The Sutta Piñaka is the second division of the Tipiñaka, the sacred scriptures of Buddhism, the other parts being the Vinaya Piñaka and the Abhidhamma Piñaka. The Sutta Piñaka contains the discourses of the Buddha and some by his disciples and is made up of five books or nikàyas Ý the Long Discourses or Dãgha Nikàya, the Middle Length Discourses or Majjhima Nikàya, the Connected Discourses or Saüyutta Nikàya, the Numbered Discourses or Aïguttara Nikàya and the Small Discourses or Khuddaka Nikàya. These discourses were committed to memory by monks and nuns and sometimes even by lay men and women, and orally transmitted for several hundred years after the Buddha's passing. Historical records say that the suttas were written down in the 1st century BCE in Sri Lanka, although they had probably already been committed to writing earlier in India. See Oral Transmission.