Saṃyutta Nikāya
I. Sagātha Vagga
6. Brahmā Saṃyutta
The Book of the Kindred Sayings
I. Kindred Sayings with Verses
6. The Brahmā Suttas
Translated by Mrs. Rhys Davids
Assisted by Sūriyagoḍa Sumangala Thera
Public Domain
II: The Quintuplet
Sutta 12
Devadatta Suttaṃ
Devadatta
[12.1] THUS HAVE I HEARD:
The Exalted One was once staying at Rājagaha, on Vulture's Peak Hill,
not long after Devadatta had left the Order.[1]
Now Brahmā Sahampati, when the night was far spent,
shedding radiance with his effulgent beauty
over the whole of Vulture's Peak Hill
till night was far spent,
came into the presence of the Exalted One,
and saluting and standing at one side,
spake this verse before the Exalted One concerning Devadatta:
"As is the plantain, bamboo, and the rush
Each by the fruit it bears undone,
So is the sinner by men's homage slain,
As by her embryo is the mule."[2]
[1] I.e. for the hill Gaya-sīsa, taking 500 seceding bhikkhus with him. Vin. Texts, iii, 256.
[2] These figures are more amply stated in prose in S. ii, 241; A. ii, 73, followed by the verse. The fourth figure is not so obvious as the others. Assatarī is stated by B. to be the offspring of an ass and a mare.
