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Milindapañha Pāḷi is the last of the books which constitute Khuddaka Nikāya. It records the questions asked by King Milinda and the answers given by the Venerable Nāgasena some five hundred years after the parinibbāna of the Buddha. King Milinda was Yonaka (Graeco-Bactrian) ruler of Sāgala. He was very learned and highly skilled in the art of debating. The Venerable Nāgasena, a fully accomplished arahat, was on a visit to Sāgala, at the request of the Sangha.

King Milinda, who wanted to have some points on the Dhamma clarified, asked the Venerable Nāgasena complex questions concerning the nature of man, his survival after death and other doctrinal aspects of the Dhamma. The Venerable Nāgasena gave him satisfactory replies on each question asked. These erudite questions and answers on the teaching of the Buddha are compiled into the book known as the Milindapañha Pāḷi.
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The two small works, Netti, made up of seven chapters, and Peṭakopadesa, made up of eight chapters, are different from the other books of the Tipiṭaka because they are exegetical and methodological in nature. Read more..

This treatise contains thirty-five stories of the Buddha’s previous lives retold at the request of the Venerable Sāriputta. Whereas the Jātaka is concerned with the Buddha’s previous existences from the time of Sumedha, the hermit, till he became Gotama Buddha, Cariyā Piṭaka deals only with thirty-five of the existences of the bodhisatta in this last world cycle. The Venerable Sāriputta’s object in making the request is to highlight the indomitable will, the supreme effort, the peerless sacrifice with which the bodhisatta conducts himself in fulfillment of the ten pāramīs (virtues towards perfection).

The bodhisatta has, throughout innumerable ages, fulfilled the ten pāramīs for a countless number of times. Cariyā Piṭaka records such performances in thirty-five existences, selecting seven out of the ten pāramīs, and recounts how each pāramī is accomplished in each of these existences. Ten stories in the first vagga are concerned with the with accumulation of virtues in alms-giving, the second vagga has ten stories on the practice of morality and the last vagga mentions fifteen stories, five of them dealing with renunciation, one with firm determination, six with truthfulness, two with loving-kindness and one with equanimity.
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