The Khuddakapa?ha is first among the fifteen small books of the Kuddhaka-nikaya. The word Khuddakapa?ha has two component parts: khudda and pa?ha. Khuddaka means small, minor, and pa?ha means readings. Thus Khuddakapa?ha means the book of minor readings. This text includes discourses taught by the Buddha to disciples from any and all strata of the society of the day. Some of the discourses are prescribed by the Buddha for the monk-disciples only and the rest of the suttas are designed to guide the community of his lay disciples for the establishment of a harmonious family and social life.

The form of Pali language used therein is very simple. Any person can easily understand these eternal and natural teachings taught by the Buddha. Numerous editions of this book have already been published in many modern Indian scripts and there are a few editions with translations into various modern Indian languages. With the growing number of English speakers from both India and abroad—students, teachers, scholars and researchers—it seemed that there should be an edition of this Pali text focussing on Roman script Pali with English translation.This present Pariyatti edition is intended to fill that need. References and clarification of the basic concepts for the benefit of students and scholars have been given. We have included an introduction, notes on important concepts, meanings of important Pali words and an index.