Khuddaka Nikaya - Psalms of the Sisters - Psalms of The Great Chapter

Khuddaka Nikaya - Psalms of the Sisters ( Therigatha ) - Psalms of The Great Chapter



CANTO XVI
PSALM OF THE GREAT CHAPTER
LXXIII
Sumedhā
SHE too, having made her resolve under former Buddhas, and heaping up good of
age-enduring efficacy in this and that rebirth, thoroughly preparing the
conditions of emancipation, was born, when Koṇāgamana was Buddha, in a
clansman's family. When she was of age, she and her friends, clansmen's
daughters, agreed together to have a great park made, and handed it over to the
Buddha and his Order. Through the merit of that act, she was reborn in the
heaven of the Three-and-Thirty. After a glorious period there, she arose once
more among the Yāma gods, then among the Blissful gods, then among the Happy
Creators, then among the Disposers of others' creations, 410 and there became
Queen of the King of the gods. Reborn thereafter, when Kassapa was Buddha, as
the daughter of a wealthy citizen, she acquired splendid merit as a
lay-believer, winning another rebirth among the gods of the Three-and-Thirty.
Finally reborn, in this Buddha-age, at the city of Mantāvatī, as the daughter of
King Koñca, 411 she was named Sumedhā. And when she was come to years of
discretion, her mother and father agreed to let Anikaratta, the Rāja of
Vāraṇavatī, see her. But she from her childhood had been in the habit of going
with Princesses of her own age and attendant slaves to the Bhikkhunīs' quarters
to hear them preach the Doctrine, and for a long time, because of her pristine
resolve, she had grown fearful of birth in the round of life, devoted to
religion and averse to the pleasures of sense.
Wherefore, when she heard the decision of her parents and kinsfolk, she said:
'My duty lies not in the life of the house. I will leave the world.' And they
were not able to dissuade her. She thinking, 'Thus shall I gain permission to
leave the world,' laid hold of her purpose, and cut off her own hair. Then using
her hair in accordance with what she had heard from the Bhikkhunīs of their
methods, she concentrated her attention on repugnance to physical attraction,
and calling up the idea of 'Foul Things,' 412 then and there attained First
Jhāna. And when she was thus rapt, her parents came to her apartments in order
to give her away. But she made them first and all their retinue and all the
Raja's people believers in religion, and left the house, renouncing the world in
the Bhikkhunīs' quarters.
Not long after, establishing insight, and ripe for emancipation, she attained
Arahantship, with thorough grasp of the Norm in form and in meaning. And
reflecting on her victory, she broke forth in exultation:
King Heron's daughter at Mantāvatī,
Born of his chief consort, was Sumedhā,
Devoted to the makers of the Law. 413 (448)
A virtuous maid was she and eloquent,
Learnèd and in the system of our Lord
Well trained. She of her parents audience sought,
And spake: 'Now listen, mother, father, both! (449)
All my heart's love is to Nibbana given.
Transient is everything that doth become,
E'en if it have the nature of a god.
What truck have I, then, with the empty life
Of sense, that giveth little, slayeth much? (450)
Bitter as serpents' poison are desires
Of sense, whereafter youthful fools do yearn.
For that full many a night in wretchedness
They drag out tortured lives in realms of woe. 414 (451)
The vicious-minded, vicious doers mourn
In purgatorial lives. Ever are fools
Without restraint in deed and word and thought. (452)
Oh! but the foolish have no wit or will.
They cannot grasp what maketh sorrow rise–
When taught, they learn not; in their slumb'ring minds
The Fourfold Ariyan Truth awakens not. (453)
Those Truths, O mother, that th' Awakened One,
The Best, the Buddha, hath revealed to us,
They, the Majority, know not, and they
Delight in coming aye again to be,
And long to be reborn among the gods. (454)
E'en with the gods is no eternal home. 415
Becoming needs must be impermanent.
Yet they, the foolish souls, are not afraid
Again, again to come somewhere to birth. (455)
Four are the ways of doleful life, and two
Alone the ways of weal 416 –and these how hard
To win! Nor if one come into the four,
Is there renunciation from that world. (456)
Suffer ye both that I renounce my world;
And in the blessed teaching of the Lord,
Him of the Powers Ten, 417 heedless of all
Without, I'll strive to root out birth and death. (457)
How can I take delight in many births,
In this poor body, froth without a soul? 418
That I may put an utter end to thirst
Again to be, suffer that I go forth. (458)
Now is the Age of Buddhas! Gone the want
Of opportunity! The moment's won!
O let me never while I live misprize
The precepts, nor withstand the holy life!' (459)

Thus spake Sumedhā, and again: 'Mother
And father mine, never again will I
As a laywoman break my fast and eat.
Here will I sooner lay me down and die!' (460)

Th' afflicted mother wept; the father, stunned
With grief, strove to dissuade and comfort her
Who prostrate lay upon the palace floor:– (461)
'Rise up, dear child. Why this unhappiness
For thee? Thou art betrothed to go and reign
In Vāraṇavatī, the promised bride
Of King Anikaratta, handsome youth. (462)
Thou art to be his chief consort, his queen.
Hard is it, little child, to leave the world,
Hard are the precepts and the holy life. (463)
As queen thou wilt enjoy authority,
Riches and sov'reignty and luxuries.
Thou that art blest herein and young, enjoy
The sweets life yields. Let's to thy wedding, child.' (464)

