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SN 19.10PTS SN 2.2581 min read

Pot Balls

Kumbhaṇḍasutta

Translated by Bhikkhu Sujato · Pāli: Mahāsaṅgīti Tipiṭaka · Public domain (CC0) via SuttaCentral

  • 0.1Saṁyutta Nikāya 19.10Linked Discourses 19.10
  • 0.21. PaṭhamavaggaChapter One

0.3KumbhaṇḍasuttaPot Balls

1.1“Idhāhaṁ, āvuso, gijjhakūṭā pabbatā orohanto addasaṁ kumbhaṇḍaṁ purisaṁ vehāsaṁ gacchantaṁ.“Just now, reverend, as I was descending from Vulture’s Peak Mountain I saw a man with testicles big as pots flying through the air.11.2So gacchantopi teva aṇḍe khandhe āropetvā gacchati.When he was walking he had to lift his testicles on to his shoulder.21.3Nisīdantopi tesveva aṇḍesu nisīdati.And when he sat down, he sat right on them.1.4Tamenaṁ gijjhāpi kākāpi kulalāpi anupatitvā anupatitvā vitacchenti virājenti.Vultures, crows, and hawks kept chasing him, pecking and clawing1.5So sudaṁ aṭṭassaraṁ karoti …pe…as he screamed in pain. …” …

1.6eso, bhikkhave, satto imasmiṁyeva rājagahe gāmakūṭako ahosi …pe….“That being used to be a corrupt village head right here in Rājagaha. …”3

1.7Dasamaṁ.

1.8Paṭhamo vaggo.

2.0Tassuddānaṁ

2.1Aṭṭhi pesi ubho gāvaghātakā,2.2Piṇḍo sākuṇiyo nicchavorabbhi;2.3Asi sūkariko sattimāgavi,2.4Usu kāraṇiko sūci sārathi;2.5Yo ca sibbiyati sūcako hi so,2.6Aṇḍabhāri ahu gāmakūṭakoti.

Translator’s notes

  1. The “gnomes” (kumbhaṇḍa, Sanskrit kuṣmāṇḍa, “pumpkin-belly”) were a race of lesser deities often depicted as pot-bellied, ugly and misshapen, though reckoned as subjects of the four great kings (DN 20:9.13). Kumbha also means “pot” and aṇḍa “testicle” (MN 56:25.4). Compare the fiendish kumbhamuṣka (“pot-scrotum”) of Atharva Veda 8.6.15, 11.9.17. Perhaps conflated with kuṣumbha, an insect’s venom-sack (Atharva Veda 2.32.6).

    ↩ sn19.10:1.1

  2. While the humorously painful imagery here is clear, it is less clear that the literal sense “pot-balls” was meant in general for the kumbhaṇḍa as a deity. Here it is used adjectivally of a man.

    ↩ sn19.10:1.2

  3. A gāmakūṭa is a “village head”, so kūṭa here means “summit” rather than its other sense of “fraud”, though the senses might be conflated. The commentary explains it as “an official who makes judgments”. The suffix -ka in the form here (gāmakūṭaka) must have its belittling sense like muṇḍakā samaṇakā (“shavelings, fake ascetics”). Kauṭilya depicts the grāmakūṭa as acting on the whispers of an informant (Arthaśāstra 4.4.9). Perhaps his testicles are the size of the pots of gold he made through extortion and blackmail.

    ↩ sn19.10:1.6