Book Description

Although the Aṅguttara Nikāya is known as the "Numbered" or "Numerical" Discourses, its etymology may give us clues to its origin. The word Aṅguttara is composed of aṅga, which in pāli and Sanskrit means "member" or "division" and uttara meaning "northern". In Sanskrit "north" is used figuratively also in the sense of superior, above, so uttara could be figuratively translated as "more than" in an incremental sense. The different categories into which the early Buddhist canonical texts prior to Hinayana scholasticism were divided were called aṅgas. Originally categories were made depending on the type of material within the various texts and later, it was used to classify those same texts. Aṅguttara can therefore refer to its geographical origin as "northern division" or "incremental division". The second meaning seems clear with respect to the organization in books, from the book of ones, successively up to the book of eleven, where discourses are grouped in relation to the number of teaching topics they contain. However, "northern division", besides being the most direct translation, can give clues about its geographical origin, considering, in addition, that the pāli itself is linguistically related to the Prakrit dialects of northwestern India, but where it appears is in the south. This second book, that of the Doses maintains the matrix structure of Mātikās of the previous book, serving as a mnemonic base of headings to be remembered, so it is not very readable and, therefore, its interest is very scarce. We can highlight AN 2.61, on the permanent female dissatisfaction as a very curious original contribution.