Sutra (Skt.; Pali: sutta) means thread. A sutra is a Buddhist scripture that records a discourse of the Buddha. Buddhist canons preserve these discourses in Pali, Sanskrit, Chinese, Tibetan, Gandhari, and other languages.
Tradition holds that the Buddha’s disciple, Ananda, memorized his teachings and recited them at the first council. For this reason, most sutras open with the phrase “thus have I heard.” This formula frames the text as remembered teachings, and monastic communities transmitted sutras orally for centuries before scribes wrote them down. Sutras teach through dialogues, narrative, and descriptive settings, and they are a central part of every Buddhist canon.
The Sutra Pitaka (Skt.; Pali: Sutta Pitaka), or “basket of discourses,” is one of the canon’s three divisions and collects these texts. The Vinaya Pitaka and Abhidharma Pitaka make up the other two.
Pali suttas have a spare, repetitive style and describe scenes from the Buddha’s life. Mahayana sutras appeared centuries later in Sanskrit. They retain these settings but add cosmic assemblies of deities and buddhas from other worlds. They explain doctrines such as emptiness and the bodhisattva path.