Vasabha — The Book of the Twos · Chapter One · Poem 10 of 10
Setting
No narrative setting; two four-line verses closing Chapter One, followed in the Pali by an untranslated chapter colophon and mnemonic verse
Speaker
Vasabha, closing the chapter with two distinct teachings
Form
Two four-line verses, without a translated attribution, followed by the chapter's own untranslated structural close
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
★★☆☆☆ — two distinct images, plus a chapter's own structural close
Why this text
Vasabha closes Chapter One with two separate teachings: a hunting image where self-harm becomes bait for harming others, and a claim that a brahmin's true color is worn on the inside — addressed, without explanation, to Sujampati, an epithet for Sakka — followed in the Pali text by this chapter's own colophon and ten-name mnemonic verse.
Reading guide
Self-harm as bait for harming others
The first verse pictures someone who ‘first kills oneself, then kills others’, comparing this to a hunter who kills one bird and then uses its own corpse as a decoy (vītaṁsa) to lure and kill more. The image makes self-corruption instrumental: harming oneself first isn't the end of the damage, but the means by which further harm to others becomes possible.
A brahmin's color, worn on the inside
The second verse states plainly that ‘a brahmin's color is not on the outside; a brahmin is colored on the inside’, then names the criterion directly: whoever harbors bad deeds is truly a ‘dark one’, regardless of birth or appearance. This site's own Snp 1.7, ‘The Lowlife’, develops the same deeds-not-birth theme in fuller narrative form — ‘you're a lowlife by your deeds, by deeds you're a brahmin’.
Addressed to Sakka, without explanation
The verse's closing word, ‘Sujampati’, is a standard epithet for Sakka, ‘husband of Sujā’. Nothing in the poem explains why this teaching about brahmins and dark deeds is addressed to him specifically — this guide notes the address as a textual fact without supplying a narrative reason the poem itself doesn't give.
A chapter's own closing line, left untranslated
Immediately after this poem, the Pali carries vaggo paṭhamo, ‘the first chapter is finished’ — the same untranslated structural colophon already seen closing every chapter of the Book of the Ones.
A mnemonic verse, naming all ten monks with an added epithet
The Pali then carries this chapter's own uddāna, naming all ten monks in sequence: Uttara, Piṇḍola, Valliya, Tīriya (an abbreviation of Gaṅgātīriya, here called ‘isi’, sage), Ajina, Meḷajina, Rādha, Surādha, Gotama, and Vasabha — closing with a collective epithet applied to all ten together, ‘mahiddhikā’, ‘of great power’. This mnemonic, like the chapter colophon before it, is absent from Sujato's translation and not included in this page's text.
Key terms
vītaṁsa — a “decoy” — a dead bird used by a hunter to lure and kill more birds, the poem's central image for self-harm turned instrumental.
vaṇṇo — “color” — what the second verse says a brahmin carries on the inside, not the outside.
kaṇho — “dark one” — what the verse calls anyone who harbors bad deeds, regardless of birth.
Sujampati — “husband of Sujā” — a standard epithet for Sakka, addressed at this verse's close without explanation.
vaggo — “chapter” — the structural unit this poem closes, marked in the untranslated Pali colophon ‘vaggo paṭhamo’, ‘the first chapter is finished’.
The text
The text in full: two verses, without a translated attribution. Translation: Bhikkhu Sujato (CC0, SuttaCentral).
§1First one kills oneself, then one kills others. One kills oneself, really dead, like one who kills birds using a dead bird as a decoy.
§2A brahmin’s color is not on the outside; a brahmin is colored on the inside. Whoever harbors bad deeds is truly a dark one, Sujampati.
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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 the first verse compare self-harm to?
Correct: C. Self-corruption made instrumental for harming others.
Question 2 of 10
What does the second verse say about a brahmin's 'color'?
Correct: D. A criterion based on deeds, not visible traits or birth.
Question 3 of 10
What does this site's own Snp 1.7 develop in fuller narrative form?
Correct: C. 'You're a lowlife by your deeds, by deeds you're a brahmin.'
Question 4 of 10
What does 'Sujampati' mean, and to whom is the verse's closing word addressed?
Correct: A. A standard epithet for Sakka, without an explained narrative reason for the address.
Question 5 of 10
Does the poem explain why this teaching is addressed to Sakka specifically?
Correct: B. An honest gap in what the text itself explains.
Question 6 of 10
What Pali phrase, left untranslated by Sujato, immediately follows this poem?
Correct: D. The same structural colophon that closed every chapter of the Book of the Ones.
Question 7 of 10
What does the untranslated uddāna after that colophon do?
Correct: D. Ten names, then 'mahiddhikā', 'of great power', applied to all ten together.
Question 8 of 10
What epithet does the uddāna add to 'Tīriya', its abbreviation of Gaṅgātīriya?
Correct: A. An individual epithet, alongside the collective one closing the whole verse.
Question 9 of 10
What does 'vīṭaṁsa' mean?
Correct: A. The hunting image central to this poem's first verse.
Question 10 of 10
How many poems make up Chapter One of the Book of the Twos?
Correct: B. Uttara through Vasabha, named in sequence in the untranslated uddāna.
