s.4nt.org — Suttas, Side by Side · Help
A reading guide for the parallel sutta viewer at s.4nt.org.
What you're looking at
Each sutta page displays the original Pāli alongside one or more English translations in side-by-side columns,
aligned segment by segment.
The columns scroll together, so the same passage is always at the same height across all translations.
The columns
Switching translations
Each column has a dropdown at the top showing the current translator's name.
Click it to swap that column for a different translation — for example,
switch the right column from Sujato to Thanissaro, or back to Pāli.
Reordering columns
Columns can be dragged left or right.
Grab the small grip icon (⠿) in a column header and drag it to the position you want.
The reading layout adjusts instantly.
Adding and removing columns
- Click the + button at the far right of the column bar to add a new column.
- Click the × on any column header to remove it.
A typical starting layout is Pāli + one English translation.
You can expand to three (or more) columns to compare multiple translators directly.
Navigation
Table of contents
The ☰ button (top left) opens and closes the table of contents sidebar.
It shows every section of the sutta — you can click any entry to jump there instantly.
Within the sidebar: - The − and + buttons at the top collapse or expand all sections at once. - Individual sections can be folded with the small triangle button beside each heading.
Quick-jump box
The search box in the top bar (labelled with a placeholder like mn10, dn16…) accepts:
- A sutta ID —
mn10,dn22— to jump to a different sutta entirely. - A segment reference —
mn10:2.5— to jump directly to that verse within the current page. - Press Enter to jump. Your jump history is saved and shown as a dropdown.
In-text navigation
Click any section heading in the main text to scroll it into view.
Each row also has a subtle highlight on hover so you can track which verse the translator notes refer to.
Footnotes
Many translations include translator notes.
They appear as small superscript markers (¹ ² …)
inline in the text.
Click a marker to open the footnote panel at the bottom of the page.
From there you can:
- Read the note alongside the relevant text.
- Click the note's reference line (the segment ID at the top) to scroll the main text to that verse.
- Navigate between notes with the ◀ ▶ buttons.
- Press all to switch to "show-all" mode, which displays every note for the sutta in a single scrollable list below the text — useful for reading footnotes as a continuous commentary.
- Copy copies the note text to the clipboard.
- ✕ closes the panel.
Slide-out translator footnotes
Under each translator column header's drop-down menu, if footnotes are available for that translator's translation,
the first option will read "see their footnotes." If you don't see that option,
that translator has no footnotes for the current sutta.
⚙ Display settings
Click the ⚙ Settings button (top right) to open the settings panel.
| Setting | What it does |
|---|---|
| ☾ Dark / ☀️ Light | Toggle between dark and light reading themes. Your choice is remembered. |
| A+ / A− | Increase or decrease the reading font size. |
| Sidebar text size | Controls the font size of the left-sidebar table of contents. |
| SC segment refs | Show or hide the SuttaCentral segment reference numbers (e.g. mn10:2.5) alongside each verse — useful for citing passages or cross-referencing with suttacentral.net. |
The sutta index
The index page lists all suttas in the collection with:
- The sutta number, title, and vagga (chapter group).
- Translation badges showing which translations are available for each sutta.
- A 🔒 icon on suttas that have been proofread and locked.
Click any row to open that sutta's parallel viewer.
Reading offline
Every sutta page is fully self-contained — all text and styling is embedded in the HTML file.
If you save a page to your computer (File → Save Page As… in your browser), it will open and work completely offline, with no internet connection required.
Translations available
Each translation is reproduced from its original source site, under that source's own licence.
Where a source publishes authoritative or updated terms, those govern — please consult the linked site.
| Translation | Source site | Licence / terms |
|---|---|---|
| Pāli — Mahāsaṅgīti edition | suttacentral.net | CC0 — public-domain dedication |
| Bhikkhu Sujato — aligned Pāli + English | suttacentral.net | CC0 — public-domain dedication |
| Bhikkhu Thanissaro — American English | dhammatalks.org | Free distribution, non-commercial (per the site's terms) |
| Bhikkhu Bodhi | Wisdom Publications | © Wisdom Publications — only the suttas released for public, non-commercial use are shown |
| Bhikkhu Brahmali — Theravāda Vinaya, aligned Pāli + English | suttacentral.net | CC0 — public-domain dedication |
| PTS — digitized Pali Text Society editions | buddhadust.net | Digitized PTS editions — see the site for terms |
Additional translations are added as alignments are completed.
Proofreading & verbatim validation
The segment-by-segment alignment to SuttaCentral's Pāli numbering is done by AI, and a verbatim check —
automated against the original digital source translation — confirms that no wording was added, dropped, or changed.
(The verbatim check ignores whitespace added for display,
and normalizes some punctuation characters such as quotation marks and apostrophes.)
Tips for comparative study
- Two translations + Pāli is a productive default — three or more is more fun. The Pāli column lets you check the original word when two translators differ.
- Reorder columns with drag and drop. Especially when the right-hand footnote panel is open, drag that translator's column next to the panel so you can read the text and its notes side by side.
- Segment numbers on (
SC segment refs) makes it easy to note a verse number and find the same passage on suttacentral.net for commentaries or other translations. - Footnote "all" mode works well for studying a short sutta in depth — you get the notes as a continuous commentary alongside the text.
- If you are comparing two English translations and want Pāli close at hand but less prominent, put Pāli in the middle and shrink it by making the browser window narrower — the outer columns stay readable while Pāli serves as an anchor reference.
About
s.4nt.org presents the discourses of the Pāli Canon — the earliest record of the Buddha's teaching —
with the original Pāli and one or more English translations side by side,
aligned segment by segment, so the same passage sits at the same height across every column.
The site is a project of the Early Buddhism Meditation Preservation Society (EBMPS), at 4nt.org.
The pages are produced by a custom tool that re-aligns existing translations to SuttaCentral's segmented Pāli text one segment at a time —
"un-babbling" them back into a single, comparable structure.
Each page is fully self-contained:
saved to disk, it works offline with no server and no tracking.
See What you're looking at above for how to use the viewer.
Legal
The texts. Each translation is reproduced from its original source under that source's own licence —
see Translations available above for the source website and the specific terms of each.
Copyright in every translation remains with its respective author, translator, or publisher;
the texts are presented here for study and free distribution only, never for sale or commercial use.
The site. The site software and the original site material (layout, segment-alignment data,
and this guide) are produced by the Early Buddhism Meditation Preservation Society and offered for non-commercial use.
Contact. For corrections, licensing questions, or to report an error,
write to the Early Buddhism Meditation Preservation Society via 4nt.org.
This is a good-faith summary, not legal advice. Where it conflicts with the licence a source publishes for its own text, that licence governs.