Then answered them Sumedhā: 'Nay, not thus!
No soul, no essence, can becoming yield.
One or the other shall be–choose ye which:
Or let me leave the world, or let me die.
Thus, and thus only, would I choose to wed. 419 (465)
What is it worth 420 –this body foul, unclean,
Emitting odours, source of fears, a bag
Of skin with carrion filled, oozing impure (466)
The while? What is it worth to me who know–
Repulsive carcass, plastered o'er with flesh
And blood, the haunt of worms, dinner of birds–
To whom shall such a thing as this be given? (467)
Borne in a little while to charnel-field,
There is this body thrown, when mind hath sped, 421
Like useless log, from which e'en kinsfolk turn. (468)
Throwing the thing that they have bathed to be
The food of alien things, whereat recoil
The very parents, let alone their kin. (469)
They have a fondness for this soulless frame,
That's knit of bones and sinews, body foul,
Filled full of exudations manifold. (470)
Where one the body to dissect, and turn
The inside outermost, the smell would prove
Too much for e'en one's mother to endure. (471)
The factors of my being, organs, elements,
All are a transient compound, rooted deep
In birth, are Ill, and first and last the thing
I would not. 422 Whom, then, could I choose to wed? (472)
Rather would I find death day after day
With spears three hundred piercing me anew,
E'en for an hundred years, if this would then
Put a last end to pain, unending else. (473)
The wise would with this [bargain] close, and meet
Utter destruction, seeing that His Word,
The Master's, runneth: "Long the wandering
Of them who, smitten, ever rise again." 423 (474)
Countless the ways in which we meet our death,
'Mong gods and men, as demons or as beasts,
Among the shades, or in the haunts of hell.424 (475)
And there how many doomed tormented live!
No sure refuge is ours even in heaven.
Above, beyond Nibbana's bliss, is naught. (476)
And they have won that Bliss who all their hearts
Have plighted to the blessed Word of Him
Who hath the Tenfold Power, and heeding naught,
Have striv'n to put far from them birth and death. (477)
This day, my father, will I get me forth!
I'll naught of empty riches! Sense-desires
Repel and sicken me, and are become
E'en as the stump where once hath stood a palm.' (478)

So spake she to her father. Now the King,
Anikaratta, on his way to woo
His youthful bride's consent, drew near
At the appointed time. But Sumedhā (479)
Let down the soft black masses of her hair
And with a dagger cut them off. Then closed
The door that led to her own terraced rooms,
And forthwith to First Jhana-rapture won. (480)
There sat she lost in ecstasy, the while
Anikaratta reached the capital.
Then she fell musing on impermanence,
Developing the thought. 425 Then is she ware (481)
The while Anikaratta swiftly mounts
The palace steps, in brave array of gems
And gold, and bowing low woos Sumedhā. (482)

'Reign in my kingdom and enjoy my wealth
And power. Rich, happy and so young thou art,
Enjoy the sweets that life and love can yield,
Though they be hard to win and won by few. (483)
To thee my kingdom I surrender! Now
Dispose as thou dost wish, give gifts galore.
Be not downcast. Thy parents are distressed.' (484)

To him thus Sumedhā, for whom desires
Of sensuous love were worthless, nor availed
To lead astray, made answer: 'O set not
The heart's affections on this sensual love.
See all the peril, the satiety of sense. (485)
Mandhātā, King o' th' world's four continents, 426
Had greater wealth to gratify his sense
Than any other man, yet passed away
Unsatisfied, his wishes unfulfilled. (486)
Nay, an the rain-god rained all seven kinds
Of gems till earth and heaven were full, still would
The senses crave, and men insatiate die. (487)
'Like the sharp blades of swords are sense-desires.'
'Like the poised heads of snakes prepared to dart.'
'Like blazing torches,' and 'like bare gnawn bones.' 427 (488)
Transient, unstable are desires of sense,
Pregnant with Ill and full of venom dire,
Searing as heated iron globe to touch.
Baneful the root of them, baleful the fruit. (489)
As 'fruit' 428 that brings the climber to a fall,
Are sense-desires; evil as 'lumps of flesh'
That greedy birds one from the other snatch;
As cheating 'dreams'; as 'borrowed goods' reclaimed. (490)
'As spears and jav'lins are desires of sense,'
'A pestilence, a boil, and bane and bale.
A furnace of live coals,' the root of bane,
Murderous and the source of harrowing dread. (491)

So hath the direfulness of sense-desires,
Those barriers to salvation, been declared.
Go, leave me, for I do not trust myself,
While in this world I yet have part and lot. (492)
What shall another do for me? For me
Whose head is wrapped in flames, 429 whose steps are dogged
By age and death that tarry not. To crush
Them utterly I needs must strive.' (493)

Then coming to her door she saw the king
Her suitor, and her parents seated there
And shedding tears. And once more spake to them: (494)

'Long have they yet to wander through the worlds
Who witless aye again their tears renew,
Weeping world without end for father dead,
Or brother slain, or that themselves must die. 430 (495)
Call ye to mind how it was said that tears
And milk and blood flow on world without end.
And bear in mind that tumulus of bones
By creatures piled who wander through the worlds. (496)
Remember the four oceans as compared
With all the flow of tears and milk and blood.
Remember the 'great cairn of one man's bones
From one æon alone, equal to Vipula'; (497)
And how 'great India 431 would not suffice
To furnish little tally-balls of mould,
Wherewith to number all the ancestors
Of one's own round of life world without end.' (498)
Remember how 'the little squares of straws
And boughs and twigs could ne'er suffice
As tallies for one's sires world without end.' (499)
Remember how the parable was told
Of 'purblind turtle in the Eastern Seas,
Or other oceans, once as time goes by,
Thrusting his head thro' hole of drifting yoke';
So rare as this the chance of human birth. 432 (500)
Remember too the 'body'-parable,
The 'lump of froth,' of spittle without core,
Drifting. See here the fleeting factors five.
And O forget not hell where many thole. (501)
Remember how we swell the charnel-fields,
Now dying, now again elsewhere reborn.
Remember what was said of 'crocodiles,' 433
And what those perils meant for us, and O!
Bear ye in mind the Four, the Ariyan Truths. (502)

THE NECTAR OF THE NORM IS HERE! 434 O how
Canst thou be satisfied with bitter draughts
Of sense satiety? All sensual joys
Are bitterer for the fivefold dogging Ill. 435(503)

THE NECTAR OF THE NORM IS HERE! O how
Canst thou be satisfied with fevered fits
Of sense-satiety? All sensual joys
Are burning, boiling, ferment, 436 stew. (504)

THERE IS, WHERE ENMITY IS NOT! 437 O how
Canst thou be satisfied with joys of sense
Engend'ring thee so many foes–the wrath
Or greed of king, or thief, or rival, harm
Through fire, or water–yea, so many foes! (505)

