[395. {398.}1 Salaḷamaṇḍapiya2]

When Kakusandha passed away,3
the Brahmin, the Perfected One,4
gathering salaḷa5 flowers,6
I constructed a pavilion.7 (1) [3821]

Having gone to Tāvatiṃsa,
I received a supreme mansion.
I surpassed [all] the other gods:
that is the fruit of good karma. (2) [3822]

Whether it’s the day or the night,
walking back and forth or8 standing,
I’m covered with salaḷa blooms:
that is the fruit of good karma. (3) [3823]

Within just this [present] aeon9
since I [thus] worshipped10 the Buddha,
I’ve come to know no bad rebirth:
that’s the fruit of Buddha-pūjā. (4) [3824]

My defilements are [now] burnt up;
all [new] existence is destroyed.
All defilements are exhausted;
now there will be no more rebirth. (5) [3825]

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! (6) [3826]

The four analytical modes,
and these eight deliverances,
six special knowledges mastered,
[I have] done what the Buddha taught! (7) [3827]

Thus indeed Venerable Salaḷamaṇḍapiya Thera spoke these verses.

The legend of Salaḷamaṇḍapiya 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. “Salaḷa-Pavilion-er”. BJTS spells the name (and the term, a type of flower) salala. This same apadāna is presented below, almost verbatim (there the more typical form of the first verse of the concluding refrain “Like elephants…” replaces the less typical “All defilements are….” found here), as #{554}. There it is ascribed to Kimbila Thera, a historical monk.↩

  3. lit., “reached nirvana”↩

  4. vusīmati, loc. of vusīmant = vusitavant, “one who has reached perfection” “the Master”↩

  5. PTS salaḷā, BJTS salalā, BJTS Sinh.gloss = hora = “large timber tree yielding rezin and oil, Dipterocarpus zeylanicus (Dipterocarp.)” (Bot. dict.)↩

  6. reading mālaṃ with BJTS for PTS māḷaŋ, “pavilion” “ritual marker”↩

  7. lit., “I caused a pavilion (maṇḍapa) to be constructed,” caus. of karoti↩

  8. lit., “and,” ccha↩

  9. Kakusandha Buddha lived at an earlier time in the present aeon, one of five Buddhas said to have done so. The author demonstrates awareness of the little wrinkle this creates in applying this typical summary verse, which had been modified accordingly↩

  10. lit., “did pūjā”↩