Kharādiya — Book of the Ones · Chapter Two (Sīlavagga) · Poem 5 of 10
Setting
No narrative scene in the canonical verse itself
Speaker
Unspecified in the canonical verse itself
Form
One four-line stanza, exchanging two short statements
Length
Under 1 minute to read
Northern parallel
This reading guide does not assert a specific matching text for this poem in other Buddhist literatures.
Difficulty
★☆☆☆☆☆ — unusually compressed, with a genuine textual dispute
Why this text
Sujato's own comment identifies this poem as deliberately paired with the next (Ja 16) — composed together despite different meters, sharing terms, ideas, and poetic play — and flags a genuine dispute with the traditional commentary over whether a key word names an animal or a person.
Reading guide
Giving up on an unteachable pupil
The verse presents two short statements: an offer — ‘please accept the eight-hooved ass, the deer more wily than the wily’ — met with a refusal: ‘he has skipped the appointment seven times — I'll make no effort to instruct him.’ Per Sujato's comment, the story tells how the Bodhisatta declared a deer unteachable after it failed to show up for lessons on the ruses of deer, seven times running.
A genuine dispute over one word's meaning
Sujato's comment flags real disagreement with the traditional commentary here: where the commentary reads ‘kharādiye’ as a vocative address to ‘Kharādiyā’, the name of the Bodhisatta's own sister, Sujato instead reads ‘khara’ as ‘ass, mule’ and ‘ādiye’ as a verb form meaning ‘you should accept’ — giving two genuinely different readings of who or what is actually being discussed.
Deliberately composed as a pair with the next poem
Sujato's comment states directly that this poem and the next (Ja 16) ‘form a pair’ — though written in different meters, the ‘prevalence of shared terms, ideas, and poetic play shows they must have been composed together.’ This reading guide notes the connection here and reprises it on the following page.
A cross-linked theme of animal ruses
The theme of deer employing deceptive tricks to survive connects to already-completed pages on this site: Sujato's comment on the next verse's imagery points to MN 51 and AN 8.13, both of which discuss animal cunning and deceptive ruses in ways that illuminate this pair of poems.
Key terms
kharādiye — read by the traditional commentary as a vocative address to the Bodhisatta's sister Kharādiyā, but by Sujato as “you should accept the ass” — see the guide above.
vaṅkātivaṅkinaṁ — “more wily than the wily” — describing the deer's cunning, possibly meant as praise rather than criticism, per Sujato's comment.
sattahi kālātikkantaṁ — “he has skipped the appointment seven times” — the specific reason given for abandoning the pupil.
Kharādiyajātaka — the traditional title of this tale, ‘Accept the Ass’.
Ja 16 — the next poem in this chapter, which Sujato's own comment identifies as deliberately composed as a pair with this one.
The text
The text in full: a single verse, with a genuine interpretive dispute discussed above. Translation: Bhikkhu Sujato (CC0, SuttaCentral).
§1“Please accept the eight-hooved ass, the deer more wily than the wily.” “He has skipped the appointment seven times—I’ll make no effort to instruct him.”
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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
What does Sujato's comment say about this poem's relationship to the next poem, Ja 16?
Correct: C. Sujato's comment states they 'must have been composed together'.
Question 2 of 10
What genuine dispute does Sujato's comment raise about the word 'kharādiye'?
Correct: D. The traditional commentary and Sujato's own reading genuinely diverge here.
Question 3 of 10
Why, per the commentarial story, does the Bodhisatta refuse to instruct the deer?
Correct: A. 'I'll make no effort to instruct him' — a direct, terse refusal.
Question 4 of 10
What does Sujato's comment suggest 'more wily than the wily' might actually be, despite sounding critical?
Correct: B. Connecting to the theme of animal cunning discussed further at Ja 16.
Question 5 of 10
What lessons was the deer supposed to attend, per the commentarial story?
Correct: C. Directly connecting to the pair's shared theme, developed further in Ja 16.
Question 6 of 10
What already-completed pages on this site does the theme of animal ruses connect to?
Correct: D. Both discuss animal cunning in ways that illuminate this pair of poems.
Question 7 of 10
What is this poem's traditional title?
Correct: A. The fifteenth poem overall, and the fifth of the Sīlavagga.
Question 8 of 10
What form does this verse take?
Correct: B. Unusually compressed even for this collection's typically terse verses.
Question 9 of 10
Where does this poem sit in the collection's own chapter structure?
Correct: C. Part of the same ten-poem Sīlavagga, immediately preceding its deliberately paired companion.
Question 10 of 10
How does the traditional commentary read 'khara' in 'kharādiye'?
Correct: D. Differing from Sujato's own preferred reading of 'khara' as 'ass, mule'.
