Indian Literature: Vedic, Buddhist, Jain and Sangam texts

The Milindapanha records a debate between Milinda, identified with the Indo- Greek king Menander (2nd century BCE, capital Sagala, modern Sialkot), and the monk Nagasena. Using analogies such as the chariot, Nagasena explains anatta (no permanent self), rebirth and karma; tradition says the king became a follower of the Buddha. It is a key example of Greek–Indian intellectual contact.

The Therigatha ('Verses of the Elder Nuns') gathers poems attributed to early bhikkhunis such as Mahapajapati Gotami, Patacara and Ambapali, who describe their lives, sorrows and liberation. It is one of the earliest known anthologies of women's religious poetry anywhere. Its companion, the Theragatha, holds the verses of the elder monks.

The Khuddaka Nikaya ('minor collection') is the fifth Nikaya of the Sutta Pitaka and includes the Dhammapada, the Suttanipata, the Udana, the Itivuttaka, the Jatakas and the Thera- and Therigatha. The Lalitavistara, a richly embellished life of the Buddha up to the first sermon, is a Sanskrit text of the Sarvastivada-Mahayana tradition and is not part of the Pali canon; it inspired the Borobudur reliefs.

After earlier recensions at Pataliputra and Mathura, the Shvetambara Agamas were fixed in writing at the Valabhi council (Gujarat) presided over by Devarddhi Kshamashramana in the fifth century CE. The Digambaras hold that the original canon (the Purvas and Angas) was lost, so they do not accept the Shvetambara Agamas; they treat texts such as the Shatkhandagama as their scripture. The Kalpasutra, with the life of Mahavira, is read aloud during Paryushana.

The Tipitaka ('three baskets') has the Vinaya Pitaka (monastic discipline, with the Patimokkha rules and the stories behind them), the Sutta Pitaka (discourses, in five Nikayas: Digha, Majjhima, Samyutta, Anguttara and Khuddaka) and the Abhidhamma Pitaka (systematic analysis of mind and matter). The Jatakas, stories of the Buddha's former births, sit in the Khuddaka Nikaya, along with the Dhammapada and the Theragatha-Therigatha. The Abhidhamma is scholastic philosophy, not a biography.

The Dipavamsa (c. 4th century CE) and the Mahavamsa (attributed to the monk Mahanama, c. 5th–6th century CE) are chronicles of the Theravada monks of Sri Lanka, written in Pali verse. They narrate the Buddha's visits to the island, the three councils, Ashoka's patronage, and the coming of Mahinda and Sanghamitta, and then the history of the Sri Lankan kings. They are a major, though partisan, source for Ashoka and the spread of Buddhism.

The Tattvarthasutra of Umasvati is the first systematic Jain work in Sanskrit sutras and is accepted by both sects. The Sanskrit Adipurana, on the first tirthankara Rishabha, was begun by Jinasena (9th century, Rashtrakuta period) and completed by his pupil Gunabhadra. The Kalpasutra, with the lives of the tirthankaras, is traditionally attributed to Bhadrabahu, not to Hemachandra (12th century). The Shatkhandagama, the earliest Digambara scriptural text, is attributed to Pushpadanta and Bhutabali.

Ashvaghosha (c. 1st–2nd century CE) is the first great Buddhist poet in Sanskrit. His Buddhacharita is a court-epic life of the Buddha, and tradition (including Chinese sources) places him at the court of Kanishka. His second kavya, the Saundarananda, tells how the Buddha led his half-brother Nanda, attached to his beautiful wife Sundari, to monkhood — not Rahula. Fragments of his drama Shariputraprakarana were also found in Central Asia.