Dutiyavaḍḍhisutta — Saññāvagga — the seventh chapter of the Fives
Setting
None stated; the discourse continues from AN 5.1, whose setting at Sāvatthī in Jeta’s Grove is understood to hold
Speakers
The Buddha alone, addressing the mendicants
Form
AN 5.63's formula restated with feminine grammatical forms throughout, closing with a matching verse
Length
~30 seconds to read
Northern parallel
This reading guide does not assert a specific matching sutra number for this variant beyond the parallel already noted at AN 5.63
Difficulty
★☆☆☆☆ — brief, and worth noticing for what its existence as a separate discourse implies
Why this discourse
This discourse could, in principle, not exist: nothing about AN 5.63's content requires restating for it to apply equally to a woman. That the collection produced it anyway — a full, separate discourse in feminine grammatical form, ariyasāvikā rather than a masculine default silently covering both — is itself worth reading as a deliberate choice, not an accident of transmission.
Reading guide
The teaching in one sentence
A female noble disciple who grows in faith, ethics, learning, generosity, and wisdom grows nobly, taking on what is essential and excellent in this life.
Every substantive claim in this discourse matches AN 5.63 exactly — the same five items, the same outcome, the same closing image of taking hold of what is essential. What changes is thorough and consistent: ariyasāvikā for ariyasāvako, sārādāyinī varādāyinī for sārādāyī varādāyī, feminine forms replacing masculine ones throughout both the prose and the closing verse.
What this pairing implies about the collection's assumptions
A tradition confident that a masculine grammatical form automatically covered women as well would have had no reason to produce this discourse at all. Its existence suggests the opposite assumption was at least sometimes operative: that a teaching aimed explicitly and separately at women mattered enough to be composed and preserved as its own discourse, not folded silently into the male version.
Upāsikā, named directly in the verse
The closing verse names its subject sīlavatī upāsikā, a virtuous laywoman, rather than only repeating ariyasāvikā. This gives the discourse's subject a concrete social identity — not an abstract disciple in either gender, but specifically a laywoman practicing in the world, matching AN 5.63's parallel use of a general term for its own subject.
Read against AN 5.55, earlier in this chapter
This discourse and AN 5.55's account of a mother, a son, and a stark warning about women sit in the same chapter, only nine discourses apart. This reading guide does not attempt to resolve the tension between them into a single, tidy statement about how this collection regards women; both discourses are genuinely present in the text, addressed to different concerns, and a reader doing this material justice should hold both rather than letting one silently stand for the whole.
Key terms
ariyasāvikā — “female noble disciple” — the feminine grammatical form used throughout this discourse, paired deliberately with AN 5.63's masculine ariyasāvako.
sārādāyinī varādāyinī — “taking hold of what is essential and excellent” — the feminine form of AN 5.63's closing image, otherwise unchanged.
sīlavatī upāsikā — “virtuous laywoman” — the closing verse's concrete social identity for its subject, paralleling AN 5.63's own general term.
vaḍḍhi — “growth” — the same frame as AN 5.63, unchanged between the two discourses.
saddhā sīla suta cāga paññā — “faith, ethics, learning, generosity, wisdom” — the identical five items, now the fifth appearance of this list in this nipāta.
The text
The discourse in full: the five kinds of growth for a female noble disciple, closing with a matching verse. Translation: Bhikkhu Sujato (CC0, SuttaCentral).
§1“Mendicants, a female noble disciple who grows in five ways grows nobly, taking on what is essential and excellent in this life. What five? She grows in faith, ethics, learning, generosity, and wisdom. A female noble disciple who grows in these five ways grows nobly, taking on what is essential and excellent in this life.
The closing verse
§2She who grows in faith and ethics, wisdom, and both generosity and learning—a virtuous laywoman such as she takes on what is essential for herself in this life.”
· · ·
Self-check quiz
Ten questions. Click an answer to see immediate feedback. No score is recorded — this is for your own checking.
Question 1 of 10
How does this discourse's content compare to AN 5.63's?
Correct: B. A thorough, consistent grammatical restatement, not a content change.
Question 2 of 10
What does the guide say the existence of this discourse, as a separate text, implies?
Correct: B. A deliberate choice worth reading as such, not an accident of transmission.
Question 3 of 10
What term does the closing verse use for this discourse's subject?
Correct: B. Matching AN 5.63's parallel use of a general term for its own subject.
Question 4 of 10
How does the guide handle the tension between this discourse and AN 5.55's earlier material in the same chapter?
Correct: B. An honest acknowledgment that the collection contains material in real tension, without forcing false resolution.
Question 5 of 10
What five items does this discourse name for growth?
Correct: B. Identical to AN 5.63's list, the same items met four times earlier in this nipāta.
Question 6 of 10
How many times has this five-item list now appeared in this nipāta, counting this discourse?
Correct: C. AN 5.40, 5.46, 5.47, 5.63, and now AN 5.64.
Question 7 of 10
Does this discourse offer a closing verse, like AN 5.63?
Correct: B. A parallel structure to AN 5.63 throughout, including the closing verse.
Question 8 of 10
What word replaces 'ariyasāvako' throughout this discourse?
Correct: B. The consistent feminine grammatical substitution running through the whole discourse.
Question 9 of 10
What comes next in this chapter after this pair of growth discourses?
Correct: B. The chapter moves on to the AN 5.17–20 set, newly reframed.
Question 10 of 10
Where is AN 5.64 set?
Correct: B. Consistent with the default setting used throughout this nipāta when nothing new is stated.
