Losaka — Book of the Ones · Chapter Five (Atthakāmavagga) · Poem 1 of 10
Setting
No narrative scene in the canonical verse itself
Speaker
Unspecified in the canonical verse itself
Form
One four-line stanza, opening a five-poem refrain sequence
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
★☆☆☆☆ — one short verse, part of a formulaic sequence
Why this text
This poem opens a run of five consecutive poems (Ja 41–45) sharing an identical two-line opening refrain — about ignoring the advice of someone who genuinely wants your good — each completed by a different, increasingly specific illustrative comparison. This chapter's very structure is worth noticing before reading any single poem within it.
Reading guide
A refrain that will repeat across the next four poems
The verse opens: ‘one who does not follow advice when instructed by an ally who desires their good...’ — a couplet that recurs, word for word, at the opening of Ja 42, 43, and in modified form at 44 and 45. Only the second half changes each time, supplying a different example of what happens to someone who ignores good counsel.
This poem's own absurd example
Here the illustration is deliberately strange: ‘grieves like Mittaka hanging off a goat's foot.’ Per Sujato's comment, the full explanation of how Mittaka (also called Mittavindaka, or Losaka Tissa in a later life) came to be in that position is ‘absurd and too complex to relate here’ — the comment notes this collates several archetypal scapegoat stories, using absurdity for humorous effect while still subsuming the tale under the doctrine of kamma. His troubles, per the comment, trace back across many lives to an act of jealousy toward an arahant.
Key terms
atthakāmassa hitānukampino — “an ally who desires their good” — the figure whose advice, ignored, sets up each poem's consequence, giving this whole chapter its name.
Mittaka / Mittavindaka / Losaka Tissa — per Sujato's comment, three names for the same figure across different points of his story — his past-life name, his more common name, and his name in the present-life story.
ajiyā pādamolamba — “hanging off a goat's foot” — the poem's own deliberately strange central image.
Losakajātaka — the traditional title of this tale, opening the Atthakāmavagga.
scapegoat archetype — an ancient mythic and ritual pattern that, per Sujato's comment, this tale's absurd events draw on and recast under the doctrine of kamma.
The text
The text in full: a single verse, opening a five-poem refrain sequence. Translation: Bhikkhu Sujato (CC0, SuttaCentral).
§1One who does not follow advice when instructed by an ally who desires their good, grieves like Mittaka hanging off a goat’s foot.
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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 this poem's opening refrain share with the next several poems?
Correct: A. Only the second half of each poem changes, supplying a different illustrative example.
Question 2 of 10
What image completes this particular poem's refrain?
Correct: B. A deliberately strange, absurd image per Sujato's own comment.
Question 3 of 10
What three names does Sujato's comment give for this poem's central figure?
Correct: C. His past-life name, his more common name, and his name in the present-life story.
Question 4 of 10
What does Sujato's comment say about the full explanation of the goat's-foot detail?
Correct: D. The comment instead explains the broader pattern the story draws on.
Question 5 of 10
What ancient pattern does Sujato's comment say this tale's absurd events collate?
Correct: A. Using absurdity for humorous effect while still fitting within Buddhist doctrine.
Question 6 of 10
What does the comment say is the root cause, across many lives, of Mittaka's troubles?
Correct: B. His bad character, as much as his bad kamma, resulted in a series of extravagant tragedies.
Question 7 of 10
What chapter does this poem open?
Correct: C. This collection's fifth ten-poem chapter.
Question 8 of 10
What is this poem's traditional title?
Correct: D. The forty-first poem overall, and the first of the Atthakāmavagga.
Question 9 of 10
What tone does Sujato's comment attribute to this tale's absurdity?
Correct: A. Drawing on surreal, fantastical narratives associated with Vedic ritual, reframed under kamma.
Question 10 of 10
Where does this poem sit in the collection's own chapter structure?
Correct: B. Opening this collection's fifth ten-poem chapter, and its first refrain sequence.