EMANCIPATION 438 WAITS! O how canst thou
Be satisfied with sensual joys, wherein
Lie bonds and death? Yea, in those very joys
Lurk gaol and headsman. 439 They who seek t' indulge
Their lusts needs must thereafter suffer ills. (506)
Him will straw-torches burn who holds them long
And lets not go. So, in the parable, 440
Desires of sense burn them who let not go. (507)
Cast not away, because of some vain joy
Of sense, the vaster happiness sublime,
Lest like the finny carp thou gulp the hook,
Only to find thyself for that foredone 441 (508)
Tame thou thyself in sense-desires, nor let
Thyself be bound by them, as is a dog
Bound by a chain; else will they do forsooth
With thee as hungry pariahs with that dog. 442 (509)
Once more I say, immeasurable Ills
And many weary miseries of mind
Thou'lt suffer yoked to sensual life. Renounce,
Renounce desires of sense! They pass away. (510)

THERE IS, THAT GROWETH NEVER OLD! 443 O how
Canst thou be satisfied with sense-desires
That age so soon? Are not all things reborn,
Where'er it be, gripped by disease and death? (511)
THIS 444 that doth ne'er grow old, that dieth not,
THIS never-ageing, never-dying Path–
No sorrow cometh there, no enemies,
Nor is there any crowd; 445 none faint or fail,
No fear cometh, nor aught that doth torment– (512)
To THIS, the Path Ambrosial, have gone
Full many. And to-day, e'en now 'tis to be won.
But only by a life that's utterly
Surrendered in devotion. Labour not,
And ye shall not attain!'

Thus Sumedhā (513)
Ended her say, who found no joy in all
Activities that lead from life to life,
And, to Anikaratta thus her mind
Declaring, dropped her tresses on the floor. (514)
Then up he rose with outstretched folded hands,
And with her father pleaded for her thus:
'O suffer Sumedhā to leave the world,
That she may see the Truth and Liberty!' (515)

The parents suffered her, and forth she went,
Afeared to stay and build up fear and grief.
Six branches of Insight she realized,
As learner, winning to the Topmost Fruit. (516)




O wondrous this! O marvellous in sooth!
Nibbāna for the daughter of a king!
Her state and conduct in her former births,
E'en as she told in her last life were these: (517)
'When 446 Koṇāgamana was Buddha here,
And in a new abode, the Order's Park,
Took up his dwelling, two o' my friends, 447 and I
Built a Vihāra for the Master's use. (518)
And many scores and centuries of lives
We lived among the gods, let alone men. (519)
Mighty our glory and our power among
The gods, nor need I speak of fame on earth.
Was I not consort of an Emperor,
The Treasure-Woman 'mongst the Treasures Seven? 448 (520)

Endurance 449 in the Truth the Master taught–
This was the cause, the source, the root,
This the First Link in the long Causal Line,
This is Nibbana if we love the Norm. (521)

Thus acting, 450 they who put their trust in Him,
Wisdom Supreme, 451 lose every wish and hope
Of coming back to be–and thus released
They from all passion's stain are purified. 452 (522)



COMMENTATOR'S ENVOI
The Psalms of them who through the Gospel's grace
Became the true-born children and the heirs,
Mouth-born, of Him who is the Master Blest,
King o' the Norm, creations of the Norm,
Excelling in all virtue, Arahants,
Who wrought all that 'twas possible to do–
These Psalms, their utterances when AÑÑĀ
They did proclaim, or whensoe'er it was,
Beginning with Brother SUBHŪTI'S verse,
With Sisters Psalms, headed by 'STURDYKIN'–
All these the Leaders of the Order took,
And in one ordered serial compiled,
The THERAGĀTHĀ-THERĪGĀTHĀ named.

To elucidate the import of that work
Three Older Commentaries are extant. 453
Thereto this exegesis I have tried
T' indite, the which, in that where'er 'twas fit,
I strove to set the highest meaning forth,
I named the Paramattha-Dīpanī;
The whole whereof, now finished to the end,
By orderly decision is arranged,
For recitation from the sacred text,
In chapters of the number ninety-two.
Thus by the efficacy of such good
As has accrued to me, by me applied,
Have I made bright the glory of the word,
The system, of the Sovran of the world;
That, by their pure attainment in all truth
And virtue, mortals all may come to taste
The essence of emancipation won.
Long may the Very Buddha's Word and Law
Abide, and ever may it be revered
By every creature that hath life and breath!
And may the weather-god in season due
Send rain on earth, and may the powers that be
Govern the world as lovers of the Norm!

Thus endeth the Commentary on the Therigāthā, by the Teacher, Brother
Dhammapāla, residing at the Padara-Tittha-Vihāra.



