I often read the Thanissaro translation of the Khaggavisana Sutta, which can be found here:
https://www.accesstoinsight.org/tipitaka/kn/snp/snp.1.03.than.html
I also have a recording of the Sutta Nipata that I listen to frequently, and which includes a reading of the sutta. The more I listen to it, certain parts of the sutta have started to seem incongruous to me and stick out … like … um … a lonely rhinoceros horn.
If you read the sutta, you will see that almost all of its verses extol the life of the solitary wandering begger, who has cut off all attachments to families, households, spouses, offspring or companions. This ideal wandering sage has no enemies, and is a friend to all, but has no dear ones or special relationships.
But there a few verses - I think four in all - that endorse the alternative of maintaining the companionship of a spiritual friend. Two of these stick out in that they don’t conclude with a mention of the rhinoceros (or rhinoceros horn - it’s a disputed translation issue.)
If you gain a mature companion,
a fellow traveler, right-living & wise,
overcoming all dangers
go with him, gratified,
mindful.
If you don’t gain a mature companion,
a fellow traveler, right-living & wise,
wander alone
like a king renouncing his kingdom,
like the elephant in the Matanga wilds,
his herd.
And one of the verses suddenly sounds very enthusiastic about spiritual friendship, and tells the listener only to wander alone if a spiritual friend can’t be found:
We praise companionship
— yes!
Those on a par, or better,
should be chosen as friends.
If they’re not to be found,
living faultlessly,
wander alone
like a rhinoceros.
The fourth of these verses apparently tells the listener to get a spiritual friend first, learn from the friend, and then wander alone:
Consort with one who is learned,
who maintains the Dhamma,
a great & quick-witted friend.
Knowing the meanings,
subdue your perplexity,
[then] wander alone
like a rhinoceros.
What I’m wondering is whether it is plausible to think that the sutta was originally composed by compiling verses about the ideal of solitary wandering, all built on the rhinoceros trope, and then only at some subsequent point members of the Buddhist tradition who were accustomed to the alternative ideal of spiritual friendship, added the few additional verses about that alternative life.