[412. {415.}1 Nāgapallavaka2]

In the city, Bandhumatī,
I lived in the royal garden.
[At that time], near my hermitage,
the Leader of the World sat down. (1) [4385]

Taking a sprout of ironwood,
I offered it to the Buddha.
Happy, with pleasure in [my] heart,
I saluted the Well-Gone-One. (2) [4386]

In the ninety-one aeons since
I offered3 [that] sprout [at that time],
I’ve come to know no bad rebirth:
that’s the fruit of Buddha-pūjā. (3) [4387]

My defilements are [now] burnt up;
all [new] existence is destroyed.
Like elephants with broken chains,
I am living without constraint. (4) [4388]

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! (5) [4389]

The four analytical modes,
and these eight deliverances,
six special knowledges mastered,
[I have] done what the Buddha taught! (6) [4390]

Thus indeed Venerable Nāgapallavaka Thera spoke these verses.

The legend of Nāgapallavaka 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. “Ironwood-Sprout-er”

  3. lit., “did pūjā