Help | Home » Tipitaka » Context of the Sutta Pitaka

# Sutta Pitaka

## The Basket of Suttas

### (selected suttas)

Find a sutta by name | See a map of the Tipitaka
Read about the various sutta numbering schemes

The Sutta Pitaka, the second division of the Tipitaka, consists of over 10,000 suttas, or discourses, delivered by the Buddha and his close disciples during the Buddha's forty-five year teaching career, as well as many additional verses by other members of the Sangha. Over 700 sutta translations are available on this website.

The suttas are grouped into five nikayas, or collections:

Digha Nikaya
  The "Long" Discourses (Pali digha = "long"), which consists of 34 suttas, including the well-known Maha-satipatthana Sutta (The Greater Discourse on the Foundations of Mindfulness), the Samaññaphala Sutta (The Fruits of the Contemplative Life), the Maha-parinibbana Sutta (The Buddha's Last Days), and many others.

Majjhima Nikaya
  The "Middle-length" Discourses (Pali majjhima = "middle"), which consists of 152 suttas of varying length, including the Sabbasava Sutta (All the Taints), Cula-kammavibhanga Sutta (Shorter Exposition of Kamma), the Anapanasati Sutta (Mindfulness of Breathing), Kayagatasati Sutta (Mindfulness of the Body), the Angulimala Sutta (The Story of Angulimala), and many more.

Samyutta Nikaya
  The "Grouped" Discourses (Pali samyutta = "group" or "collection"), which consists of 2,889 shorter suttas grouped together by theme into 56 samyuttas.

Anguttara Nikaya
  The "Further-factored" Discourses (Pali anga = "factor" + uttara = "beyond," "further"), which consists of 8,777 short suttas, grouped together into eleven nipatas according to the number of items of Dhamma covered in each sutta. For example, the Eka-nipata ("Book of the Ones") contains suttas about a single item of Dhamma; the Duka-nipata ("Book of the Twos") contains suttas dealing with two items of Dhamma, and so on.

Khuddaka Nikaya
  The "Division of Short Books" (Pali khudda = "smaller," "lesser"), consisting of 15 "books" (17 in the Thai edition; 18 in the Burmese), including the Dhammapada, Therigatha (Verses of the Elder Nuns), Theragatha (Verses of the Elder Monks), Sutta Nipata, Jataka stories, etc.

See also: "Befriending the Suttas: Some Suggestions for Reading the Pali Discourses"

Revised: Tue 16 April 2002