The Pali Vinaya Pitaka divides into three parts. The Suttavibhanga sets out the rules of the Patimokkha, the code recited communally by monks and separately by nuns, together with detailed explanations of each rule's scope and exceptions. The Khandhaka covers monastic procedure more broadly: ordination, the rains retreat, robes, dwellings, and how the community should resolve disputes and disciplinary cases among its own members.
The Parivara is a later summary and study aid, organizing the preceding material for teaching purposes. What distinguishes the Vinaya from the doctrinal sutras collected elsewhere in the canon is its case-law structure: nearly every rule in the Patimokkha is introduced not as an abstract instruction but through a narrative explaining the specific incident, usually some monk's conduct causing offense or difficulty, that is said to have prompted the Buddha to establish that particular rule, making the text as much a record of a community working out its own discipline through lived incident as a fixed legal code handed down complete. The most serious offenses, grouped as parajika, carry permanent expulsion from the monastic community, while lesser categories call for confession, temporary suspension of standing, or simple acknowledgment before one's fellow monastics, a graduated structure reflecting the code's origin in resolving real disputes rather than in abstract legislation.