They're shrewd for their own ends, & impure. Living as a conqueror, the king of beasts.
Intent on the ending of craving & heedful, With mind unenmeshed in this family or that,įirm in effort, with steadfastness & strength arisen, Showing no greed for flavors, not careless, Taking off the householder's marks, like a coral tree Like a fire not coming back to what's burnt, Four subspecies are recognized, including one from Namibia that lives in near-desert conditions. In the wild they can live up to 35-40 years. They are normally ill-tempered and unpredictable and may charge any unfamiliar sound or smell. In the world's sport, love, or sensual bliss, The Javan Rhino is the most shy of all rhinos, using their dung and urine to communicate instead of sound. Seeing this drawback in sensual strands. There would be careless talk or abusive."īewitch the mind with their manifold forms. The prudent one, cutting all household ties, Without resistance in all four directions,Īs well as those living the household life.Ĭutting off the householder's marks, like a kovilara tree Keep in mind, though, that the singularity of the rhinoceros' horn reinforces the image.Īs noted under I.1, there is evidence suggesting that the verses here were originally separate poems, composed on separate occasions, and that they have been gathered together because of their common refrain.
Thus, because wandering "like a rhinoceros" sounds more natural than wandering "like a horn," I have chosen the former rendering. However, in a translation, it's necessary to choose one reading over the other. Thus, for example, in Dhp 329 (repeated below), one is told to "wander alone like a king renouncing his kingdom, like the elephant in the Matanga woods, his herd." It's possible that the rhinoceros was chosen here as an example of solitary wandering both because of its habits and because of its unusual single horn. Still, some scholars have noted that while the Indian rhinoceros is a solitary animal, rhinoceros horns don't wander, and that in other verses in the Pali canon, the phrase "wander alone like." takes a person or an animal, not an animal part, for its object.
The commentary, however, insists that this term refers not to the animal but to its horn, for the Indian rhinoceros, unlike the African, has only one horn. The text literally says, "Wander alone like a 'sword-horn,' which is the Pali term for rhinoceros. Translator's note: The refrain in this sutta is a subject of controversy.
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