[73. Saññaka1]
I saw the Teacher’s ragged robe2
stuck up in the top of a tree.3
Pressing my hands together then
I worshipped that robe made of rags. (1) [1431]
In the ninety-two aeons since
I did that [good] karma back then,
I’ve come to know no bad rebirth:
the fruit of perceiving Buddha. (2) [1432]
In the fourth aeon [after that]
the Kṣhatriyan Dumasāra4
was a wheel-turner with great strength,
victorious on [all] four sides. (3) [1433]
The four analytical modes,
and these eight deliverances,
six special knowledges mastered,
[I have] done what the Buddha taught! (4) [1434]
Thus indeed Venerable Saññaka Thera spoke these verses.
The legend of Saññaka Thera is finished.
“Perceiver”↩
or, “robe of rags”. The Pamsukūla robe was typically a filthy shroud picked up in a cremation grounds. Cf. above, v. [592]↩
I follow the cty and BJTS Sinhala gloss in taking dumagge as duma + agge. It would also be possible to take it as du + magge, “on a bad road”. Cf. v. [592] above for a case comparable to the latter. Though I do follow it here, the cty and BJTS reading rather begs the question how the Buddha’s rag robes got up in the tree.↩
“Best Part of a Tree”↩