[183. Koṭumbariya1]
Happy, [and] with a happy heart,
I approached the Best among Men,
shining like a dinner-plate tree,2
sitting down amidst the mountains,
like the ocean without measure,
extending3 as far as the earth,
worshipped4 by the gods’ assembly,5
of the best race of bulls of men. (1-2) [2163-2164]
I [once] offered to the Buddha
Sikhi, the Kinsman of the World,
a piece of cloth6 [which I had] filled
with seven flowers [I] had plucked. (3) [2165]
In the thirty-one aeons since
I did pūjā [with] that flower,
I’ve come to know no bad rebirth:
that’s the fruit of Buddha-pūjā. (4) [2166]
In the twentieth aeon hence
I was a greatly powerful
wheel-turning monarch with great strength,
[known by the] name Mahāṇela.7 (5) [2167]
The four analytical modes,
and these eight deliverances,
six special knowledges mastered,
[I have] done what the Buddha taught! (6) [2168]
Thus indeed Venerable Koṭumbariya8 Thera spoke these verses.
The legend of Koṭumbariya9 Thera is finished.
koṭumbariya is a kind of cloth; the name would mean “[That Kind of Cloth]-er”. This spelling follows BJTS; PTS gives Kotumbariya.↩
kaṇṇikāra, kaṇikāra = Sinhala kinihiriya, Pterospermum acerifolium, produces a brilliant mass of yellow flowers; Engl. a.k.a. karnikar, bayur tree, maple-leaf bayur, caniyar (now archaic?), dinner-plate tree; Bodhi tree of Siddhattha Buddha.↩
reading vitthataṃ with BJTS for PTS uddhataŋ (“risen up”)↩
reading pūjitaṃ with BJTS for PTS paretaŋ (“dead,” “oppressed”)↩
devasanghena↩
lit., “a koṭumbara”↩
BJTS reads Mahānela, meaning = ?↩
PTS reads Kotumbariya↩
PTS reads Kotumbariya↩