Ancient Buddhists didn’t leave the Sutta Pitaka floating in mid-air: a rich body of Atthakathā (commentaries) and Ṭīkā (sub-commentaries) have long guided students through the Buddha’s words. By the 5th century CE, the master scholar Buddhaghosa wove together surviving Sinhala Atthakathās into the “Big Four” commentaries that still hold court today:

• Sumangalavilasini on the Majjhima Nikāya dives deep into each middle-length discourse, untangling doctrinal knots and storytelling quirks.
• Papañcasudani for the Saṃyutta Nikāya literally “cuts through proliferation,” clarifying the web of connected suttas.
• Paramatthajotika illuminates the Anguttara Nikāya’s numbered discourses, one through eleven, keeping everything in neat rows.
• Saṃantapāsādikā expounds the Dīgha Nikāya’s long dialogues, tracing their historical settings and hidden layers.

Sub-commentaries called Ṭīkās emerged over the centuries, especially in the Burmese and Thai traditions, offering fresh footnotes and side-bars where the original Atthakathās remained terse. In Myanmar, for example, the Dīgha Ṭīkā and Saṃyutta Ṭīkā keep unfolding nuance—think of them as scholarly magnifying glasses.

Today’s digital age has rekindled interest in these ancient companions. The SuttaCentral project (recently updated in early 2025) now hosts parallel Pāli and English editions of key Atthakathās, while Oxford’s Buddhist Studies team is busy translating Papañcasudani into modern academic English. Monastic universities in Thailand are even livestreaming Burmese Ṭīkā lectures, proving that tablets and temples can go hand in hand.

With these commentaries and sub-commentaries, the Sutta Pitaka becomes a living tapestry rather than a dusty scroll. Each generation picks up its own thread, weaving fresh insight into age-old teachings—so the Buddha’s voice stays as vibrant today as it was under the Bodhi tree.