[457. {460.}1 Gandhapūjaka2]

When the pyres were constructed
various scents3 were [then] gathered.
Happy, with pleasure in [my] heart,
I offered4 a handful of scents. (1) [4859]

In the hundred thousand aeons
since I worshipped that pyre [back then],
I’ve come to know no bad rebirth:
that’s the fruit of worshipping5 pyres. (2) [4860]

My defilements are [now] burnt up;
all [new] existence is destroyed.
Like elephants with broken chains,
I am living without constraint. (3) [4861]

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) [4862]

The four analytical modes,
and these eight deliverances,
six special knowledges mastered,
[I have] done what the Buddha taught! (5) [4863]

Thus indeed Venerable Gandhapūjaka Thera spoke these verses.

The legend of Gandhapūjaka Thera is finished.

The Summary:

Jagatī and6 Morahatthī,
Āsanī, Ukkadhāraka,
Akkamī, Vanakoraṇḍī,
Chattada, Jātipūjaka,
and the elder Paṭṭipupphī,7
the tenth is Gandhapūjaka.
There are sixty-seven verses
which are counted by those who know.

The Jagatidāyaka Chapter, the Forty-Sixth


  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. “Scent-Offerer”

  3. i.e., perfumes, incense. Because the offering is of “a handful,” I take the “scent” in question to be some sort of scented resin akin to Sinh. dummala or frankincense, both of which come in the form of small pebbles.

  4. lit., “did pūjā

  5. lit., “dong pūjā

  6. BJTS omits ccha

  7. PTS reads Sattipaṇṇī