Dhammapada API - urantia.dev

The API serves The Dhammapada (F. Max Muller, 1881) as JSON, one passage at a time, by the reference people use. A collection of the Buddha’s sayings in verse. It has 414 passages in 26 chapters. No key and no account.

Get a passage

# Dhp 183
curl https://api.urantia.dev/scriptures/dhammapada/183

{
  "data": {
    "corpus": {
      "slug": "dhammapada",
      "title": "The Dhammapada",
      "translator": "F. Max Muller",
      "year": 1881
    },
    "passages": [
      {
        "ref": "Dhp 183",
        "division": 14,
        "text": "Not to commit any sin, to do good, and to purify one's mind, that is the teaching of (all) the Awakened."
      }
    ]
  }
}

The slug dhammapada, the id dhammapada-muller-1881, and the prefix dhp all name this text.

References

The verses are numbered straight through the book, so Dhp 183 is verse 183, not chapter 183. Muller combines a few pairs of verses, such as Dhp 58-59. Asking for either number returns the pair. GET /scriptures/dhammapada lists every chapter with its first and last reference.

Search

# By meaning
curl -X POST https://api.urantia.dev/scriptures/search/semantic \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"q":"your question","corpus":"dhammapada","limit":5}'
# By keyword
curl 'https://api.urantia.dev/works/search?q=your%20words&work=dhammapada'

Each passage also links to the closest paragraphs of the Urantia Papers: GET /scriptures/dhammapada/183/urantia-parallels. The world religions guide explains how the links are made, and the MCP server has the same calls for AI agents.

Source

Text: The Dhammapada, translated by F. Max Muller (1881)
Source: www.gutenberg.org
License: Public domain in the United States