Kumuda Chapter, the Eighteenth

[171. Kumudamāliya1]

In the Himalayan Mountains,
there was a large, natural lake.
I was a rakkhasa born there,
of frightful form, having great strength. (1) [2104]

White lotuses were blooming there,
arising just as big as wheels,2
and I [then] picked those3 lotuses.
The Strong One’s4 group5 was [there] then [too]. (2) [2105]

But Atthadassi, Blessed One,
the Biped-Lord, the Bull of Men,
seeing that those flowers were picked,6
did come into my presence [then]. (3) [2106]

The God of Gods, the Bull of Men,
the Sambuddha approached [me then].
Picking up all of those flowers
I gave [them all] to the Buddha. (4) [2107]

That company then [stretched] out to
the ends of the Himalayas.7
With a canopy [over] him8
the Thus-Gone-One did journey forth. (5) [2108]

In the eighteen hundred aeons
since I offered [that] flower [to him],
I’ve come to know no bad rebirth:
that’s the fruit of Buddha-pūjā. (6) [2109]

In the fifteenth aeon ago,
there were seven lords of people,
wheel-turning kings with great power,
[all] known as Sahassaratha.9 (7) [2110]

The four analytical modes,
and these eight deliverances,
six special knowledges mastered,
[I have] done what the Buddha taught! (8) [2111]

Thus indeed Venerable Kumudamāliya Thera spoke these verses.

The legend of Kumudamāliya Thera is finished.

  1. “White-Lotus-Garland-er”↩

  2. BJTS Sinhala gloss takes this measure to be that of a chariot wheel (riya-sak), in which case they were very large lotuses indeed.↩

  3. reading taṃ (BJTS) for ahaŋ (“I,” PTS).↩

  4. I follow BJTS in reading balino for phalino (“of the one bearing fruit,” PTS), though neither balī nor phalī is one of the regular Buddha-epithets in Apadāna, so the choice is somewhat arbitrary: the Buddha might as well be “the Fruitful One” as “the Strong One”.↩

  5. Samiti, which BJTS Sinhala gloss takes to mean the Assembly of monks, i.e., the Buddha and his monastic followers↩

  6. reading samocchitaṃ (BJTS) for saṅkocchitaŋ (PTS).↩

  7. reading yāvatā himavantantā parisā sā tadā ahu (BJTS) for yāvatā himavantato yāva samantato ahu (“as far as the ends of the Himalayas, on all sides there was,” PTS)↩

  8. reading tācchchadanasampanno (“endowed with a canopy [on top of] him”) with BJTS for PTS aggacchchadanasampanno (“with a canopy on top [on top of him]”)↩

  9. “Thousand Chariots”.↩