{*333, BJTS only: Punnāgapupphiya1}
Plunging into a forest grove,
I [lived there as] a hunter [then].
Seeing a laurel tree2 in bloom,
I called to mind the Best Buddha. [2944]
Having plucked a flower [from it,]
well-perfumed [and] scented with scents,
having made a stupa of sand,3
I offered [it] to the Buddha. [2945]
In the ninety-two aeons since
I did that flower-pūjā [then],
I’ve come to know no bad rebirth:
that’s the fruit of Buddha-pūjā. [2946]
In the ninety-first aeon [hence]
lived [a ruler], Tamonuda,4
a wheel-turning king with great strength,
possessor of the seven gems. [2947]
The four analytical modes,
and these eight deliverances,
six special knowledges mastered,
[I have] done what the Buddha taught! [2948]
Thus indeed Venerable Punnāgapupphiya Thera spoke these verses.
The legend of Punnāgapupphiya Thera is finished.
Punnāga-Flower-er,” punnāga being a type of flowering tree (Sinhala domba), Alexandrian laurel. Like the previous one, this apadāna already has been given verbatim above, as #159 [vv. 2038-2042], apparently being supplied again here to fulfill the colophonic expectation of an apadāna so-named at this juncture in the text↩
punnāga↩
lit., “in sand”↩
= tama (darkness) plus ūna-da (less, reduced)?↩