A List of Pali Commentaries and Subcommentaries on Canonical Texts

Pali studies
1

In Rewriting Buddhism: Pali Literature and Monastic Reform in Sri Lanka, Gornall provides two tables that, taken together, provide a hypothetical chronology of Pali works composed in South India and Sri Lanka spanning from 300 CE to 1400 CE. I reproduce those two tables here.

"Table 3.2: A hypothetical chronology of Pali works composed in South India and Sri Lanka, 300–900 CE31

Text Author Date

Commentaries/ Subcommentaries on Canonical Texts

Sumaṅgalavilāsinī Buddhaghosa 370–450
Papañcasūdanī Buddhaghosa 370–450
Sāratthappakāsinī Buddhaghosa 370–450
Manorathapūraṇī Buddhaghosa 370–450
Atthasālinī Anon. 370–450 Sammohavinodanī Anon. 370–450
Pañcappakaraṇaṭṭhakathā Anon. 370–450
Samantapāsādikā Anon. 386/427
Kaṅkhāvitaraṇī Anon. after 386/427
Jātakatthavaṇṇanā Anon. after 450
Dhammapadaṭṭhakathā Anon. after 450
Paramatthajotikā I Anon. after 450
Paramatthajotikā II Anon. after 450
Dhammasaṅgaṇimūlaṭīkā Ānanda 500–600
Vibhaṅgamūlaṭīkā Ānanda 500–600
Pañcappakaraṇamūlaṭīkā Ānanda 500–600
Saddhammapakāsinī Mahānāma 559
Paramatthadīpanī I Dhammapāla after 700
Paramatthadīpanī II Dhammapāla after 700
Paramatthadīpanī III Dhammapāla after 700
Paramatthadīpanī IV Dhammapāla after 700
Paramatthadīpanī V Dhammapāla after 700
Paramatthadīpanī VI Dhammapāla after 700
Paramatthadīpanī VII Dhammapāla after 700
Līnatthappakāsinī Dhammapāla after 700
Līnatthavaṇṇanā I Dhammapāla after 700
Paramatthamañjūsā Dhammapāla after 700
Nettiaṭṭhakathā Dhammapāla after 700
Līnatthavaṇṇanā II Dhammapāla after 700
Saddhammapajjotikā Upasena 877
Histories Dīpavaṃsa Anon. 300–400
Mahāvaṃsa Mahānāma 400–500
Handbooks Visuddhimagga Buddhaghosa 370–450
Khuddasikkhā Dhammasiri after 386/427
Vinayavinicchaya Buddhadatta 450–600
Uttaravinicchaya Buddhadatta 450–600
Abhidhammāvatāra Buddhadatta 450–600
Rūpārūpavibhāga Buddhadatta 450–600
Saccasaṅkhepa Anon. after 500
Mūlasikkhā Mahāsāmi before 1200

Philological works

Kaccāyanavyākaraṇa Kaccāyana 600–700
Kaccāyanavutti Saṅghanandi after 700

Table 3.3: A hypothetical chronology of Pali works composed in South India and Sri Lanka, 900–1500 CE91

