sutra
Enable an AI agent to recognise a sutra, assess its textual identity and tradition-specific standing, and choose justified actions for locating, comparing, interpreting or presenting it.
Research draft, second pass
A second pass drafted this model: the structure a model of this thing needs, and what is known about it in the world. The line under this one says how the second half was obtained - researched against sources, or recalled without web access, in which case nothing here was read anywhere and every claim is a lead to verify. Unreviewed either way.
Researched by: Codex + Grok
Purpose and description
Enable an AI agent to recognise a sutra, assess its textual identity and tradition-specific standing, and choose justified actions for locating, comparing, interpreting or presenting it.
A sutra is a concise, aphoristic compositional form in South Asian religious and scholarly traditions, typically a tightly worded rule or thread of teaching meant to be memorized and unpacked by commentary.
It can be Resolve a title or passage to a sutra and an identified textual form.; Locate and quote a passage with edition-specific coordinates and translation attribution.; Compare recensions or translations while marking additions, omissions and uncertain alignments.; Produce a contextual summary that separates textual wording, attributed teaching and commentary.; Assess whether an available text supports a requested study, teaching or recitation use.; Link the sutra to its collection, commentaries and parallel texts without merging their identities..
Distinguishing features
Require an identifiable tradition, catalogue or scholarly source supporting the sutra designation; a modern title containing 'sutra' alone leaves classification unresolved.
Determine whether 'sutra' identifies an individual formulation, a complete discourse or a collected work before assigning its boundaries.
Distinguish the root text from commentary through explicit textual boundaries, attribution and editorial evidence, including when both appear together.
Identify the work independently of its manuscript, edition or translation, while preserving which textual form supports each quotation.
Test genre within the relevant tradition rather than making brevity, sacred status or attribution to a particular teacher universal requirements.
Scope
+ Evidence that a text or textual unit is designated a sutra within an identified tradition
+ Work identity, alternative titles, internal divisions and collection membership
+ Relations among recensions, witnesses, editions and translations
+ Attributed speakers, compilers and transmission histories, with evidence and uncertainty
+ Teachings, interpretive dependencies and community-specific standing
+ Suitability of particular textual forms for quotation, study, translation or recitation
- Physical conservation and ownership of manuscripts or printed volumes
- Complete models of religious traditions, schools or institutions
- Biographies of attributed speakers, authors, translators or commentators
- Commentaries and treatises as independently modelled works
- Individual ritual performances, teaching sessions or recitation events
- Copyright administration and digital repository infrastructure
Characteristics
- Sutra designation
- Tradition-supported; catalogue-supported; scholarly classification; title-only; disputed; unresolved Controls whether recognition as a sutra is supported and whose classification is being applied.
- Textual granularity
- Individual formulation; discourse; composite work; collection; unresolved Prevents an agent from confusing a numbered unit with the work containing it.
- Tradition and school affiliation
- Named communities or schools, with the source and scope of each affiliation Conditions genre interpretation, authority claims and appropriate use.
- Textual extent
- Count of named structural units in a specified recension or edition Supports completeness checks without assuming that different textual forms share numbering or length.
- Transmission relationships
- Witness-of; recension-of; translation-of; excerpt-of; parallel-to; relationship-disputed Makes comparison possible without collapsing related but distinct texts.
- Attribution standing
- Traditional attribution recorded; independently evidenced; contested; anonymous; unknown Separates inherited attribution from conclusions about historical composition.
- Community-specific authority
- Named community linked to its reported acceptance, classification or rejection, with date and evidence Prevents local canonical or doctrinal standing from being presented as universal.
- Available text completeness
- Complete relative to identified reference; fragmentary; abridged; reconstructed; unresolved Determines whether an agent can represent the available text as the whole sutra.
- Interpretive dependence
- Passage linked to required terminology, adjacent units, commentary or school-specific interpretation Flags where a stand-alone paraphrase would conceal necessary interpretive choices.
