This is one of the Therigatha's most quoted verses, and it answers Thig 1.11's celebrated declaration almost as a direct companion piece: both open with a woman announcing freedom from the mortar and pestle of household labor, but this poem goes further, turning its wit directly on her former husband.
Reading guide
Identified through her son, not her own name
This poem's title names its speaker only in relation to her child: ‘Sumaṅgala's Mother’. Her own personal name is not preserved — only her identity as a mother, a common naming pattern for women elsewhere in the canon as well.
An opening that echoes Thig 1.11 directly
‘I'm well freed, well freed, so very well freed from the pestle’ closely parallels Thig 1.11's Muttā, ‘I'm well freed, so very well freed’ — two poems sharing the same triumphant, tripled declaration and the same grinding tool as the symbol of what has been left behind.
A husband described with pointed, unflattering wit
Where Thig 1.11 named her husband only by a physical description (‘humpbacked’), this verse is sharper still: ‘my shameless husband was most certainly a mushroom’ — and the mortar itself ‘wafted like an eel’, an image of unpleasant smell attached to her former domestic labor.
From bitter wit to quiet contentment
The second verse shifts register entirely: greed and hate are described as something actively ‘sizzling and hissing’ as she extinguishes them, before she settles at the root of a tree, meditating ‘happily’, exclaiming ‘oh, what bliss!’ — sharp humor giving way to genuine ease.
Key terms
Sumaṅgalamātā — “Sumaṅgala's Mother” — this poem's speaker, identified through her son rather than by her own personal name.
musala — “pestle” — the tool of domestic grinding labor named as the first thing this speaker celebrates being freed from, the same image opening Thig 1.11.
lobha, dosa — “greed” and “hate” — described in this verse's second half as sizzling and hissing as they are extinguished, an unusually vivid, almost culinary image.
rukkhamūla — “the root of a tree” — a traditional, simple meditation spot, where this verse's speaker settles into her happiness.
cariyā — not used here; another of this book's poems with no closing attribution at all, distinctive chiefly for its sharp, humorous voice.
The text
The text in full: two verses, with no attribution. Translation: Bhikkhu Sujato (CC0, SuttaCentral).
§1I’m well freed, well freed, so very well freed from the pestle! My shameless husband was most certainly a mushroom, my mortar wafted like an eel.
§2Greed and hate sizzle and hiss as I squelch them. Having gone to the root of a tree, I meditate happily, thinking, “Oh, what bliss!”
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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 is this poem's speaker identified in its title?
Correct: B. Her personal name is not preserved in this text.
Question 2 of 10
What earlier poem does this verse's opening closely echo?
Correct: B. Both open with the same triumphant, tripled declaration and the mortar-and-pestle image.
Question 3 of 10
How does this poem describe the speaker's former husband?