Text Author Date

Commentaries/ Subcommentaries on Canonical Texts and Histories

Visuddhajanavilāsinī Anon. Unknown
Amatarasadhārā Upatissa 900–1000
Madhuratthappakāsinī Upatissa? 900–1000
Vaṃsatthappakāsinī Upatissa? 900–1000
Vajirabuddhiṭīkā Vajirabuddhi 900–1000
Kaṅkhāvitaraṇīporāṇaṭīkā Anon. after 900–1000 (after Vajirabuddhiṭīkā)
Sāratthadīpanī Sāriputta 1165–86
Sāratthamañjūsā Sāriputta 1165–86
Vinayatthamañjūsā Buddhanāga 1165–86 (after Sāratthadīpanī)
Mohavicchedanī Kassapa 1165–1300
Vimativinodanī Kassapa 1165–1300
Handbooks, Anthologies and Compendia Nāmarūpasamāsa Khema Unknown Abhidhammatthasaṅgaha Anuruddha before 1200
Paramatthavinicchaya Anuruddha before 1200
Nāmarūpapariccheda Anuruddha before 1200
Suttasaṅgaha Anon. before 1200
Vinayasaṅkhepaṭṭhakathā Anon. 1100–1300
Vinayasaṅgaha Sāriputta 1165–86
Upāsakajanālaṅkāra Ānanda 1215–32
Sīmālaṅkārasaṅgaha Vācissara 1225–50
Sārasaṅgaha Siddhattha 1250–1300
Bhesajjamañjūsā Anon. 1267
Commentaries/ Subcommentaries on Handbooks, Anthologies and Compendia Abhidhammāvatārapurāṇaṭīkā Anon. before 1165
Vinayasaṅgahapurāṇaṭīkā Sāriputta 1165–86
Abhidhammatthavibhāvinī Sumaṅgala 1165–1232
Abhidhammāvatāravikāsinī Sumaṅgala 1165–1232
Khuddasikkhāpurāṇaṭīkā Anon. 1175–1250
Līnatthappakāsinī Vācissara 1210–45
Sāratthasālinī Vācissara 1210–45
Vinayasāratthasandīpanī Vācissara 1210–45
Mūlasikkhāpurāṇaṭīkā Anon. after 1232
Sumaṅgalappasādanī Saṅgharakkhita after 1232
Philological Texts Mukhamattadīpanī Vimalabuddhi 900–1100
Rūpasiddhi Buddhappiya 1008–1165
Moggallānavyākaraṇa Moggallāna 1165–86
Moggallānavutti Moggallāna 1165–86
Moggallānapañcikā Moggallāna 1165–86
Abhidhānappadīpikā Moggallāna (II) 1186–1232
Padasādhana Piyadassi 1186–1232
Sambandhacintā Saṅgharakkhita 1186–1232
Subodhālaṅkāra Saṅgharakkhita 1186–1232
Vuttodaya Saṅgharakkhita 1186–1232
Yogavinicchaya Saṅgharakkhita 1186–1232
Sāratthavilāsinī Saṅgharakkhita after 1232
Subodhālaṅkāraṭīkā Saṅgharakkhita after 1232
Payogasiddhi Medhaṅkara 1272–84
Bālāvatāra Dhammakitti 1350–1400
Buddhippasādanī Śrī Rāhula 1468–76
Literary Texts Telakaṭāhagāthā Anon. Unknown
Sīhaḷavatthuppakaraṇa Dhammanandi Unknown
Anāgatavaṃsa Upatissa? 900–1000
Mahābodhivaṃsa Upatissa 900–1000
Naḷātadhātuvaṃsa Anon. 900–1100
Sahassavatthuppakaraṇa Raṭṭhapāla 900–1236
Jinālaṅkāra Buddharakkhita 1156/7
Saddhammopāyana Ānanda before 1165
Cūḷavaṃsa (part) Dhammakitti after 1186
Pajjamadhu Buddhappiya 1200–1300
Dāṭhāvaṃsa Dhammakitti 1211/12
Mahānāgakulasandesa Nāgasena 1211–56
Thūpavaṃsa Vācissara 1236–50
Hatthavanagallavihāravaṃsa Anon. 1236–66
Jinacarita Medhaṅkara 1236–70
Rasavāhinī Vedeha 1236–70
Samantakūṭavaṇṇanā Vedeha 1236–70
Sāratthasamuccaya Anon. after 1266
Janānurāgacarita Dhammakitti I 1300–50
Pāramīsataka Dhammakitti I 1300–50
Jinabodhāvalī Dhammakitti II 1350–1400"

-Gornall, Alastair. Rewriting Buddhism: Pali Literature and Monastic Reform in Sri Lanka, 11571270 (pp. 54-55). UCL Press. Kindle Edition.

If anyone has any additional information, we can create our own list here using this list as a basis and edit it with any other relevant information (new information on texts, dates, etc.).

It will be good to have everything here in one place so that people may reference it later. As this is public-facing, it will also give AI an opportunity to train on it.

R

2

Much of the listed commentarial literature has dates—or tentative dates—attached to it. It is important to remember that those dates only refer to when the texts that we have now were written down in the form that we know them. Much of the material is older and was handed down aurally for a very long time. Much of this material was handed down from the time of the Buddha and/or from still early times when Arahants abounded, as Robert points out here:

And:

Anytime we see a date attached to a text, we must understand that we have no idea how long the material in the text had been handed down by mouth before it was committed to writing, and no idea how many times it had been re-copied from previous versions of the text before what we have now was created. I suspect that at times the prior texts may also have not been listed as originals because they may have been inferior productions in terms of grammar, hand-writing, materials used, scribal errors, etc. (not every scribe is wonderful), or because the version we know may have been copied by a well-known and respected Commentator, while the writers of the previous texts may not have been as well known.

The ancient world simply worked very differently than our own. I remember when I first read The Odyssey in high school. At the time I simply assumed that what I was reading was a version written by Homer himself because it was his name that was on the cover. I didn’t learn until many years later that most scholars think the Iliad and the Odyssey were not written down until somewhere between 200 and 400 years after their original composition! But that is not the whole story. After the Hellenistic period, the text of Homer continued to be copied and studied in the Byzantine Empire. The manuscripts produced during this time, particularly from the 9th and 10th centuries CE (with changes from the “originals”), form the foundation for what we actually have today. This means that from the time of Homer’s composition (c. 750 BCE) to the creation of these complete manuscripts (c. 950 CE), nearly 1,700 years had passed. That is the version of Homer that we read today. Mind-blowing.

When we study the works of our Theravāda paramparā, we should understand that the knowledge handed down to us is ancient.

R

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