[434. {437.}1 Ambāṭaka2]

Seeing the Buddha in the woods,
the Self-Become, Unconquered One,
having taken a hog-plum,3 I
gave [it] to the Self-Become One. (1) [4684]

In the thirty-one aeons since
I gave that fruit [to him] back then,
I’ve come to know no bad rebirth:
that is the fruit of giving fruit. (2) [4685]

My defilements are [now] burnt up;
all [new] existence is destroyed.
Like elephants with broken chains,
I am living without constraint. (3) [4686]

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) [4687]

The four analytical modes,
and these eight deliverances,
six special knowledges mastered,
[I have] done what the Buddha taught! (5) [4688]

Thus indeed Venerable Ambāṭaka Thera spoke these verses.

The legend of Ambāṭaka 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. “Hog-Plum”↩

  3. ambāṭakā, RD: “the hog-plum, Spondias Mangifera (a kind of mango), Vin ii.17 (°vana), DA i.271 (°rukkha).” BJTS gloss ämbarälla, ämbärälla, a small, sour, mango-like fruit which is cooked as a curry.↩