Tissa — The Book of the Ones · Chapter Ten · Poem 7 of 10
Setting
A retrospective account of exchanging precious bowls for a clay one
Speaker
Tissa (2nd), in the first person
Form
One four-line verse, closing on an unexpected reframing
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 striking word choice
Why this text
Tissa gives up a valuable bronze bowl and a precious golden one, taking instead a bowl made of clay — and calls the exchange his ‘second initiation’ (dutiya abhiseka), a word ordinarily used for a formal consecration or royal anointing. What sounds like impoverishment is described in the language of ascension.
Reading guide
Renunciation reframed as coronation
Abhiseka is the standard word for a formal consecration ceremony, traditionally associated with anointing a king. Applying it here, to taking up a plain clay alms bowl in place of bronze and gold, inverts the word's usual direction: instead of ascending to worldly power, the verse frames going forth into monastic poverty in the vocabulary of royal ceremony.
A first consecration, implied but never described
Calling this exchange his ‘second’ consecration implies a first one happened, but the verse says nothing about what it was. This reading guide does not speculate about Tissa's prior life — whether the phrase points to an actual earlier ceremony or is simply a rhetorical framing for the verse's own effect — since nothing in the text or any surviving comment settles the question.
Bronze, gold, then clay
The verse itemizes its materials with unusual specificity for this collection: satapala kaṁsa (‘a hundred-pala bronze bowl’, pala being a unit of weight), a golden one, and finally mattikāpatta (‘a bowl made of clay’). Most verses in this collection deal in general images rather than itemized possessions; this one names its objects precisely before setting them aside.
Key terms
kaṁsa — “bronze” — the material of the first bowl given up.
sovaṇṇa — “golden” — the material of the second bowl given up.
mattikāpatta — “a bowl made of clay” — mattikā (‘clay’) plus patta (‘bowl’), what was taken up instead.
abhiseka — “consecration, anointing” — ordinarily associated with a royal ceremony, applied here to taking up the clay bowl.
dutiya — “second” — the ordinal marking this as not Tissa's first such consecration.
The text
The text in full: one verse, with no separate attribution line in this chapter. Translation: Bhikkhu Sujato (CC0, SuttaCentral).
§1Giving up a valuable bronze bowl, and a precious golden one, too, I took a bowl made of clay: this is my second initiation.
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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 two precious materials does the verse say Tissa gave up?
Correct: A. Satapalaṁ kaṁsaṁ and sovaṇṇaṁ satarājikaṁ, the verse's first two objects.
Question 2 of 10
What did Tissa take up instead?
Correct: C. Mattikāpattaṁ, the verse's third object.
Question 3 of 10
What word does the verse use to describe this exchange, and what does it ordinarily mean?
Correct: B. A word usually associated with ascending to worldly power, applied here in reverse.
Question 4 of 10
Does the verse describe what Tissa's 'first' consecration was?
Correct: B. This reading guide does not speculate about Tissa's prior life.
Question 5 of 10
How does this verse's level of detail about objects compare to most other verses in this collection?
Correct: A. A hundred-pala bronze bowl, a golden one, and a clay one, named precisely.
Question 6 of 10
What does 'kaṁsa' mean?
Correct: A. The material of the first bowl given up.
Question 7 of 10
What does 'mattikāpatta' mean?
Correct: C. Mattikā ('clay') plus patta ('bowl').
Question 8 of 10
What does 'dutiya' mean?
Correct: D. The ordinal marking this as not Tissa's first such consecration.
Question 9 of 10
What effect does calling this exchange a 'consecration' have, according to this reading guide?
Correct: D. The word's usual direction is inverted.
Question 10 of 10
Where does this poem fall in Chapter Ten?
Correct: D. Immediately after Khaṇḍasumana's verse.
