Niddesa untranslated

Niddesa. A commentarial work included in the Canon as part of the Khuddakanikāya. It is generally divided into two books: the Cūḷa Niddesa and the Mahā Niddesa.

The Cūḷa Niddesa contains comments on the Khaggavisāṇasutta and the sixteen Suttas of the Pārāyaṇavagga of the Suttanipāta, while the Mahā Niddesa deals with the sixteen Suttas of the Aṭṭhakavagga.

It is significant that the Cūḷa Niddesa contains no comments on the fifty-six (Vatthugāthā) introductory stanzas, which preface the Pārāyaṇavagga as at present found in the Suttanipāta. This lends support to the suggestion that at the time the Cūḷa Niddesa was written the Pārāyaṇavagga, was a separate anthology, and that the Khaggavisāṇasutta did not belong to any particular group. Similarly with the Mahā Niddesa and the Aṭṭhakavagga.

The comments in the Niddesa seem to have been modeled on exegetical explanations such as are attributed here and there in the Piṭakas to Mahā Kaccāna (e.g., Madhupiṇḍikasutta (MN.i.110f); also SN.iii.9) and to Sāriputta (e.g., Saṅgītisutta, DN.iii.207f).

There is a tradition (NidA. p.1), which ascribes the authorship of the Niddesa to Sāriputta. There exists a Commentary on it, called the Saddhammapajjotikā, by Upasena. It was written in Ceylon at the request of a monk called Deva Thera.