Gatha | Sentence Translation | Sentence Structure
Vocabulary&Grammar | Commentary | Pronunciation

List of Abbreviations

# yo dandena adandesu appadutthesu dussati

# dasannam abbataraj thanaj khippam eva nigacchati

# (DhP 137)

Sentence Translation:

Who offends with a stick somebody who is uncorrupted and without violence,
he will quickly go to one of the ten states:
[continued in DhP 138]

Sentence Structure:
List of Abbreviations

yo dandena a+dandesu a+ppadutthesu dussati
| | | | | | |
Rel.Pron.m. N.m. neg. Adj.m. neg. Adj.m. V.act.in.
Nom.Sg. Ins.Sg. | Loc.Pl. | Loc.Pl. 3.Sg.pres.
| | |____| |_____| |
| | |__________| |
| |____________|_________________|
|__________________|
|__________________________________________________

List of Abbreviations

dasannam abbataraj thanaj khippam eva nigacchati
| | | | | |
Num. Adj.n. N.n. Adv. part. V.act.in.
Gen.Pl. Acc.Sg. Acc.Sg. |_____| 3.Sg.pres.
|____________| | |________|
|______________| |
|____________________|
________________________|

Vocabulary and Grammar:
List of Abbreviations

yo: yad-, Rel.Pron.: that which. Nom.Sg.m. = yo.

dandena: danda-, N.m.: stick, club, punishment. Ins.Sg. = dandena.

adandesu: adanda-, Adj.: without a stick, without violence. It is the word danda- (see above) negated by the negative prefix a-. Loc.Pl.m. = adandesu.

appadutthesu: apaduttha-, Adj.: uncorrupted, not spoilt. It is the word paduttha-, Adj. (a p.p. of the verb dus-, to become bad or damaged, preceded by the strengthening prefix pa-) with the negative prefix a-. Euphonic combination: a- + paduttha- = appaduttha-. Loc.Pl.m. = appadutthesu.

dussati, V.: offends against, does wrong to. The verb root is dus- (to become bad or damaged). 3.Sg.act.in.pres. = dussati.

List of Abbreviations

dasannam: dasa-, Num.: ten. Gen.Pl. = dasannam.

abbataraj: abbatara-, Pron./Adj.: one of a number, some, certain. Acc.Sg.n. = abbataraj.

thanaj: thana-, N.n.: place, condition, state. It is derived from the verb root tha- (to stay).
Acc.Sg. = thanaj.

khippam, Adv.: quickly. It is derived from the word khippa-, Adj.: quick, fast.

eva, part.: just.

nigacchati, V.: to come to. It is the verb root gam- (to go) and the prefix ni- (down, to).
3.Sg.act.in.pres. = nigacchati.

List of Abbreviations

This verse consists of two dependent sentences. They are:
1) yo dandena adandesu appadutthesu dussati (who offends with a stick somebody who is uncorrupted and without violence). The subject is the relative pronoun yo (who, nominative singular). The verb is dussati (offends, 3rd person, singular, active, indicative, present tense). It has an attribute, the noun dandena (with a stick, instrumental singular). The two objects are the adjectives adandesu (amongst those without violence, locative plural) and appadutthesu (amongst those who are uncorrupted, locative plural).
2) dasannam abbataraj thanaj khippam eva nigacchati (he will quickly go to one of the ten states). The subject is omitted; the verb implies the third person singular pronoun. The verb is nigacchati (goes to, 3rd person, singular, active, indicative, present tense). It has an attribute, the adverb khippam (quickly) that is further modified by the particle eva (just). The object is the noun thanaj (to place, accusative singular). It has an attribute, the adjective/pronoun abbataraj (to one, to some; accusative singular). This word has further an attribute, the numeral dasannam (from the ten, genitive plural).

Commentary:

Some ascetics were planning to kill Venerable Moggallana because they thought that the Buddha and his teaching would be hurt by this action. So they hired a group of killers who surrounded the cave where Moggallana was staying. But he used his supernatural powers and escaped. The killers did not give up but were pursuing him around the clock. After three months Moggallana realized that he had to get caught as a consequence of one bad deed he committed in one of his previous life. Although he was an Arahant and did not create any new karma, he was still reaping fruit of his actions before he reached the Awakenment.
So he let himself to be caught and the killers beat him up. When they thought he was dead, they left him in a forest and went away. But Moggallana was still alive, used his supernatural powers to revive himself for a short time and went to pay his respects to the Buddha. He told the Buddha what happened and the Buddha asked him to teach the Dharma to all the monks for one last time. Moggallana did so and died soon after that.
The king ordered an investigation, caught the killers and executed them. The monks asked the Buddha how was it possible that Moggallana was killed like that. The Buddha told them a story from Moggallana previous life.
Once he was a son of blind parents. At the beginning he was a very good son, treating them well. But after he got married, his wife hated his parents and induced him to kill them. Moggallana took his parents to the forest and beat them to death, while pretending that some robbers were actually killing them. For this deed he had to die himself in his very last existence at the end of killers, beaten up to death.

Sentence pronunciation:

Sentence pronunciation

Word pronunciation:

yo
dandena
adandesu
appadutthesu
dussati
dasannam
abbataraj
thanaj
khippam
eva
nigacchati