Other Translations: Deutsch , ру́сский язы́к , Srpski
From: ,
Saṁyutta Nikāya 19.10 Linked Discourses 19.10
1. Paṭhamavagga Chapter One
Kumbhaṇḍasutta Pot Balls
“Idhāhaṁ, āvuso, gijjhakūṭā pabbatā orohanto addasaṁ kumbhaṇḍaṁ purisaṁ vehāsaṁ gacchantaṁ. “Just now, reverend, as I was descending from Vulture’s Peak Mountain I saw a man with testicles big as pots flying through the air. The “gnomes” (kumbhaṇḍa, Sanskrit kuṣmāṇḍa, “pumpkin-belly”) were a race of lesser deities often depicted as pot-bellied, ugly and misshapen, though reckoned as subjects of the four great kings (DN 20:9.13). Kumbha also means “pot” and aṇḍa “testicle” (MN 56:25.4). Compare the fiendish kumbhamuṣka (“pot-scrotum”) of Atharva Veda 8.6.15, 11.9.17. Perhaps conflated with kuṣumbha, an insect’s venom-sack (Atharva Veda 2.32.6).
So gacchantopi teva aṇḍe khandhe āropetvā gacchati. When he was walking he had to lift his testicles on to his shoulder. While the humorously painful imagery here is clear, it is less clear that the literal sense “pot-balls” was meant in general for the kumbhaṇḍa as a deity. Here it is used adjectivally of a man.
Nisīdantopi tesveva aṇḍesu nisīdati. And when he sat down, he sat right on them.
Tamenaṁ gijjhāpi kākāpi kulalāpi anupatitvā anupatitvā vitacchenti virājenti. Vultures, crows, and hawks kept chasing him, pecking and clawing
So sudaṁ aṭṭassaraṁ karoti …pe… as he screamed in pain. …” …
eso, bhikkhave, satto imasmiṁyeva rājagahe gāmakūṭako ahosi …pe…. “That being used to be a corrupt village head right here in Rājagaha. …” A gāmakūṭa is a “village head”, so kūṭa here means “summit” rather than its other sense of “fraud”, though the senses might be conflated. The commentary explains it as “an official who makes judgments”. The suffix -ka in the form here (gāmakūṭaka) must have its belittling sense like muṇḍakā samaṇakā (“shavelings, fake ascetics”). Kauṭilya depicts the grāmakūṭa as acting on the whispers of an informant (Arthaśāstra 4.4.9). Perhaps his testicles are the size of the pots of gold he made through extortion and blackmail.
Dasamaṁ.
Paṭhamo vaggo.
Tassuddānaṁ
Aṭṭhi pesi ubho gāvaghātakā,
Piṇḍo sākuṇiyo nicchavorabbhi;
Asi sūkariko sattimāgavi,
Usu kāraṇiko sūci sārathi;
Yo ca sibbiyati sūcako hi so,
Aṇḍabhāri ahu gāmakūṭakoti.