[212. Pānadhidāyaka1]

[One time] I gave a [pair of] shoe[s]
to a forest-dwelling rishi
[who’d] long practiced austerities,
grown old, with cultivated thought. (1) [2324]

Because of that deed, Biped Lord,2
Best in the World, O Bull of Men,
I enjoy every vehicle:
that is the fruit of past karma. (2) [2325]

In the ninety-one aeons since
I did that [good] karma back then,
I’ve come to know no bad rebirth:
that’s the fruit of a [pair of] shoes. (3) [2326]

Seventy-seven aeons hence3
there were eight of the royal caste4
known by the name of Suyāna,5
wheel-turning monarchs with great strength. (4) [2327]

The four analytical modes,
and these eight deliverances,
six special knowledges mastered,
[I have] done what the Buddha taught! (5) [2328]

Thus indeed Venerable Pānadhidāyaka Thera spoke these verses.

The legend of Pānadhidāyaka Thera is finished


  1. “Sandal Donor,” taking panidha as pavahanak following BJTS Sinhala gloss. Cf. below, #476 {479} for a different apadāna of a monk with the same name

  2. This, and the following two epithets are in the vocative case, addressing [presumably Gotama] Buddha directly. This is one of several instances of such use of the vocative which indicate that the apadānas were believed to have been spoken in the Buddha’s own presence (and time), even though some schools of reciters denied that implication. See introduction, link xxx

  3. lit., “in the seventy-seventh aeon”.

  4. lit., “kṣatriyans”

  5. “Good Vehicles”