Bherivādaka — Book of the Ones · Chapter Six (Āsīsavagga) · Poem 9 of 10
Setting
A road home from a festival, after a successful day of earnings
Speaker
The drummer, addressing his own son
Form
One four-line stanza, opening this chapter's final matched pair
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 proverb with an embedded second meaning
Why this text
This poem opens the last of this chapter's five matched pairs with a memorable onomatopoetic refrain, and Sujato's comment uncovers a wordplay hiding beneath its literal warning: the same word used for the earnings lost can also mean ‘the good, the true’, quietly widening the proverb's reach well beyond drumming.
Reading guide
Excess undoing what moderation had earned
The verse gives its own refrain: ‘blow, blow, don't overblow, for overblowing is bad. By blowing a hundred was gained, by overblowing it was lost.’ Per Sujato's comment, a drummer and his boy earned money playing at a festival, but on the return journey the boy's incessant, excessive drumming attracted the attention of bandits, undoing their whole day's profit.
A word doing double duty beneath the surface
Sujato's comment notes that ‘sataṁ’ (explained literally as ‘a hundred dollars’) carries a second sense at the same time: ‘the good, the true’. The proverb's warning about excess ruining earned gain quietly widens, through this single word, into a warning about excess ruining any good thing at all.
An instrument, and an onomatopoetic verb, in creative tension
Sujato's comment also observes that while the story and title speak of a ‘drum’ (bheri), the verse itself uses ‘dhamati’, which normally means ‘blows’ — the repeated idiom recalling an onomatopoetic Sanskrit root, applied here to percussion rather than the wind instrument it would more naturally describe, in a playful mismatch the translation's own choice of ‘blow’ preserves.
Key terms
dhame dhame nātidhame — “blow, blow, don't overblow” — the verse's onomatopoetic refrain, shared word for word with the next poem, Ja 60.
sataṁ — “a hundred”, per Sujato's comment carrying a second sense at once: “the good, the true”.
dhamati — “blows” — the verb the verse uses for the boy's drumming, per Sujato's comment normally describing a wind instrument rather than a drum.
Bherivādakajātaka — the traditional title of this tale, ‘The Drummer’.
Ja 60 — the next poem, closing this chapter with the identical opening refrain applied to a different instrument and family member.
The text
The text in full: a single verse, opening this chapter's final matched pair. Translation: Bhikkhu Sujato (CC0, SuttaCentral).
§1Blow, blow, don’t overblow, for overblowing is bad. By blowing a hundred was gained, by overblowing it was lost.
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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 boy's excessive drumming cause, per Sujato's comment?
Correct: C. Excess turning a successful day's earnings into a loss.
Question 2 of 10
What second meaning does Sujato's comment identify for 'sataṁ' (a hundred)?
Correct: D. Quietly extending the poem's warning about excess to any good thing at all, not just earnings.
Question 3 of 10
What mismatch does Sujato's comment note between the story's title and the verse's own vocabulary?
Correct: A. A playful mismatch the English translation's own choice of 'blow' preserves.
Question 4 of 10
What refrain does this poem open, shared with the next poem, Ja 60?
Correct: B. Opening this chapter's final matched pair.
Question 5 of 10
How did the drummer and his son earn money, per the underlying story?
Correct: C. Successful earnings later undone on the return journey home.
Question 6 of 10
What specifically drew the bandits' attention?
Correct: D. The very excess the proverb warns against.
Question 7 of 10
What is this poem's traditional title?
Correct: A. The fifty-ninth poem overall, and the ninth of the Āsīsavagga, opening its fifth and final matched pair.
Question 8 of 10
Where does this poem sit in the collection's own chapter structure?
Correct: B. The second-to-last poem of this ten-poem chapter.
Question 9 of 10
Who speaks this verse, addressing whom?
Correct: C. A father's warning, delivered too late to prevent the loss.
Question 10 of 10
What broader lesson does this poem's wordplay on 'sataṁ' suggest?
Correct: D. A single word quietly widening the proverb's reach.
