Tradition holds that the very first gathering to commit the Buddha’s teachings to memory took place just a few months after his passing, around the mid-5th century BCE. Convened in the Sattapanni caves of Rājagaha (today’s Rajgir in Bihar, India), this “First Buddhist Council” assembled some 500 of the Buddha’s closest disciples. Ananda, renowned for his prodigious recall, orally recited the suttas (discourses), while Upāli laid out the vinaya (monastic code). Together, they shaped what would become the Tripiṭaka—literally “three baskets” of teachings, discipline and philosophy.

For centuries thereafter, these texts remained an oral tradition, safeguarded through precise communal recitation. It wasn’t until 29 BCE, under Sri Lankan King Vattagamani, that the Pāli Canon found its first written form at the Alu Vihāra monastery in Anurādhapura. That pivotal move—akin to capturing lightning in a bottle—ensured the Buddha’s words would weather the ages.

Fast-forward to today, and digital projects like SuttaCentral are making the Canon freely available online, bridging ancient wisdom with modern curiosity. The same words once echoed in shadowy caves now stream into smartphones worldwide, proving that a teaching nearly 2,500 years old can still hit home in the 21st century.