[385. {388.}1 Panasaphaladāyaka2]

The Sambuddha named Ajjuna
dwelt in the Himalayas then.
He was Endowed with Good Conduct,3
[and] Skillful in Meditation.4 (1) [3320]

Taking jīvajīvaka5 jak6
the size of a jug for water,7
[and] placing it on a leaf-fan,
I gave [it] to the Teacher [then]. (2) [3321]

In the ninety-one aeons since
I gave [Buddha] that fruit back then,
I’ve come to know no bad rebirth:
that is the fruit of giving fruit. (3) [3322]

Being in Best Buddha’s presence
was a very good thing for me.
The three knowledges are attained;
[I have] done what the Buddha taught! (4) [3323]

My defilements are [now] burnt up;
all [new] existence is destroyed.
Like elephants with broken chains,
I am living without constraint. (5) [3324]

The four analytical modes,
and these eight deliverances,
six special knowledges mastered,
[I have] done what the Buddha taught! (6) [3325]

Thus indeed Venerable Panasaphaladāyaka Thera spoke these verses.

The legend of Panasaphaladāyaka 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. “Jak-Fruit Donor.”↩

  3. ccharaṇena sampanno↩

  4. samādhikusalo↩

  5. I follow BJTS in treating this as the name of a special type of jak-fruit. It means, “life-lifer,” also (as jivaṃjīvaka) the name of a bird (a type of pheasant, according to RD) whose call is similar to the sound “jīvaṃ jīvaṃ.”↩

  6. panasa (Sinh. panā, kos) is the jak-fruit tree, Artocarpus integrifolia (Urti.)↩

  7. kumbha-mattaŋ. Kumbha can also mean the frontal globes of an elephant, which are the size of (and resemble) a typical water jug (I’m thinking of a kalageḍiya as used in rural Sri Lanka). As will be clear, jak fruit can be very large. It is eaten as a tasty vegetable when young, as a heavy starchy vegetable when mature, and as a sweet fruit when ripe.↩