A portable anthology of the Buddha's teachings in memorable verse, pairing moral counsel with a discipline of mind. It broadens the collection from courtly and scribal instruction to South Asian wisdom intended for repeated reflection.
Sources for Buddhism — The Dhammapada
Buddhism — The Dhammapada in Wisdom Literature
Held in the Wisdom Literature chamber of the Babel Nexus Index.
- Maxims of Ptahhotep (Egyptian) (−2400)
- The Instructions of Shuruppak (Sumerian) (−2600)
- Instructions of Amenemhat (Egyptian) (−1900)
- Disputations or Literary Debates (Sumerian) (−2000)
- The Poem of the Righteous Sufferer (Ludlul bēl nēmeqi, Babylonian) (−1300)
- The Story of Aḥikar (Aramaic) (−500)
- Counsels of Wisdom (Babylonian) (−1000)
- Dialogue of Pessimism (Babylonian — "Nothing Is Of Value") (−1000)
- Instructions of Šūpê-amēli (Akkadian) (−1100)
- Instructions of Kagemni (Egyptian) (−2300)
- Nig-Nam Nu-Kal — "Nothing is of Value" (Sumerian) (−2000)
- Maxims of Ali ibn Abi Talib (c. 660)
- The Book of Proverbs — King James Version (1611)
- Ecclesiastes — King James Version (1611)
- Bhartrihari — The Śatakas of Bhartrihari (1886)
- Sa'di — The Gulistan; or, Rose Garden (1852)
- Sa'di — The Bustan of Sa'di (1911)
- Seneca — Moral Epistles to Lucilius, Volume I (1917)