Ukkhepakatavaccha — The Book of the Ones · Chapter Seven · Poem 5 of 10
Setting
Sitting comfortably, teaching a group of householders
Speaker
A voice describing Vaccha in the third person
Form
One four-line verse
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
★☆☆☆☆ — straightforward once the third-person voicing is noticed
Why this text
Unlike the mostly first-person poems around it, this verse describes its own subject entirely in the third person: ‘Vaccha has tossed away what he built over many years’, then pictures him ‘sitting comfortably, uplifted with joy’, teaching householders. Even the monk's own name records that same act of tossing away.
Reading guide
A name that repeats the verse's own action
Ukkhepakata, ‘has tossed away’, is joined directly to Vaccha, the clan name already seen three times in Chapter Two (Cūḷavaccha, Mahāvaccha, Vanavaccha) — but here disambiguated not by a size-prefix (‘little’, ‘great’, ‘forest’) but by an epithet describing the very deed the verse itself narrates.
Third person, without a named narrator
The verse never says who is speaking or watching Vaccha teach — it simply reports what he did and how he now sits, joined to the Theragātha's convention that each poem is nonetheless attributed to its own subject as speaker, the same convention already seen with Siṅgālapitā's assessment of another monk in Chapter Two.
What was 'built over many years', left unspecified
The verse doesn't say what Vaccha accumulated and then discarded — property, views, habits, or something else entirely. What the verse insists on is only the act itself, and the joy that followed it.
Key terms
ukkhepakata — “has tossed away” or “cast off” — joined directly to this monk's own name.
saṅkalitaṁ — “what was accumulated” or “built up” — the object of that tossing away, left unspecified.
gahaṭṁ — “householders” — those Vaccha is described teaching.
uḷārapāmojjo — “uplifted with joy” — describing Vaccha's state while teaching.
Vaccha — a clan name shared with three monks already covered in Chapter Two: Cūḷavaccha, Mahāvaccha, and Vanavaccha.
The text
The text in full: one verse, with no separate attribution line in this chapter. Translation: Bhikkhu Sujato (CC0, SuttaCentral).
§1Vaccha has tossed away what he built over many years. Sitting comfortably, uplifted with joy, he teaches this to householders.
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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
In what grammatical person is this verse written?
Correct: D. An account of Vaccha, rather than a self-declaration.
Question 2 of 10
What does the verse say Vaccha has done?
Correct: B. The act his own name also records.
Question 3 of 10
What does the name Ukkhepakatavaccha mean?
Correct: D. The name repeats the verse's own content, joined to the Vaccha clan name.
Question 4 of 10
What clan name does Vaccha share with three monks already covered in Chapter Two?
Correct: A. Disambiguated here by an action epithet rather than a size-prefix.
Question 5 of 10
According to the verse, what is Vaccha doing while he teaches?
Correct: A. A settled, joyful state accompanying his teaching.
Question 6 of 10
Who is Vaccha described as teaching?
Correct: B. Gahaṭṭhānaṁ, 'householders'.
Question 7 of 10
According to this reading guide, does the verse specify what Vaccha 'built over many years' and then discarded?
Correct: C. Only the act and its resulting joy are insisted on.
Question 8 of 10
What earlier poem in this collection does this reading guide compare this verse's third-person voicing to?
Correct: A. Another instance of a poem attributed to its subject while describing him in the third person.
Question 9 of 10
Where does this poem fall in Chapter Seven?
Correct: C. Poem 5 of 10.
Question 10 of 10
What does 'saṅkalitaṁ' mean?
Correct: B. The object of Vaccha's tossing away, left unspecified by the verse.
