Ru-Yi Meditation Center
Therigatha · 6.1

Paṭācārā, Who Had a Following of Five Hundred

Pañcasatamattā — The Book of the Sixes · Poem 1 of 8

Setting
No narrative setting beyond what the verses state; a prose colophon names the speaker
Speaker
Two voices: an unnamed consoler, then the grieving woman's own reply
Form
A four-verse consoling address, followed by two verses in reply, closing on a prose colophon
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
★★★★☆ — completes, two books later, an account this collection deliberately held back

Why this text

Thig 5.10's own guide noted that Paṭācārā is remembered by later tradition for an elaborate story of loss, and that her own verse there tells none of it. This poem, closing on a prose colophon naming her directly, is where that grief appears: a mother mourning a dead son, consoled with the same ‘plucked arrow’ imagery and refuge formula used for Ubbirī in Thig 3.5, confirmed by its own closing line as ‘how Paṭācārā... declared her enlightenment’.

Reading guide

An unnamed voice, consoling a specific grief

‘One whose path you do not know... you mourn that being, crying, “Oh my son!”’ opens a four-verse address to someone grieving a dead child — the speaker is not named in the text itself, only identified by the poem's own closing colophon as having addressed Paṭācārā.

An argument from not-knowing, not from doctrine recited

The consoling voice reasons from ignorance itself: ‘as he came, so he went: why weep over that?’ — you cannot know where a being came from or where it goes, so grief for one arrival and departure, among countless others, makes little sense.

The exact reply Ubbirī once gave

‘Oh! For you have plucked the arrow from me... today I've plucked the arrow, I'm hungerless, quenched. I go for refuge to that sage, the Buddha, to his teaching, and to the Sangha’ repeats, almost word for word, the reply Ubbirī gave in Thig 3.5 — the same formula, now given to Paṭācārā's own grief.

A colophon that completes an earlier omission

‘That is how Paṭācārā, who had a following of five hundred, declared her enlightenment’ confirms directly what Thig 5.10 left unstated — this fuller title marking her later fame, arriving only after this poem has shown what that fame grew out of.

Key terms

Pañcasatamattā — “who had a following of five hundred” — the fuller epithet this poem's title gives Paṭācārā, marking her later renown as a teacher.
puttasoka — “grief for a son” — named directly as what the consoling voice addresses.
sallaṁ — “the arrow” — the same image Ubbirī used in Thig 3.5, describing grief as a lodged, hard-to-see wound.
nicchātā parinibbutā — “hungerless, quenched” — the identical self-description Ubbirī used at her own turning point.
saraṇa — “refuge” — taken in the Buddha, his teaching, and the Sangha, closing this poem exactly as it closed Thig 3.5.

The text

The text in full: a consoling address, a reply, and a closing prose colophon. Translation: Bhikkhu Sujato (CC0, SuttaCentral).

§1“One whose path you do not know, not whence they came nor where they went; though they came from who knows where, you mourn that being, crying, ‘Oh my son!’ But one whose path you do know, whence they came or where they went; that one you do not lament—such is the nature of living creatures. Unasked he came, he left without leave. He must have come from somewhere, and stayed who knows how many days. He left from here by one road, he will go from there by another. Departing with the form of a human, he will go on transmigrating. As he came, so he went: why weep over that?”

§2“Oh! For you have plucked the arrow from me, so hard to see, stuck in the heart. You’ve swept away the grief for my son, in which I once was mired. Today I’ve plucked the arrow, I’m hungerless, quenched. I go for refuge to that sage, the Buddha, to his teaching, and to the Sangha.”

§3That is how Paṭācārā, who had a following of five hundred, declared her enlightenment.

· · ·

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 poem's opening address respond to?
Correct: B. Consoling a specific, named grief: 'Oh my son!'
Question 2 of 10
What argument does the consoling voice make?
Correct: C. Reasoning from not-knowing, rather than doctrine recited.
Question 3 of 10
What does the grieving woman's reply repeat, almost word for word, from Thig 3.5?
Correct: B. The same formula that closed Ubbirī's reply to her own consoler.
Question 4 of 10
What does this poem's closing colophon state directly?
Correct: C. Confirming the grieving woman in this poem's reply is Paṭācārā herself.
Question 5 of 10
How does this poem relate to Thig 5.10?
Correct: C. Two books apart, this poem supplies what Thig 5.10 itself did not narrate.
Question 6 of 10
What does 'Pañcasatamattā' mean, as part of this poem's title?
Correct: A. A fuller epithet than the bare name used for her own poem in Thig 5.10.
Question 7 of 10
Is the consoling speaker in this poem's opening verses named in the text itself?
Correct: A. This guide preserves that lack of an explicit identification, as with Ubbirī's own consoler in Thig 3.5.
Question 8 of 10
What does 'sallaṁ' mean?
Correct: B. Grief described as a lodged wound, then removed.
Question 9 of 10
What does this poem's closing verse declare, alongside 'hungerless, quenched'?
Correct: D. The same Triple Refuge formula that closed Thig 3.5.
Question 10 of 10
What position does this poem hold in the Therigatha?
Correct: D. The first of eight poems opening this new book.
Answered 0 of 10 · Correct 0

Further reading

← PreviousThig 5.12 · Candā