1. basket Vin.i.225 (ghaṭa p. ucchanga), Vin.i.240 (catudoṇika p.); Pv.iv.3#33; Vism.28 (piṭake nikkhitta-loṇa-maccha-phāla-sadisaṃ phaṇaṃ); dhañña˚ a grain-basket Dhp-a.iii.370; vīhi˚; a rice basket Dhp-a.iii.374. Usually in combination kuddāḷa-piṭaka “hoe and basket,” wherever the act of digging is referred to e.g. Vin.iii.47; DN.i.101; MN.i.127; SN.ii.88; SN.v.53; AN.i.204; AN.ii.199; Ja.i.225, Ja.i.336; DN-a.i.269.
2. (fig.) t.t for the 3 main divisions of the Pāli Canon “the three baskets (basket as container of tradition Winternitz Ind. Lit. ii.8; cp. peḷā 2) of oral tradition,” viz. Vinaya˚ Suttanta˚, Abhidhamma˚; thus mentioned by name at Pv-a.2; referred to as “tayo piṭakā” at Ja.i.118 Vism.96 (pañca-nikāya-maṇḍale tīṇi piṭakāni parivatteti), Vism.384 (tiṇṇaṃ Vedānaṃ uggahaṇaṃ, tiṇṇaṃ Piṭakānaṃ uggahaṇaṃ); Snp-a.110, Snp-a.403; Dhp-a.iii.262 Dhp-a.iv.38; cp. Divy.18, Divy.253, Divy.488. With ref. to the Vinaya mentioned at Vin.v.3
   ■ Piṭaka is a later collective appellation of the Scriptures; the first division of the Canon (based on oral tradition entirely) being into Sutta and Vinaya (i.e. the stock paragraphs learnt by heart, and the rules of the Order). Thus described at DN.ii.124; cp. the expression bhikkhu suttantika vinayadhara Vin.ii.75 (earlier than tepiṭaka or piṭakadhara) Independently of this division we find the designation “Dhamma” applied to the doctrinal portions; and out of this developed the 3^rd Piṭaka, the Abhidhammap. See also Dhamma C.1
   ■ The Canon as we have it comes very near in language and contents to the canon as established at the 3^rd Council in the time of King Asoka. The latter was in Māgadhī
   ■ The knowledge of the 3 Piṭakas as an accomplishment of the bhikkhu is stated in the term tepīṭaka “one who is familiar with the 3 P.” (thus at Mil.18; Dāvs v.22; Kp-a.41 with variant reading ti˚; Snp-a.306 id.; Dhp-a.iii.385). tipetakī (Vin.v.3 Khemanāma t.), tipeṭaka (Mil.90), and tipiṭaka-dhara Kp-a.91. See also below -ttaya. In BSk. we find the term trepiṭaka in early inscriptions (1^st century a.d, see e.g. Vogel, Epigraphical discoveries at Sārnāth, Epigraphia Indica viii. p. 173, 196; Bloch, J. As. Soc Bengal 1898, 274, 280); the term tripiṭaka in literary documents (e.g. Divy.54), as also tripiṭa (e.g. Avs.i.334; Divy.261, Divy.505)
   ■ On the Piṭakas in general the origin of the P. Canon see Oldenberg, in ed. of Vin.1; and Winternitz, Gesch. d. Ind. Litt. 1913, ii.1 sq. iii.606, 635
   ■ Cp. peṭaka.

• -ttaya the triad of the Piṭakas or holy Scriptures Snp-a.328.
• -dhara one who knows (either one or two or all three) the Piṭaka by heart, as eka˚, dvi˚, ti˚; at Vism.62, Vism.99.
• -sampadāya according to the P. tradition or on the ground of the authority of the P. MN.i.520 (itihītiha etc.); MN.ii.169 (id.); and in exegesis of itikirā (hearsay-tradition) at AN.i.189 = AN.ii.191 = Cnd.151.

cp. Epic Sk. piṭaka, etym. not clear. See also P. peḷā & peḷikā