[227. Vaṭaŋsakiya1]
I saw the Leader of the World
being led into a garden.2
Picking up a wreath for the head
made of gold, superbly fashioned,
[and] quickly rising up from there,
mounted on an elephant’s back,
I gave [it] to the Buddha [then],
to Sikhi, Kinsman of the World. (1-2) [2406-2407]
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. (3) [2408]
In the twenty-seventh aeon
hence [lived] one lord of the people
[who was] named Mahāpatāpa3
a wheel-turning king with great strength. (4) [2409]
The four analytical modes,
and these eight deliverances,
six special knowledges mastered,
[I have] done what the Buddha taught! (5) [2410]
Thus indeed Venerable Vaṭaŋsakiya Thera spoke these verses.
The legend of Vaṭaŋsakiya Thera is finished.
“Chaplet (or Wreath for the Head) [Donor].” BJTS gives sovaṇṇavaṭaŋsakiya, “Golden Chaplet [Donor],” a reading confirmed in the Summary which names this apadāna “Soṇṇa”. Cf. #149, above; the BJTS reading allows for the two monks to be distinguished from each other. In this regard cf. also #228, below.↩
lit., “to a garden-ground”↩
“Great Austerities (or heat)”↩