[{552.}1 Nadī-Kassapa2]

When Padumuttara Buddha,
the World’s Best One, the Neutral One,
was wandering about for alms,
maintaining superlative fame,
taking the best fruit [of some sort],
I gave [it] to [him], the Teacher, [6359]

The Biped-Lord,3 the World’s Best One,
Bull of Men. Due to that karma,
I’ve attained the unshaking state
beyond [all] conquest and defeat. [6360]

In the hundred thousand aeons
since I gave that donation then,
I’ve come to know no bad rebirth:
that’s the fruit of giving the best. [6361]

My defilements are [now] burnt up;
all [new] existence is destroyed.
Like elephants with broken chains,
I am living without constraint. [6362]

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! [6363]

The four analytical modes,
and these eight deliverances,
six special knowledges mastered,
[I have] done what the Buddha taught! [6364]

Thus indeed Venerable Nadīkassapa Thera spoke these verses.

The legend of Nadīkassapa Thera, the second.

  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. “Kassapa by the River,” a historical monk, brother of Uruvela-Kassapa (see v. 36-38 of Uruvela-Kassapa’s apadāna, [5946]-[5948], above); cf. DPPN II:10. This same apadāna, with minor changes (the first two verses are conflated here, and one line is missing), appears above as #437 {440}. There it is ascribed to a monk named Jambuphaliya, “Rose-apple Fruit-er,” and on the basis of that ascription BJTS Sinh. gloss says the type of “best fruit” referred to in the first (there second) verse was a rose-apple (jambu) fruit. Here, lacking that ascription, BJTS Sinh. gloss is silent as regards the type of fruit that was donated.↩

  3. I read this and the following two epithets in the vocative, in keeping with PTS, though BJTS reads them as nominatives, continuing the preceding verse, here and in the repeated version (#{552}). See the latter for the treatment of them as nominatives.↩