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.↩

“Every-Praiser”↩

I have translated the final foot of (3) [3679] as the first line of this poem: “I saw the Leader of the World”. Placing the verb at the end of the string of similes works better in Pāli than it does in English, when presenting a string of descriptors as long as this one.↩

kaṇṇikāra, kaṇikāra = Sinhala kinihiriya, Pterospermum acerifolium, produces a brilliant mass of yellow flowers; Engl. a.k.a. karnikar, bayur tree, maple-leaf bayur, caniyar (now archaic?), dinner-plate tree; Bodhi tree of Siddhattha Buddha.↩

osadhī. RD (s.v.) points out that all we really know about this star is that it was particularly bright, leading Childers to translate it as “Venus” and others as the morning star.↩

ñāṇālokaŋ pakāsentaŋ↩

maddantaŋ titthiye gaṇe↩

chindantaŋ, sabbasaŋsayaŋ, lit., “cutting off all doubt”↩

reading gajjantaŋ with BJTS for PTS lasantaŋ, “playing” or “sporting,” also “shining” or “sounding forth”↩

I have translated (3d) = [3679d] as the first line of this poem: “I saw the Leader of the World”. Placing the verb at the end of the string of epithets works better in Pāli than it does in English, when presenting a string of descriptors as long as this one.↩

lit., “having taken,” gahetvāna↩

apatthariŋ. BJTS reads avatthariṃ (and cf. PTS alt. avattari), with the same meaning.↩

i.e., the Buddha’s, following the BJTS SInhala gloss.↩

reading kāḷānusāriyaṃ with BJTS for PTS kāḷāṇusārikaŋ. RD (s.v.) takes Kāḷa + anusāriyaṃ fr. kala 1, “black, (pol- ished?) Anusāri (”a kind of dark, fragrant sandal wood" Vin. Texts ii.51) Vin i.203; S iii.156=v.44= A v.22.” BJTS glosses the term as “black-vine (kaḷuväl, an odiferous back creeper often used for binding given its supple and strong texture) or aloe wood (agil).” Given the specification of “black” (kāḷa°) I take the latter reading, though underline that this is not a type of sandalwood in either event, and find perplexing that BJTS glosses both black-vine and aloe wood as “saffron-colored” (kasāvat). The protagonist presumably carries with him a paste made by grinding the wood, of whichever type (in modern South Asia it usually is indeed a variety of sandalwood), into a paste, which is kept on hand for this purpose, i.e., for smearing (on the forehead) of a person in order to bless him or her.↩

anulimpin, “smeared on”↩

lit., “the Sambuddha”↩

santhaviŋ↩

oghatiṇṇa↩

paratitthiye maddase↩

reading jitasaṅgamo with BJTS for PTS jitasaṅgame. I following BJTS Sinhala gloss (dinana lada saṅgrāma äti, “he who has meetings where he wins”), which seems to take the Pāli as “he whose meetings result in defeating [others],” but could also mean, “He who has meetings with the defeated,” “he by whom meetings are defeated,” or, drawing on the “bull” imagery, “he who wins in sexual intercourse”↩

lit., “in just that way,” tath’ eva, a filler which translated literally does not add to the clarity of the metaphor.↩

BJTS reads °jālena, (instr.) “by a net,” but I think the PTS reading °jāle (loc.) makes better grammatical sense here, the first two feet forming an extended locative absolute construction.↩

sampatānite, glossed by BJTS as atuḷa kalhi, “when it has been spread”↩

lit., “living things,” pāṇā; BJTS glosses ”(fish)” (matsyayō)↩

antojālagatā, lit., “gone to inside the net”↩

reading puthupāsaṇḍanissita with BJTS for PTS phuṭā saccchchavinissitā (“are numerous and ungrounded in truth”?)↩

mārisa, in the voc.↩

anto ñāṇavare tuyhaŋ↩

patiṭṭhā↩

nātho↩

saraṇo↩

parāyaṇo = final end, support, refuge↩

ekavīro↩

asādiso↩

reading kāruṇāmettāsañcchayo with BJTS for PTS mettākāruṇādisañcchayo, “heap of love, compassion, etc.” (which breaks meter).↩

susīlo, lit., “one who has good moral discipline”↩

asamo↩

santo↩

vasī↩

tādī↩

jitāñjaso, following BJTS gloss. I read this foot vasī tadī jitāñjaso with PTS vasitavijitañjayo↩

dhīro↩

vigatasammoho↩

anejo↩

akathaŋ kathī. BJTS reads this as a compound, akathaṅkathī↩

vusito↩

vantadoso, lit., “who has vomited up hate”↩

nimmalo↩

payato↩

reading succhī with BJTS for PTS suci↩

reading sangâtigo with BJTS for PTS sangh’âtīto↩

reading hatamado with BJTS for PTS gatamado (“Gone into Conceit” “Intoxicated One”↩

tevijjo, “possessor of the three higher knowledges” (recognition of former births, insight into the future destiny of all being, recognition of the origin of misery and of the path to its removal), that is, an arahant. The term is also used in a non-Buddhist (Brahmanical) sense, “master of the three Vedas,” but here the Buddhist interpretation would seem most appropriate.↩

tibhavantago↩

sīmâtigo↩

dhammagarū↩

katattho, lit., “he whose goal is done”↩

hitadhammato↩

tārako, elsewhere in this translation this epithet is translated “Crosser Over”↩

assāsa (“breathing easily”) + kārako↩

nidhīva↩

asambhito↩

reading dappito with BJTS for PTS dammito, “Tamed”↩

pāpakammaŋ↩

nibbāyissati↩

in the BJTS reading which guides me here, the last two feet of this verse have an implied, 3rd person plural subject.↩

reading aññātañccha vijāneyyuṃ with BJTS for PTS aññātañccha vijāneyyaŋ (“I should learn”)↩

reading phuseyyuṃ amataṃ padaṃ for PTS phasseyyam amataŋ padaŋ (“I should touch the deathless path”). Phassati is related to phuseti and in fact can stand for it, but the latter carries the applied meaning “reach” or “achieve” (an exalted religious state), and the first person makes no sense in context.↩

here too BJTS agrees with the PTS variant reading of this foot↩