The Buddha alone, addressing the assembled mendicants
Form
A paired fivefold list, undesirable and desirable factors given in direct contrast
Length
~1 minute to read
Northern parallel
A rough counterpart may exist in the Chinese Saṃyukta-āgama (T99), though this reading guide does not assert a specific matching sutra number
Difficulty
★☆☆☆☆ — brief, but worth reading alongside its own mirror discourse before drawing conclusions
Why this discourse
This discourse opens Mātugāmasaṃyutta (“Linked Discourses on Women”), Book IV's own third saṃyutta, 34 discourses across three vaggas. Read on its own, this opening discourse could look like an assessment of women purely by their usefulness to men — attractive, wealthy, ethical, capable, and fertile as desirable; their absence as undesirable. But this project reads it alongside its own immediate mirror, SN 37.2, which applies the identical five factors to men and their desirability to women, word for word. This vagga's own closing uddāna (met at SN 37.14) explicitly labels the whole vagga “kaṇhapakkhe pakāsito” — “declared on the dark side” — naming its own moral register up front and implying a bright counterpart is still to come.
Reading guide
Five factors, stated once and directly contrasted
Attractiveness, wealth, ethical conduct, industriousness (the opposite of idleness), and fertility are named as a single package in both directions: their absence makes a woman “extremely undesirable,” their presence makes her “extremely desirable,” with no factor treated as more decisive than the others.
A discourse that only makes full sense with its own twin
This discourse's own account is symmetrical with SN 37.2's own account of men — the same five factors, the same structure, the same intensifiers — read together they describe a shared social logic of marriageability applied even-handedly to both parties, not a standard applied to women alone.
A vagga that names its own moral register
This vagga's own closing uddāna calls the whole collection “kaṇhapakkha” (the dark side, or side of black) — the text itself frames this material as one deliberate valence, implying (though not yet delivering) a paired bright side, sukkapakkha, still ahead in Dutiyapeyyālavagga.
A description of social conditions, not a doctrinal verdict
Nothing in this discourse claims these five factors determine anyone's spiritual worth or capacity for awakening; it describes what made someone marriageable in the social conditions the text assumes, a sociological observation this project presents descriptively rather than endorsing as the Buddha's own assessment of a person's ultimate value.
Key terms
mātugāma — “womenfolk,” literally “the village of mothers” — giving this saṃyutta its own name and this discourse its title, translated here as “a female” or “a lady”
appiyā... purisassa — “undesirable... to a man” — the discourse's own first fivefold condition
piyā... purisassa — “desirable... to a man” — the mirrored second fivefold condition, reversing every factor of the first
apajā — “doesn't beget children” — the fifth undesirable factor, reversed as fertility in the desirable list
kaṇhapakkhe pakāsito — “declared on the dark side” — the vagga's own closing self-description, met in full at SN 37.14, naming this collection's own moral register directly
The text
The complete discourse: the undesirable and desirable fivefold lists, given in direct contrast. Translation: Bhikkhu Sujato (CC0, SuttaCentral).
§1“Mendicants, when a lady has five factors she is extremely undesirable to a man. What five? She’s not attractive, wealthy, or ethical; she’s idle, and she doesn’t beget children. When a lady has these five factors she is extremely undesirable to a man. When a lady has five factors she is extremely desirable to a man. What five? She’s attractive, wealthy, and ethical; she’s deft and tireless, and she begets children. When a lady has these five factors she is extremely desirable to a man.”
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Self-check quiz
5 questions. Click an answer to see immediate feedback. No score is recorded — this is for your own checking.
Question 1 of 5
What five factors does this discourse name as making a woman either desirable or undesirable to a man?
Correct: A. Named as a single package in both directions, with no factor treated as more decisive than the others.
Question 2 of 5
Why does this reading guide caution against reading this discourse in isolation?
Correct: A. The two discourses read together describe a shared, even-handed social logic rather than a standard applied to women alone.
Question 3 of 5
What does this vagga's own closing uddāna (met at SN 37.14) call the whole collection?
Correct: A. The text itself names its own moral register and implies a bright counterpart still to come in the next vagga.
Question 4 of 5
Does this discourse claim these five factors determine a person's spiritual worth?
Correct: A. A sociological observation about social conditions, presented descriptively rather than as a doctrinal verdict on worth.
Question 5 of 5
What does "mātugāma," this saṃyutta's own name, literally mean?
Correct: A. Giving both this discourse and the entire saṃyutta its own title.
