The Aṅguttara Nikāya (aṅguttaranikāya; lit. 'Increased-by-One Collection', also translated "Gradual Collection" or "Numerical Discourses") is a Buddhist scriptures collection, the fourth of the five Nikāyas, or collections, in the Sutta Piṭaka, which is one of the "three baskets" that comprise the Pāli Tipiṭaka of Theravāda Buddhism. This nikāya consists of several thousand discourses ascribed to the Buddha and his chief disciples arranged in eleven "books", according to the number of Dhamma items referenced in them.
Contents
Overview
Translator Bhikkhu Bodhi wrote: "In Aṅguttara Nikāya, persons are as a rule not reduced to mere collections of aggregates, elements, and sense-bases, but are treated as real centers of living experience engaged in a heartfelt quest for happiness and freedom from suffering."
Parallel
The Aṅguttara Nikāya corresponds to the Ekottara Āgama ("Increased by One Discourses") found in the Sūtra Piṭakas of various Sanskritic early Buddhists schools, fragments of which survive in Sanskrit. A nearly complete version of the Saṃyukta Āgama survives in Chinese translation by the name Zēngyī Ahánjīng (增一阿含經); based on an Indic original of Mūlasarvāstivāda provenance.
Divisions
The nipatas in this nikaya are:
Translations
Full translation
The Book of the Gradual Sayings, tr F. L. Woodward & E. M. Hare, 1932–6, 5 volumes, Pali Text Society[1], Bristol
Numerical Discourses of the Buddha, tr Bhikkhu Bodhi, 2012, 1 volume, Wisdom Publications [2], Somerville, MA
Bhikkhu Sujato (trans.), The “Numbered” or “Numerical” Discourses, 2018, published online at SuttaCentral and released into the public domain.
Selections
1st 3 nipatas tr E. R. J. Gooneratne, Ceylon, c1913
4th nipata tr A. D. Jayasundare, London, 1925
anthology ed & tr Nyanaponika, Buddhist Publication Society, Kandy, Sri Lanka; revised, with additions & deletions, by Bodhi, as Numerical Discourses of the Buddha, Altamira Press, Oxford/New York/Lanham, Maryland/Walnut Creek, California, 1999