Taṇḍulanāṭi — Book of the Ones · Chapter One (Apaṇṇakavagga) · Poem 5 of 10
Setting
A brief two-voice exchange, unlike this chapter's mostly single-voice verses
Speaker
Horse traders asking a question, and the king (or, per the verse alone, an unnamed valuer) answering
Form
One four-line stanza in two matched halves
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 exchange, with an interesting textual ambiguity
Why this text
Unlike most of this chapter's poems, this verse is a two-voice exchange, not a single aphoristic statement — and Sujato's own comment flags a genuine ambiguity in who is actually speaking the foolish valuation, since the verse itself, read alone, points to a different speaker than the traditional commentary does.
Reading guide
A dialogue about absurdly wrong valuation
Horse traders, whose 500 horses have been valued at a single cup of rice, ask the king directly: what is a cup of rice actually worth, for pricing horses? The answer given is deliberately absurd: a cup of rice is valued at the whole city of Varanasi, suburbs included — the verse's way of dramatizing a wildly, comically wrong price.
A genuine ambiguity about who is speaking
Per Sujato's comment, the traditional prose story attributes the foolish valuation to a king's professional valuer, not the king himself. But taken on its own, without that commentarial framing, the verse appears to have the king himself giving the answer — a case where reading the bare canonical verse in isolation produces a genuinely different picture than the traditional story built around it.
A historical note on valuation practices
Sujato's comment also observes that the importance of correct valuation is attested in other ancient texts, including detailed breakdowns in works such as the Arthaśāstra — situating this brief comic verse within a real, documented ancient concern with getting prices right.
Key terms
nāḷikā — “cup” — literally a tube of bamboo; per Sujato's comment, a standard unit sufficient for a modest serving of rice.
assāna mūlāya — “for the pricing of horses” — the question the horse traders put to the king.
Bārāṇasiṁ santarabāhirantaṁ — “Varanasi with its suburbs” — the deliberately absurd valuation given for a single cup of rice.
Taṇḍulanāḷijātaka — the traditional title of this tale, ‘A Cup of Rice’.
Arthaśāstra — an ancient treatise on statecraft and economics, cited in Sujato's comment for its own detailed valuation breakdowns.
The text
The text in full: a single verse in two matched halves, with a comment flagging a genuine ambiguity about who speaks the second half, discussed above. Translation: Bhikkhu Sujato (CC0, SuttaCentral).
§1“Speak, o king: what value has a cup of rice for the pricing of horses?” “He values a cup of rice at Varanasi with its suburbs!”
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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 form does this verse take, unlike most of this chapter's other poems?
Correct: A. Horse traders asking a question, answered in the verse's second half.
Question 2 of 10
What do the horse traders ask about?
Correct: B. Their own 500 horses had been valued as a single cup of rice.
Question 3 of 10
What deliberately absurd valuation does the verse give for a cup of rice?
Correct: C. Dramatizing a wildly, comically wrong price.
Question 4 of 10
What ambiguity does Sujato's comment flag about this verse?
Correct: D. The traditional story names a valuer, but the bare verse alone appears to have the king himself speaking.
Question 5 of 10
What does the traditional (non-canonical) commentarial story attribute the foolish valuation to?
Correct: A. Differing from what the bare verse alone appears to suggest.
Question 6 of 10
What ancient text does Sujato's comment cite for its own detailed valuation practices?
Correct: B. Situating this verse's comic scenario within a real ancient concern with correct pricing.
Question 7 of 10
What is a 'nāḷikā', per Sujato's comment?
Correct: C. Confirmed by comparison with another already-completed text on this site, SN 3.13.
Question 8 of 10
What is this poem's traditional title?
Correct: D. The fifth poem in the Apaṇṇakavagga.
Question 9 of 10
Where does this poem sit in the collection's own chapter structure?
Correct: A. Part of the same ten-poem opening chapter.
Question 10 of 10
What broader point does this verse illustrate through its comic exaggeration?
Correct: B. A cup of rice priced as an entire city dramatizes just how wrong a valuation can be.
