Since organizing teachings by number is the hallmark of the Aṅguttara Nikāya, it comes as no surprise to see this pattern repeated in the Book of the Elevens at AN 11.17, AN 11.22–29, and AN 11.502–981.

“Knowing form” (rūpaññū ) means being able to keep track of the herd by reckoning or recognizing them. A better translation would be “appearance”, but I use “form” for consistency. | “Ford” (tittha) is a way across the river. | “Spreads smoke” (dhūmaṁ kattā) is the traditional practice of warding off flies and other pests by burning cow dung, etc. | “Satisfy” (pīta) is less literal than “drink”, but clarifies the simile later on.

A tittha (“ford”) is a path to salvation, usually used of non-Buddhist religions, whose founders are “ford-makers” (titthakāra).

“Inheritors of the heritage” is āgatāgamā, where āgama means “what has come down”, namely the scriptural heritage. Āgama is a synonym for nikāya in the sense of “collection of scripture”. | The “outlines” (mātikā, literally “matrix”) are the summary outlines of topics that served as seeds for the development of Abhidhamma. DN 16:3.50.5 features one of the earliest of such lists, the 37 path factors that the Buddha “taught from his own direct knowledge”. These serve as outline for the section on the path in the Saṁyutta, from where they were adopted in various Abhidhamma texts such as the Vibhaṅga.

This plays on the similarity of pīta (“to have drunk, to have found satisfaction”) and pīti (“rapture, joy”); see also Snp 2.3:5.1.

See SN 47.6 .