Nanda — Book of the Ones · Chapter Four (Kulāvakavagga) · Poem 9 of 10
Setting
A son and a trusted family servant, standing at a hidden location
Speaker
The son, working out the meaning behind the servant's odd behavior
Form
One four-line stanza
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
★☆☆☆☆☆ — a genuine riddle requiring the comment to unpack
Why this text
This tale hinges on a genuinely clever piece of behavioral reading: a servant's odd, hostile behavior is not what it first appears, and Sujato's comment unpacks exactly how a coded curse reveals the very information it seems to be hiding.
Reading guide
A son's suspicion, and a riddle solved through inference
The verse gives the son's own reasoning: ‘I suspect the heap of gold and golden chains is where the house-born slave Nandaka stands yelling curses.’ Per Sujato's comment, before his death the father had entrusted only his servant Nanda with the location of his buried wealth, fearing his young wife would waste the inheritance on a new man rather than pass it to her son. When the servant arrives at the location with the heir, conceit leads him to curse rather than simply reveal the treasure — but his very presence and hostility at that specific spot gives the location away.
The real motivation hidden inside an insult
Sujato's comment adds a further layer: having served the father since birth, Nanda was addressed as ‘my dear’ and even ‘uncle’, treated almost as family. His curse against the young wife and son — calling the son ‘you bastard son of a slave girl’ — reveals, per the comment, his real resentment: not simple loyalty being tested, but a servant who felt he deserved more standing than he was given, and who is finally saying so, however indirectly.
Key terms
sovaṇṇayo rāsi — “heap of gold” — the buried inheritance the son is trying to locate.
āmajāto — “house-born” — per Sujato's comment, from a Vedic root meaning ‘house’, though the traditional commentary explains it as ‘with consent’.
thullāni gajjati — “stands yelling curses” — the servant's own hostile behavior, which paradoxically gives away the treasure's location.
Nandajātaka — the traditional title of this tale, named for the servant Nanda.
tāta / mātula — “my dear” and “uncle” — the affectionate, near-familial terms the servant was traditionally addressed with, per Sujato's comment, making his eventual resentment more pointed.
The text
The text in full: a single verse, requiring Sujato's comment to unpack its riddling logic, discussed above. Translation: Bhikkhu Sujato (CC0, SuttaCentral).
§1I suspect the heap of gold and golden chains is where the house-born slave Nandaka stands yelling curses.
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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 information did the father entrust only to his servant Nanda, per Sujato's comment?
Correct: C. Fearing his young wife would waste the inheritance rather than pass it to her son.
Question 2 of 10
How does the son ultimately work out the treasure's location?
Correct: D. The very location of Nanda's outburst gives away what he seems to be trying to withhold.
Question 3 of 10
Why, per the comment, does Nanda curse instead of simply revealing the treasure?
Correct: A. Revealed further by the specific insult he directs at the son and his mother.
Question 4 of 10
What insult does Nanda direct at the son, per the comment?
Correct: B. Revealing his real feelings toward the young wife and her son.
Question 5 of 10
How was Nanda traditionally treated by the family, per Sujato's comment?
Correct: C. Making his eventual resentment and hostile outburst more pointed.
Question 6 of 10
What does Sujato's comment say about the term 'āmajāto'?
Correct: D. One of several philological notes threaded through this chapter's comments.
Question 7 of 10
What is this poem's traditional title?
Correct: A. The thirty-ninth poem overall, and the ninth of the Kulāvakavagga, named for the servant.
Question 8 of 10
Why did the father specifically fear entrusting the location to his young wife?
Correct: B. The underlying motive for the father's unusual arrangement with his servant instead.
Question 9 of 10
Where does this poem sit in the collection's own chapter structure?
Correct: C. The second-to-last poem of this ten-poem chapter.
Question 10 of 10
What makes this poem's central riddle distinctive among this chapter's other poems?
Correct: D. A different kind of cleverness from this chapter's animal fables — psychological rather than purely moral.
