The "Numbered" or "Numerical" Discourses are generally known as Aṅguttara Nikāya in Pāli, abbreviated AN. However, the Pāli tradition is also known as the Ekottara (“one above” or “incremental”), that is, the Incremental Collection, and this is the form generally found in northern collections. These collections organize the texts in numbered sets, from one to eleven. Compared to the other nikāyas, they are more oriented towards the lay community. The Ekottarikāgama (EA) in Chinese is a highly unusual text, featuring a variety of variations on itself even when it comes to basic doctrines. It has much less in common with the Aṅguttara in Pāli than the other collections have with their counterparts. Additionally, there is a partial Ekottarikāgama in Chinese, as well as a variety of individual discourses and fragments in Chinese and Sanskrit.
In the first two books, the Ones and the Twos, we have a very interesting feature. Not in very readable material, as it was never intended to be read as a readable book. We do not find lists called Mātikās, or watercourses, that is, figuratively speaking, channels along which the oral teaching would flow; that is, headings for speech. These would probably have been written on thin metal plates long before any attempt was made to write the speeches themselves. Such writing material, plates, or also letters carved on rocks, did not lend itself well to expansion.