[192. Tiṇasantharadāyaka1]
What grass a forest-dwelling sage
is reaping for the [Great] Teacher,
all those [blades] turning to the right2
fell down upon the earth [back then]. (1) [2219]
That I, taking [a load of] grass
and bringing [blades of] grass and leaves
of palmyra3 [did make] a mat,
[spread out] on the excellent ground. (2) [2220]
Fashioning that grass [and those] leaves,
I gave [that mat] to Siddhattha;
for seven days I bore it there
for the Teacher of Gods and Men. (3) [2221]
In the ninety-four aeons since
I gave [the Buddha] grass back then
I’ve come to know no bad rebirth:
that’s the fruit of a gift of grass. (4) [2222]
In the sixty-fifth aeon hence
there were four [named] Mahādhana,4
wheel-turning monarchs with great strength,
possessors of the seven gems. (5) [2223]
The four analytical modes,
and these eight deliverances,
six special knowledges mastered,
[I have] done what the Buddha taught! (6) [2224]
Thus indeed Venerable Tiṇasantharadāyaka Thera spoke these verses.
The legend of Tiṇasantharadāyaka Thera is finished.
“Grass Mat Donor”↩
padakkhiṇāvattā (BJTS Sinhala gloss dakṣiṇāvarta vä) contains a double entendre in Pāli (and Sinhala) which I have tried to preserve in English: the (physical) turning to the right of the leaves (itself auspicious, in the proper “circumambulation” to show respect, “keeping the right” to the object of veneration) is simultaneously a (metaphorical) turning toward what is right, good, skillful (or even, “turning into religious gifts,” dakkhiṇā)↩
the palmyra (tāla, Sinh. tal) tree or fan palm is Borassus flabelliformis↩
“Great Wealth”↩