Gatha Sentence Translation Sentence Structure
Vocabulary&Grammar Commentary Pronunciation
                          List of Abbreviations

ekaj dhammaj atitassa musavadissa jantuno

vitinnaparalokassa natthi papaj akariyaj

(DhP 176)

Sentence Translation:

For the person, who has transgressed the one law (of truthfulness) and is speaking falsely,
and has rejected the other world, there is no evil that could not be done.

Sentence Structure:
List of Abbreviations

ekaj  dhammaj atitassa musa+vadissa  jantuno
|                |              |          |          |            |
Num.m.  N.m.     Adj.m.  Adv.  Adj.m.    N.m.
Acc.Sg. Acc.Sg.  Gen.Sg.     |    Gen.Sg.  Gen.Sg.
|_________|              |          |_____|             |
       |_____________|               |                  |

List of Abbreviations

vitinna+para+lokassa na        atthi      papaj  akariyaj
|              |         |        |            |             |             |
Adj.     Adj.    N.m.  neg.   V.act.in.    N.n.      Adj.n.
|              |    Gen.Sg.  |     3.Sg.pres. Nom.Sg. Nom.Sg.
|              |_____|        |_______|             |_______|
|___________|                  |_______________|
_____|                                           |

Vocabulary and Grammar:
List of Abbreviations

ekaj: eka-, Num.: one. Acc.Sg.m. = ekaj.

dhammaj: dhamma-, N.m.: here not as the Dharma (Buddha's Teaching), but rather in its more general meaning: law. Acc.Sg. = dhammaj.

atitassa: atita-, Adj.: overstepped, transgressed. It is a p.p. of the verb root i- (to go) with the prefix ati- (over). Gen.Sg.m. = atitassa.

musavadissa: musavadin-, Adj.: lying, speaking falsely. It is a compound of:
    musa, Adv.: falsely, wrongly.
    vadin-, Adj.: speaking. It is derived from the verb root vad- (to speak) with the possessive suffix -in.
Gen.Sg.m. = musavadissa.

jantuno: jantu-, N.m.: being, person, man. Gen.Sg. = jantuno.

List of Abbreviations

vitinnaparalokassa: vitinnaparaloka-, Adj.: who has rejected the other world. It is a compound of:
    vitinna-, Adj.: abandoned, rejected. It is a p.p. of the verb root tar- (to cross) with the prefix vi- (over).
    para-, Adj.: different, other.
    loka-, N.m.: world.
Gen.Sg.m. = vitinnaparalokassa.

na, neg.: not.

Euphonic combination: na + atthi = natthi.

papaj: papa-, Adj.: evil, wrong. Nom.Sg.n. = papaj.

akariyaj: akariya-, Adj.: what could not be done. It is the word kariya-, V.grd.: what could be done, with the negative prefix a-. Nom.Sg.n. = akariyaj.

List of Abbreviations

    The subject of this sentence is the noun papaj (evil, nominative singular) with its attribute, the adjective akariyaj (that could not be done, nominative singular). The verb atthi (is, 3rd person, singular, active, indicative, present tense) is negated by the negative particle na (not). The object is the noun jantuno (for the person, genitive singular). It has three attributes. First of them is the compound vitinnaparalokassa (for the one, who has rejected the other world, genitive singular). The second one is the compound musavadissa (for the one, who has rejected the other world, genitive singular). The last one is the past participle atitassa (for the one, who has transgressed, genitive singular). It has an attribute, the word dhammaj (law, accusative singular) and this word has the numeral ekaj (one, accusative singular) as an attribute.


    The Buddha did not have only admirers and devotees. Some other teachers hated him for being so famous and for taking many disciples away from them. One such teacher instigated a beautiful young girl, a pupil of his, to ruin the Buddha's fame.
    The girl, named Cibca Manavika, would go towards the Jetavana monastery in the evening and return early in the morning, claiming she spent the night with the Buddha. After several months of this behavior, she started wrapping cloth around her stomach. She added more and more cloth to create an impression she was pregnant. Finally she went to the monastery to confront the Buddha. She accused him of making her pregnant and not caring about her. The Buddha told her not to lie, but she would just repeat her statements.
    Just then Sakka, the king of gods, sent some rats to bit off the strings of the cloth the girl had wrapped around her body. It fell off and her deceit was uncovered. People started to reprimand her and she ran away in shame. Later she died due to an accident.
    The next day some monks were discussing this story and the Buddha replied them with this verse, saying that lying is the first step towards all kinds of evil deeds.
    He also told them, that Cibca Manavika was a king's consort in one of her previous lives. She fell in love with a crown prince, but the young man did not respond to her love. She harmed herself and accused the prince of making advances to her and when she refused, he harmed her. The king was very angry and exiled his son immediately. Later he found out the truth and punished the evil woman.

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