[114. Ekāsaniya1]

Back then I was the king of gods,
known by the name of Varuṇa.
I attended the Sambuddha,
as his vehicle of power. (1) [1707]

When Atthadassi, the Best Man,
Lord of the World, reached nirvana,
supplying all the turiyas,
I went to the best Bodhi [tree]. (2) [1708]

As though facing the Sambuddha
I attended on the best Bodhi,
with music and with dances [too,]
well-accompanied by cymbals.2 (3) [1709]

After having served that Bodhi
tree growing up from the earth [there],
having eaten, with [my] legs crossed,
I passed away [right] on the spot. (4) [1710]

Delighting in [my] own karma,
pleased in that superb Bodhi [tree],
due to that pleasure in [my] heart,
I have achieved nirvana [now]. (5) [1711]

[And] sixty thousand instruments3
are attending me all the time
as I move on from birth to birth
among humans and also gods. (6) [1712]

The three fires4 are blown out in me;
all [new] existence is destroyed.
I am bearing my last body
in the Buddha’s5 dispensation. (7) [1713]

In the five hundredth aeon hence
there were thirty-four kṣatriyans
[all of whom] were named Subahū,6
possessors of the seven gems. (8) [1714]

The four analytical modes,
and these eight deliverances,
six special knowledges mastered,
[I have] done what the Buddha taught! (9) [1715]

Thus indeed Venerable Ekāsaniya Thera spoke these verses.

The legend of Ekāsaniya Thera is finished.


  1. “One Sitting”

  2. reading sammatāḷa° (BJTS) for samatāḷa° (PTS).

  3. turiyaŋ sabbaŋ, musical instruments

  4. the cty here explains these as the fires of rāga (lust), dosa (anger) and moha (ignorance, folly)

  5. lit., “in the Supreme Buddha’s”

  6. “Very Many”