[300. Anusaŋsāvaka1]
I saw Vipassi, the Victor,
wandering about for alms food.
I gave an owl’s [measure of] food2
to the Best Biped, Neutral One. (1) [2713]
Happy, with pleasure in [my] heart,
I greeted [Buddha] at that time.
I sang the praises of Buddha,
wishing for the ultimate goal. (2) [2714]
In the ninety-one aeons since
I sang [the Buddha’s] praises [then],
I’ve come to know no bad rebirth:
that’s the fruit of singing praises. (3) [2715]
The four analytical modes,
and these eight deliverances,
six special knowledges mastered,
[I have] done what the Buddha taught! (4) [2716]
Thus indeed Venerable Anusaŋsāvaka Thera spoke these verses.
The legend of Anusaŋsāvaka Thera is finished.
The Summary:
CChitaka and Pārichatta,
Sadda, Gosīsasanthara,
Pada, Padesa, Saraṇa,
Amba and Saŋsāvaka too:
there are forty-seven verses
which are counted by those who know.
The CChitakapūjaka Chapter, the Thirtieth
Then there is the Summary of Chapters:
Kaṇṇikāra, Hatthidada,
Ālamban’, Udakāsana,
Tuvara and Thomana too,
Ukkhepa, Sīsupadhāna,
Paṇṇada and CChitapūji:
in total all the verses here
[do number] four [times] one hundred
plus one more than fifty as well.3
Twenty-five hundred [verses] all
[plus] seventy-two more than that:
three hundred apadāna [poems]
are counted by those who see truth.
The Third Hundred4 is finished.
“Praiser” or more loosely “Singer of Praises”↩
BJTS Sinhala gloss takes uluṅkabhikkhaṃ to mean a small amount and I follow suit; cf. “eat like a bird.” But the term — which I do not find documented in the dictionaries — could also refer to something that owls typically eat, or even the flesh of owls. Cty provides no explanation.↩
reading cchattāri ccha satānîha with BJTS for PTS cchattārīsa satānîha (“forty hundred”); I take the total to be 451 for this century of legends↩
sataka is a common structure in Sanskrit and Pāli poetry, usually referring to one hundred verses, rather than (as here) one hundred stories.↩