Majjhimanikāya untranslated

Majjhimanikāya. The second “book,” or collection, of the Suttapiṭaka, containing discourses of medium length.

It consists of eighty bhāṇavāras and is divided into three sections of fifty Suttas each (Paṇṇāsa), the last Paṇṇāsa containing fifty-two Suttas.

At the First Council the duty of learning the Majjhimanikāya and of handing it down intact was entrusted to the “school” of Sāriputta (DN­a.i.15).

Buddhaghosa wrote a commentary to the Majjhimanikāya, which is called the Papañcasūdanī, and Sāriputta of Ceylon wrote its Ṭīkā.

The Majjhimanikāya was also called the Majjhima Saṅgīti (e.g., MN­a.i.2; Mhv­ṭ.193, 305).

When the Sāsana (Buddhism) disappears, the Majjhima predeceases the Dīghanikāya. MN­a.ii.881.