Search for Suttas by Vol/Page

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Some articles and books refer to Pali Suttas by volume and page.
Does SuttaCentral’s search bar support searching by Vol/Page?
I’ve tried things like “MN ii 211”, “MN 2 211” but it doesn’t work.

Any suggestion to quickly lookup a Sutta by vol/page in SuttaCentral?

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You should be able to do this through the advanced search, however it seems to be broken now. @blake can you look at this?

Personally I don’t like the whole “advanced search” idea, it is primitive. You should be able to get the vol/page reference just through the normal search, but so far we can’t do that.

For myself, I find the “advanced search” clumsy and slow, and it’s faster to just go to the relevant division and scroll down.

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i hope this isn’t an inappropriate place to put this - i wanted to create a new topic under Feedback but when i clicked the “New” button the site said something confusing like, “there are no more topics available”…but that’s not my issue. that’s just an explanation of why i’m posting this here.

my issue is that i find the “Sutta Numbering” section confusing. it says, for example,

In the first two nipātas of AN the PTS numbering recognises three levels of grouping (for nipāta, vagga, sutta).
 In such cases we follow the widely accepted practice of dispensing with
 the second level. This involves applying a simple mechanical principle,
 illustrated in the following examples:
AN 1.1.6 becomes AN 1.6
AN 1.8.1 becomes AN 1.71
AN 2.2.9 becomes AN 2.19

i’m bewildered. the AN 1.1.6 example is clear, but how does removing the 8 from 1.8.1 give 1.71? i’d expect it to give 1.1. likewise, plucking the 2 out of the center of 2.2.9 in a logical universe would yield 2.9 - not 2.19.

what does it all mean??

thank you…

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It is indeed confusing. There are different numbering systems in existence and we just need to work with that.
You can see the alternate numbers in the subdivision lists in square brackets behind the numbers we use, like for instance in https://suttacentral.net/an1

With regards to your example: 1 is subtracted from the second number, so:
1.8.1 becomes 1.(8-1).1 becomes 1.71
2.2.9 becomes 2.(2-1).9 becomes 2.19
etc.

Basically, the second level now starts with 0 instead of 1.

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thank you - i begin to see a little more clearly. i knew there were alternate numbering systems and just tried to put that out of my mind. :grin: but the Sutta Numbering section says we “dispense with” the second level of the number, which is something entirely different from reducing it by one.

then, with your illumination, i see how 2.2.9 becomes 2.19, but wouldn’t following that pattern make 1.8.1 into 1.79?

or is it just that there is no AN 1.79? (i don’t have my print copy of the AN with me and can find it very difficult to locate things in it anyway - i’ve not yet grasped how the AN is laid out. which i suddenly realize may well be feeding into my problem with all this…

and my copy (Bhikkhu Bodhi’s translation) may use yet another numbering system anyway!

oy… :confused:

thank you!

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You just have to reduce the second number by one and add the third number to it without the dot in between: so in 1.8.1, the 8 becomes 7 so you get 1.7.1 and minus the dot it becomes 1.71. :slightly_smiling:

Indeed, these alternative numbering systems drive me crazy too sometimes.

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:smile: well it’s good to know I’m not the only one!

thank you very much for the further clarification, Vimala. it really did clarify! :anjal: