Dhammasattha literature

Dear Members,

I'd like to welcome Dietrich Christian Lammerts as a new member to our
group. He is a doctoral student in the Asian Religions and Southeast
Asia Program, Cornell University and is currently in Burma until next
summer to work on Pali and Burmese dhammasattha manuscripts. This is
the first time I've heard of this kind of literature for Pali and
there doesn't seem to be a category for it in the CPD bibliography.

I asked him the following question and he has given me permission to
quote his answer.

Jim:
> I don't think I've seen the term 'dhammasattha' (Skt.
> dharma"saastra -- jurisprudence?) before. Does this relate to the
> Pali Niiti texts of Burma?

Christian:
<< "Dhammasattha" doesn't appear in canonical Pali. It is restricted
to medieval and later Mon and Burmese contexts. In Tai areas and
Cambodia there is a similar -- but much smaller -- genre of texts
whose name derives from Skt. "zAstra", though of course you are right
that "sattha" is the Pali derivation. Dhammasatthas (dhammathat, in
Burmese) are legal texts related to the Skt. dharmazAstras, although
they are written in Pali, vernacular, or nissaya, and the content is
quite different and deeply influenced by the Pali literature. The
genre is at least as old as the 13th century, and there are well over
100 extant texts in manuscript. I am currently compiling a catalog of
the manuscripts in collections in Burma, and editing and translating
an early text, the Dhammavilaasa (about 1/3 of which is nissaya).
Dhammasattha are quite different from niiti texts in that they are a
specialist literature, whereas niitis are gnomic and have a general
appeal (indeed niitis comprised basic texts for elementary Pali
education). But both genres have a lot to do with "secular ethics",
and in that sense are related. <end of quote>

There is a chapter on Dharma"saastra literature in Winternitz's
History of Indian Literature. This branch of knowledge is closely
associated with Kalpa (the literature of rituals), one of the six
Vedangas.

Best wishes,
Jim

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