Rohiṇī — Book of the Ones · Chapter Five (Atthakāmavagga) · 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, closing this chapter's 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
★☆☆☆☆☆ — a grim companion to Ja 44, with a genuine textual puzzle
Why this text
This poem closes the five-poem refrain sequence begun at Ja 41 with a tale strikingly similar to the previous poem's — a well-meaning act of care, misapplied, causing exactly the death it was meant to prevent — and Sujato's comment flags a specific word in the opening line that even the traditional commentary cannot satisfactorily explain.
Reading guide
A second version of the same tragic pattern
The verse restates the proverb once more: ‘better is an intelligent foe than a foolish sympathizer’ — then delivers its own grim proof: ‘see that wretched Rohinī, grieving after killing her mother.’ Per Sujato's comment, this tale is ‘similar to the previous story’: a servant girl kills her mother with a pestle while trying to rid her of flies.
A word even the tradition itself struggles with
Sujato's comment flags a specific difficulty: the opening word ‘yañce’ is ‘hard to explain’, with the traditional commentary offering ‘several options, none of which are terribly convincing’. Sujato's own suggestion is that it might be ‘an old corruption’ of a phrase used in the previous poem, ‘na tveva’ — an honest acknowledgment that not every textual puzzle in this collection has a fully satisfying answer.
Key terms
seyyo amitto medhāvī — “better is an intelligent foe” — this poem's version of the chapter's closing proverb pair (shared with Ja 44).
bālānukampako — “a foolish sympathizer” — the disqualified alternative, echoing Ja 44's 'inconsiderate friend'.
yañce — an opening word Sujato's comment describes as “hard to explain”, possibly an old corruption of ‘na tveva’ from the previous poem.
Rohiṇijātaka — the traditional title of this tale, named for the servant girl at its center.
Ja 44 — the previous poem, sharing both this poem's proverb structure and its underlying pattern of well-meaning harm.
The text
The text in full: a single verse, closing this chapter's refrain sequence, with a genuine textual puzzle discussed above. Translation: Bhikkhu Sujato (CC0, SuttaCentral).
§1Better is an intelligent foe than a foolish sympathizer. See that wretched Rohinī, grieving after killing her mother.
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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 the verse's opening proverb state?
Correct: A. Closing the chapter's refrain sequence with a variant of Ja 44's own proverb.
Question 2 of 10
What does Rohinī do, per the verse and Sujato's comment?
Correct: B. A well-meaning act of care causing exactly the death it was meant to prevent.
Question 3 of 10
How does Sujato's comment describe this tale's relationship to the previous poem, Ja 44?
Correct: C. Both poems share the pattern of good intentions applied without proportion or judgment.
Question 4 of 10
What specific word does Sujato's comment say is 'hard to explain'?
Correct: D. An honest acknowledgment that not every textual puzzle has a fully satisfying answer.
Question 5 of 10
What does Sujato's own comment suggest 'yañce' might be?
Correct: A. A tentative, honestly-flagged hypothesis rather than a confident claim.
Question 6 of 10
What does the traditional commentary offer for this word's meaning?
Correct: B. A rare case where the comment openly notes the limits of available scholarship.
Question 7 of 10
What is this poem's traditional title?
Correct: C. The forty-fifth poem overall, and the fifth and final poem of this chapter's refrain sequence.
Question 8 of 10
What tool does Rohinī use, per the underlying story?
Correct: D. Meant to swat away flies, with fatal results.
Question 9 of 10
Where does this poem sit in the collection's own chapter structure?
Correct: A. Five poems remain in this ten-poem chapter after this one.
Question 10 of 10
What does the verse call Rohinī, describing her state after the killing?
Correct: B. The poem does not treat her harshly as a villain, but as someone grieving a tragic accident.
