Theravāda is the oldest surviving school of Buddhism, and its second-largest. It emerged in modern-day India around the 3rd century BCE, following a series of religious disputes between different factions of the Buddhist community in the decades following the Buddha’s death (parinirvana). The most notable of these is commonly referred to as the Vinaya Dispute, which occurred when ordained monks in Vaishali were accused of violating their monastic orders (vinaya) in a number of serious ways, such as through failing to adhere to certain dietary rules. The Vinaya Dispute is widely thought to have played a major role in causing the First Buddhist Schism, in which two major schools emerged, Sthavira Nikāya and Mahāsāṃghika Nikāya. Sthavira Nikāya is frequently identified with Theravāda, although there were more likely several generations of schools intervening between the two groups.

Theravāda Buddhism is distinguished from the larger branch of the religion, Mahayana Buddhism, in several key ways: Its scriptural focus on the Pāli Canon (as opposed to Sanskrit texts that were composed much later); its dominance in Sri Lanka and Southeast Asia (as opposed to Mahayana-dominant East Asia); and several crucial theological differences. Theravādins believe that the Buddha was a historical human figure, who served primarily as an earthly teacher, whereas the Mahayana Buddhists revere him as a divine entity. Theravādins also view the goal of Buddhism as being to attain arahat-hood, a more individual form of nirvana (liberation from cycles of rebirth and suffering), whereas Mahayana Buddhists believe that each Buddhist should aim to become a Buddhist (Bodhisattiva) themselves.

The sacred text of the Theravāda tradition is the Pāli Canon, named for the ancient Indo-Aryan language it is written in. The Pāli language is thought to have originated somewhere in western India, although its etymology is not fully understood by scholars. Its written form varies across manuscripts, suggesting that it may in fact be a composite of several vernacular dialects which were sanskritized. Compared with Sanskrit, the elite literary language of South Asia at the time, Pāli is a simpler, more vernacular language. That it became the scriptural language of early Buddhism speaks to the fact that the Buddha and his followers were interested in making their teachings accessible to people from all caste groups. It was only centuries later, with the development of Mahayana Buddhism, that Sanskrit became one of the religion’s sacred languages (this linguistic difference is a key point of division between Theravādins and Mahayana Buddhists).

Commonly called the Tipitaka (“Triple Basket”), the Pāli Canon is divided into three parts: The Vinayapitaka (monastic rules), the Suttapitaka (teachings of the Buddha), and the Abhidammapitaka (analytical texts on Buddhist philosophy). Of these, the Dhammapada belongs to the Suttapitaka. There are very few surviving complete Pāli manuscripts of the Dhammapada, though many fragmentary manuscripts in Pāli exist, and most of these come from the later Middle Ages, since earlier manuscripts would have been written on fragile leaves. Other middle-Indian language manuscripts of the text survive, including two Gandhari versions. No complete versions of the Dhammapada survive in Sanskrit, although there are some surviving fragments thought to be excerpts of the Dhammapada. 

Despite the disappearance of early middle-Indian manuscripts, early surviving translations of the text into East Asian languages prove that the Pāli text must predate the 3rd century-CE. Before these earliest transcriptions, the Dhammapada would have been transmitted verbally, and this informs the rhythm form.