[160. Kumudadāyaka1]
Close to the Himalayan range,
there was a large, natural lake
covered with pink and blue lotuses,
with white lotuses strewn about.2 (1) [2043]
At that time I was a bird there,
known by the name of Kakudha,3
learned in merit/not merit,4
moral and intelligent [too]. (2) [2044]
Padumuttara, World-Knower,
Sacrificial Recipient,
the Great Sage wandered into the
vicinity of that [great] lake. (3) [2045]
Taking a water-born lotus,
I gave it to the Great Sage [then].
Discerning what I was thinking,
the Sage so Great accepted [it]. (4) [2046]
After having given that gift,
incited by [my] wholesome roots,
for one hundred thousand aeons
I’ve come to know no bad rebirth. (5) [2047]
In the sixteen-hundredth aeon
there were people, [numbering] eight,
[all of whom] were named Varuṇa,
wheel-turning kings with great power. (6) [2048]
The four analytical modes,
and these eight deliverances,
six special knowledges mastered,
[I have] done what the Buddha taught! (7) [2049]
Thus indeed Venerable Kumudadāyaka Thera spoke these verses.
The legend of Kumudadāyaka Thera is finished.
The Summary:
Bandhujīva, Tambapupphī,
Vīthī, Kakkārapupphiya,
Mandārava, and Kadambī,
Sulika, Nāgapupphiya,
Punnāga, [and] Komudī:
there are six and fifty verses
declared [in this chapter, complete].
The Bandhujīvaka Chapter, the Sixteenth.
“White-Lotus-Donor”↩
the three types of lotus here are, respectively, the pinkish or red paduma (Sinhala piyum), the blueish or purple uppala (Sinhala upul, neḷum, nil mānel) and the puṇḍarīka, or white lotus, identical to the kumuda in his name, which is the type of flower he gives to Padumuttara Buddha in v. [2046]..↩
“arjuna Tree”. Kakudha (a.k.a. ajjuṇa, Sinhala kumbuk gasa, terminalia arjuna) is an impressively large, shade-giving tree that grows near tanks and lakes. Crataeva Hygrophyla↩
that is, learned (clever, wise) at distinguishing what is meritorious from what is not (according to the cty: what is kusala or wholesome from what is akusala, not wholesome).↩