The Book of Pairs and Its Commentary: A Translation of the Yamaka and Yamakappakaraṇaṭṭhakathā. Vol.1. xvi, 411 pp. Bristol: Pali Text Society, 2018. £35.50. ISBN 978 0 86013 513 5 .

C.M.M. Shaw and L.S. Cousins (trans.): The Book of Pairs and Its Commentary: A Translation of the Yamaka and Yamakappakaraṇaṭṭhakathā. Vol.1. xvi, 411 pp. Bristol: Pali Text Society, 2018. £35.50. ISBN 978 0 86013 513 5.

The Yamaka, here translated as The Book of Pairs, is the sixth of the seven books of the Theravādin Abhidhamma Piṭaka. The Abhidhamma Piṭaka consists of a scholastic re-working of the Buddha's teaching as recorded in the Sutta Piṭaka, or “basket of discourses”. During the first few centuries after the Buddha's death, the various lists of terms and concepts, so beloved of the early Buddhist oral tradition, were defined, discussed and re-worked into a systematic form. The books of the Abhidhamma Piṭaka, or “basket of higher doctrine”, each present different ways in which this systematic doctrine was handled in the Theravādin tradition. While translations of the other six books of the Abhidhamma Piṭaka have long been available, the Yamaka has until now remained unavailable in English translation, despite the Pali text having been published over a century ago by the Pali Text Society. Hence this late appearance of a high-quality translation of such a central canonical work of Theravādin Buddhism is significant and welcome.

The foreword, by Charles Shaw, explains how he was responsible for the translation of the text of the Yamaka, while Lance Cousins translated the briefer text of the commentary and wrote a (rather short) preface. However, Cousins died suddenly in 2015, and the book is thus dedicated...