The Udānavarga has around 1100 verses in 33 chapters. The chapter titles are:
Comparatively, the most common version of the Dhammapada, in Pali, has 423 verses in 26 chapters. Comparing the Udānavarga, Pali Dhammapada and the Gandhari Dharmapada, Brough (2001) identifies that the texts have in common 330 to 340 verses, 16 chapter headings and an underlying structure.
The Udānavarga is attributed to the Sarvāstivādins.
Hinuber suggests that a text similar to the Pali Canon's Udāna formed the original core of the Sanskrit Udānavarga, to which verses from the Dhammapada were added. Brough allows for the hypothesis that the Udānavarga, the Pali Dhammapada and the Gandhari Dharmapada all have a "common ancestor" but underlines that there is no evidence that any one of these three texts might have been the "primitive Dharmapada" from which the other two evolved.
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