two centuries ago. It is included in the inscriptions of the Canon approved by the Burmese Fifth Council and in the printed edition of the Sixth Council text.
Stefano Zacchetti revealed that in the Chinese Canon there is a text called Yin chi rujing, translated in the 3d century, which corresponds to most of the sixth chapter of the Pali Peá¹Âakopadesa. Then there is another Chinese text, the Da zhidu lun, which mentions the Peá¹Âaka as a text circulating in South India (presumably KÃÂñcipura and Sri Lanka) and that it is an abridged version of an originally larger text. It describes a few of the methods of the Peá¹Âaka and gives examples which roughly correspond to passages in the Peá¹Âaka. Thus it appears that the Peá¹Âakopadesa was circulating in different schools and in different versions.
There are 8 sections as follows:
However, the translator says this last title is a mistake for "moulding of the guidelines", the title given at the end.
Pitaka-Disclosure, tr. Nanamoli Bhikkhu, 1964, Pali Text Societyhttp://www.palitext.com, Bristol