[342. {345.}1 Nalāgārika2]
Close to the Himalayan range,
there’s a mountain named Hārita.3
The Self-Become One, Nārada,
dwelt at the roots of a tree then. (1) [3104]
Having fashioned a house of reeds,
I covered it with grass [as thatch],
[and] clearing a walkway I [then]
gave [them] to the Self-Become One. (2) [3105]
In the fourteenth aeon [ago]
I delighted in the gods’ world,
and seventy-four times did I
exercise rule over the gods. (3) [3106]
And seventy-seven times I
was [then] a wheel-turning monarch.
There was [also] much local rule,
innumerable by counting. (4) [3107]
My dwelling-place was very tall,
rising up like Indra’s post.
One thousand-pillared, unsurpassed,
a mansion full of radiance. (5) [3108]
Enjoying both accomplishments,4
incited by [my] wholesome roots,
I went forth in the religion5
of Gotama, the Blessed One. (6) [3109]
Being one bent on exertion,
calmed,6 devoid of grounds for rebirth,7
like elephants with broken chains,
I am living without constraint. (7) [3110]
The four analytical modes,
and these eight deliverances,
six special knowledges mastered,
[I have] done what the Buddha taught! (8) [3111]
Thus indeed Venerable Nalāgārika Thera spoke these verses.
The legend of Nalāgārika Thera is finished.
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.↩
“Reed-Hut-er.” BJTS reads Naḷāgārika.↩
perhaps “Charming,” from hāri, or “Carrying,” from harati. A parallel apadāna below, of Naḷakuṭika Thera, which begins with the same two verses, reads the name as Bhārika (BJTS Bhārita) with Hārito and Hiriko as alts.↩
i.e., birth as a human being and birth as a god↩
sāsane, lit., “dispensation”↩
upasanto↩
nirūpadhi↩