410 See Ps. lxi., n.
411 The two Kings and their capitals are all names unknown in Indian records.
Vāraṇavatī=having elephants, or ramparts. Koñca = heron.
412 Cf. Ps xli. In the Commentary, p. 273, read, for patikulamanasikāraŋ,
paṭikkūla°.
413 Sāsanakārā=, according to the Commentary, Ariyans–i.e., Arahants,
including the Buddhas. Just below, sāsana is rendered by 'system.'
Sumedhā=very wise.
414 See note, verse 436.
415 In Pali 'no eternal rebirth.'
416 Rebirth in 'hell,' as animal, as 'ghost,' as demon, are the four
('purgatorial lives,' vinipāta, in 452); as human or as god. the two.
417 The Ten Powers peculiar to a Tathāgata are: (1) He knows thoroughly right
and wrong occasions; (2) he knows thoroughly the effect of all karma-series;
(3) the methods for accomplishing anything; (4) the elements (data) of the
world; (5) the various tendencies, inclinations, of beings; (6) the capacities
of beings; (7) the nature and procedure of all contemplative disciplines; (8)
former lives; (9) he has the 'celestial vision'; (10) he has realized the
intellectual emancipation of the Arahant (A., v. 33 ſſ.).
418 Kāyakalinā asārena. The rendering of the former obscure term is, perhaps,
a trifle forced, but was chosen from the use of kali in Jātaka, v. 134
(=khela, spittle, froth), because of the juxtaposition of asāra=pithless,
without essence (cf. Saŋy. Nik., iii. 140), in preference to the more usual
association of kali with gambling. See ver. 501.
419 Vāreyyam. So above, lit., 'Let there be choosing for thee, child,' the
term for marriage in high life, whether or no the woman had any voice in the
matter.
420 Lit., 'What is it like?'
421 Apetaviññāṇo.
422 Yoniso aruciŋ. Cf. Pss. xxx., xxxviii., lvii.
423 Cf. Samyutta Nikāya, iii. 149: 'Eternal, brethren, is the wandering
(saŋsāro)–nor is the beginning thereof revealed–of them, who, hindered by
ignorance and fettered by craving, run to and fro, and wander (among
rebirths). . . .' So op. cit., v. 431: 'It is because we had not grasped the
Four Truths, brethren, that we have run and wandered up and down so long, both
I and you.'
424 'In the Nirayas.' See p. 162, n. 1.
425 The Commentary holds she went on to the other 'signs'–Ill, or Sorrow, and
Soullessness.
426 A mythical ancestor of Sumedhā's and the Buddha's people, the Sākiyas.
Mentioned in Ang. Nik., ii. 7; Jātaka, ii. 310, iii. 454 ſſ.; Dīpavansa, iii.
5; Mahāvansa, 8, 231; Milindapañha, 115, 291, etc.
427 These similes are all quoted from Majjhima Nikāya, i. 130, 364 ſſ. Cf.
Saŋy. Nik., i. 128; Ang. Nik., iii. 97. See below.
428 The text in these four lines gives merely the metaphor As this would call
up no associated similes in us, I expand the terms after the similes in
Majjhima Nikāya, 54th Sutta, whence they are borrowed.
429 A simile frequent in the Nikāyas. Presumably muslin turbans, let alone
oily hair-dressing, often caused such mishaps. Cf. Saŋy. Nik., i. 108, v. 440;
Any. Nik., ii. 93, etc.
430 These and the following verses are apparently allusions to the first Vagga
of the Anamatagga Saŋyutta ('World-without-end' Collocation) in the Saŋyutta
Nikāya, vol. ii., 178 ſſ. The only feature lacking there is the perennial
blood-flow–a point not without interest in the history of the Pali Canon. The
bone-cairn gāthā in the Vagga is quoted by the Commentator, and runs thus:
'But one man's bones who has one æon lived
Might form a cairn–so said the Mighty Seer–
High as Vipulla, higher than the Peak
Of Vultures, mountain-burg of Magadha'–
i.e., the ancient hill fortress of the Magadhese before they built their
capital Rājagaha in the plain. No more ancient remains than these in India
have yet been identified (Rhys Davids, Buddhist India, 37).

The repetition in verses 496, 497 is curious in a work where redundancy is so
severely repressed. Either it goes to strengthen the symptoms that the last
two Psalms are by a different and later hand, or else two versions have here
been incorporated. In 496 Sumedhā first speaks to all her three chief hearers:
'Call ye to mind' (saratha); the following admonitions are to the Prince only:
'bear in mind' and 'remember' (sarāhi, sara).
431 In the Vagga just alluded to, the earth itself, and not India (Jambudīpa),
is the insufficient source. The 'squares of straw' is from the same Vagga.
432 This simile is from Majjhima Nik., iii. 169, and Saŋyutta Nik., v. 455.
The 'body-parable' is from the latter work (iii. 140). The body (rūpa) is as
empty of essence (soul) as the clot of foam drifting down the Ganges.
433 The danger from crocodiles is, in two of the Nikāyas, used metaphorically
for gluttony, one of the four perils of 'those who go down to the water'; it
is in the Canon applied only to a Bhikkhu's temptations (Majjh. Nik., i. 460;
Ang. Nik., ii. 124).
434 Nectar=amataŋ, rendered elsewhere in this work by 'ambrosia,' its
etymological equivalent. Usually considered one of the many terms for Nibbana,
it is here by the commentarial tradition associated with the Dhamma–'the Amata
of the Norm brought to us by the Very Buddha in his great compassion.'
435 Lit., 'Are bitterer by the fivefold-bitter,' explained by the Commentary
as 'by the following after of the yet sharper Ill' (dukkhaŋ). Fivefold,
referring to the five senses.
436 Kuthitā may be from one of three roots: kuth, smell; kuth, distressed;
kvath, cook (cf. Müller, Pali Grammar, 41). The first, chosen by Dr. Neumann,
seems forced here. The last accords best with the other three metaphors of
heating process.
437 Lit., 'The unhostile being' (locative absolute). The Pali has no metaphor
of place whatever.
438 Mokkhamhi vijjamāne, lit., exists. Mokkho, probably substituted metri
causa for vimutti, is a relatively late term.
439 These two terms are, in the text, the same as the corresponding pair in
the preceding line.
440 In Majjhima Nik., i. 365, where the torch is said to be borne against the
wind, not held too long.
441 A simile from Saŋyutta Nik., ii. 226,–iv. 158; Jātaka, v. 389; vi. 416,
432, 437.
442 The dog, according to the Commentary, being unable to get away from them,
is killed, and presumably eaten. There is no suggestion to the effect that it
was acting as watch-dog, and that the pariahs were thieves, beyond stealing
the dog. 'Will they do'=kāhinti; Commentary= karissanti. Pischel pronounced
the other reading khāhinti as 'no doubt correct,' because of a passage in
Hemacandra's Prakrit Grammar. But Dhammapāla, nearer to the age of the
Therigāthā Pali by at least 500 years, seems to me to have the stronger claim,
let alone plausibility.
443 She now, says the Commentary, turns to show forth the excellence of
Nibbana.
444 Asambādhaŋ. The Commentary takes this figuratively: 'from the absence of
the crowd of corruptions' (or torments, kilesā.). In view of the cardinal
importance in the Vinaya of cultivating solitude (cf. Dhammadinnā in Ps.
xii.), because, too, of its being the path of the minority, and because of the
Suttanta phrase calling the lay life sambādha, and the religious life
abbhokāsa, free as air, I incline to take it literally.
445 [No footnote matches this number in the original text.]
446 This narrative repeated in from the Apadāna.
447 The two friends are said to have been Khemā (Ps. lii.) and Dhanañjānī, a
brahminee convert (Saŋ. Nik., i. 160).
448 For these, see Buddhist Suttas (S.B.E., xi.), pp. 251 ſſ.
449 Khanti. See Dīgha Nik. ii. 49.
450 Another reading is, 'Thus telling.'
451 Lit., 'Who has immeasurable wisdom.'
452 This line expands the Pali word virajjati, according to the commentary,
which supplements 'purified' by 'set free.' On the metre of the whole Psalm,
see Introduction.
453 On these, see my Buddhist Psychology, xx.-xxii.