Also called
Where this came from
wikidata · CC0 1.0
Drafted structure
Bundle to layer to finding to question, as the second pass will find it: 5 bundles · 9 layers · 15 findings · 25 questions.
Sutra identity Establish what is being called a sutra and at what textual scale.
The registry label alone does not establish genre, tradition or the boundaries of an individual thing.
Designation and tradition
Ground the sutra classification in identifiable usage.
Supported sutra designation
Record who designates the text a sutra, their terminology and any competing classification.
- Which tradition, catalogue or scholarly source identifies this text as a sutra? definition
- Does the designation apply to the text itself, its collection or only a later title? boundary
Work and unit boundaries
Identify the intended work or unit without conflating titles, divisions and containers.
Textual identity and extent
Record titles, opening and closing markers, catalogue identifiers and the relationship between the sutra and any containing work.
- Does this record identify a single formulation, a discourse, a composite work or a collection? boundary
- Which title, opening words and catalogue references distinguish it from similarly named texts? definition
Text and transmission Establish which textual forms are available and how they relate.
An agent needs an identified textual basis before quoting, comparing or claiming completeness.
Recensions and witnesses
Represent textual variation and the evidence supporting an available reading.
Available textual basis
Identify the recension, witnesses or editorial reconstruction underlying the text being used, including missing material.
- Which witnesses or editorial sources support this textual form? provenance
- Against which reference is completeness assessed, and which units are missing, added or reconstructed? measurement
Translations and alignment
Connect translations to their textual bases and passage coordinates.
Traceable translation
Record translator, source language, textual basis and revision identity; an edition may explicitly distinguish its translation and editorial contributors, as in [84000's Heart Sutra presentation](https://reader.84000.co/entity/passage/4d1896b2-dcf3-4b01-8cc6-8bd5e30c9d67).
- Who produced this translation, from which textual form, and in which revision? provenance
- Which passage correspondences are established, and where do numbering or textual extent diverge? boundary
Teaching and interpretation Represent what the sutra communicates while preserving textual and interpretive distinctions.
An agent must distinguish a passage's voice and wording from later explanations before summarising its teaching.
Form and speaking roles
Record how formulations, dialogue or narrative distribute claims within the text.
Passage function and voice
Identify whether a passage functions as a rule, teaching, question, objection, narrative frame or other locally supported form, and who is represented as speaking.
- What function does this passage serve within the sutra's argument or narrative? definition
- Whose statement is this, and does the surrounding text endorse, qualify or reject it? boundary
Root text and exegesis
Separate the sutra's wording from explanatory additions and interpretive commitments.
Interpretation dependencies
Record the terms, surrounding units and commentarial choices needed to justify a reading without silently incorporating commentary into the sutra.
- Which words belong to the root text, and which are commentary, supplied translation or editorial explanation? boundary
- Which commentary or school supports this interpretation, and what alternative reading remains relevant? provenance
- What context must accompany a quotation or paraphrase to preserve its meaning? action
Authority and use Connect attributed origins and community reception to justified uses of a particular sutra text.
Historical attribution, religious acceptance and suitability for a requested activity require separate judgments.
Attribution and reception
Record whose account of origin or authority is being reported.
Situated authority claims
Separate traditional speaker or compiler attribution, evidence about composition, and acceptance within named communities or collections.
- Who is traditionally credited with speaking, composing or compiling the sutra, and what evidence independently supports each claim? provenance
- Which community or collection accepts this sutra, under what classification, and where is that standing disputed or unknown? boundary
Contextual use readiness
Evaluate a proposed use against textual adequacy and documented practice.
Supported sutra use
Determine whether the selected text can support quotation, comparison, instruction or recitation, recording applicable requirements only when evidenced.
- Is this textual form sufficiently identified and complete for the requested quotation, study, teaching or recitation? action
- What documented requirements concerning language, sequence, attribution, permission or community practice apply to this intended use? action
- Which unresolved reading or provenance issue requires qualification before proceeding? action
Evidence and external alignment What the world already says about this thing, gathered so the model can be checked against it.
