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Cariyapitaka · Story 17

Mātaṅga’s Conduct

Mātaṅga Cariyā — The Chapter on an Elephant · The Perfection of Ethics (7th of 10)

Setting
No external narrative frame; the Buddha speaks in the first person about his past life as the ascetic Mātaṅga, living upstream on the Ganges from another brahmin
Speaker
The Buddha, recounting his life as Mātaṅga
Form
Six four-line verses of first-person narration
Length
under 1 minute to read
Northern parallel
Mātaṅga is the subject of his own jātaka in the wider tradition; this reading guide does not assert a specific matching number.
Difficulty
★★☆☆☆ — short, closing on nearly the same formula as Cp 16

Why this text

A brahmin curses Mātaṅga's head to split in seven, unprovoked, simply for having seen his hermitage. Mātaṅga could answer with a glance powerful enough to reduce the man to ashes — and instead does something closer to Cp 16's Ruru than to open confrontation: he frees his attacker from the very curse that attacker spoke against him.

Reading guide

A curse with no provocation given

The brahmin's abuse is not a response to anything Mātaṅga has done; wandering the riverbank, he simply sees the hermitage upstream and curses its occupant — the story gives no grievance behind the words, only the words themselves.

A power stated, then set aside

As in several of this chapter's other stories, the text names the power being withheld directly: ‘if I were not taking care of my ethics, then just with a glance I could have reduced him to ashes.’ The power is real; the restraint is a choice.

A curse that turns back on its speaker

The story does not simply have the curse fail; it describes the curse recoiling ‘right back on his own head’ — and Mātaṅga's response to that is not satisfaction at the brahmin's comeuppance but action: ‘I freed him from that yoke.’

The same closing couplet as Cp 16

This story closes with almost the identical formula that closed Ruru's story immediately before it: ‘I guarded my ethics, not my life. For then I was ethical, because it was solely for awakening’ — a shared refrain marking both stories as variations on the same underlying commitment.

Key terms

sīla — “ethics” or “precepts” — the perfection this story illustrates, the seventh of ten stories on this theme.
jaṭila — a “matted-hair ascetic” — the description given of Mātaṅga at this story's opening.
Ganges — the river along whose banks both Mātaṅga and the cursing brahmin live, upstream and downstream of each other.
cariyā — “conduct” — this collection's title, and the word used for each of its thirty-five stories, this one its seventeenth.
bodhi — “awakening” — named as the reason for Mātaṅga's restraint in the story's closing verse, shared word for word with Cp 16.

The text

The text in full: six verses of first-person narration. Translation: Bhikkhu Sujato (CC0, SuttaCentral).

§1“Then again when I was a matted-hair ascetic of severe penance, Mātaṅga was my name, I was virtuous and serene.

§2A brahmin and I both lived on a bank of the Ganges. I stayed upstream, the brahmin downstream.

§3Wandering along the riverbank, he saw my hermitage upstream. Then he abused and cursed me, that my head would split in seven.

§4If I were upset with him and if I were not taking care of my ethics, then just with a glance I could have reduced him to ashes.

§5But when he cursed me then, so angry and bitter-hearted, it fell right back on his own head: I freed him from that yoke.

§6I guarded my ethics, not my life. For then I was ethical, because it was solely for awakening.”

· · ·

Self-check quiz

Ten questions. Click an answer to see immediate feedback. No score is recorded — this is for your own checking.

Question 1 of 10
What provokes the brahmin to curse Mātaṅga?
Correct: B. The story gives no grievance behind the curse, only the words themselves.
Question 2 of 10
What does the brahmin's curse threaten?
Correct: B. A specific, violent curse, unprovoked.
Question 3 of 10
What power does Mātaṅga say he could have used against the brahmin?
Correct: B. Named directly, then deliberately set aside.
Question 4 of 10
What happens to the curse the brahmin speaks?
Correct: B. The curse turns back on its speaker.
Question 5 of 10
How does Mātaṅga respond once the curse recoils on the brahmin?
Correct: B. 'I freed him from that yoke' — action, not passive satisfaction.
Question 6 of 10
How does this story's closing formula relate to Cp 16's?
Correct: B. A shared refrain marking both stories as variations on the same commitment.
Question 7 of 10
What does 'jaṭila' describe?
Correct: B. Mātaṅga's identity at the story's opening.
Question 8 of 10
Where do Mātaṅga and the brahmin live relative to each other?
Correct: B. Mātaṅga upstream, the brahmin downstream.
Question 9 of 10
What perfection does this story illustrate?
Correct: B. Continuing the sequence of ten ethics-stories in this chapter.
Question 10 of 10
How is Mātaṅga's response distinct from merely enduring the curse?
Correct: B. Similar to Cp 16's Ruru, restraint that extends into active help for the wrongdoer.
Answered 0 of 10 · Correct 0

Further reading

← PreviousCp 16 · Ruru the Deer King’s Conduct