[497. {500.}1 Piyālaphaladāyaka2]

I was formerly a hunter,
wandering in the woods back then.
I saw the Buddha, Stainless One,
[who was] Master of Everything. (1) [5353]

Carrying a piyāla fruit,
I gave [it] to the Best Buddha,
the Field of Merit, the Hero,
[feeling well-]pleased by [my] own hands. (2) [5354]

In the thirty-one aeons since
I gave [him] that fruit at that time,
I’ve come to know no bad rebirth:
that is the fruit of giving fruit. (3) [5355]

My defilements are [now] burnt up;
all [new] existence is destroyed.
Like elephants with broken chains,
I am living without constraint. (4) [5356]

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! (5) [5357]

The four analytical modes,
and these eight deliverances,
six special knowledges mastered,
[I have] done what the Buddha taught! (6) [5358]

Thus indeed Venerable Piyālaphaladāyaka Thera spoke these verses.

The legend of Piyālaphaladāyaka Thera is finished.

The summary:
Kiṅkhani3 and Paŋsukūla,
Koraṇḍapupphi,4 Kiŋsuka,
Upaḍḍhadussī, Ghatada,
Udaka, Thūpakāraka,
Naḷāgārī is the ninth one,
Piyālaphaladāyaka.
There are one hundred verses [here],
and nine [verses] more than that [too].

The Kiṅkhanipupphiya Chapter, the Fiftieth.5

Then there is the Summary of Chapters:

Metteyya Chapter, Bhaddāli,6
and Sakiŋsammajjaka too;
one chapter [called] Vibheṭakī,
Jagatī, Sālapupphiya,
Naḷamāla, Paŋsukūla,
and thus7 Kiṅkhaṇipupphiya.8
There are eighty-two verses [here]
and also fourteen hundred [more].
The Ten Chapters9 called Metteyya.10

The Fifth Hundred11 is finished.12


  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. “Piyāla-Fruit-Donor” Piyāla (Sinh. piyal) is buchanania latifolia. PTS omits “Piyāla,” hence reads the name merely as “Fruit-Donor”. Cf. above, #140, for a (different) apadāna ascribed to a monk of this name. Cf. below, #508 {511} for (virtually) the same apadāna ascribed to a monk of a different name. The only difference there is the name of the fruit that is donated, and hence of the donor as well.

  3. BJTS reads kiṅkaṇi

  4. BJTS reads koraṇḍamatha, “and then Koraṇḍ”

  5. BJTS places this line before, rather than after the summary.

  6. this is the BJTS reading for PTS “Metteyya, Bhaddāli Chapter”

  7. reading tathā with BJTS (and PTS alts.) for PTS tadā (“then” “back then” “at that time”)

  8. BJTS reads kiṅkaṇi

  9. vaggadasakaŋ

  10. not in PTS

  11. sataka is a common structure in Sanskrit and Pāli poetry, usually referring to one hundred verses, rather than (as here) one hundred stories.

  12. not in PTS