[140. Piyālaphaladāyaka1]

I was one who harmed others then,
a harmer of other beings.2
I rested on a [mountain] slope
near the Teacher [known as] Sikhi. (1) [1934]

In the evening and the morning
I saw the Buddha, the World-Chief.
[But] I had nothing to give to
the Biped-Lord, the Neutral One. (2) [1935]

Taking a piyāla fruit, I
went into the Buddha’s presence.
The Blessed One accepted [it],
the World’s Best One, the Bull of Men. (3) [1936]

Thenceforth for the sake of others
I waited on [Sikhi], the Guide,3
[and] with that pleasure in [my] heart
I passed away [right] on the spot. (4) [1937]

In the thirty-one aeons since
I gave that fruit [to the Buddha],
I’ve come to know no bad rebirth:
that is the fruit of giving fruit. (5) [1938]

In the fifteenth aeon ago
there were three [men named] Mālabhi,
wheel-turning kings with great power,
possessors of the seven gems. (6) [1939]

The four analytical modes,
and these eight deliverances,
six special knowledges mastered,
[I have] done what the Buddha taught! (7) [1940]

Thus indeed Venerable Piyālaphaladāyaka Thera spoke these verses.

The legend of Piyālaphaladāyaka Thera is finished.

The Summary:

Sobhī and Sudassana too,
CChandana, Pupphachadana,
Raho and CChampakapupphī
and with Atthasandassaka,
Ekadussī, Sāladada
[and] Phaladāyaka, the tenth.
By counting there are clearly [here]
seventy verses plus two [more].

The Sobhita Chapter, the Fourteenth.


  1. “Piyāla-Fruit-Donor” Piyāla (Sinh. piyal) is buchanania latifolia. PTS omits “Piyāla,” hence reads the name merely as “Fruit-Donor”. Cf. below, #497 {500}, for a (different) apadāna ascribed to a monk of this name.

  2. pārādhaka/parādhaka (BJTS) or parodhaka (PTS, cty) seems to be a neologism. The cty glosses it as para-satta-rodhaka (“harmer of other beings”) and as vihesaka, “vexer”. The BJTS Sinhala gloss gives “a destroyer of others’ breaths/other beings, a vädda (Sri Lankan aborigine, hunter)”. I read parapāṇu° (“other beings [lit., “ones with breath”],” BJTS) for paramāṇu (“atoms,” PTS) in the compound in the second foot.

  3. vināyakaŋ