Nāgasamāla Chapter, the Eighth
[71. Nāgasamāla]
I paid reverence at the stupa
of Sikhi, Kinsman of the World,
[with] a trumpet flower1 that had been
thrown away on the great highway. (1) [1423]
In the thirty-one aeons since
I did that [good] karma back then,
I’ve come to know no bad rebirth:
that’s the fruit of stupa-pūjā. (2) [1424]
In the fifteenth aeon [ago]
the Kṣatriyan named Bhūmiya
was a wheel-turner with great strength,
possessor of the seven gems. (3) [1425]
The four analytical modes,
and these eight deliverances,
six special knowledges mastered,
[I have] done what the Buddha taught! (4) [1426]
Thus indeed Venerable Nāgasamāla Thera spoke these verses.
The legend of Nāgasamāla Thera is finished.
all the manuscripts read a-pāṭali, “no trumpet flower,” but the cty takes the term as ā-pāṭali, a trumpet flower, and I follow suit, though the term could be read to mean that not only had the flower been thrown away; it was not even such a special flower. Pāṭali is Sinh. paḷol, Bignonia suaveolens, sterospermum suaveolens (Bignon.), trumpet-flower tree, the Bodhi Tree of Vipassi Buddha. Cf. #78, #96, #248, #255, #369{372}.↩