[441. {444.}1 Bhallāṭakadāyaka2]

Spreading out a rug made of grass3
for the Gold-Colored Sambuddha,
Bearing the Thirty-two Great Marks,
flying4 along the forest5 top,
like a regal sal tree in bloom,
I asked [him,] the Best of Buddhas:
“let the Buddha show me mercy;
I would like to give [you] alms food.” (1-2) [4738-4739]

Merciful, Compassionate One,
Atthadassi, Greatly Famed One,
discerning what I was thinking,
descended to my hermitage. (3) [4740]

Descending, the Sambuddha then
sat down on [that] mat made of leaves.6
Having taken some markingnut,7
I gave [it] to the Best Buddha. (4) [4741]

While I meditated [on him],
the Victor then consumed [that fruit].
Bringing pleasure to [my] heart there,
I then worshipped [him,] the Victor. (5) [4742]

In the eighteen hundred aeons
since I gave [him] that fruit back then,
I’ve come to know no bad rebirth:
that is the fruit of giving fruit. (6) [4743]

My defilements are [now] burnt up;
all [new] existence is destroyed.
Like elephants with broken chains,
I am living without constraint. (7) [4744]

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! (8) [4745]

The four analytical modes,
and these eight deliverances,
six special knowledges mastered,
[I have] done what the Buddha taught! (9) [4746]

Thus indeed Venerable Bhallāṭakadāyaka Thera spoke these verses.

The legend of Bhallāṭakadāyaka 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. “Markingnut Fruit-er”↩

  3. tiṇattharaŋ↩

  4. lit., “going”↩

  5. pavana°. Despite RD’s qualms (pavana, s.v.) I follow the tradition in reading this as “forest, woods” rather than “the side of a mountain.” Note BJTS alt. vipina°.↩

  6. paṇṇasanthare, presumably the “rug made of grass” mentioned in v. 2↩

  7. bhallātakaŋ bhallī, badulla = semecarpus anacardium, Sinh. badulu↩