[318. Tiraŋsiya1]

On a mountainside, Siddhattha,
like a lion which is well-born,
had lit up all the directions,
like a fire-mass2 on the mountain. (1) [2806]

Having seen Buddha’s effulgence,
like the effulgence of the sun,
and like the moon’s effulgence [too],
great happiness arose for me. (2) [2807]

Seeing the three effulgences,
seeing the Ultimate Hearer,3
placing deer-hide on one shoulder,
I praised the Leader of the World. (3) [2808]

The three makers of effulgence
dispelling darkness in the world,4
are the moon, and also the sun,
and Buddha, Leader of the World. (4) [2809]

Illustrating these similes,
I spoke praises of the Great Sage.5
Having extolled Buddha’s virtues,
I joyed an aeon in heaven. (5) [2810]

In the ninety-four aeons since
I extolled the Buddha [back then],
I’ve come to know no bad rebirth:
that is the fruit of extolling. (6) [2811]

In the sixty-first aeon hence
there was one [man], Ñāṇadhara,6
a wheel-turning king with great strength,
possessor of the seven gems. (7) [2812]

The four analytical modes,
and these eight deliverances,
six special knowledges mastered,
[I have] done what the Buddha taught! (8) [2813]

Thus indeed Venerable Tiraŋsiya Thera spoke these verses.

The legend of Tiraŋsiya Thera is finished.


  1. “Three Rays”

  2. or “column of fire”

  3. sāvakuttamaŋ, which I follow BJTS gloss in treating as a Buddha-epithet.

  4. lit., “dispelling the darkness of the world in the world,” repeating loka perhaps for emphasis.

  5. lit., “the Great Sage was praised by me,” which creates syntactical confusion in English given the grammar of the first foot, whose subject is apparently the narrator.

  6. “Knowledge-Bearer”