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

yo mukhasaṃyato bhikkhu mantabhāṇī anuddhato

atthaṃ dhammaṃ ca dīpeti madhuraṃ tassa bhāsitaṃ

(DhP 363)




Sentence Translation:

Sweet is the speech of the monk, who has control over his mouth, speaks cleverly,
is not proud, and explains the Dharma and its meaning.




Sentence Structure:
List of Abbreviations

yo              mukha+saṃyato  bhikkhu manta+bhāṇī    anuddhato
|                     |             |             |           |          |              |
Rel.Pron.m. N.m.    Adj.m.     N.m.    N.m.   Adj.m.    Adj.m.
Nom.Sg.         |      Nom.Sg.  Nom.Sg.    |     Nom.Sg. Nom.Sg.
|                     |_______|              |          |______|              |
|                            |___________|_________|___________|
|                                       |_____|
|                                            |__________________________________________
|___________________________________________|

List of Abbreviations

atthaṃ dhammaṃ ca     dīpeti    madhuraṃ   tassa   bhāsitaṃ
|                  |         |           |               |             |             |
N.n.        N.m.   conj. V.act.caus.  Adj.n.    Pron.m.    N.n.
Acc.Sg. Acc.Sg.     |     3.Sg.pres. Nom.Sg.  Gen.Sg. Nom.Sg.
|__________|         |           |               |             |_______|
          |__________|           |               |___________|
                    |___________|                          |
_________________|                                    |
              |_____________________________|




Vocabulary and Grammar:
List of Abbreviations

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

mukhasaṃyato: mukhasaṃyata-, Adj.: with control over mouth. It is a compound of:
    mukha-, N.n.: mouth.
    saṃyata-, Adj.: restrained, controlled. It is derived from the verb yam- (to restrain, to become tranquil) with the prefix sam- (together).
Nom.Sg.m. = mukhasaṃyato.

bhikkhu: bhikkhu-, N.m.: a (Buddhist) monk. Nom.Sg. = bhikkhu.

mantabhāṇī: mantabhāṇin-, Adj.: reciter of sacred texts, clever speaker. It is a compound of:
    manta-, N.m.: religious text, sacred text, canon.
    bhāṇin-, Adj.: speaking. It is derived from the verb root bhaṇ-, with the possessive suffix -in.
Nom.Sg.m. = mantabhāṇī.

anuddhato: anuddhata-, Adj.: not proud, unconceited. It is the word uddhata-, Adj,: proud, conceited (it is a p.p. of the verb root dhar-, to hold, with the prefix ud-, up) negated by the negative prefix an-. Nom.Sg.m. = anuddhato.

List of Abbreviations

atthaṃ: attha-, N.n.: meaning, worth, sense. Acc.Sg. = atthaṃ.

dhammaṃ: dhamma-, N.m.: Dharma, The Law, the teaching of the Buddha. Acc.Sg. = dhammaṃ.

ca, conj.: and.

dīpeti, V.: to make bright, to illustrate, to explain. The verb root is dīp- (to shine).
3.Sg.act.caus.pres. = dīpeti.

madhuraṃ: madhura-, Adj.: sweet. Nom.Sg.n. = madhuraṃ.

tassa: tad-, Pron.: that. Gen.Sg.m. = tassa.

bhāsitaṃ: bhāsita-, Adj.: spoken, said. It is a p.p. of the verb root bhās- (to speak). As an N.n.: speech, word. Nom.Sg. = bhāsitaṃ.

List of Abbreviations

    This verse consists of two syntactically related sentences. They are:
    1) yo mukhasaṃyato bhikkhu mantabhāṇī anuddhato atthaṃ dhammaṃ ca dīpeti (the monk, who has control over his mouth, speaks cleverly, is not proud, and explains the Dharma and its meaning). The subject is the noun bhikkhu (monk, nominative singular). It has three attributes, the adjectives mukhasaṃyato (with control over mouth, nominative singular), mantabhāṇī (clever speaker, nominative singular) and anuddhato (not proud, nominative singular). The verb is dīpeti (explains, 3rd person, singular, active, causative, present tense). There are two objects, the nouns atthaṃ (meaning, accusative singular) and dhammaṃ (Dharma, accusative singular). They are connected by the conjunction ca (and). The relative pronoun yo (who, nominative singular) introduces the sentence and connects it to the following one.
    2) madhuraṃ tassa bhāsitaṃ (sweet is his speech). The subject is the noun bhāsitaṃ (speech, nominative singular). It has an attribute, the pronoun tassa (his, genitive singular). The verb is omitted, implying the verb "to be". The object is the adjective madhuraṃ (sweet, nominative singular).




Commentary:

    Venerable Sāriputta and Venerable Moggallāna were abused by a monk named Kokālika. As a result, suffering befell Kokālika. The other monks then remarked that he had to suffer because he could not control his tongue. The Buddha replied with this verse, saying that control over one's mouth is very important.




Sentence pronunciation:

Sentence pronunciation

Word pronunciation:

yo
mukhasaṃyato
mukha
saṃyato
bhikkhu
mantabhāṇī
manta
bhāṇī
anuddhato
atthaṃ
dhammaṃ
ca
dīpeti
madhuraṃ
tassa
bhāsitaṃ