[426. {429.}1 Sovaṇṇakiṅkhaniya2]

Having departed [home] with faith,
I went forth into homelessness.
Wearing robes made out of bark, I
placed [my] trust in asceticism.3 (1) [4600]

Atthadassi, the Blessed One,
the World’s Best One, the Bull of Men,
came to be in that period,
ferrying many folks across. (2) [4601]

[All] my strength was [then] exhausted,
due to a serious4 illness.
Remembering the Best Buddha,
making an excellent stupa
of sand, with a happy heart I
scattered golden kiṅkhani blooms,
by the thousands, [on that stupa,]
my mind [full of] exultation.5 (3-4) [4602-4603]

As though facing6 the Sambuddha,
I attended on that stupa
with mental pleasure about [him],
Atthadassi, the Neutral One. (5) [4604]

Reborn in7 the world of the gods,
I’m obtaining great happiness.
There I was the color of gold:
that’s the fruit of Buddha-pūjā. (6) [4605]

[There] I had eight hundred million
women dressed in their ornaments.8
They’re waiting on me all the time:
that’s the fruit of Buddha-pūjā. (7) [4606]

There sixty thousand instruments,
bhera-drums9 and paṇava-drums,10
conch-shells and deṇḍima-drums11 [too,]
speaking the lovely sound of drums.12 (8) [4607]

[And also] eighty-four thousand
elephants all-ornamented,
mātaṅgas13 rutting in three ways14
[and] tuskers sixty years of age,
covered over with nets of gold,
[always] are attending15 on me,
and elephants equipped for war,16
are not [ever] lacking for me.17 (9-10) [4608-4609]

I am enjoying the result
of golden kiṅkhani18 flowers.
Fifty-eight times I exercised
sovereignty over [all] the gods. (11) [4610]

And seventy-one times I was
a king who turns the wheel [of law].
On earth, a hundred and one times,
I exercised world-rulership. (12) [4611]

That one has now gained deathlessness,
unconditioned, hard to perceive.
The fetters have [all] been destroyed;
now there will be no more rebirth. (13) [4612]

In the eighteen hundred aeons
since I presented that flower,
I’ve come to know no bad rebirth:
that is the fruit of Buddha-pūjā. (14) [4613]

My defilements are [now] burnt up;
all [new] existence is destroyed.
Like elephants with broken chains,
I am living without constraint. (15) [4614]

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! (16) [4615]

The four analytical modes,
and these eight deliverances,
six special knowledges mastered,
[I have] done what the Buddha taught! (17) [4616]

Thus indeed Venerable Sovaṇṇakiṅkhaniya Thera spoke these verses.

The legend of Sovaṇṇakiṅkhaniya 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. “Gold Kiṅkhani Flower-er.” BJTS spells the name “Soṇṇakiṅkhaṇiya”↩

  3. tapokammaŋ apassito.↩

  4. paramena, “superior” “best.” BJTS Sinhala gloss: däḍi, “strong”↩

  5. reading udaggamānaso (“thrilled mind”) with BJTS for PTS uddaggamānaso (“a mind on top of water”)↩

  6. or “face to face with”↩

  7. lit., “being gone to”↩

  8. samalaṇkatā, lit., “well-ornamented,” “together with their ornaments,” “all decked out”↩

  9. bheriyo, “kettle-drums,” BJTS Sinh. gloss gäṭabera↩

  10. paṇavāni, “a kind of small drum or cymbal,” BJTS Sinh. gloss paṇā [read panā] bera↩

  11. deṇḍimā, “a kind of kettle-drum”↩

  12. vaggu [BJTS vagguṃ] vadati dundubhi (BJTS, “speaking beautifully the sound of drums”)↩

  13. see n. to #1, v. 25 [164]. Or glossary?↩

  14. i.e., showing their rut in their eyes, ears, and genitals. See cty, p. 288.↩

  15. lit., “are doing attendance”↩

  16. balakāye gaje c’eva, lit., “and also army elephants” or “also elephants army troops” or “also cavalry elephants”↩

  17. lit., “a lack…does not exist for me”↩

  18. BJTS reads °kiṅkhaṇi°↩