The Tripitaka is the Canon for both the Theravada and Mahayana forms of Buddhism. There are several other Canons like the Sthaviravada, Sarvastivada and Mahayana as well as in terms of languages like Pali, Chinese and Tibetan. Also known as Tipitaka in Pali, the word basically refers to literature whose authorship is directly or indirectly ascribed to Buddha himself.

After his death, the teachings of Buddha (that were conceived under Dhamma and Vinaya) were reviewed by a body of disciples. The later threefold division of his teachings (Sutta, Vinaya and Abhidhamma) are based on this collection. Sharing a common body of Dhamma and Vinaya, the early Buddhist disciples appear to have remained united for about a century. The Council of Vesali (the second Buddhist Council) saw the break up of this original body with as many as eighteen separate schools known to exist by about the first century B.C. It can thus be assume that each of these schools would have opted to possess a Tripitaka of their own or rather their own version of the Tripitaka.

It has always been claimed that when Buddha started teaching in the Gangetic valley (India) during the 6th and 5th centuries B.C.E., he used Magadhi as his medium of communication. Historians have tried to connect the Magadhan dialect with Pali, the language in which the texts of the Sthaviravada School are recorded. This again brings us to the Pali Canon that is believed to be the original word of the Buddha. However, the Pali texts seem to preserve an older tradition much more older than most of the existing Buddhist works in other languages. The Sthaviravadins admit two other major divisions of Pali Buddhist literature that are non-Canonical. They are:

1. Post-Canonical Pali literature including works like Petakopadesa and Milindapanha, the authorship of which is ascribed to one or more disciples.

2. Pali Commentarial literature, which includes:

(a) Atthakatha or Commentaries, the original version of which is believed to have been taken to Sri Lanka by Thera Mahinda, the missionary sent by Asoka to propagate the teachings of Buddhism.

(b) The different strata of Tika or Sub-Commentaries, contributions to which were made by Buddhist monks of Sri Lanka, India and Burma.

Besides this Pali recension of the Sthaviravada School there are fragmentary texts of the Sarvastivada or the Mulasarvastivada that are preserved in Sanskrit. A large portion of their Vinaya texts in Sanskrit is preserved in the Gilgit manuscripts. But a more complete collection of the Sarvastivada recension (perhaps also of the Dharmapuptaka and Kasyapiya) must have possibly existed as is evident from the Chinese translations preserved. These include complete translations of the four agamas (the equivalent of the Pali nikayas). Of the Ksudraka, only some texts are preserved in Chinese. In addition to these, the Chinese translations seem to preserve, a vast Vinaya literature and an independent collection of seven Abhidhamma treatises. Thus what could be referred to as a Sarvastivada Canon ranges between fragments of texts preserved in Sanskrit and the more representative collection of the Tripitaka preserved in Chinese. It may be mentioned here that a version of the Mulasarvastivada Vinaya consisting of seven parts, even more faithful than the Chinese version, is preserved in Tibetan. Of the Abhidharma collection only the Prajnaptisastra appears to have been translated into Tibetan.

Different critical evaluations of the Canon (preserved in part) belonging to different schools have been preserved in Chinese. These recensions are primarily based on the Tripitaka of Indian origin. In addition to the ancient texts, they also contain independent expositions of the early doctrines. The Chinese Canon preserves the Vinaya texts of as many as seven different schools. In place of the division into 'canonical groups' of Sutra, Abhidharma and Vinaya, this new arrangement seems to reckon with a live and continuous tradition in accepting as authoritative both the Sutra (words of Buddha) and Sastra (commentaries / treatises written by disciples at a later date).