Suvaṇṇasāma Cariyā — The Chapter With Yudhañjaya · The Perfection of Love (1st of 2)
Setting
No external narrative frame; the Buddha speaks in the first person about his past life as Sāma, a figure created by Sakka, living in a forest full of predators
Speaker
The Buddha, recounting his life as Sāma
Form
Three four-line verses of first-person narration
Length
under 1 minute to read
Northern parallel
A figure named Suvaṇṇasāma is the subject of his own jātaka in the wider tradition; this reading guide does not assert a specific matching number.
Difficulty
★☆☆☆☆ — a short, peaceful story opening the collection's penultimate theme
Why this text
This story opens the Cariyapitaka's chapter on loving-kindness with an image rather than a crisis: a figure created by Sakka lives surrounded by lions, tigers, leopards, bears, and the animals those predators would ordinarily hunt, all coexisting without fear — sustained, the text says, purely by the power of love.
Reading guide
An unusual origin, stated without elaboration
Sāma is described as ‘created by Sakka’, a detail the text does not explain further — a different kind of beginning than the births, ordinary or unusual, that open most of this collection's other stories.
Predator and prey together, without incident
The forest Sāma inhabits holds lions and tigers alongside leopards, bears, buffaloes, spotted deer, and wild boar — species that would ordinarily prey on one another, gathered in a single list with no predation described taking place.
Fearlessness stated as mutual, not one-directional
The text is specific about the relationship: ‘none were scared of me, nor I of them’ — loving-kindness here is not simply Sāma's own emotional state but a shared condition affecting how every creature in the forest related to every other.
A different kind of perfection story
Unlike nearly every other story in this collection, this one describes no test, no threat, and no decision under pressure — only a sustained condition, described directly as delightful rather than as an achievement won through struggle.
Key terms
mettā — “loving-kindness” — the perfection this story illustrates, the first of two stories on this theme, and the same central practice taught in Kp 9 and Snp 1.8, the Metta Sutta.
Sakka — king of the gods, described here as Sāma's creator, a detail unique to this story among this collection's many appearances of Sakka.
cariyā — “conduct” — this collection's title, and the word used for each of its thirty-five stories, this one its thirty-third.
Suvaṇṇasāma Jātaka — the fuller version of this story in the separate Jātaka tradition, not otherwise covered on this site.
Yudhañjaya-vagga — “the Chapter With Yudhañjaya” — this collection's third chapter, now in its penultimate theme.
The text
The text in full: three verses, opening the Cariyapitaka's chapter on loving-kindness. Translation: Bhikkhu Sujato (CC0, SuttaCentral).
§1“When in a wood I was Sāma the black, created by Sakka. I led the lions and tigers in the forest by love.
§2Surrounded by lions and tigers, leopards, bears, buffaloes, spotted deer, and wild boar, I stayed in the forest.
§3None were scared of me, nor I of them. Sustained by the power of love I delighted in the forest then.”
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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
How is Sāma's origin described in this text?
Correct: B. A different kind of beginning than most other stories in this collection.
Question 2 of 10
What kinds of animals does Sāma live among?
Correct: B. Predators and prey gathered in the same list, without incident.
Question 3 of 10
How does the text describe the fear between Sāma and the animals?
Correct: C. A shared condition, not one-directional.
Question 4 of 10
What does the text say sustains this peaceful coexistence?
Correct: B. Named directly as the sustaining force.
Question 5 of 10
How does this story differ structurally from most others in this collection?
Correct: A. Described as delightful rather than as an achievement won through struggle.
Question 6 of 10
What perfection does this story open, and how many stories does this chapter give it?
Correct: B. The fourth of the third chapter's five themes.
Question 7 of 10
What other texts on this site teach the same central practice named here?
Correct: B. The same practice of loving-kindness, in a very different form here.
Question 8 of 10
What role does Sakka play in this particular story, unique among this collection's other Sakka appearances?
Correct: B. Different from Sakka's usual role elsewhere in the Cariyapitaka.
Question 9 of 10
What perfection did the previous chapter section (Cp 27–32) cover?
Correct: B. Now followed by two stories on love.
Question 10 of 10
What perfection does this story illustrate?
Correct: B. Opening this chapter's final pair of stories before equanimity closes the collection.
