THE  ITIVUTTAKA  
The Itivuttaka is a collection of 112 short discourses of the Buddha belonging to the Pali Canon. According to the commentarial  tradition, the suttas of the Itivuttaka were collected by the woman lay disciple  Khujjuttara from sermons given by the Buddha while he was staying at Kosambi. Khujjuttara, a servant in the court of King Udena, was declared by the Buddha his most learned women lay follower.  She had become a stream-enterer after meeting the Buddha and afterwards converted the woman of the place to the Dhamma. She used to go regularly to listen to the Buddha preach and then later reported what she heard to the other women. The compilation of these sayings became known as the Itivuttaka. The suttas of the Itivuttaka • in mixed prose and verse • are elevated and profound, and at times reach a pitch of lofty spiritual exaltation. This new translation, while scrupulously exact, captures and conveys the inspirational flavour of the Pali original. The book also includes helpful explanatory notes drawn mostly from the Itivuttaka  Commentary.  

The translator, John D. Ireland, is an English Buddhist who has been a student of Pali and Buddhist canonical literature for over thirty years. His previous translations published by the BPS are The Discourse Collection,  Samyutta Nikaya Anthology. Part 1,  and most recently his fine rendition of the Udana,  The Udana: Inspired Utterances of the Buddha.