The Discourse about Those with Knotted Hair (UD1.9)

Thus I heard: At one time the Gracious One was dwelling near Gayā, on Gayā Peak. Then at that time many knotted-haired ascetics, in the cold Winter nights, in between ‘the eights’, at the time of the snowfall, in the Gayā river, were plunging out, and plunging in, were plunging out and in, were sprinkling water, and were offering the fire sacrifice, thinking: “Through this there is purity.”

The Gracious One saw that those many knotted-haired ascetics, in the Winter nights, in between ‘the eights’, at the time of the snowfall, in the Gayā river, were plunging out and plunging in, were plunging out and in, were sprinkling water, and were offering the fire sacrifice, thinking: “Through this there is purity.”

Then the Gracious One, having understood the significance of it, on that occasion uttered this exalted utterance:

“Not through water is there purity—many people bathe here!
In whom there is truth and Dhamma, he is pure, and he is a brāhmaṇa.”

Translated by Bhikkhu Ānandajoti from the Buddha Jayanthi Tripitaka text. Version 2.2, revised February 2008.

The text and translation, together with detailed notes and discussions, may be found in multiple formats on the translator’s website, Ancient Buddhist Texts.

Used by kind permission of Bhikkhu Ānandajoti.

The original translation was released under the following licence: Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.

Prepared for SuttaCentral by Bhikkhu Sujato.