ATTHAKATHA

(Pali: explanation), commentaries on the Pali Buddhist canon that provide much information on the society, culture, and religious history of ancient India and Ceylon (Sri Lanka). The earliest commentaries, written in Pali, may have reached Ceylon along with the canon itself by the 3rd century BC. Between then and the 1st century AD they were translated into Sinhalese, and others were written in that language. In the 5th century the greatest commentator, Buddhaghosa, produced a reworking in Pali of much of the earlier material plus Dravidian commentaries and Sinhalese traditions. Within a century or two, others, notably Dhammapala, produced similar works on parts of the canon that Buddhaghosa had not covered. The earlier atthakatha have not survived, but the works of Buddhaghosa and his successors are mines of information on the development of life and thought in the Theravada Buddhist community and provide much secular and legendary material as well. Doctrinally orthodox and stylistically elegant, they offer section-by-section philological and exegetical commentary, a critical comparison of various authorities, and lucid narrative. These commentaries were themselves the subject of later commentaries known as tika (commentary), and these in turn by others called anutika (further commentary). The earlier atthakatha also served as sources for the epic chronicles of Ceylon, the Dipavamsa (History of the Island) and Mahavamsa (Great History).