[472. {475.}1 Kummāsadāyaka2]
When Vipassi, the Sage So Great,
was going about as [he] wished,
seeing [that his] bowl was empty,
I filled [it] with barley porridge.3 (1) [4986]
In the ninety-one aeons since
I gave that alms food at that time,
I’ve come to know no bad rebirth:
that’s the fruit of barley porridge. (2) [4987]
My defilements are [now] burnt up;
all [new] existence is destroyed.
Like elephants with broken chains,
I am living without constraint. (3) [4988]
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) [4989]
The four analytical modes,
and these eight deliverances,
six special knowledges mastered,
[I have] done what the Buddha taught! (5) [4990]
Thus indeed Venerable Kummāsadāyaka Thera spoke these verses.
The legend of Kummāsadāyaka Thera is finished.
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.↩
“Barley-Porridge Donor.” This same apadāna is repeated below as #{559}, verbatim. There it is ascribed to the historical monk Sīvaka.↩
kummāsa, Skt. kulmāṣa, a preparation of barley, either as a soft porridge or jgruel (PSI yavayen kaḷ aharayak,” a food made with barley;” BJTS Sinh. gloss komupiṇḍu, “soft-boiled alms”), or as an unleavened cake or junket (PSI: Sinh. roṭiya). Given the description of “filling” the empty bowl, the former seems more likely and I have translated accordingly. It is at any rate some food made out of barley.↩