[{553.}1 Gayā-Kassapa2]

I was dressed in3 deer-leather [then],
wearing a [heavy] shoulder-yoke.
Carrying a khāri load, I
brought jujubes4 to the ashram. [6365]

The Blessed One in that era
was alone with nobody else.5
He then approached my hermitage,
shining brightly all of the time. [6366]

Bringing pleasure to [my] own heart,
worshipping6 the Compliant One,7
taking [them] with both of my hands
I gave the Buddha jujubes. [6367]

In the thirty-one aeons since
I gave that fruit [to him] back then,
I’ve come to know no bad rebirth:
the fruit of giving jujubes. [6368]

My defilements are [now] burnt up;
all [new] existence is destroyed.
Like elephants with broken chains,
I am living without constraint. [6369]

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! [6370]

The four analytical modes,
and these eight deliverances,
six special knowledges mastered,
[I have] done what the Buddha taught! [6371]

Thus indeed Venerable Gayā-Kassapa Thera spoke these verses.

The legend of Gayā-Kassapa Thera, the third.

  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 from Gayā,” a historical monk, brother of Uruvela-Kassapa and Nadīkassapa (see v. 36-38 of Uruvela-Kassapa’s apadāna, [5946]-[5948], above); cf. DPPN I: 753. This same apadāna, with minor changes to the second foot of the first verse (where he is made to wear a shoulder-yoke [above he is made to wear robes of bark]) and the first foot of the second verse (which names the Buddha as Sikhi, here unnamed), appears above as #439 {442}. There it is ascribed to a monk named Kaladāyaka, “Jujube Donor”.↩

  3. lit., “with”↩

  4. kolaŋ, Sinh. ḍebara phala, Ziziphus Mauritania, Zyziphus Jujuba, Indian jujube or Chinese apple.↩

  5. lit., “without a second”↩

  6. lit., “and worshipping”↩

  7. subbataŋ↩