[376. {379.}1 Sumanadāmadāyaka2]

Having made a wreath of jasmine,
I stood carrying it in front
of Siddhattha, the Blessed One,
the Well-Bathed One, the Ascetic.3 (1) [3267]

In the ninety-four aeons since
I carried that wreath [of jasmine],
I’ve come to know no bad rebirth:
the fruit in carrying jasmine. (2) [3268]

My being in Buddha’s presence4
was a very good thing for me.
The three knowledges are attained;
[I have] done what the Buddha taught! (3) [3269]

My defilements are [now] burnt up;
all [new] existence is destroyed.
Like elephants with broken chains,
I am living without constraint. (4) [3270]

The four analytical modes,
and these eight deliverances,
six special knowledges mastered,
[I have] done what the Buddha taught! (5) [3271]

Thus indeed Venerable Sumanadāmadāyaka Thera spoke these verses.

The legend of Sumanadāmadāyaka 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. “Jasmine Wreath (or Garland) Donor”↩

  3. the two epithets in this foot — nhātaka (nahātaka, “one who has bathed”) and tapassin (“practicer of austerities”) — are typically reserved for non-Buddhist adepts. The former refers to a brahmin who has received his ritual bath upon completion of his Vedic studies (though it is also used in a Buddhist sense, according to RD, at DhA iv.232, and in a more general sense of having “washed away all sins” at SN 521, 646). The latter refers to an ascetic who cultivates inner heat through the sorts of austere and self-mortifying practices renounced by the Bodhisattva prior to achieving Buddhahood (but according to RD is also used in a more general sense to refer to one who has achieved mastery over the senses, including Gotama Buddha, e.g., Vin i.234=A iv.184).↩

  4. BJTS read “Being in Best Buddha’s presence”↩