The Madhyama Āgama (Chinese: 中阿含經; pinyin: Zhong Ahan Jing[1]) is an early Indian Buddhist text, of which currently only a Chinese translation is extant (Taishō Tripiṭaka 26).[1] The title means "Middle Collection."[2] It is one of the four Āgamas of the Sanskritic Sūtra Piṭaka located in the Chinese Buddhist Canon and contains 222 discourses in 18 chapters.[3] Its Pali equivalent, the Majjhima Nikaya, contains 152 discourses in 15 chapters.[3]
Origins and history
The earliest Chinese translation of the agama dates to 397–398 C.E.[3] P.V. Bapat believes the original source for the Chinese translation was in a form of Prakrit, closer to Pali than Sanskrit.[4] The text is believed to be from the Sarvāstivāda tradition.[3][5]
Parallels in Pali Canon
There are numerous parallels between the discourses in the Madhyama Āgama and discourses in the Sutta Piṭaka.[6]
...of the two hundred and twenty-two sutras of T. 26, only one hundred and three have their counterpart in the Majjhimanikāya; fourteen have their counterpart in the Dīghanikāya, seventeen in the Saṃyuttanikāya, and eighty-seven in the Aṅguttaranikāya. Fourteen of the two hundred and twenty-two sutras of T. 26 have no known parallel in the Pāli corpus.[6]
English translations
Translation of the Madhyama Āgama into English began in 2006 with Marcus Bingenheimer as chief editor and Bhikkhu Analayo and Rodney S. Bucknell as co-editors.[7] The first of three volumes was published in 2013.[8]
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