[Pramāṇa](https://indike.org/pramana/) › [Studies](https://indike.org/pramana/ins) › [Reference works](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.reference) › [Dictionary of Pali Proper Names](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.reference.malalasekera-1937) › v2.c35.1886 # Dictionary of Pali Proper Names v2.c35.1886 Dictionary of Pāli Proper Names v2.c35.1886 - **Language:** English ### [v2.c35.1886](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.reference.malalasekera-1937.v2.c35.1886) Vepacitti.—An Asura chieftain, who was present with Namuci (Māra) at the preaching of the Mahāsamaya Sutta.¹ It is said² that among the Asuras, Vepacitti, Rāhu and Pahārada were the chiefs. Vepacitti was the friend of Rāhu, and when Rāhu seized Candimā and Suriya and these invoked the power of the Buddha, it was to Vepacitti that Rāhu fled for comfort.³ The Asuras being once defeated in a fight with the Devas, the latter took Vepacitti prisoner, and brought him, bound hand and foot, to Sakka in the Sudhammā-hall. There Vepacitti reviled and railed at Sakka with scurrilous words, both on entering and on leaving the hall, but Sakka remained silent, and, when questioned by Mātali, said it was not proper for him to bandy words with a fool.⁴ On another occasion Vepacitti suggested that victory should be given to him or to Sakka, according to their excellence in speech. Sakka agreed to this, and Vepacitti, as the older god, was asked to speak a verse. Sakka spoke another, the Devas applauding. Several verses were spoken by each, and both Devas and Asuras decided in favour of Sakka, because Vepacitti’s verses belonged, they said, to the sphere of violence, while those of Sakka belonged to one of concord and harmony.⁵ Once, when Sakka was revolving in his mind the thought that he should not betray even his enemy, Vepacitti read his thoughts and came up to him. “Stop,” said Sakka, “thou art my prisoner”; but Vepacitti reminded him of his thought, and was allowed to go free.⁶ - [Previous: v2.c35.1885](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.reference.malalasekera-1937.v2.c35.1885) - [Next: v2.c35.1887](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.reference.malalasekera-1937.v2.c35.1887) - [Up: v2.c35](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.reference.malalasekera-1937.v2.c35) --- Source: [https://indike.org/pramana/ins.reference.malalasekera-1937.v2.c35.1886](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.reference.malalasekera-1937.v2.c35.1886) · Pramāṇa