Khuddaka Nikaya - Psalms of the Sisters - Psalms of Over Forty Verses

Khuddaka Nikaya - Psalms of the Sisters ( Therigatha ) - Psalms of Over Forty Verses



CANTO XV 396
PSALM OF OVER FORTY VERSES
LXXII
Isidāsī.
SHE too, having made her resolve under former Buddhas, and persisting in her
former disposition in this and that rebirth, in that she heaped up good of
age-enduring efficacy, in the seventh rebirth before her last phase of life,
susceptible to sex-attraction, wrought adulterous conduct. For this she did
purgatory for many centuries, and thereafter for three rebirths was an animal.
Thereafter she was brought forth by a slave-woman as an hermaphrodite, and
thereafter she was born as the daughter of a poor common man, and was, when of
age, married to the son of a caravan-leader named Giridāsa. Now the wife that he
had was virtuous and of noble qualities, and the new wife envied her, and
quarrelled with the husband because of her. After her death she was, in this
Buddha-era, reborn at Ujjenī 397 as the daughter of a virtuous, honoured and
wealthy merchant, and was named Isidāsī. 398 When she was of age, her parents
gave her in marriage to a merchant's son, a good match with herself. For a month
she dwelt with him as a devoted wife; then, as the fruit of her previous
actions, her husband became estranged from her, and turned her out of his house.
All this is told in the Pali text. Because she had not proved desirable for one
husband after another, she grew agitated and, gaining her father's consent, took
orders under the Therī Jinadattā. And studying for insight, she not long after
attained Arahantship, together with thorough grasp of the Norm in form and
meaning.
Dwelling in the bliss of fruition and Nibbana, she one day, after seeking her
meal in the city of Patna and dining, sat down on a sandbank of great Ganges,
and being asked by her companion, the Therī Bodhi, about her previous
experience, she related it by way of verses. And to show the connection of her
former and latter replies, these three stanzas were inserted by the
Recensionists:
In the fair city of Patna, earth's fairest city,
Named for its beauty after the Trumpet-flower, 399
Dwelt two saintly Sisters, born of the Sākiyas, (400)
Isidāsī the one, Bodhi the other.
Precept-observers, lovers of Jhāna-rapture,
Learnèd ladies and cleansed from the taint of all worldliness. (401)
These having made their round, and broken their fasting,
Washed their bowls, and sitting in happy seclusion,
Spake thus one to the other, asking and answering: (402)

'Thou hast a lovely mien, Isidāsī,
Fresh and unwithered yet thy woman's prime,
What flaw in the life yonder hast thou seen,
That thou didst choose surrender for thy lot?' (403)
Then in that quiet spot Isidāsī,
Skilled in the exposition of the Norm,
Took up her tale and thus did make reply:
'Hear, Bodhi, how it was that I came forth. (404)

In Ujjenī, 400 Avantī's foremost town,
My father dwells, a virtuous citizen,
His only daughter I, his well-beloved,
The fondly cherished treasure of his life. (405)
Now from Sāketa came a citizen
Of the first rank and rich exceedingly
To ask my hand in marriage for his son.
And father gave me him, as daughter-in-law. (406)
My salutation morn and eve I brought
To both the parents of my husband, low
Bowing my head and kneeling at their feet,
According to the training given me. (407)
My husband's sisters and his brothers too,
And all his kin, scarce were they entered when
I rose in timid zeal and gave them place. (408)
And as to food, or boiled or dried, and drink,
That which was to be stored I set aside,
And served it out and gave to whom 'twas due. (409)
Rising betimes, I went about the house,
Then with my hands and feet well cleansed I went
To bring respectful greeting to my lord, (410)
And taking comb and mirror, unguents, soap,
I dressed and groomed him as a handmaid might. (411)
I boiled the rice, I washed the pots and pans;
And as a mother on her only child,
So did I minister to my good man. (412)
For me, who with toil infinite thus worked,
And rendered service with a humble mind,
Rose early, ever diligent and good,
For me he nothing felt save sore dislike. (413)
Nay, to his mother and his father he
Thus spake:–'Give ye me leave and I will go,
For not with Isidāsī will I live
Beneath one roof, nor ever dwell with her.' (414)

'O son, speak not on this wise of thy wife,
For wise is Isidāsī and discreet,
An early riser and a housewife diligent.
Say, doth she find no favour in thine eyes?' (415)

'In nothing doth she work me harm, and yet
With Isidāsī will I never live.
I cannot suffer her. Let be, let be!
Give ye me leave and I will go away.' (416)
And when they heard, mother and father-in-law
Asked of me: 'What then hast thou done t' offend?
Speak to us freely, child, and speak the truth.' (417)

'Naught have I done that could offend, nor harm,
Nor nagged at evil words. What can I do, 401
That me my husband should so sore mislike?' (418)

To guard and keep their son, they took me back,
Unwilling guides, to father's house, distressed,
Distraught: 'Alas! we're beaten, pretty Luck!' 402 (419)

