The famous story of the Blind men and an elephant appears in Udana, under Tittha Sutta (Ud.
At the end of each prose section, as prelude to the verse, the following formulaic text is included: Then, on realizing the significance of that, the Blessed One on that occasion exclaimed:[2] An alternate translation could be: Then, upon realizing the significance of that, the Blessed One on that occasion exclaimed this inspired utterance (udāna): Atha kho bhagavā etam-atthaṃ viditvā tāyaṃ velāyaṃ imaṃ udānaṃ udānesi:[3] It is from such "exclamations" (udāna) that the collection derives its name.
[5] Hinüber identifies this type of discourse (although not necessarily the existing collection itself) as being part of the pre-canonical navaṅga (Pali for "nine-fold") which classified discourses according to their form and style, such as geyya (mixed prose and verse), gāthā (four-lined couplets), udāna (utterances) and jātaka (birth story).
[6] Within Buddhist literature, about a fourth of the Udana's prose sections correspond to text elsewhere in the Pali Canon, particularly in the Vinaya.
In addition, in regards to Tibetan Buddhist literature, von Hinüber suggests that the Udana formed the original core of the Sanskrit Udānavarga, to which verses from the Dhammapada were added.