[303. Paramannadāyaka1]
I saw the Buddha, Vipassi,
the World’s Best, the Bull among Men,
shining like a dinner-plate tree,2
just like the sun [when it] rises. (1) [2725]
Pressing both my hands together,
I brought [Buddha] to [my] own house.
Having brought the Sambuddha [there,]
I donated milk-rice3 [to him]. (2) [2726]
In the ninety-one aeons since
I gave that milk-rice [to him] then,
I’ve come to know no bad rebirth:
that is the fruit of milk-rice-gifts. (3) [2727]
The four analytical modes,
and these eight deliverances,
six special knowledges mastered,
[I have] done what the Buddha taught! (4) [2728]
Thus indeed Venerable Paramannadāyaka Thera spoke these verses.
The legend of Paramannadāyaka Thera is finished.
“Milk-rice Donor,” lit., “Donor of the Ultimate Food,” parama + anna. The Sinhala tradition understands this to be milk-rice (kiri-bat), which in Sri Lanka is typically made by boiling the rice in coconut milk rather than cow’s milk. In ancient India, the latter was more likely the case. The term may also mean, more literally, “outstanding food.”↩
kaṇṇikāra, kaṇikāra = Sinhala kinihiriya, Pterospermum acerifolium, produces a brilliant mass of yellow flowers; Engl. a.k.a. karnikar, bayur tree, maple-leaf bayur, caniyar (now archaic?), dinner-plate tree; Bodhi tree of Siddhattha Buddha.↩
lit., “the ultimate food,” parama-anna. The Sinhala tradition understands this to be milk-rice (kiri-bat), which in Sri Lanka is typically made by boiling the rice in coconut milk rather than cow’s milk. In ancient India, the latter was more likely the case. The term may also mean, more literally, “outstanding food.”↩