Then father gave me for the second time as bride,
Content with half my husband's sire had paid. (420)
From that house too, when I had dwelt a month,
I was sent back, though I had worked and served,
Blameless and virtuous, as any slave. (421)
And yet a third, a friar begging alms–
One who had self controlled, and could control
Favour in fellow-men–my father met
And spake him thus: 'Be thou my son-in-law!
Come, throw away that ragged robe and pot!' (422)
He came, and so we dwelt one half moon more
Together. Then to father thus he spake:
'O give me back my frock, my bowl and cup.
Let me away to seek once more my scraps.' (423)
Then to him father, mother, all the tribe
Of kinsfolk clamouring: 'What is it then
Here dwelling likes you not? Say quick, what is't
That we can do to make you better pleased?' (424)
Then he: 'If for myself I can suffice,
Enough for me. One thing I know:–beneath
One roof with Isidāsī I'll not live!' (425)

Dismissed he went. I too, alone I thought.
And then I asked my parents' leave to die,
Or, that they suffer me to leave the world. (426)
Now Lady Jinadattā on her beat
Came by my father's house for daily alms,
Mindful of every moral precept, she,
Learnèd and expert in the Vinaya. 403 (427)
And seeing her we rose, and I prepared
A seat for her, and as she sat I knelt,
Then gave her food, both boiled and dried, (428)
And water–dishes we had set aside–
And satisfied her hunger. Then I said:
'Lady, I wish to leave the world.' 'Why here,' (429)
My father said, 'dear child, is scope for thee
To walk according to the Norm. With food
And drink canst gratify the holy folk
And the twice-born. 404 But of my father I, (430)
Weeping and holding out clasped hands, besought:
'Nay, but the evil karma I have done,
That would I expiate and wear away.'405 (431)
Then father said: 'Win thou Enlightenment
And highest Truth, and gain Nibbana.
That Hath He, the Best of Beings, 406 realized.' (432)

Then to my mother and my father dear,
And all my kinsfolk tribe I bade farewell.
And only seven days had I gone forth
Ere I had touched and won the Threefold Lore. (433)
Then did I come to know my former births,
E'en seven thereof, and how e'en now I reap
The harvest, the result, that then I sowed.
That will I now declare to thee, an thou
Wilt listen single-minded to my tale. (434)

In Erakaccha's 407 town of yore l lived,
A wealthy craftsman in all works of gold.
Incensed by youth's hot blood, a wanton, I
Assailed the virtue of my neighbours' wives. (435)
Therefrom deceasing, long I cooked 408 in hell,
Till, fully ripened, I emerged, and then
Found rebirth in the body of an ape. (436)
Scarce seven days I lived before the great
Dog-ape, the monkeys' chief, castrated me.
Such was the fruit of my lasciviousness. (437)
Therefrom deceasing in the woods of Sindh,
Reborn the offspring of a one-eyed goat (438)
And lame; twelve years a gelding, gnawn by worms,
Unfit, I carried children on my back.
Such was the fruit of my lasciviousness. (439)
Therefrom deceasing, I again found birth,
The offspring of a cattle-dealer's cow,
A calf of lac-red hue; in the twelfth month (440)
Castrated, yoked, I drew the plough and cart,
Purblind and worried, driven and unfit.
Such was the fruit of my lasciviousness. (441)
Therefrom deceasing, even in the street
I came to birth, child of a household slave,
Neither of woman nor of man my sex.
Such was the fruit of my lasciviousness. (442)
At thirty years of age I died, and was reborn
A girl, the daughter of a carter, poor
And of ill-fortune, and oppressed with debts
Incurred to usurers. To pay the sum (443)
Of interest that ever grew and swelled,
In place of money, 409 woeful little me
The merchant of a caravan dragged off,
Bearing me weeping from my home. (444)
Now in my sixteenth year, when I
Blossomed a maiden, that same merchant's son,
Giridāsa the name of him, loved me
And made me wife. Another wife he had, (445)
A virtuous dame of parts and of repute,
Enamoured of her mate. And thus I brought
Discord and enmity within that house. (446)

Fruit of my karma was it thus that they,
In this last life, have slighted me, e'en tho'
I waited on them as their humble slave.

Well! of all that now have I made an end! (447)



396 On this curious Psalm see Introduction.
397 See n. to verse 405.
398 = Slave of the sage.
399 Pāṭaliputta. On the rise of this city as the capital of the Mauryan
dynasty, and the Buddha's prophecy of that rise, see Rhys Davids, Buddhist
Suttas, xi., pp. xv. 18; Buddhist India, pp. 262 ſſ., where the testimony of
Megasthenes is largely quoted.
400 On Ujjenī and Sāketa, see Rhys Davids, Buddhist India, pp. 39, 40;
Neumann, op. cit., 361 n. They may have been some 500 miles apart, and the
journey would be largely by river. Cf. Rhys Davids, op. cit., 103.
401 The Commentator interprets the Vedic infinitive kātuye, 'do,' as meaning
kātu' yye, 'do, lady.'
402 My reading of this very obscure passage–jināmhase rūpinin Lacchin or
rūpinī Lacchī–is suggested by my husband, and differs from that of Dr.
Neumann, who has felt compelled to doctor the text. Commentary: 'Defeated by
the goddess Sirī (Śrī) clad in human dress'–i.e., Isidāsī, as personating the
fickle goddess of chance. Thus they call her 'Luck!' I cannot believe that,
had the young divorcee been enceinte, she would have been sent home so
ignominiously, or that the tale would have been silent about the child when
born.
403 Vinayadharā, who could repeat the Vinaya-Pitaka. This proficiency was
Paṭācārā's to a special degree. See Ps. xlvii.; Ang. Nik., i. 25.
404 Brahmins.
405 Nijjaressāmi. This was the ascetic aspect taken of the religious life. As
a Jainist opinion, it is criticized by the Buddha in the 'Devadaha Sutta,'
Majjhima Nikāya, ii. 214 ſſ.
406 Dvipada, lit., 'bipeds,' an epithet of the Buddha I do not find elsewhere.

407 Buddhist India, p. 40; Neumann, op. cit., 366 n.
408 To ripen or be cooked is the usual metaphor for a cause working out its
effect. Note that 'hell' here (nirăyă) is really purgatory. No form of being,
for Buddhism, was eternal.
409 I have discussed this passage in 'Early Economic Conditions in North
India' (J.R.A.S., 1901, 880, n. 1) thus: In the second line, which Dr. Neumann
renders 'Vom Tische Reicher lasen wir die Reste auf,' I take the compound
dhanikapurisapātabahulamhi (Commentary: iṇāyikānaŋ purisānaŋ adhipatanabahule
bahūhi iṇāyikehi abhibhavitabbe) to mean 'fallen into the power of usurers.'
This leads up to the next line, giving a point to it which is lacking in the
rendering alluded to.