A model that cannot be lined up against existing standards, identifiers and practice cannot be adopted by anyone who already uses them.
Reported evidence
Findings from the breadth pass, kept separate from the structural claims.
Kinds and varieties
Reported by the breadth pass; each item needs checking against its source before it becomes normative.
- Vedic/ritual sutra (Kalpa, including Śrauta, Gṛhya, Dharma, and Śulba)
- Grammatical and technical śāstra sutra (Pāṇini and allied sciences)
- Hindu philosophical sutra (Brahma, Yoga, Nyāya, Vaiśeṣika, Mīmāṃsā, Sāṃkhya)
- Buddhist sutta/sūtra (early nikāya/āgama discourses and later Mahāyāna sūtras)
- Jain sutra (canonical āgama texts)
- Tantric and later sectarian sutra collections
- Which of these kinds and varieties hold for the sense of sutra this model covers, and on what evidence? provenance
Identifiers and schemes
Reported by the breadth pass; each item needs checking against its source before it becomes normative.
- Wikidata - Q43214 - item for sūtra as literary/religious genre
- Which of these identifiers and schemes hold for the sense of sutra this model covers, and on what evidence? provenance
Real-world use
Reported by the breadth pass; each item needs checking against its source before it becomes normative.
- Memorized and recited in monastic and scholastic training
- Used as root text (mūla) that commentaries (bhāṣya, vṛtti) expand
- Cited as scriptural authority in Hindu, Buddhist, and Jain liturgy and debate
- Which of these real-world use hold for the sense of sutra this model covers, and on what evidence? provenance
Typical measurements
Reported by the breadth pass; each item needs checking against its source before it becomes normative.
- typical verse or sūtra length - a few words to a short paragraph per sūtra; collections from tens to thousands of sūtras - sūtras / verses
- Which of these typical measurements hold for the sense of sutra this model covers, and on what evidence? provenance
Failure modes and hazards
Reported by the breadth pass; each item needs checking against its source before it becomes normative.
- Aphoristic brevity invites misreading without the intended commentary lineage
- Genre label conflates Vedic technical rules with Buddhist narrative discourses
- Which of these failure modes and hazards hold for the sense of sutra this model covers, and on what evidence? provenance
Regional variation
Reported by the breadth pass; each item needs checking against its source before it becomes normative.
- In Pali and Theravāda contexts the form is called sutta and often means a prose discourse, not a one-line aphorism
- East Asian Buddhist canons treat 經 (jīng/kyō/gyeong) as the translated sūtra class of the Tripiṭaka
- Which of these regional variation hold for the sense of sutra this model covers, and on what evidence? provenance
Neighbouring kinds and how to tell them apart
Reported by the breadth pass; each item needs checking against its source before it becomes normative.
- suture (surgery) - medical stitch (Latin sutura); different spelling, domain, and object
- śāstra - a treatise or science that may be written in sūtra style but is the discipline, not the compositional form
- tantra - a distinct class of esoteric scripture, not defined by aphoristic brevity
- sutta vs sūtra in Buddhism - Pali sutta typically names a discourse; Sanskrit sūtra in Mahāyāna often names a longer scripture
- Which of these neighbouring kinds and how to tell them apart hold for the sense of sutra this model covers, and on what evidence? provenance
Sources
- Sutra - Core definition as aphoristic thread of teaching; Vedic Kalpa, philosophical, Buddhist, and Jain kinds.
What the second pass must settle
- Does vr.tr.sutra intentionally cover Buddhist, Hindu and Jain usages, Pali sutta, and modern works adopting the designation, or is a narrower registry meaning intended?
- Should an individually numbered sutra and the sutra work containing it be instances of this same registered kind, or should the unit be represented only within the work's structure?
- What evidence should distinguish recensions of one sutra from separate but parallel works when traditions or catalogues disagree?
- Which tradition-specific distinctions among sutra, commentary, treatise, mantra and other textual genres must be represented without imposing a universal hierarchy?
- Does an existing Vercy world model already own this concept or part of its intended scope, requiring a link instead of a separate publication?