The Dhammapada is a collection of the Buddha's Verses uttered on Various occasions in the course of his preaching tour during his ministry of fourty-five years to suit the temperaments of his listeners.
It is one of the fifteen sections that comprise the Khuddaka Nikaya,the fifth Smaller Collection of the Suttapitaka. The present text of the Dhammapada contains four hundred and twenty-three verses divided into twenty-six vagga of chapters. It has a voluminous commentary called the Dhammapadatthakatha written by Acarya Buddhaghosa in the tenth Buddhist century. The Dhammapada has been translated often into English and is recommended to Buddhists as a brief and inspiring summary of the Buddha's teaching. It Thailand the verses are studied in the context of their commentary which gives the background for better understanding.