I am unable to classify the metre throughout this poem, from the first line:
nagaramhi kusumanāme Pāṭaliputtamhi pathaviyā
to the last:
dāsī va upaṭṭhahantiŋ tassa pi anto kato mayā



Next: Canto XVI. Psalms of The Great Chapter

Khuddaka Nikaya - Psalms of the Sisters - Psalms of About Thirty Verses

Khuddaka Nikaya - Psalms of the Sisters ( Therigatha ) - Psalms of About Thirty Verses



CANTO XIV
PSALM OF ABOUT THIRTY VERSES
LXXI
Subhā of Jīvaka's Mango-grove. 388
SHE too, having made her resolve under former Buddhas, and heaping up good of
age-enduring efficacy in this and that rebirth, fostering the root of good and
perfecting the conditions for emancipation through the ripening of her
knowledge, was in this Buddha-era reborn at Rājagaha, in the family of a very
eminent brahmin. Her name was Subhā, and truly lovely was her body in all its
members. It was for this reason that she came to be so called. While the Master
sojourned at Rājagaha, she received faith and became a lay-disciple. Later she
grew anxious over the round of life, and saw the bane of the pleasures of sense,
and discerned that safety lay in renunciation. She entered the Order under the
Great Pajāpatī the Gotamid, and exercising herself in insight, was soon
established in the fruition of the Path of No-return.
Now one day a certain libertine of Rājagaha, in the prime of youth, was standing
in the Jīvaka Mango-grove, and saw her going to siesta; and feeling enamoured,
he barred her way, soliciting her to sensual pleasures. She declared to him by
many instances the bane of sensuous pleasures and her own choice of
renunciation, teaching him the Norm. Even then he was not cured, but persisted.
The Therī, not stopping short at her own words, and seeing his passion for the
beauty of her eyes, extracted one of them, and handed it to him, saying: 'Come,
then! here is the offending eye of her!' Thereat the man was horrified and
appalled and, his lust all gone, asked her forgiveness. The Therī went to the
Master's presence, and there, at sight of Him, her eye became as it was before.
Thereat she stood vibrating with unceasing joy at the Buddha. The Master,
knowing the state of her mind, taught her, and showed her exercise for reaching
the highest. Repressing her joy, she developed insight, and attained
Arahantship, together with thorough grasp of the Norm in form and meaning.
Thereafter, abiding in the bliss and fruition of Nibbana, she, reflecting on
what she had won, uttered her dialogue with the libertine in these verses:
In Jīvaka's pleasant woodland walked Subhā
The Bhikkhunī. A gallant met her there
And barred the way. To him thus spake Subhā: 389 (366)

'What have I done to offend thee, that thus in my path thou comest?
No man, O friend, it beseemeth to touch a Sister in Orders. (367)
So hath my Master ordained in the precepts we honour and follow;
So hath the Welcome One taught in the training wherein they have trained
me,
Purified discipline holy. Why standest thou blocking my pathway? (368)
Me pure, thou impure of heart; me passionless, thou of vile passions;
Me who as to the whole of me freed am in spirit and blameless,
Me whence comes it that Thou dost hinder, standing obnoxious?' (369)

'Young art thou, maiden, and faultless–what seekest thou in the holy life?
Cast off that yellow-hued raiment and come! in the blossoming woodland
Seek we our pleasure. Filled with the incense of blossoms the trees waft
(370)
Sweetness. See, the spring's at the prime, the season of happiness!
Come with me then to the flowering woodland, and seek we our pleasure.
(371)
Sweet overhead is the sough of the blossoming crests of the forest
Swayed by the Wind-gods. But an thou goest alone in the jungle,
Lost in its depths, how wilt thou find aught to delight or content thee?
(372)
Haunted is the great forest with many a herd of wild creatures,
Broken its peace by the tramplings of elephants rutting and savage.
Empty of mankind and fearsome 390 –is't there thou would'st go
uncompanioned? (373)

Thou like a gold-wrought statue, like nymph in celestial garden
Movest, O peerless creature. Radiant would shine thy loveliness
Robed in raiment of beauty, diaphanous gear of Benares. (374)
I would live but to serve thee, an thou would'st abide in the woodland.
Dearer and sweeter to me than art thou in the world is no creature,
Thou with the languid and slow-moving eyes of an elf of the forest. (375)
If thou wilt list to me, come where the joys of the sheltered life 391
wait thee:
Dwell in a house of verandas and terraces, handmaidens serving thee. (376)
Robe thyself in delicate gear of Benares, don garlands, use unguents.
Ornaments many and divers I give to thee, fashioned with precious stones,
Gold work and pearls. And thou shalt mount on a couch fair and sumptuous,
(377)
Carvèd in sandalwood, fragrant with essences, spread with new pillows,
Coverlets fleecy and soft, and decked with immaculate canopies. (378)
Like to a lotus upborne on the bosom of sprite-haunted water,
Thou, O chaste anchorite, farest to old age, thy beauty unmated.' (379)

'What now to thee, in this carrion-filled, grave-filling carcass so
fragile
Seen by thee, seemeth to warrant the doctrine thou speakest, infatuate?'
(380)

'Eyes hast thou like the gazelle's, like an elf's in the heart of the
mountains–
'Tis those eyes of thee, sight of which feedeth the depth of my passion.
(381)
Shrined in thy dazzling, immaculate face as in calyx of lotus,
'Tis those eyes of thee, sight of which feedeth the strength of my
passion. (382)
Though thou be far from me, how could I ever forget thee, O maiden,
Thee of the long-drawn eyelashes, thee of the eyes so miraculous?
Dearer to me than those orbs is naught, O thou witching-eyed fairy!' (383)

