THE TRANSMISSION OF THE TEACHINGS
Traditional Buddhists maintain that the texts record the actual spoken words of Buddha accurately.
They explain that the Hindu oral tradition had perfected the memorising of texts, and this is true; once the texts had a form, they were, and are still, passed orally, accurately through generations.
The first texts, the Pali Cannon, was written down over 400 years after his death.
Buddha as a prince, had received an education, he probably spoke more than one language. It is believed that he spoke Magadhi. In Magadhi the word Pali literally means text.
Method of Memorising and Transmitting the Teaching
Undoubtably, some monks had an almost photographic memory for a few phrases, however it seems highly unlikely that a single person, would remember for example, one entire Sutra or sermon. Verbally talented autists are extremely rare even in post literate cultures.In all probability the texts took a period of time till they found a form. And in this time, they were developed and arranged, labelled, titled and sometimes numbered, so they could be easily remembered.
We have almost certainly some phrases which are Buddha's words – and then a mix from peoples memories of what they had understood.
It took a period of time before one person could remember a sutra with the same wordings every time. Once he could do this, he could teach it to others.
The clearest demonstration of the scriptures being tampered with is found in the Mahāsatipaṭṭhāna's Frist Noble Truth, especially the section on "the suffering of being disassociated with what one does like".
There are probably hundreds of Buddhist traditions outside the Pali Cannon. It is questionable to what extent monks were fluent in Buddha's native or spoken language, and other languages into which the sermons were transmitted. But in an oral tradition, translations were undoubtably more flexible than when written.
And, from Wikipedia. (Wikipedia keeps changing, references are from Feb 6th 2020, and Jan 30th 2023) en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pāli_Canon: Ananda and Upali recited the texts to a group of Arhats, 30yrs. (in 2020), and between 3 months and 80 yrs. (in 2023), after Buddhas death,
If modern scholars are correct (see infotip in 2023) in placing the first Buddhist council at 80 yrs. after Buddha's death, then the idea that Ananda and Upali, actual students of Buddha, recited these texts, would be pure wishful thinking.
The texts were committed to writing during the Fourth Buddhist Council in 29 BCE.
Early paper was fragile, would deteriorate, and texts needed rewriting. So that the earliest fragments of the Pali Cannon are in Chinese from 400 C.E. (A.D.) The Sri Lankan version is most complete from the 5th and 6th century C.E.
(India didn't have papyrus as in Egypt. Paper started being made around 100 BCE. in China.)
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