Part III - The Book of the Aggregates (Khandhavagga)

The Khandhavagga, The Book of the Aggregates, continues along the trail of philosophical exposition opened up by The Book of Causation, but this time breaking into another major area of early Buddhist discourse, the five aggregates. Like its predecessor, the Khandhavagga is named after its opening saṃyutta, which dominates the entire collection. Though the Vagga contains thirteen saṃyuttas, none of the minor ones even approaches the length of the Khandhasaṃyutta, which in the PTS edition takes up 188 of the 278 pages in this volume. But even more, within this Vagga three minor saṃyuttas—SN 23, 24, and 33—focus on the aggregates as their point of interest. These chapters seem to be offshoots from the original Khandhasaṃyutta which at some point were broken off and made into autonomous saṃyuttas. Thus the theme of the five aggregates leaves its stamp throughout this whole collection.