The Dhammapada

About this book

The Dhammapada (Pali; Dhamapada; Sanskrit Dharmapada) is a versified Buddhist scripture traditionally ascribed to the Buddha himself. It is one of the best-known texts from the Theravada canon. The title Dhammapada is a compound term composed of dhamma and pada each word having a number of denotations and connotations. Generally dhamma can refer to the Buddhas "doctrine" or an "eternal truth" or "righteousness" or all "phenomena"; and at its root pada means "foot" and thus by extension especially in this context means either "path" or "verse" (cf. "foot (prosody)") or both. English translations of this texts title have used various combinations of these and related words.