sutra

sutra, in Hinduism, a brief aphoristic composition; in Buddhism, a more extended exposition, the basic form of the scriptures of both the Theravada (Way of Elders) and Mahayana (Greater Vehicle) traditions. The early Indian philosophers did not work with written texts and later often disdained the use of them; thus, there was a need for explanatory works of the utmost brevity that could be committed to memory. The earliest sutras were expositions of ritual procedures, but their use spread. The grammatical sutras by the Sanskrit grammatician Panini (6th–5th century bce) became in many respects a model for later compositions. All the systems of Indian philosophy (except the Samkhya, which had its karikas, or doctrinal verses) had their own sutras, most of which were preserved in writing early in the Common Era.

Different from its usages in Hindu literature, the Buddhist sutra (Pali: sutta) denotes a doctrinal work, sometimes of considerable length, in which a particular point of doctrine is propounded and deliberated. The most important collection of the Theravada sutras is to be found in the Sutta Pitaka section of the Pali canon (Tipitaka, or “Triple Basket”), which contains the discourses attributed to the historical Buddha. In Mahayana Buddhism the name sutra is applied to expository texts.