Gāthā Sentence Translation Sentence Structure
Vocabulary&Grammar Commentary Pronunciation
                          List of Abbreviations

dadāti ve yathāsaddhaṃ yathāpasādanaṃ jano

tattha yo ca maṅku bhavati paresaṃ pānabhojane

na so divā vā rattiṃ vā samādhim adhigacchati

(DhP 249)




Sentence Translation:

People give alms according to their faith and gratification.
In this matter, who is discontented with others' food and drink,
he will never attain concentration, by day or night.




Sentence Structure:
List of Abbreviations

dadāti        ve    yathā+saddhaṃ yathā+pasādanaṃ jano
|                  |         |            |           |             |            |
V.act.in.   part. Rel.Adv. Adv.   Rel.Adv.   Adv.      N.m.
3.Sg.pres.    |         |_______|           |_______|       Nom.Sg.
|                  |                |_____________|                   |
|__________|________________|                              |
                                 |_________________________|

List of Abbreviations

tattha       yo          ca    maṅku    bhavati   paresaṃ pāna+bhojane
|                |             |          |              |             |          |           |
Adv. Rel.Pron.m. conj.  Adj.m.    V.act.in.   Adj.m.  N.m.    N.n.
|          Nom.Sg.       |    Nom.Sg. 3.Sg.pres. Gen.Pl.     |      Loc.Sg.
|                |             |          |________|             |          |______|
|                |             |                  |                    |_________|
|                |             |                  |________________|
|_________|_______|__________________|
       |_____|
            |____________________________________________________________

List of Abbreviations

na       so       divā   vā rattiṃ   vā samādhim  adhigacchati
|           |           |       |        |       |          |                  |
neg. Pron.m. Adv. conj. Adv. conj.   N.m.         V.act.in.
|      Nom.Sg.    |____|        |____|     Acc.Sg.      3.Sg.pres.
|           |               |_________|             |                  |
|______|_____________|____________|__________|
           |            |______|                      |
           |                  |_______________|
           |_________________|
______________|




Vocabulary and Grammar:
List of Abbreviations

dadāti, V.: gives, donates. The verb root is dā- (to give). 3.Sg.act.in.pres. = dadāti.

ve, part.: indeed.

yathāsaddhaṃ, Adv.: according to faith, as is one's faith. It is a compound of:
    yathā, Rel.Adv.: as, just like.
    saddhā-, N.f.: trust, confidence, faith.
Acc.Sg. = yathāsaddhaṃ. Here as an Adv.

yathāpasādanaṃ, Adv.: to one's gratification, according to a clear state of mind. It is a compound of:
    yathā, Rel.Adv.: as, just like.
    pasādana-, N.n.: gratification, purity. It is derived from the verb sad- (to sit) with the strengthening prefix pa-. Thus pa-+sad-: to make clear.
Acc.Sg. = yathāpasādanaṃ. Here as an Adv.

jano: jana-, N.m.: person, man. Nom.Sg. = jano. Here collectively: people, the crowd.

List of Abbreviations

tattha, Adv.: there.

yo: yad-, Rel.Pron.: that which. Nom.Sg.m. = yo.

ca, conj.: and.

maṅku, Adj.: troubled, discontented. Nom.Sg.m. = maṅku.

bhavati, V. is. The verb root is bhū- (to be). 3.Sg.act.in.pres. = bhavati or hoti.

paresaṃ: para-, Adj.m.: other. Gen.Pl. = paresaṃ.

pānabhojane: drink and food. It is a compound of:
    pāna-, N.m.: drink, drinking. It is derived from the verb root pā- (to drink).
    bhojana-, N.n.: food, meal.
    Loc.Sg. = pānabhojane.

List of Abbreviations

na, neg.: not.

so: tad-, Pron.n.: it. Nom.Sg.m. = so.

divā, Adv.: by day, during day. It is derived from the word diva-, N.n.: day.

, conj.: or.

rattiṃ, Adv.: at night, by night. It is derived from the word ratti-, N.f.: night.

: see above.

samādhim: samādhi-, N.m.: concentration, firmness of mind. It is derived from the verb root dhā-, to put, with the prefixes saṃ-, together and ā-, towards. Acc.Sg. = samādhim.

adhigacchati, V.: find, obtain. The verb root is gam- (to go) with the prefix adhi- (above, towards). 3.Sg.act.pres.in. = adhigacchati.

List of Abbreviations

    This verse consists of two syntactically separate sentences. They are:
    1) dadāti ve yathāsaddhaṃ yathāpasādanaṃ jano (people give [alms] according to their faith and gratification). The subject is the noun jano (people, crowd; nominative singular). The verb is dadāti (gives, 3rd person, singular, active, indicative, present tense). It has two attributes, the adverb compounds yathāsaddhaṃ (according to faith) and yathāpasādanaṃ (according to gratification). The particle ve (indeed) serves only for metrical purposes.
    2) tattha yo ca maṅku bhavati paresaṃ pānabhojane na so divā vā rattiṃ vā samādhim adhigacchati (in this matter, who is discontented with others' food and drink, he will never attain concentration, by day or night). This can be further analysed into two sentences:
    a) tattha yo ca maṅku bhavati paresaṃ pānabhojane (in this matter, who is discontented with others' food and drink). The subject is the relative pronoun yo (who, nominative singular). The verb is bhavati (is, 3rd person, singular, active, indicative, present tense). It has three attributes, 1) the adjective maṅku (discontented, nominative singular), 2) the adverb tattha (there, in that matter) and 3) the compound pānabhojane (in drink and food, locative singular). This last word has an attribute, the adjective paresaṃ (of others, genitive plural). The conjunction ca (and) serves mainly for metrical purposes.
    b) na so divā vā rattiṃ vā samādhim adhigacchati (he will never attain concentration, by day or night). The subject is the pronoun so (he, nominative singular). The verb is adhigacchati (attains, finds; 3rd person, singular, active, indicative, present tense). It is negated by the negative particle na (not). The verb has two attributes, the adverbs divā (by day) and rattiṃ (by night). They are connected by two conjunctions (or). The object is the noun samādhim (concentration, accusative singular).




Commentary:

    There was a young novice named Tissa. He always criticized other people's good deeds. He even scolded famous donors like Anātha Pindika and Visākhā. He also boasted that his parents were extremely rich and anybody could come to them and receive many precious gifts.
    Some monks decided to see if this was true. They went to Tissa's village only to find out that his parents were poor and that Tissa was only boasting. They returned and reported the matter to the Buddha. The Buddha reprimanded the young novice with this verse (and the following one, DhP 250).




Sentence pronunciation:

Sentence pronunciation

Word pronunciation:

dadāti
ve
yathāsaddhaṃ
yathā
saddhaṃ
yathāpasādanaṃ
pasādanaṃ
jano
tattha
yo
ca
maṅku
bhavati
paresaṃ
pānabhojane
pāna
bhojane
na
so
divā

rattiṃ
samādhim
adhigacchati