[137. Atthasandassaka[1]]
Sitting in a large, peaked building,[2]
I saw the Leader of the World,
Undefiled, Possessing Power,
Honored by the Monks’ Assembly. (1) [1915]
“Who is not pleased after seeing
a lakh with the three-fold knowledge,
special knowledges,[3] superpowers,
[all] surrounding the Sambuddha? (2) [1916]
Who is not pleased after seeing
Sambuddha with boundless knowledge,
to whom none comes close in knowledge
[in this world] with its gods and men? (3) [1917]
Who is not pleased after seeing
[him,] the Whole One,[4] the Mine of Gems,
explaining[5] the Dhamma-body
[which no one] can ever injure?” (4) [1918]
Nārada Saragacchchiya
by [saying] these three verses [then]
praised[6] [Buddha] Padumuttara,
the Unconquered, the Sambuddha. (5) [1919]
Due to that pleasure in [my] heart
and [my] praising of the Buddha,
for one hundred thousand aeons
I’ve come to know no bad rebirth. (6) [1920]
In the thirtieth aeon [hence]
the Kṣatriyan named Sukhitta[7]
was a wheel-turner with great strength,
possessor of the seven gems. (7) [1921]
The four analytical modes,
and these eight deliverances,
six special knowledges mastered,
[I have] done what the Buddha taught! (8) [1922]
Thus indeed Venerable Atthasandassaka Thera spoke these verses.
The legend of Atthasandassaka Thera is finished.
“Instructor of the Meaning” ↩︎
BJTS Sinhala gloss takes this as a flowering garden or grove, but I don’t find that usage of māḷa with the retroflex “l,” and cty gives no warrant for such a reading. ↩︎
lit., “six special knowledges” (see Glossary). ↩︎
kevala is a technical term for attainers of the supreme Jain goal, especially Jinas. Here it may be read as an adjective attached to “mine of gems,” but I suspect the polemical context would have been in the mind of the Apadāna compilers so I translate it as a separate epithet. Indeed, many of the epithets used of the Buddha (including “Buddha” itself, but also Great Hero, Great Sage, Victor [= Jina], etc.) were also used of the Jina, such that in ancient India one would have had to specify which Buddha or Jina was being referred to. ↩︎
reading dīpentaṃ (BJTS) for dīpenti (“they explain,” PTS) ↩︎
lit., “having praised”. The verse does not contain a finite verb, only the gerund, but the latter is clearly to be understood as the former. ↩︎
“Well-Praised” ↩︎