Traditions: Pāli Saṁyutta Nikāya; Pāli Dhammapada Motif: Winning a conflict does not end the cycle of resentment Connection verdict: Shared verse within the Pāli textual tradition Article status: Expanded Date: 2026-10-29
Summary
Saṁyutta Nikāya 3.14 and Dhammapada 201 both state that victory breeds enmity and the defeated sleep badly.
Read the two scenes
The verse has concrete political stakes in SN 3.14: armies fight and the victor and loser both inherit unsettled conditions. In the Dhammapada it becomes a compact teaching about the mind that cannot rest while clinging to triumph or defeat. The repeated saying is a stronger link than a general ethical resemblance. Yet its reuse within a verse collection is not the same as an independent second history of that battle. The comparison asks how a sentence moves from a royal report into a portable reflection on conflict.
What connects—and what does not
The Saṁyutta places the verse after news of a battle between kings; the Dhammapada presents it among collected verses about happiness.
The wording supports a shared textual saying, while the narrative frame changes what a reader imagines.
Why read them side by side?
A single saying can illuminate a named battle and then travel beyond it without losing its warning.
Sources and reading notes
- SN 3.14, Battle (1st) — Pāli-canon translation; compare the wider discourse and Pāli terms.
- Dhammapada 201 within verses 197–208 — Pāli-canon translation; compare the wider discourse and Pāli terms.
Research limit
A named parallel can establish literary reuse or related tradition; a general resemblance alone cannot prove borrowing. Linked editions and translations vary. Where a source is identified as secondary orientation, the comparison does not claim direct close reading of that tradition’s primary text.