The Udāna belongs to the Khuddaka Nikāya of the Pāli Canon and, like the other early collections, does not bear the stamp of a single, named compiler. Its formation is attributed to the early Buddhist monastic community, the Saṅgha, which preserved and arranged the Buddha’s inspired utterances and the circumstances surrounding them. Rather than emerging from the hand of one editor, it reflects a collective effort by disciples and later monks to safeguard what they understood to be the Buddha’s own words. This communal process of composition and redaction is consistent with the broader pattern by which the early suttas were remembered, recited, and organized.

Regarding the period of its compilation, the Udāna appears to have taken shape in the early centuries following the Buddha’s passing. Scholars generally situate the organization of the Pāli Canon, including this text, between roughly the third century before the common era and the first century of the common era. Within that span, the Udāna was likely compiled in stages as part of the gradual systematization of the canon, long before it was eventually written down. Its present form thus bears witness to an extended process of oral transmission and careful preservation, rather than to a single decisive moment of authorship.

From a spiritual perspective, this mode of compilation can itself be seen as an expression of the teaching it preserves. The Udāna consists of inspired utterances, yet those utterances have been carried forward through the shared memory and devotion of the community, not through the authority of an individual editor. The text stands, therefore, as both a record of the Buddha’s spoken insight and a testament to the collective resolve of the early Saṅgha to keep those insights alive.