Mahāsupina — Book of the Ones · Chapter Eight (Varuṇavagga) · Poem 7 of 9
Setting
King Pasenadi's court, per Sujato's comment
Speaker
Unspecified in the canonical verse itself, cataloging the king's sixteen dreams
Form
Two stanzas (seven lines total) in three different metres, plus a one-line prose addendum
Length
2 minutes to read
Northern parallel
This reading guide does not assert a specific matching text for this poem in other Buddhist literatures. Readers may notice this site's own AN 5.196 shares the title ‘The Great Dreams’, but that text concerns an entirely different set of five dreams, the Buddha's own before his awakening — not this story.
Difficulty
★★★☆☆ — the longest, densest poem in this site's Jātaka selection, cataloging sixteen distinct images across three metres
Why this text
This is the longest and most structurally complex poem in this site's Jātaka selection — sixteen dream-omens of a world turned upside down, each depicting a reversal of the natural or moral order, catalogued across seven lines in three different metres, with the Buddha's own reassurance that none of it threatens the dreamer personally.
Reading guide
King Pasenadi's sixteen dreams, and the Buddha's reassurance
Per Sujato's comment, King Pasenadi is perturbed by sixteen dreams, but the Buddha assures him that these do not affect him personally — they are portents of times to come, not personal threats. Each dream depicts an inversion or perversion of the just order of things: young saplings flower out of season; the weak nurse the strong instead of the reverse; ordinary vessels overflow while fine ones sit empty.
Cataloguing the sixteen inversions
The verse moves rapidly through its catalogue: four snorting black bulls depart without fighting; sapling trees flower; cows suckle at their own newborn calves; oxen are unyoked and calves given the reins; a horse eats from two mouths; people beg a jackal to defecate in a fine goblet; a she-jackal eats a rope as it is being spun; people pour water into an already-full pitcher; a lotus-pond is muddy in the middle yet clear at its edges; rice will not cook; people barter sour milk for sandalwood; pumpkins sink while stones float; frogs swallow black snakes; a crow is surrounded by golden geese (the text itself reads ‘phoenix’, per Sujato's comment, though the commentary reads ‘golden’, explained as golden royal geese); and a wolf trembles in fear of sheep.
The verse's own unusual structure, and a title this site shares but does not repeat
Sujato's comment notes the verse has seven lines, each pair using a different metre — opacchandasaka, then vetālīya, then tuṭṭhubha for the last three lines — and closes with a one-line prose addendum, ‘no perversion of reality is happening here for me’, which reads as a reassurance formula for anyone troubled by bad dreams generally, not only Pasenadi's own. Sujato's comment offers no confirmed cross-reference for this poem elsewhere; readers searching this site should note that AN 5.196, also titled ‘The Great Dreams’, is an entirely different text — the Buddha's own five dreams before his awakening, not King Pasenadi's sixteen.
Key terms
Vipariyāso vattati nayidha matthi — “no perversion of reality is happening here for me” — the verse's closing prose addendum, read as a general reassurance formula.
suvaṇṇarājahaṁsa — “golden royal geese” — the commentary's own reading of a word the text itself gives as ‘phoenix’ (supaṇṇa), surrounding the dream's crow.
opacchandasaka, vetālīya, tuṭṭhubha — the three different metres Sujato's comment identifies across this verse's seven lines, unusual density even within this collection.
Mahāsupinajātaka — the traditional title of this tale, ‘Sixteen Great Dreams’.
AN 5.196 — this site's already-completed page sharing the English title ‘The Great Dreams’, but concerning an entirely different set of dreams — not a parallel to this poem, despite the shared title.
The text
The text in full: two stanzas, seven lines total, in three different metres, closing with a one-line prose addendum. Translation: Bhikkhu Sujato (CC0, SuttaCentral).
§2frogs swallow black snakes; golden swans surround a crow; the wolf trembles for fear of the sheep.” No perversion of reality is happening here for me.
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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
Who is troubled by sixteen dreams, per Sujato's comment?
Correct: A. The dreams are his; the reassurance comes from the Buddha.
Question 2 of 10
What does the Buddha assure the king about these dreams?
Correct: B. A reassurance that separates the dreams' meaning from any personal danger.
Question 3 of 10
What single pattern do all sixteen dream-images share?
Correct: C. A catalogue of the world turned upside down, image after image.
Question 4 of 10
Which of these is one of the sixteen dream-images?
Correct: D. One of the more vivid inversions in the catalogue.
Question 5 of 10
What does the text itself read for the bird surrounding the crow, and what does the commentary read instead?
Correct: A. A textual variant Sujato's comment flags explicitly.
Question 6 of 10
How many different metres does Sujato's comment identify across this verse's seven lines?
Correct: B. Opacchandasaka, then vetālīya, then tuṭṭhubha for the last three lines.
Question 7 of 10
What does the verse's closing prose addendum say?
Correct: C. Read as a general reassurance formula for anyone troubled by bad dreams.
Question 8 of 10
What does this reading guide caution about AN 5.196, also titled 'The Great Dreams'?
Correct: D. A shared English title masking two unrelated texts — worth flagging explicitly.
Question 9 of 10
What is this poem's traditional title?
Correct: A. The seventy-seventh poem overall, and the seventh of the Varuṇavagga.
Question 10 of 10
How does this poem compare in length and structure to the others in this chapter?
Correct: B. Every other poem in this chapter is a single four-line stanza.
