[{557.}1 Apara Uttara2]

When the World’s Lord reached nirvana,
Siddhattha, Leader of the World,
having summoned my relatives,
I worshipped3 [that Buddha’s] relics. [6423]

In the ninety-four aeons since
I worshipped4 [those] relics [back then],
I’ve come to know no bad rebirth:
that’s the fruit of relic-worship. [6424]

My defilements are [now] burnt up;
all [new] existence is destroyed.
Like elephants with broken chains,
I am living without constraint. [6425]

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! [6426]

The four analytical modes,
and these eight deliverances,
six special knowledges mastered,
[I have] done what the Buddha taught! [6427]

Thus indeed Venerable Apara Uttara Thera spoke these verses.

The legend of Apara Uttara Thera, the seventh.


  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. “A Different Uttara,” likewise a historical monk, see DPPN I:350. This same apadāna appears above, verbatim, as #483 {486}, where it is ascribed to a monk named Dhātupūjaka (“Relic-Worshipper”)

  3. lit., “did pūjā

  4. lit., “did pūjā