[436. {439.}[1] Ambapiṇḍiya[2]]
I was then an elephant-king,
with tusks like plough-poles, fully grown.
Wandering in a large forest,[3]
I saw the Leader of the World. (1) [4701]
Taking a cluster of mangoes,[4]
I gave [them] to [him,] the Teacher.
The Great Hero accepted them,
Siddhattha, Leader of the World. (2) [4702]
While I[5] meditated [on him],
the Victor then consumed [that fruit].
Bringing pleasure to [my] heart there,
I was reborn in Tusitā.[6] (3) [4703]
After falling down from there, I
was a monarch who turns the wheel.
[Then] through that very method, I,
having enjoyed [great] good fortune,[7]
being one bent on exertion,
calmed,[8] devoid of grounds for rebirth,[9]
knowing well all the defilements,
am living [here now,] undefiled. (4-5) [4704-4705]
In the ninety-four aeons since
I gave that fruit [to him] back then,
I’ve come to know no bad rebirth:
that is the fruit of giving fruit. (6) [4706]
My defilements are [now] burnt up;
all [new] existence is destroyed.
Like elephants with broken chains,
I am living without constraint. (7) [4707]
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! (8) [4708]
The four analytical modes,
and these eight deliverances,
six special knowledges mastered,
[I have] done what the Buddha taught! (9) [4709]
Thus indeed Venerable Ambapiṇḍiya Thera spoke these verses.
The legend of Ambapiṇḍiya Thera is finished.
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. ↩︎
“Mango-Cluster-er” ↩︎
reading brahāraññe with BJTS (and PTS alt.) for PTS Brahmāraññe (“Brahmā’s forest”) ↩︎
ambapiṇḍi. The term can mean “lump”or “round mass” too, but it’s not clear how an elephant would get or make a lump or ball of mango to present a Buddha; “mango-cud” seems unlikely. Wild elephants eat by breaking branches, fronds or stems off trees and shrubs with their trunks, and the image here seems to be along those lines: mangoes fruit in clusters along branches, and the protagonist has apparently broken off such a branch, clustered with mangoes, to give the Buddha. ↩︎
reading mama with BJTS (and PTS. alt.; gen. abs. construction) for PTS mamaŋ (acc.) ↩︎
the heaven of happiness ↩︎
sampadā, [good] achievements, etc. ↩︎
upasanto ↩︎
nirūpadhi ↩︎