[340. {343.}1 Dhajadāyaka2]

The Teacher [then] was named Tissa,
the World’s Best One, the Bull of Men.
Having seen his passing away,3
I hoisted a flag [at that place].4 (1) [3093]

Due to that karma done very well,
with intention and [firm] resolve,
discarding [my] human body,
I went to Tāvatiṃsa [then]. (2) [3094]

And [afterwards,] three hundred times,
I ruled over the [world of] gods.
And [furthermore] five hundred times
I was a king who turned the wheel. (3) [3095]

There was [also] much local rule,
innumerable by counting.
I experienced own-karma,
formerly well done by myself. (4) [3096]

In the ninety-two aeons since
I did that [good] karma back then,
I’ve come to know no bad rebirth:
that’s the fruit of giving a flag. (5) [3097]

Today, if I should wish for [it],
[the world] with forests and mountains
is covered by a khoma cloth:
the fruit of5what I did6 back then. (6) [3098]

The four analytical modes,
and these eight deliverances,
six special knowledges mastered,
[I have] done what the Buddha taught! (7) [3099]

Thus indeed Venerable Dhajadāyaka Thera spoke these verses.

The legend of Dhajadāyaka Thera is finished.

  1. Apadāna numbers provided in {fancy brackets} correspond to the BJTS edition, which contains more individual poems than does the PTS edition dictating the main numbering of this translation.↩

  2. “Flag Donor”↩

  3. tayopadhikkhayo (BJTS reads, a little more cleanly, tassopadhikkhaye), lit., “the destruction (khaya) of his foundation (substratum, liability) for rebirth (upadhi).” I follow the BJTS gloss in understanding this as a reference to his parinirvāṇa.↩

  4. lit., “a flag was hoisted (or given, carried, displayed, etc.) by me”↩

  5. lit., “in” (kate, locative case)↩

  6. lit., “my deed”↩