[504. {507.}1 Ajelaphaladāyaka2]

The Sambuddha named Ajjuna3
lived in the Himalayas then,
he Endowed with Good Behavior,
Skilled in Meditation,4 the Sage. (1) [5431]

Taking a water-jug’s worth5 of
ajela,6 jīvajīvaka,
[and] taking umbrella-leaves [too],7
I gave [them] to the Teacher [then]. (2) [5432]

In the ninety-four 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) [5433]

My defilements are [now] burnt up;
all [new] existence is destroyed.
Like elephants with broken chains,
I am living without constraint. (4) [5434]

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) [5435]

The four analytical modes,
and these eight deliverances,
six special knowledges mastered,
[I have] done what the Buddha taught! (6) [5436]

Thus indeed Venerable Ajelaphaladāyaka8 Thera spoke these verses.

The legend of Ajelaphaladāyaka9 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. “Ajela-Fruit Donor.” BJTS reads ageliphala°.↩

  3. Arjuna↩

  4. lit., “skilled in samādhis”↩

  5. or “as large as an elephant’s frontal lobe:” kumbhamattaŋ↩

  6. BJTS reads ajeliṃ↩

  7. or, “umbrella-leaf” (plant). Both BJTS and PTS place ajela or ajeli in apposition to jīvajīvakaŋ, which elsewhere in the text refers to a type of jak fruit, and to a type of pheasant, as well as to chattapaṇṇaŋ (“leaves [lit., “leaf”] for an umbrella”). BJTS Sinh gloss treats these as three separate items and infers “ands” connecting them; I follow its lead here. However, as all three terms are ambiguous (Cone cites only this passage for the term, with a question mark that it is some sort of plant or fruit), the translation must remain so as well, pending better identification of the three terms; the meaning may be “ajela [type of] jīvajīvaka [jak?] fruit [and] leaves for an umbrella” or “ajela fruit and jīvajīvaka leaves for an umbrella,” and so forth.↩

  8. BJTS reads ageliphala°.↩

  9. BJTS reads ageliphala°.↩