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

sabbe tasanti daṇḍassa sabbesaṃ jīvitaṃ piyaṃ

attānaṃ upamaṃ katvā na haneyya na ghātaye

(DhP 130)




Sentence Translation:

Everybody trembles at punishment; life is dear to everybody.
Having made the comparison with oneself, let one not kill, nor cause another to kill.




Sentence Structure:
List of Abbreviations

sabbe       tasanti  daṇḍassa sabbesaṃ  jīvitaṃ    piyaṃ
|                   |             |             |              |             |
Adj.m.    V.act.in.    N.m.     Adj.m.      N.n.      Adj.n.
Nom.Pl. 3.Pl.pres. Gen.Sg.   Gen.Pl.   Nom.Sg. Nom.Sg.
|                   |_______|             |________|             |
|______________|                            |___________|

List of Abbreviations

attānaṃ upamaṃ katvā  na   haneyya  na     ghātaye
|                 |           |        |          |         |            |
N.m.        N.f.    V.ger. neg.   V.act.   neg.  V.act.caus.
Acc.Sg.  Acc.Sg.     |        |    3.Sg.opt.   |      3.Sg.opt.
|_________|            |        |_____|           |______|
         |___________|             |____________|
                   |___________________|




Vocabulary and Grammar:
List of Abbreviations

sabbe: sabba-, Adj.: all, every. Nom.Pl.m. = sabbe.

tasanti, V.: tremble, shake, have fear. The verb root is tas-. 3.Pl.act.in.pres. = tasanti.

daṇḍassa: daṇḍa-, N.m.: stick, club, punishment. Gen.Sg. = daṇḍassa.

sabbesaṃ: sabba-, Adj.: all, every. Gen.Pl.m. = sabbesaṃ.

jīvitaṃ: jīvita-, N.n.: life. It is derived from the verb root jīv- (to live). Nom.Sg. = jīvitaṃ.

piyaṃ: piya-, Adj.: dear, beloved, pleasant. Nom.Sg.n. = piyaṃ.

attānaṃ: attan-, N.m.: self, oneself. Acc.Sg. = attānaṃ.

List of Abbreviations

upamaṃ: upamā-, N.f.: comparison, example. Acc.Sg. = upamaṃ.

katvā, V.ger.: having done. The verb root is kar- (to do).

na, neg.: not.

haneyya, V.: should kill. The verb root is han-. 3.Sg.ac.opt. = haneyya.

na, neg.: not.

ghātaye, V.: should cause to kill. It is a causative from the root han- (to strike, to beat). 3.Sg.act.caus.opt. = ghātaye.

List of Abbreviations

    This verse consists of three syntactically separate sentences. They are:
    1) sabbe tasanti daṇḍassa (everybody trembles at punishment). The subject is the adjective sabbe (all, everybody, nominative plural). The verb is tasanti (tremble, 3rd person, plural, active, indicative, present tense). The object is the noun daṇḍassa (of punishment, genitive singular).
    2) sabbesaṃ jīvitaṃ piyaṃ (life is dear to everybody). The subject is the noun jīvitaṃ (life, nominative singular). It has an attribute, the adjective sabbesaṃ (everybody's, genitive plural). The verb is omitted, implying the verb "to be". The object is the adjective piyaṃ (dear, nominative singular).
    3) attānaṃ upamaṃ katvā na haneyya na ghātaye (having made the comparison with oneself, let one not kill, nor cause another to kill). This can be further subdivided into two segments:
    a) attānaṃ upamaṃ katvā (having made the comparison with oneself). The subject is omitted; the third person singular pronoun is implied. The verb is in gerundive, katvā (having done). The object is the noun upamaṃ (comparison, accusative singular) with its attribute, the adjective/noun attānaṃ (oneself, accusative singular).
    b) na haneyya na ghātaye (let one not kill, nor cause another to kill). The subject is omitted; the third person singular pronoun is implied. There are two verbs haneyya (should kill, 3rd person, singular, active, optative) and ghātaye (should cause to kill, 3rd person, singular, active, causative, optative). They are both negated by negative particles na (not).




Commentary:

    In the last verse (see DhP 129) we saw monks beating each other because of a building. But the question of the building arose again. The second group of monks still intended to take it for themselves and again, the first group did not agree to that.
    As a new rule was established, the monks from the second group did not physically attack the first group, but they made threatening gestures to them. The monks from the first group were frightened and cried out.
    The Buddha again admonished the second group of monks, telling them this verse. And he also set another rule, that monks should not make threatening gestures to each other.




Sentence pronunciation:

Sentence pronunciation

Word pronunciation:

sabbe
tasanti
daṇḍassa
sabbesaṃ
jīvitaṃ
piyaṃ
attānaṃ
upamaṃ
katvā
na
haneyya
ghātaye