[367. {370.}1 Salaḷapupphiya2]

On CChandabhāgā River’s bank
I was a kinnara3 back then.
And then I saw the God of Gods,
Bull of Men, walking back and forth. (1) [3214]

Plucking [a] salaḷa flower,
I gifted [it] to the Buddha.
The Great Hero, [the Buddha] sniffed
[that] divinely-scented flower.4 (2) [3215]

Accepting them the Sambuddha
Vipassi, Leader of the World,
the Great Hero, [the Buddha] sniffed,
conscious5 of what I was wishing.6 (3) [3216]

Happy, with pleasure in [my] heart,
I worshipped [him], the Best Biped.
Pressing both my hands together
I climbed up the mountain again. (4) [3217]

In the ninety-one aeons since
I did pūjā [with] that flower,
I’ve come to know no bad rebirth:
that’s the fruit of Buddha-pūjā. (5) [3218]

The four analytical modes,
and these eight deliverances,
six special knowledges mastered,
[I have] done what the Buddha taught! (6) [3219]

Thus indeed Venerable Salaḷapupphiya Thera spoke these verses.

The legend of Salaḷapupphiya Thera is finished.

The Summary:

Mandārava and Kekkhāru,
Bhisa, Kesarapupphiya,
Aṅkolaka and Kadambi,
Uddāli, Ekacchampaka,
Timira, Salaḷa as well:
and exactly forty verses.

The Mandārapupphiya7 Chapter, the Thirty-Seventh

  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. “Salaḷa Flower-er”. BJTS reads salala°. BJTS Sinh.gloss = hora = “large timber tree yielding rezin and oil, Dipterocarpus zeylanicus (Dipterocarp.)” (Bot. dict.)↩

  3. the kinnara (Sinh. kandura) has a human head and a horse’s body; “centaur”.↩

  4. lit., “divinely-scented salaḷa [flower]”↩

  5. reading sato with BJTS for PTS sadā, “always”↩

  6. lit., “conscious of me who was wishing,” or, taking it as a genitive absolute construction, “conscious/aware when I was wishing [for it]”↩

  7. BJTS reads Mandārava, the preferred Pāli spelling↩