How the Saṁyutta is Organized

The Saṁyutta Nikāya is conveniently divided into five large vaggas or "books". As noted in the General Guide, the Saṁyutta is an example of the "nested vagga" structure, where the (unusual) vagga as "book" includes many of the normal kind of "small" vagga, i.e. groups of about ten suttas.

Within each of the five "big" vaggas there are several saṁyuttas, each containing a set of discourses that are linked by person or theme (sometimes both). For example, each of the discourses in SN 5 features a nun (bhikkhunī), while each discourse in SN 24 deals with the subject of "views" (diṭṭhi).

In SuttaCentral, the discourses of the Saṁyutta are referenced by saṁyutta and sutta. Thus SN 1.1 is the first discourse of the first saṁyutta, while SN 56.11 is the eleventh discourse of the fifty-sixth saṁyutta. The SuttaCentral system is the same as that used by Bhikkhu Bodhi in his Connected Discourses of the Buddha and on Access to Insight.

The five books are named according to various principles:

• Vol. 1 Sagāthāvagga contains sets of discourses that contain verses, as indicated by the title.

• Vols. 2--4 are each named after the first and largest saṁyutta of the book.

• Vol. 5 is called the "Great Book" (Mahāvagga) due to its size. The Chinese version is called, appropriately, "The Book of the Path" (Maggavagga).

In this essay I will give an overview of each of the five books. However, I will not summarize each of the 56 saṁyuttas, for that would make it far too long. For such summaries, see the lists of suttas on SuttaCentral, which include explanations of the various structural levels of the saṁyutta, as well as individual discourses. Here I will focus more on general questions of content and interpretation.