Dabba — The Book of the Ones · Chapter One · Poem 5 of 10
Setting
No narrative setting; a short verse with a closing attribution
Speaker
An unnamed voice describing Dabba, naming him twice within the verse itself
Form
One four-line verse, with a closing attribution note
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
★☆☆☆☆ — a compact before-and-after portrait, stacking several attainment epithets
Why this text
This verse opens with compression: ‘once hard to tame, now tamed himself’ packs an entire transformation into a single line, before piling on further epithets — content, doubt overcome, victorious, fears vanished, steadfast — naming Dabba by name twice within his own four lines.
Reading guide
A name spoken inside its own verse, not only in the attribution
Unlike Mahākoṭṭhita's or Revata's verses, which name their subject only in the closing attribution line, this verse says ‘Dabba’ twice within its own four lines — once mid-verse, once at the close — making his identity part of the verse's own content, not just its editorial frame.
A whole transformation compressed into one line
‘Once hard to tame, now tamed himself’ states an entire before-and-after arc in four words each side — no narrative detail about how the taming happened, only the fact of the change itself.
Synonyms stacked for a single attainment
The verse's remaining lines pile up near-synonymous descriptions of the same state — content, doubt overcome, victorious, fears vanished, steadfast, fully quenched — a formulaic accumulation rather than a single fresh image, typical of several short verses in this opening chapter.
Key terms
duddamiya — “hard to tame” — describing Dabba's state before, in the verse's very first word.
danta — “tamed” — the direct contrast completing the verse's opening before-and-after line.
vitiṇṇakaṅkha — “doubt crossed over” or “doubt overcome” — one of several near-synonymous attainment terms stacked in this verse.
vijitāvī — “victorious” — describing Dabba once his fears have vanished.
parinibbuta — “fully quenched” or “fully extinguished” — the verse's final and strongest term, closing its list of attainment epithets.
The text
The text in full: one verse, with its closing attribution. Translation: Bhikkhu Sujato (CC0, SuttaCentral).
§1Once hard to tame, now tamed himself; clever, content, with doubt overcome; victorious since his fears have vanished: Dabba is steadfast, and has become fully quenched.
§2That is how this verse was recited by the senior venerable Dabba.
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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
How many times is Dabba named within his own four-line verse?
Correct: A. Once mid-verse, once at the close.
Question 2 of 10
What does the verse's opening line describe?
Correct: C. An entire transformation compressed into one line.
Question 3 of 10
Does the verse explain how Dabba's taming happened?
Correct: B. Compression, not narrative detail.
Question 4 of 10
What is the verse's final and strongest attainment term?
Correct: D. The closing word of the verse's stacked epithets.
Question 5 of 10
How does this verse's naming pattern differ from Mahākoṭṭhita's or Revata's verses earlier in this chapter?
Correct: C. Identity built into the verse's own content here.
Question 6 of 10
What does 'vitiṇṇakaṅkha' mean?
Correct: B. One of the stacked attainment terms in this verse.
Question 7 of 10
What single word opens this verse?
Correct: C. The verse's opening word, describing Dabba's earlier state.
Question 8 of 10
What kind of poem is this, in terms of its structure?
Correct: B. Typical of several short verses in this opening chapter.
Question 9 of 10
Is Dabba described as still fearful in this verse?
Correct: D. Named directly before the verse calls him victorious.
Question 10 of 10
What closes this verse?
Correct: A. The same closing formula used across the collection.
