[417. {420.}[1] Mañcchadāyaka[2]]
When Siddhattha reached nirvana,
Compassionate One, World-Leader,
[and] spread throughout the [entire] world,[3]
gods and men were honoring [him,] (1) [4449]
I was a low-born person[4] there,
a maker of long-chairs and stools.
I [earn my] living through that work,
[and] through it I feed [my] children. (2) [4450]
Having made a well-made long-chair,
[feeling well-]pleased by [my] own hands,
approaching by myself, I [then]
gave [it] to the monks’ Assembly. (3) [4451]
Due to that karma done very well,
with intention and [firm] resolve,
discarding [my] human body,
I went to Tāvatiṃsa [then]. (4) [4452]
Being gone to the world of gods,
I joy in the group of thirty.[5]
Very expensive beds come to
be, according to [my] wishes. (5) [4453]
Fifty times the lord of the gods,
I exercised divine rule [there].
And eighty times I was a king,
a king who turns the wheel [of law]. (6) [4454]
There was [also] much local rule,
innumerable by counting.
I’m [always] happy and famous:
that’s the fruit of giving a bed. (7) [4455]
If, falling from the world of gods,
I come into the human state,
very costly, excellent beds
come to be for me by themselves. (8) [4456]
This is the final time for me;
[my] last rebirth is proceeding.[6]
Even now, when it’s time to lie
down, a bed is waiting for me. (9) [4457]
In the ninety-four aeons since
I gave [him] that gift at that time,
I’ve come to know no bad rebirth:
that’s the fruit of giving a bed. (10) [4458]
My defilements are [now] burnt up;
all [new] existence is destroyed.
Like elephants with broken chains,
I am living without constraint. (11) [4459]
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! (12) [4460]
The four analytical modes,
and these eight deliverances,
six special knowledges mastered,
[I have] done what the Buddha taught! (13) [4461]
Thus indeed Venerable Mañcchadāyaka Thera spoke these verses.
The legend of Mañcchadāyaka Thera is finished.
The Summary:
Bhaddāli and Ekacchchatta,
Tiṇasūla and Maŋsada.
Nāgapalllavika, Dīpi,
Ucchchaṅgī, Yāgudāyaka, cc
Patthodanī, Mañcchadada:
the verses that are counted here
number two hundred verses and
one verse more than [those two hundred].
The Bhaddāli Chapter, the Forty-Second
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. ↩︎
“Couch Donor” “Bed Donor” ↩︎
i.e., his corporeal relics had been spread out (in stupas) ↩︎
cchaṇḍālo, a person of low status, an outcaste ↩︎
or “among the thirty[-three] gods,” “in Tāvatiṃsa heaven” ↩︎
ccharimo vattate bhavo ↩︎