The second "book," or collection, of the Sutta Pitaka, containing discourses of medium length.
It consists of eighty bhānavāras and is divided into three sections of fifty suttas each (Pannāsa), the last pannāsa containing fifty two suttas.
At the First Council the duty of learning the Majjhima Nikāya and of handing it down intact was entrusted to the "school" of Sāriputta (DA.i.15).
Buddhaghosa wrote a commentary to the Majjhima Nikāya, which is called the Papańca Sūdanī, and Sāriputta of Ceylon wrote its tīkā.
The Majjhima Nikāya was also called the Majjhima Sangīti (E.g., MA.i.2; MT.193, 305).
When the Sāsana (Buddhism) disappears, the Majjhima predeceases the Digha Nikāya. MA.ii.881.