Reading guide
A citation number with no matching book name
‘Thig 10.1’ might suggest a ‘Book of the Tens’, but this poem's own second line names it ‘Ekādasakanipāta’, the Book of the Elevens — the traditional collection's books skip directly from the Nines to the Elevens, then the Twelves, the Sixteens, the Twenties, and beyond, named by verse count rather than sequential number.
Two teachings, quoted before her own account begins
Kisāgotamī opens by quoting a general teaching on good friendship leading to the four noble truths, then a second, more specific teaching — ‘a woman's life is painful... after giving birth just once, some women even cut their own throat’ — which Sujato's own note identifies as her quoting or paraphrasing the Buddha directly.
A catalog of loss more extensive than the familiar story
‘I saw my husband dead... my two children have died... mother, father, and brother all burning up on the same pyre’ describes a cascading tragedy far beyond the single child's death most readers associate with her — that popular mustard-seed parable belongs to later commentary, not to what this verse itself states.
Realization found in a charnel ground, not despite the horror but within it
‘While staying in the charnel ground, I saw my son's flesh being eaten... and my husband dead, I realized freedom from death’ places her breakthrough at the site of the worst of it, closing with a third-person line — ‘the senior nun Kisāgotamī, her mind released, said this’ — folded inside the same quotation as her own final first-person words.
Key terms
The text
§1“Pointing out how the world works, the sages have praised good friendship. Associating with good friends, even a fool becomes astute. Associate with true persons, for that is how wisdom grows. Should you associate with true persons, you would be freed from all suffering. And you would understand suffering, its origin and cessation, the eightfold path, and so the four noble truths.”
§2“‘A woman’s life is painful,’ explained the Buddha, guide for those who wish to train, ‘and for a co-wife it’s especially so. After giving birth just once, some women even cut their own throat, while delicate ladies take poison. Being guilty of killing a person, they both undergo ruin.’”
§3“I was on the road, near to giving birth, when I saw my husband dead. I gave birth there on the road before I’d reached my own house. My two children have died, and on the road my husband lies dead—oh woe is me! Mother, father, and brother all burning up on the same pyre.”
§4“Oh woe is you whose family is lost, the suffering you have undergone has no measure; you have been shedding tears for many thousands of lives.”
§5“While staying in the charnel ground, I saw my son’s flesh being eaten. With my family destroyed, condemned by all, and my husband dead, I realized freedom from death.
§6I’ve developed the noble eightfold path leading to freedom from death. I’ve realized extinguishment, as seen in the mirror of the Dhamma.
§7I’ve plucked out the dart, laid down the burden, and done what needed to be done.” The senior nun Kisāgotamī, her mind released, said this.
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