The verse chanted while drawing the paṃsukūla cloth over a body or relics, given in both the Mahānikāya and Dhammayut forms.
- When chanted
- Chanted by the monks as they take hold of the cloth at a funeral or at a bone-relic ceremony.
A note on this chant. The book prints this chant in Pali only, with no Thai translation. The English here is a working translation prepared for this edition — it is not the book's own, and has not yet been checked by a teacher.
Historical background
The book prints the verse twice, once under แบบมหานิกาย and once under แบบธรรมยุต — the two monastic fraternities of Thai Buddhism. It is one of very few places in this book where a difference of school is named at all.
This is the verse most Thai people have heard more often than any other, because it is chanted at every funeral, and it is four lines long.
Meaning and purpose
อะนิจจา วะตะ สังขารา — impermanent, alas, are formations. The วะตะ is a particle of lament, and the tradition does not usually allow itself one. Here it does.
What follows is stated as a general law rather than as anything about the person on the bier: of the nature to arise and pass away; having arisen, they cease. Nobody is named and nothing is said about where they have gone.
Then the last line, which is the whole of the consolation offered: เตสัง วูปะสะโม สุโข — their stilling is happiness. Not that death is happiness, and not that the dead are at peace, but that the coming to rest of what rises and falls is what happiness means. Chanted over a coffin, with the cloth in hand.
The chant
As the book prints it: page 252 →
page 252แบบมหานิกาย
The Mahānikāya form
อะนิจจา วะตะ สังขารา อุปปาทะวะยะธัมมิโน
Aniccā vata saṅkhārā uppādavayadhammino
Impermanent, alas, are formations, of the nature to arise and pass away.
อุปปัชชิต๎วา นิรุชฌันติ เตสัง วูปะสะโม สุโข.
Uppajjitvā nirujjhanti tesaṃ vūpasamo sukho.
Having arisen, they cease; their stilling is happiness.
แบบธรรมยุต
The Dhammayut form
อะนิจจา วะตะ สังขารา อุปปาทะวะยะธัมมิโน
Aniccā vata saṅkhārā uppādavayadhammino
Impermanent, alas, are formations, of the nature to arise and pass away.
อุปปัชชิต๎วา นิรุชฌันติ เตสัง วูปะสะโม สุโข.
Uppajjitvā nirujjhanti tesaṃ vūpasamo sukho.
Having arisen, they cease; their stilling is happiness.
สัพเพ สัตตา มะรันติ จะ มะริงสุ จะ มะริสสะเร
Sabbe sattā maranti ca mariṃsu ca marissare
All beings die, and have died, and will die;
ตะเถวาหัง มะริสสามิ นัตถิ เม เอตถะ สังสะโย.
Tathevāhaṃ marissāmi natthi me ettha saṃsayo.
just so shall I die — of this I have no doubt.