[236. Vaṇṇakāraka1]
In Aruṇavatī city
I was a dyer at that time.
With various colors I dyed
the cloth items on the stupa.2 (1) [2446]
In the thirty-one aeons since
I dyed with colors at that time,
I’ve come to know no bad rebirth;
that’s the fruit of giving colors. (2) [2447]
In the twenty-third aeon hence
[I was one] named CChandupama,3
a wheel-turning king with great strength,
possessor of the seven gems. (3) [2448]
The four analytical modes,
and these eight deliverances,
six special knowledges mastered,
[I have] done what the Buddha taught! (4) [2449]
Thus indeed Venerable Vaṇṇakāraka Thera spoke these verses.
The legend of Vaṇṇakāraka Thera is finished.
“Dyer” (vaṇṇa = color, hence lit., “color-er;” cf. vaṇṇaka, dye, perfume)↩
cchetiye. These would presumably consist of banners, flags, and/or girdles attached to the stupa. CChetiya can also mean any shrine, so it is also possible that we should think of the cloths as curtains, robes on statues, and/or table cloths in an image house, or flags and so forth attached to a Bodhi tree.↩
“Moon-like” or “Similar to the Moon”↩