# Theragāthā and Therīgāthā

Source: https://buddhisma2z.com/theragatha-and-therigatha/  
Author: Bhante S. Dhammika, *Guide To Buddhism A To Z*  
Licence: CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/)

The Theragāthā and the Therīgāthā are two books in the [**Khuddaka Nikāya**](https://buddhisma2z.com/khuddaka-nikaya/), the fifth part of the [**Sutta Piṭaka**](https://buddhisma2z.com/sutta-pitaka/), the second division of the [**Tipiṭaka**](https://buddhisma2z.com/tipitaka/), the sacred scriptures of Buddhism. *Thera* is a title given to someone who has been a [**monk**](https://buddhisma2z.com/monks/) for more than ten years and means ‘elder’. The equivalent title for a [**nun**](https://buddhisma2z.com/nuns/) is *therī.* The word *gāthā* means ‘a verse’. Both of these works contain poems composed by the [**Buddha**](https://buddhisma2z.com/buddha/)’s disciples. There are 263 poems in the Theragāthā and 73 in the Therīgāthā, many of considerable literary merit. Some celebrate the joy of [**enlightenment**](https://buddhisma2z.com/enlightenment/), others the beauty of the forest and yet others praise the compassion of the Buddha. The Therīgāthā contains the earliest corpus of [**poetry**](https://buddhisma2z.com/poetry/) from India composed by women.

**Further reading:** Elders Verses, trans. by K.R. Norman, Vol. I, 1990; Vol. II, 1991.

Subjects: Buddhist Scriptures