The Library / Ṭīkā / PATH OF PURIFICATION

Paramatthamañjūsā

PATH OF PURIFICATION · Visuddhimagga · volume 1 of 2

The Paramatthamañjūsā, the great subcommentary on the Visuddhimagga — the first of its two volumes.

The Visuddhimagga is the manual the four Nikāya commentaries refuse to repeat themselves against. This is the book that explains it line by line.

Every date attached to Dhammapāla is a bracket, not a year. He quotes Bhartṛhari's Vākyapadīya, and Bhartṛhari can perhaps be placed at 450–510 CE, which puts Dhammapāla after 500 CE and younger than Buddhaghosa. The upper end is far weaker: no reliable limit has been found, and the first firm date is that Sāriputta was reading him in the 1100s. Hinüber says the date “remains uncertain”, and notes that the tradition makes him Ānanda's pupil while marking that link “perhaps” at its first mention (Hinüber 1996, p. 166, §356, and p. 169, §§365–366).

The subcommentary on the Visuddhimagga. The colophon of the second part names the author outright: Badaratitthavihāravāsinā ācariyadhammapālena katā Paramatthamañjūsā nāma visuddhimaggamahāṭīkā samattā. Gandhavaṃsa likewise credits Dhammapāla with a ṭīkā on the Visuddhimagga (Hinüber 1996, p. 168; Norman 1983, p. 133).

How it ends

Samādhiniddesavaṇṇanā niṭṭhitā.

Iti ekādasamaparicchedavaṇṇanā.

Paṭhamo bhāgo niṭṭhito.

SourcesHinüber 1996, pp. 166, 169, §§356, 365–366.

Layer: Ṭīkā — sub-commentary
Collection: PATH OF PURIFICATION · volume 1 of 2
On: Visuddhimagga
Written by: DhammapālaHinüber 1996 / Norman 1983
When: after 500 CE, and before 1100 CEHinüber 1996, p. 169 §365
Pali text: Chaṭṭha Saṅgāyana (CST4)
English: Complete in draft, not yet reviewed · 1,613 paragraphs over 41 pages