It has been suggested elsewhere ¹ that the book may be a kind of handbook for novices, though it seems to the present writer that it would be more correctly described as a handbook for candidates who are waiting to become novices. As can be seen, it begins with the Saraṇagamanaṃ and the Dasasikkhāpadaṃ, which are undertaken at the time of ordination. This is followed by the reflection on the 32 parts of the body, which is a meditation traditionally given to those who ordain as their first `place of work' (kammaṭṭhāna) at the time they are having their heads shorn just prior to ordination. The Kumārapañhaṃ, is represented in the commentary as being one particular boy's ordination, and it may have been used as a kind of basic questionaire, to make sure that candidates had at least some idea of the central tenets of the doctrine. This is followed by a group of 5 popular (mainly) verse suttas that are commonly used in recital, that would have to be memorised by novices.

It seems likely then that the texts gathered here would possibly, at the time of making the collection, have been learnt by heart by everyone who aspired to be ordained into the order. We may mention here that a similar requirement was at one time laid down by the Sinhalese king Kassapa V² when he ordered that all those who take upasampadā, or higher ordination, must first have memorised the Catubhāṇavārapāli, a collection of texts used in recital at Parittaṃ ceremonies to this day. It will be noted that that collection reproduces most of the texts in Khp, and indeed the latter looks very much like a smaller version of the larger collection.

A new edition of the text is not hard to justify. Childer's first edition of the text in Roman script was originally published in 1869,³ when the scholarly study of the language and the metre in the West was still in its infancy. This was reproduced verbatim by Helmer Smith in his 1915 edition of the text & commentary (PTS), to which he adds as an appendix the readings found in the King of Siam's edition. Since that time we have had the Burmese Chaṭṭha Sangāyana edition of 1955, and the Sinhalese Buddha Jayanti edition of 1960, which give us many new readings to compare. Here is a list of the authorities consulted in preparing this new edition along with the abbreviations that are used in the variant readings:

As I have stated elsewhere ⁴ it seems possible to identify three phases of canonical Pāli verse composition, which for convenience we may designate the early, the middle, and the late. ⁵ Briefly, the early period concerns the two main metres used in Pāli, the Vatta and the Tuṭṭhubha. The Vatta in the early period is characterised by the regular inclusion of the Anuṭṭhubha variation in the prior lines. In the middle and late periods this occurs only sporadically (and can nearly always be `corrected' to the pathyā, or normal cadence, which makes one believe that the current readings may simply be corruptions). In the late period the pathyā predominates over the other variations to a marked degree, sometimes reaching as much as 85% ⁶.

The Tuṭṭhubha in the early period is normally used as an independent metre, without admixture of Jagatī lines, which occur only very occasionally. ⁷ In the middle period mixing is not only common, but normal. In the later period, the Tuṭṭhubha becomes restricted to the classical Upajāti form, and Jagatī to Vaṃsaṭṭhā.

The middle period also saw the emergence of the so-called new metres, the mattāchandas and gaṇacchandas. In Mettasuttaṃ, which appears as the last of the texts in this collection, we are dealing with what is probably a transitional metre between these two, the Old Gīti. ⁸ The structure of the metre is rather primitive and unsettled, as will be seen from the description that follows. Towards the close of the later period both of these type of metres were superceded by their classical, fixed, counterparts.

On the basis of this description we can fairly confidently ⁹ ascribe the Managlasuttaṃ, Ratanasuttaṃ, and Mettasuttaṃ to the middle period; while the Tirokuḍḍasuttaṃ and the Nidhikaṇḍasuttaṃ belong to the late period.

Sarabhatti (partial vowels which do not count metrically) are represented by the sarabhatti vowel being written in superscript e.g. from Mangalasuttaṃ (10a): Tapo ca brahma-carⁱyañ~ca.

1 = short syllable; 2 = long syllable; 3 = short or long; 4 = 2 shorts or one long; 5 = 2 shorts or one long or one short.

