[145. Ummāpupphiya1]
When Siddhattha, the Blessed One,
Sacrificial Recipient,
the World-Worshipped One passed away,2
a stupa festival3 took place. (1) [1961]
While the festival proceeded
for Siddhattha the Sage so Great,
taking a [blue] flax flower4 [then
I placed [it] upon the stupa. (2) [1962]
In the ninety-four aeons since
I offered that flower [there then],
I’ve come to know no bad rebirth:
that’s the fruit of stupa-pūjā. (3) [1963]
And in the ninth aeon ago
there were five and eighty monarchs.
[All] were known as Somadeva,5
wheel-turning kings with great power. (4) [1964]
The four analytical modes,
and these eight deliverances,
six special knowledges mastered,
[I have] done what the Buddha taught! (5) [1965]
Thus indeed Venerable Ummāpupphiya Thera spoke these verses.
The legend of Ummāpupphiya Thera is finished.
“Blue Flax-Flower-er”. cf. #321. Ummāpuppha (Skt. umāpuṣpa) refers to the flowers of Linum usitatissimum, Linseed. The small flowers of this fiber-bearing plant are distinctively and deeply blue in color, and the seeds, as the English name implies, bear a useful oil.↩
lit., “reached nirvana”↩
lit., “a great stupa festival” or “a large stupa festival”↩
ummā-pupphaŋ↩
“God Soma” or “Moon God”.↩