The elephant named Dhanapala,
difficult to control in his rut
and bound does not eat his food.
He remembers his life in the elephant-grove.

dhana+pālo       nāma   kuñjaro
|             |              |           |
N.n.    N.m.       N.n.     N.m.
|       Nom.Sg.  Acc.Sg. Nom.Sg.
|_______|              |            |
       |___________|            |
                  |____________|
                              |______________________________

List of Abbreviations

kaṭuka+bhedano dunnivārayo
|                 |               |
N.n.       Adj.m.     Adj.m.
|            Nom.Sg.  Nom.Sg.
|__________|              |
         |_____________|
___________|____________________________________

List of Abbreviations

baddho   kabaḷaṃ  na    bhuñjati
     |              |         |           |
Adj.m.      N.m.   neg.  V.act.in.
Nom.Sg. Acc.Sg.    |    3.Sg.pres.
___|              |         |______|
   |                 |________|
   |_____________|

List of Abbreviations

sumarati   nāga+vanassa   kuñjaro
|                  |           |            |
V.act.in.   N.m.    N.n.      N.m.
3.Sg.pres.    |     Gen.Sg. Nom.Sg.
|                  |______|            |
|_____________|                  |
           |_________________|

dhanapālo: dhanapāla-, N.m.: name of an elephant. Lit. "guardian of wealth". It is a compound of:
    dhana-, N.n.: wealth.
    pāla-, N.m.: guardian, protector.
Nom.Sg. = dhanapālo.

nāma: nāma-, N.n.: name. Acc.Sg. = nāma (named, by name).

kuñjaro: kuñjara-, N.m.: elephant. Nom.Sg. = kuñjaro.

kaṭukabhedano: kaṭukabhedana-, Adj.: in rut, rutting. Lit. "having a pungent juice exuding from the temples". It is a compound of:
    kaṭuka-, N.n.: pungency, acidity, bitterness.
    bhedana-, N.n.: breaking. It is derived from the verb root bhid- (to break).
Nom..Sg.m. = kaṭukabhedano.

List of Abbreviations

dunnivārayo: dunnivāraya-, Adj.: difficult to restrain, difficult to hold back. A compound of:
    du-, pref.: hard, difficult, bad.
    nivāraya-, Adj.: to be restrained, to be kept back.
Euphonic combination: du- + nivāraya- = dunnivāraya-.
Nom.Sg.m. = dunnivārayo.

baddho: baddha-, Adj.: bound, in bondage, tied up. It is a p.p. of the verb root bandh- (to bind). Nom.Sg.m. = baddho.

kabaḷaṃ: kabaḷa-, N.m.: food, edible thing, mouthful. Acc.Sg. = kabaḷaṃ.

na, neg.: not.

List of Abbreviations

bhuñjati, V.: eats. The verb root is bhuj- (to eat). 3.Sg.act.in.pres. = bhuñjati.

sumarati, V.: remembers. The verb root is sar-. 3.Sg.act.in.pres. = sumarati.
The more usual form is sarati.

nāgavanassa: nāgavana-, N.n.: elephant forest, elephant-grove. It is a compound of:
    nāga-, N.m.: elephant.
    vana-, N.n.: forest.
Gen.Sg. = nāgavanassa.

kuñjaro: see above.

List of Abbreviations

    This verse consists of two syntactically separate sentences. They are:
    1) dhanapālo nāma kuñjaro kaṭukabhedano dunnivārayo baddho kabaḷaṃ na bhuñjati (the elephant named Dhanapala, difficult to control in his rut and bound does not eat [his] food). The subject is the noun kuñjaro (elephant, nominative singular). It has four attributes. First of them is the compound dhanapālo (Dhanapala, nominative singular). This word has an attribute, the noun nāma (named, accusative singular). The three remaining attributes are the compounds kaṭukabhedano (rutting, nominative singular), dunnivārayo (difficult to control, nominative singular) and the past participle baddho (bound, nominative singular). The verb is bhuñjati (eats, 3^rd person, singular, active, indicative, present tense). It is negated by the negative particle na (not). The object is the noun kabaḷaṃ (food, accusative singular).
    2) sumarati nāgavanassa kuñjaro (the elephant remembers [his life in] the elephant-grove). The subject is the noun kuñjaro (elephant, nominative singular). The verb is sumarati (remembers, 3^rd person, singular, active, indicative, present tense). The object is the compound nāgavanassa (the elephant-grove, genitive singular).

    In Sāvatthi there lived a rich Brahmin. When his wife died, he gave all his wealth to his sons. After that his sons did not care about him at all. He was left penniless and reduced to begging. He went to the Buddha and asked for advice.
    The Buddha told him to tell his story wherever there was a large gathering of people. So the Brahmin went to the meeting of all the Brahmins from Sāvatthi (where his sons were also present) and told his story. People in the crowd got very angry and his sons were embarrassed.
    From that time on, they took very good care of their father. The Brahmin was receiving four food-trays every day and he gave two of them to the Buddha in alms. After a time, the Buddha got invited to the house of the eldest son and there he spoke this verse: although Dhanapala was tied up in captivity, he still remembered his parents in the forest.

Sentence pronunciation

Word pronunciation:

dhanapālo
dhana
pālo
nāma
kuñjaro
kaṭukabhedano
kaṭuka
bhedano
dunnivārayo
baddho
kabaḷaṃ
na
bhuñjati
sumarati
nāgavanassa
nāga
vanassa