Theragāthā and the Therīgāthā
The Theragāthā and the Therīgāthā are two books in the Khuddaka Nikāya, the fifth part of the Sutta Piṭaka, the second division of the Tipiṭaka, the sacred scriptures of Buddhism. Thera is a title given to someone who has been a monk for more than ten years and means ‘elder.’ The equivalent title for a nun is therī. The word gāthā means ‘a verse.’ Both of these works contain poems composed by the Buddha’s disciples. There are 263 poems in the Theragāthā and 73 in the Therīgāthā, many of considerable literary merit. Some celebrate the joy of enlightenment, others the beauty of the forest and yet others praise the compassion of the Buddha. The Therīgāthā contains the earliest corpus of poetry from India composed by women.
Elders Verses, trans. by K.R. Norman, Vol. I, 1990; Vol. II, 1991.
