Reading guide
A critique delivered in the king's absence
Unlike every discourse from SN 3.1 through SN 3.8, Pasenadi is not present here at all — the report comes secondhand through mendicants, and the Buddha's response is addressed to no one in particular, an unprompted teaching occasioned by what he has been told rather than a reply to a direct question.
Suffering visible beneath a religious ceremony
The setting note does not describe the sacrifice's ritual significance but its human cost: bondservants and workers performing their tasks ‘under threat of punishment and danger, weeping with tearful faces’, framing the event through the suffering of those compelled to prepare it before any animal is named.
Named rites, judged by their violence
The Buddha's first stanza names several specific sacrificial rites — horse sacrifice, human sacrifice, the ‘casting of the yoke-pin’, the ‘royal soma drinking’, the ‘unimpeded’ — and judges all of them together as yielding ‘no great fruit’ specifically because they are ‘huge’ and ‘violent’, not because sacrifice as such is rejected.
A distinction the great sages themselves observe
The verses do not simply condemn ritual; they distinguish which sacrifices ‘the great sages of right comportment’ attend and which they avoid, based entirely on whether goats, sheep, and cattle are killed — the sages' own selective attendance modeling the distinction the teaching draws.
A bloodless alternative, still called sacrifice
The closing verse does not reject the category of sacrifice outright but redefines what counts as truly fruitful within it: a ‘clever person’ should sacrifice in the non-violent manner described, said to be abundant and pleasing even to the deities — keeping the practice's name while displacing its violent content.
Key terms
The text
§1At Sāvatthī. Now at that time a big sacrifice had been set up for King Pasenadi of Kosala. Bulls, bullocks, heifers, goats and rams—five hundred of each—had been led to the pillar for the sacrifice. His bondservants, servants, and workers did their jobs under threat of punishment and danger, weeping with tearful faces.
§2Then several mendicants robed up in the morning and, taking their bowls and robes, entered Sāvatthī for alms. Then, after the meal, when they returned from almsround, they went up to the Buddha, bowed, sat down to one side, and told him what was happening.
§3Then, understanding this matter, on that occasion the Buddha recited these verses: “Horse sacrifice, human sacrifice, the ‘casting of the yoke-pin’, the ‘royal soma drinking’, and the ‘unimpeded’—these huge violent sacrifices yield no great fruit.
§4The great sages of right comportment don’t attend sacrifices where goats, sheep, and cattle and various creatures are killed. But the great sages of right comportment do attend those sacrifices that are non-violent and propitious, where goats, sheep, and cattle, and various creatures are not killed.
§5A clever person should sacrifice like this, for this sacrifice is very fruitful. For a sponsor of sacrifices like this, things get better, not worse. Such a sacrifice is truly abundant, and even the deities are pleased.”
Self-check quiz
Ten questions. Click an answer to see immediate feedback. No score is recorded — this is for your own checking.