[497. {500.}[1] Piyālaphaladāyaka[2]]

I was formerly a hunter,
wandering in the woods back then.
I saw the Buddha, Stainless One,
[who was] Master of Everything. (1) [5353]

Carrying a piyāla fruit,
I gave [it] to the Best Buddha,
the Field of Merit, the Hero,
[feeling well-]pleased by [my] own hands. (2) [5354]

In the thirty-one aeons since
I gave [him] that fruit at that time,
I’ve come to know no bad rebirth:
that is the fruit of giving fruit. (3) [5355]

My defilements are [now] burnt up;
all [new] existence is destroyed.
Like elephants with broken chains,
I am living without constraint. (4) [5356]

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! (5) [5357]

The four analytical modes,
and these eight deliverances,
six special knowledges mastered,
[I have] done what the Buddha taught! (6) [5358]

Thus indeed Venerable Piyālaphaladāyaka Thera spoke these verses.

The legend of Piyālaphaladāyaka Thera is finished.

The summary:
Kiṅkhani[3] and Paŋsukūla,
Koraṇḍapupphi,[4] Kiŋsuka,
Upaḍḍhadussī, Ghatada,
Udaka, Thūpakāraka,
Naḷāgārī is the ninth one,
Piyālaphaladāyaka.
There are one hundred verses [here],
and nine [verses] more than that [too].

The Kiṅkhanipupphiya Chapter, the Fiftieth.[5]

Then there is the Summary of Chapters:

Metteyya Chapter, Bhaddāli,[6]
and Sakiŋsammajjaka too;
one chapter [called] Vibheṭakī,
Jagatī, Sālapupphiya,
Naḷamāla, Paŋsukūla,
and thus[7] Kiṅkhaṇipupphiya.[8]
There are eighty-two verses [here]
and also fourteen hundred [more].
The Ten Chapters[9] called Metteyya.[10]

The Fifth Hundred[11] is finished.[12]


  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. “Piyāla-Fruit-Donor” Piyāla (Sinh. piyal) is buchanania latifolia. PTS omits “Piyāla,” hence reads the name merely as “Fruit-Donor”. Cf. above, #140, for a (different) apadāna ascribed to a monk of this name. Cf. below, #508 {511} for (virtually) the same apadāna ascribed to a monk of a different name. The only difference there is the name of the fruit that is donated, and hence of the donor as well. ↩︎

  3. BJTS reads kiṅkaṇi ↩︎

  4. BJTS reads koraṇḍamatha, “and then Koraṇḍ” ↩︎

  5. BJTS places this line before, rather than after the summary. ↩︎

  6. this is the BJTS reading for PTS “Metteyya, Bhaddāli Chapter” ↩︎

  7. reading tathā with BJTS (and PTS alts.) for PTS tadā (“then” “back then” “at that time”) ↩︎

  8. BJTS reads kiṅkaṇi ↩︎

  9. vaggadasakaŋ ↩︎

  10. not in PTS ↩︎

  11. sataka is a common structure in Sanskrit and Pāli poetry, usually referring to one hundred verses, rather than (as here) one hundred stories. ↩︎

  12. not in PTS ↩︎