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Saṅgīti Sutta

The thirty-third sutta of the Dīghanikāya (D.iii.207 ff), taught at Ubbhataka, the new Mote Hall of the Mallā of Pāvā. They had invited the Buddha to consecrate it by teaching there, and this he did until late into the night. Then, seeing that his audience wished for more, he asked Sāriputta to continue the teaching while he himself rested. Sāriputta therefore taught the Saṅgīti Sutta, at the end of which the Buddha expressed his great appreciation of Sāriputta’s exposition.

This sutta, like the Dasuttara Sutta, is arranged in a new plan — which is regularly followed in the Aṅguttaranikāya — of grouping the points or chief items brought forward, numerically, in arithmetical progression — in this case 1 to 10. This scheme is a kind of thematic index to the doctrines scattered through the four Nikāyas.

The Sarvāstivādins held this Sutta in high esteem, and included it (under the name of Sangītipariyāya) among the seven books constituting their Abhidhamma Piṭaka. The Tibetan recensions attribute the Sutta to Mahā-Koṭṭhika. See Takākusu’s article on the Sarvāstivādins (J.P.T.S. 1904‑5).

The sutta treats of the ten conditions (dasadhammā) in much the same way as the Puggalapaññatti deals with the ten individuals (dasapuggalā).