Unlike the sutras which are more or less extended disquisitions on some question or topic, and which all begin with the reverential expression evam maya shrutam, "Thus have I heard", indicating an oral recollection of an occasion on which Buddha taught, the Dhammapada seems to come closest to the direct speech of Buddha. Unlike the Udana or 'breathing out', representing spontaneous utterances which arose from the depths of feeling occasioned by a particular event, the Dhammapada seems to consist of recurrent sayings which arose out of and apply to practical problems repeatedly found in everyday attempts to tread the Noble Eightfold Path. Whilst a sutras has an overarching unity of theme, standpoint or topic, and the Udanavarga is broadly arrayed into vargas, or sections according to subject, the Dhammapada exhibits shifting criteria of composition. 

Verses are grouped together because of shared characteristics (for example, Yamaka, 'Twin Verses'), or because of shared metaphors and similes ('The Elephant', 'The Thousands'), or because of a sustained theme ('The Brahmana'), and at least one canto has no explicit basis of any kind ('Miscellaneous'). All of this suggests that the Dhammapada consists of memorable utterances of Buddha on different occasions and in varied circumstances. Though they arose in particular contexts, they were hardly bound by them, and so several monks recalled these sayings as invaluable aids in many situations. 
Thus the Dhammapada is a sort of handbook or compendium of practical ethics, a comprehensible guide to the Path, which also provides much food for thought and contemplation. 

Since the subtle differences in the surviving versions of the Dhammapada do not suggest conscious sectarian divergences, these ancient recensions are most probably the result of recording very early oral traditions which go back to Buddha himself. 

Without speculating as to how long these sayings were transmitted orally, it is reasonable to assume that the long-standing tradition of the Sangha preserved Buddha's Word without imposing any rigid structure upon it. 

Thus the Pali Dhammapada consists of four hundred and twenty-three verses arranged in twenty-six chapters.

However, there is a Chinese version has thirty-nine chapters. Comparing the twenty-six chapters in the Pali with the Chinese versions of the same, we find seventy-nine additional verses. 

The Udanavarga has around nine hundred and fifty verses in thirty-three chapters. 

According to the oldest Buddhist traditions, the Dhammapada emerged from the First Council shortly after Buddha's Parinirvana, and Buddhaghosha, who wrote extensive commentaries on the Pali canon in the fifth century A.D., accepted this tradition. 

Some ancient histories date the writing down of sacred texts to the time of King Vattagamani (early first century B.C.). Since the verses of the Dhammapada were uttered on specific occasions, a commentary or attakatha appeared which provided stories about specific events which gave rise to one or more sayings. The Pali commentary on the Dhammapada and its Chinese counterpart may have simply set down stories from the oral tradition which preserved echoes of original events.