[17. Upasena Vaṅgantaputta1]

I approached the Ultimate Man
the Blessed Padumuttara
the World’s Best One, the Bull of Men,
as he sat on a mountain slope. (1) [759]

Seeing a dinner-plate2 in bloom
I plucked [several] stalks from it
and, adorning an umbrella,
I raised it over the Buddha. (2) [760]

[And then] I gave an almsgiving
of milk-rice, delicious to eat.
I fed eight monks who were there [then]
with the Buddha as the ninth one. (3) [761]

The Great Hero gave thanks [to me]
the Self-Become-One, Best Person:
“Because of this umbrella gift
there will be showers of milk-rice. (4) [762]

He will enjoy great happiness
due to that pleasure in [his] heart.
Thirty times as the king of gods
he will exercise divine rule. (5) [763]

And twenty [different] times he’ll be
a king who turns the wheel [of law],
[and he will have] much local rule
innumerable by counting. (6) [764]

The one whom they call Sumedha3
greatly wise,4 wise as is the earth,
is going to become the Buddha
in one hundred thousand aeons. (7) [765]

When the dispensation’s shining
he will go to a human state.
With Upasena as his name
he’ll be the Teacher’s follower. (8) [766]

This is the last time I’ll exist;
[now] all being has been cancelled.
Conquering Death with his legions
I am bearing my last body. (9) [767]

The four analytical modes,
and these eight deliverances,
six special knowledges mastered,
[I have] done what the Buddha taught! (10) [768]

Thus indeed Venerable Upasena Vaṅgantaputta Thera spoke these verses.

The legend of Upasena Vaṅgantaputta Thera is finished.

The Third Recitation Portion is Finished.

  1. Vaṅganta was his father; the name means “Son of Vaṅganta.” Rūpasāri was his mother.↩

  2. kaṇṇikāra, kaṇikāra = Sinhala kinihiriya, Pterospermum acerifolium, produces a brilliant mass of yellow flowers; Engl. a.k.a. karnikar, bayur tree, maple-leaf bayur, caniyar (now archaic?), dinner-plate tree; Bodhi tree of Siddhattha Buddha.↩

  3. This apparently refers to the rebirth precursor of Gotama Buddha, though he was Sumedha under Dīpaṃkara Buddha, whereas this poem is set in the time of Padumuttara Buddha, which was “four incalculable aeons” later.↩

  4. hearkens to his name: sumedhasam↩