Belaṭṭhānika — The Book of the Ones · Chapter Eleven · Poem 1 of 10
Setting
No narrative setting; a critical description of incomplete renunciation
Speaker
An unnamed voice describing, in the third person, someone who has gone forth without being transformed by it
Form
One four-line verse, closing on a simile shared with an earlier poem
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
★★☆☆☆ — plain vocabulary, one vivid image
Why this text
Chapter Eleven opens not with a declaration but a warning: someone who has ‘given up the household life, but is far from perfect’, lazy and living for his belly, compared to a hog stuffed with grain, ‘reborn again and again’. Its closing two lines are word for word identical to Thag 1.17 (Dāsaka), much earlier in this collection.
Reading guide
Renunciation without transformation
Anavositatto, ‘not yet accomplished’ or ‘far from perfect’, sets the verse's terms immediately after describing the outward act of going forth: leaving the household life is not, by itself, the same as completing the path. What follows — mukhanaṅgalī (‘one who uses his snout as a plow’), odariko (‘big-bellied’), kusīto (‘lazy’) — describes ordination that changed a person's robes but not their habits.
The same hog, two chapters apart
Mahāvarāhova nivāpapuṭṭho, punappunaṁ gabbhamupeti mando, this verse's closing two lines, match Thag 1.17 exactly, word for word. The two verses reach the same image by different roads, though: Thag 1.17 built up to it through drowsiness and gluttony — sleeping, turning over in bed — while this verse arrives at the same hog through belly-attachment and a distinctly unpleasant image of its own, a snout used as a plow. Only the shared punchline is identical; each verse's own path to it differs.
Key terms
gihitta — “household life, lay life” — what has been given up, though not enough by itself.
anavosita — “not yet accomplished, imperfect” — an (negation) plus avosita (‘completed, accomplished’).
mukhanaṅgalī — “one who uses his snout as a plow” — a vivid image unique to this verse, not shared with Thag 1.17.
mahāvarāha — “great hog, great boar” — the shared image closing both this verse and Thag 1.17.
manda — “dullard, slow-witted” — the verse's final word for the person it describes.
The text
The text in full: one verse, with no separate attribution line in this chapter. Translation: Bhikkhu Sujato (CC0, SuttaCentral).
§1He’s given up the household life, but is far from perfect. Living for his belly, lazy, he uses his snout as a plow, like a great hog stuffed with grain. That dullard is reborn again and again.
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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 this verse say about the person it describes, despite having given up household life?
Correct: A. Anavositatto, the verse's key qualifying word.
Question 2 of 10
What earlier poem in this collection does this verse's closing two lines match, word for word?
Correct: B. Mahāvarāhova nivāpapuṭṭho, punappunaṁ gabbhamupeti mando, identical in both.
Question 3 of 10
Do the two verses reach this shared image the same way?
Correct: D. Only the closing couplet is identical; each verse's own path to it differs.
Question 4 of 10
What does 'mukhanaṅgalī' describe?
Correct: A. A vivid image unique to this verse.
Question 5 of 10
What does 'anavosita' mean?
Correct: B. An (negation) plus avosita ('completed').
Question 6 of 10
According to the verse, what happens to this dullard?
Correct: A. Punappunaṁ gabbhamupeti mando, the verse's closing declaration.
Question 7 of 10
What does 'kusīta' mean?
Correct: D. Describing the person's habits despite having gone forth.
Question 8 of 10
What kind of verse is this, according to this reading guide?
Correct: C. A warning rather than a declaration, opening the chapter.
Question 9 of 10
What does 'mahāvarāha' mean?
Correct: D. The image shared with Thag 1.17.
Question 10 of 10
What chapter does this poem open?
Correct: C. The first of ten poems in this new chapter.
