Caturārakkhadīpanī

The four protections are the four meditations a monk is advised to keep constantly within reach — the recollection of the Buddha, loving-kindness, the contemplation of foulness, and the recollection of death. This is the exposition of them.

Its standing is secured by the Pali catalogue rather than by a colophon. The Cūḷagandhavaṃsa lists both caturārakkhā and caturārakkhāya aṭṭhakathā among the forty-three works “made by the wise in Laṅkādīpa and other places”, and the Gandhavaṃsa carries the same entry. No author is named there or anywhere else on file, and no date can be given.

The subject belongs to the practical, memorisable literature this whole layer serves — the same purpose Bode identifies for the paritta, which the Burmese laity knew by heart.