Dhammapada: who's who, timeline and places

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A wise personA person who values earnestness, rejects vanity and lust, and gains joy through meditation.First seen in chapter 2
BuddhaA teacher whose disciple is urged to abandon the hunger for honor.First seen in chapter 5
FoolsPeople marked by possessiveness, false confidence, harmful deeds, and a desire for authority.First seen in chapter 5
BhikshuA religious practitioner warned against confidence in discipline, learning, trance, and solitude while desire remains.First seen in chapter 19
BrahmanaA person described as unharmed despite killing parents and rulers.First seen in chapter 21

Chapter 1
The teachings connect harmful thoughts with pain and pure thoughts with happiness, urging love, restraint, and actual practice.
Chapter 2
Earnestness, mindfulness, restraint, and meditation are presented as protection and a path toward Nirvana.
Chapter 3
The verses urge people to guard restless thoughts, linking mental discipline with happiness and freedom from Mara.
Chapter 4
Flower images support teachings about virtue, bodily fragility, meaningful action, and attention to one's own faults.
Chapter 5
The verses expose possessiveness and false confidence, then urge the Buddha's disciple to abandon the hunger for honor.
Chapter 6
People are urged to accept wise correction, choose virtuous friends, and develop steady conduct.
Chapter 8
Meaningful speech, self-mastery, and respect for wise people are ranked above empty words, military victories, and repeated sacrifices.
Chapter 9
The verses urge repeated good actions and explain that small deeds accumulate even when their results are delayed.
Chapter 10
Shared fear and love of life become reasons to reject killing, cruelty, and harsh speech.
Chapter 11
Images of bodily decay challenge pleasure and pride, while the closing verses warn against neglecting discipline in youth.
Chapter 12
Each person is urged to practice self-discipline before teaching others and to accept responsibility for personal conduct.
Chapter 13
The speaker urges active virtue and uses fleeting images to challenge attachment to the world.
Chapter 14
The verses distinguish unreliable shelters from refuge in the Buddha, the Law, and the Church.
Chapter 15
The speaker connects happiness with freedom from hatred, greed, and attachment to winning, while recommending wise companions.
Chapter 16
The verses trace grief and fear to attachment and praise virtue, truthfulness, and longing for Nirvana.
Chapter 17
The speaker urges people to answer anger with love and restrain harmful actions, speech, and thoughts.
Chapter 18
With death approaching, the speaker urges steady purification through effort, wisdom, and restraint, naming ignorance the greatest stain.
Chapter 19
The verses define justice and spiritual standing through fair judgment, patience, wisdom, restraint, and compassion rather than appearances.
Chapter 20
The speaker presents the Eightfold Path and insists that teachers can guide, but each person must practice.
Chapter 22
The speaker warns that misconduct and careless religious practice bring suffering, punishment, and hell, urging wholehearted discipline.
Chapter 23
Elephant training provides a model for enduring insults, controlling thoughts, and escaping harmful conduct.
Chapter 24
Images of roots and creepers explain why desire must be removed at its source to escape suffering.
Chapter 25
The verses describe a Bhikshu through restraint, contentment, wise speech, kindness, and devotion to the law.
Chapter 26
The speaker defines a Brahmana through wisdom, harmlessness, restraint, and freedom from attachment rather than ancestry or appearance.
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