                11212|1221 || 2121|1212            pathyā
Paṭisambhidā, vimokkhā ca, — yā ca sāvaka-pāramī,

As in the above example the variation (where appropriate) has been identified and indicated. ¹⁰

The normal opening is 3212, but occasionally we find 3222

The normal break is the bha-gaṇa 211 , but others also occur e.g. 212, 111, etc.

Resolution occasionally produces different patterns e.g. 22 > 112

Replacement sometimes produces different patterns e.g. 121 > 22

Note that 211 is not normally found in any gaṇa.

The Burmese edition of the text presents many problems for the would be editor, as there appears to have been an over correcting of the metre in the texts in an attempt to make them conform to classical standards. In Ratanasuttaṃ, for example, there are a number of readings in the Burmese edition that produce the classical bha-gaṇa break 211, but there is no reason to believe that the sutta was written to that standard. ¹²

The most drastic changes are made in Mettasuttaṃ, where there has been alteration of word form, rearrangement of text, and what amounts to rewriting as well. ¹³ A number of the lines that have been `corrected' actually scan as Vatta lines as they presently stand, and as Vatta lines seem to have been considered acceptable in gaṇacchandas verses it is questionable whether the lines ever needed correcting at all. It appears that many of the readings introduced into this text were not being read by the commentator, lack confirmation in other traditions, and are not found in the early Burmese manuscript tradition either.  

1 Abeynayake: A Textual and Historical Analysis of the Khuddaka Nikāya, (Colombo 1984), pg 115. See also Rhys Davids, Buddhism, Its History and Literature, pgs 67-8; and Winternitz, A History of Indian Literature, ii. pg 78. (Refs from Abeyenayake).

2 See Malalasekera, The Pāli Literature of Ceylon, (Republished Kandy 1994).

3 J.R.A.S., N.S. vol iv., 309-324 (ref from the PTS edition, as the original is not available to me).

4 See my Pāḷi Prosody on the same Website.

5 It may be stated here that although canonical Pāḷi metrical composition stretches over a period of several centuries, it seems that the first two periods described below have to fall within the lifetime of the Buddha.

6 See Warder, Pāli Metre (London 1967)( = PM) pg 198

7 In AṭṭhakaVagga of SuttaNipāta, for instance, there are only 4 Jagatī lines among 99 vs of Tuṭṭhubha (there is also one Jagatī verse, no 836 in the PTS edition). In PārāyanaVagga, the Jagatī lines amount to approx 7% of the lines in the Tuṭṭhubha verses.

8 This is the metre referred to by Alsdorf in his monograph Die Āryā-Strophen des Pali-Kanon (Mainz 1967) as Old Āryā. Norman in Group of Discourses II (Oxford 1992)(= GD II) also used this name, but later in his essay on The Origins of the Āryā Metre in Collected Papers Vol 4 (Oxford 1993)(= CP), preferred the name Old Gīti. The latter seems in every way preferable, as the structure of the metre is in fact a primitive form of Gīti, which has the same pādayuga structure repeated to make up a verse, whereas Āryā has two different pādayugas to the verse.

9 It may be stated here that these periods are by no means hard and fast, but run over into each other as we might expect from an evolving culture.

10 I have been greatly helped in compiling the notes that accompany this edition by Helmer Smith's metrical analysis of the 3 suttas that also appear in Sutta Nipāta (in Paramatthajotikā Vol III, 1918, reprinted Oxford 1997); and for the same suttas by K R Norman's comprehensive notes in GD II.

11 This description is based on Norman, The Origins of the Āryā Metre in CP Vol 4

12 The Thai edition also has to be treated with caution. To give one example: not understanding the matter of sarabhatti vowels a reading is introduced into Ratanasuttaṃ at 9a, against all other editions: Ye 'rīya saccāni vibhāvayanti. When we take the sarabhatti vowel into account however, and read arⁱya (21), we can see that there was no need for the change in reading (for a discussion of sarabhatti (svarabhakti) see Warder PM pg 29ff

13 For alteration of word form, see e.g. 3a; rearrangement of text, 4c; rewriting, vss 9 & 10. Unfortunately, even after much handiwork occasionally the text is still left wrong, see the note to 10ab.