[496. {499.}1 Naḷakuṭikadāyaka2]

In the Himalayan region,
there’s a mountain named Bhārika.3
The Self-Become One, Nārada,
dwelt at the roots of a tree then. (1) [5341]

Having fashioned a house of reeds,
I covered it with grass [as thatch],
[and] clearing a walkway I [then]
gave [them] to the Self-Become One. (2) [5342]

Due to that karma done very well,
with intention and [firm] resolve,
discarding [my] human body,
I went to Tāvatiṃsa [then]. (3) [5343]

There my well-constructed mansion,
fashioned as a little reed hut,
[measured] sixty leagues in length, [and]
[it measured] thirty leagues in width. (4) [5344]

I delighted in the gods’ world
throughout fourteen aeons [back then],
and [later] seventy-one times,
I exercised divine rule [there]. (5) [5345]

And thirty-four times [after that,]
I was a king who turns the wheel.
[There was also] much local rule,
innumerable by counting. (6) [5346]

Ascending the Teaching-palace,
in all ways a fine metaphor,4
I would live [there where I’m] wishing,
in the Buddha’s5 dispensation. (7) [5347]

In the thirty-one aeons since
I did that [good] karma back then,
I’ve come to know no bad rebirth:
the fruit of a little reed hut. (8) [5348]

My defilements are [now] burnt up;
all [new] existence is destroyed.
Like elephants with broken chains,
I am living without constraint. (9) [5349]

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! (10) [5351]

The four analytical modes,
and these eight deliverances,
six special knowledges mastered,
[I have] done what the Buddha taught! (11) [5352]

Thus indeed Venerable Naḷakuṭikadāyaka Thera spoke these verses.

The legend of Naḷakuṭikadāyaka 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. “Little Reed Hut Donor”

  3. BJTS reads bhārito, Bhārita; PTS alts. are Hāriko, Hārika, and Hiriko, Hirika. DPPN II:1324 goes with Hārita. Cf. #342 {345}, above, for the parallel apadāna of Nalāgārika (BJTS Naḷāgārika), which shares the first two verses with this one.

  4. reading sabbākāravarūpamaṃ with BJTS (and PTS alt.) for PTS sabbāgarāvarūpamaŋ (“excellent metaphor for all houses”); BJTS Sinhala gloss siyalu ākārayen utum upamā äti dharma-nämäti prasādayṭa nägī

  5. lit., “in the Śākyas’ Son’s”