A commentarial work included in the Canon as part of the Khuddaka Nikáya. It is generally divided into two books: the Culla-Niddesa and the Mahá Niddesa.
The Culla Niddesa contains comments on the Khaggavisána Sutta and the sixteen suttas of the Paráyana Vagga of the Sutta Nipáta, while the Mahá Niddesa deals with the sixteen suttas of the Atthaka Vagga.
It is significant that the Culla Niddesa contains no comments on the fifty six (Vatthugáthá) introductory stanzas, which preface the Paráyana Vagga as at present found in the Sutta Nipáta. This lends support to the suggestion that at the time the Culla Niddesa was written the Paráyana Vagga, was a separate anthology, and that the Khaggavisána Sutta did not belong to any particular group. Similarly with the Mahá Niddesa and the Atthaka Vagga.
The comments in the Niddesa seem to have been modeled on exegetical explanations such as are attributed here and there in the Pitakas to Mahá Kaccána (E.g., Madhupindika Sutta (M.i.110f); also S.iii.9) and to Sáriputta (E.g., Sangití Sutta, D.iii.207f).
There is a tradition (NidA. p.1), which ascribes the authorship of the Niddesa to Sáriputta. There exists a Commentary on it, called the Saddhammapajjotiká, by Upasena. It was written in Ceylon at the request of a monk called Deva Thera.