'Lo! thou art wanting to walk where no path is; thou seekest to capture
Moon from the skies for thy play; thou would'st jump o'er the ridges of
Meru, 392
Thou who presumest to lie in wait for a child of the Buddha! (384)
Nowhere in earth or in heaven lives now any object of lust for me.
Him I know not. What like is he? Slain, root and branch, through the Noble
Path. (385)
Hurled as live coal from the hand, and rated as deadly as poison-cup,
Him I see not. What like is he? Slain, root and branch, through the Noble
Path. (386)
Tempt thou some woman who hath not discerned what I say, or whose teacher
Is but a learner; haply she'll listen; tempt thou not Subhā;
She understandeth. And now 'tis thyself hast vexation and failure. (387)
For I have set my mind to be watchful in whatso befalls me–
Blame or honour, gladness or sorrow–and knowing the principle:–
'Foul are all composite things,' nowhere the mind of me clings to them.
(388)

Yea, the disciple am I of the Welcome One; onward the march of me
Riding the Car of the Road that is Eightfold. Drawn are the arrows
Out of my wounds, and purged is my spirit of drugging Intoxicants.
So I am come to haunts that are Empty. 393 There lies my pleasure. (389)

Oh! I have seen it–a puppet well painted, with new wooden spindles,
Cunningly fastened with strings and with pins, and diversely dancing.
(390)
But if the strings and the pins be all drawn out and loosened and
scattered,
So that the puppet be made non-existent and broken in pieces,
Which of the parts wilt thou choose and appoint for thy heart's rest and
solace? (391)
Such is the manner wherein persist these poor little bodies:
Take away members and attributes–nothing surviveth in any wise.
Nothing surviveth! Which dost thou choose for thy heart's rest and solace?
(392)
E'en as a fresco one sees drawn on a wall, painted in ochre,
[Giveth us naught of the true and the real, save in the seeming ;] 394
Thou herein with vision perverted [canst not distinguish;
Judgest with] wisdom of average human, fallible, worthless. (393)
O thou art blind! thou chasest a sham, deluded by puppet shows
Seen in the midst of the crowd; thou deemest of value and genuine
Conjurer's trickwork, trees all of gold that we see in our dreaming. (394)
What is this eye but a little ball lodged in the fork of a hollow tree,
Bubble of film, anointed with tear-brine, exuding slime-drops,
Compost wrought in the shape of an eye of manifold aspects?' 395 (395)

Forthwith the maiden so lovely tore out her eye and gave it him:
'èHere, then! take thou thine eye!' Nor sinned she, her heart
unobstructed. (396)
Straightway the lust in him ceasèd and he her pardon imploring:
'O that thou mightest recover thy sight, thou maid pure and holy!
Never again will I dare to offend thee after this fashion. (397)
Sore hast thou smitten my sin; blazing flames have I clasped to my bosom;
Poisonous snake have I handled–but O! be thou heal'd and forgive me!'
(398)
Freed from molesting, the Bhikkhunī went on her way to the Buddha,
Chief of th' Awakened. There in his presence, seeing those features
Born of uttermost merit, straightway her sight was restored to her. (399)


'Sweet overhead is the sough of the blossoming crests of the forest
Swayed by the wind-gods.
To face p. 150.



388 Jīvakā Komārabhacca, physician to King Bimbisāra at the court of Rājagaha,
is a very prominent layman in the first chronicles of the Order, prescribing
for its members on different occasions. See Vinaya Texts (S.B.E.), i. 191, ii.
173 ſſ., iii. 102; Majjh. Nik., i. 368 ſſ.; Dīgha Nik., i. 49 (Dialogues, i.
67), in which the Grove is mentioned.
389 The metre now changes from śloka to that termed vetālīya, or, at least, to
a metre which in later literature became formulated under that name. It runs
approximately thus ('What have I,' etc.): ˘˘ ˘ ˘ ˘ ˘ ˘˘
˘ ˘ ˘ ˘ ˘
__ _ _ _ _ || __ _ _ _ _
Kin te aparādhitan mayā yan maŋ ovariyāna titthasi?
˘ ˘ _ ˘ ˘ _˘ ˘ _ || ˘ ˘ _ _ _ ˘ _ ˘ _ ˘ ˘
Na hi pabbajitāya, āvuso, puriso samphussanāya kappati.

390 'Although,' remarks the Commentator, 'in that wood there was then nothing
of the sort. But this he said, wishing to make her afraid.'
391 Lit., 'Come, dwell in a house.'
392 The mythical central mountain of the universe, called also Sineru.
393 Suṇṇa, for the earnest Buddhist, connoting both solitude and the ejection
of the Ego-delusion. Cf. Ps. xxxi. 46.
394 I have filled up the somewhat elliptical style of the text from the
Commentary.
395 Cf. Balzac's philosophe: 'Tiens,' dit-il, en voyant les pleurs de sa
femme, 'j'ai décomposé les larmes. Elles contiennent un peu de phosphate, de
chaux, de chlorure de sodium, du mucus et de l'eau.' –La Recherche de
l'Absolu.



Next: Canto XV. Psalms of Over Forty Verses

Khuddaka Nikaya - Psalms of the Sisters - Psalms of About Twenty Verses

Khuddaka Nikaya - Psalms of the Sisters ( Therigatha ) - Psalms of About Twenty Verses



CANTO XIII
PSALMS OF ABOUT TWENTY VERSES
LXVI
Ambapālī.
SHE, too, having made her resolve under former Buddhas, and heaping up good of
age-enduring efficacy in this or that rebirth, entered the Order when Sikhi was
Buddha. And one day, while yet a novice, she was walking in procession with
Bhikkhunīs, doing homage at a shrine, when an Arahant Therī in front of her
hastily spat in the court of the shrine. Coming after her, but not having
noticed the Therī's action, she said in reproof: 'What prostitute has been
spitting in this place?'
As a Bhikkhunī, observing the Precepts, she felt repugnance for rebirth by
parentage, and set her mind intently on spontaneous re-generation. So in her
last birth she came into being spontaneously at Vesālī, in the King's gardens,
at the foot of a mango-tree. The gardener found her, and brought her to the
city. She was known as the Mango-guardian's girl. And such was her beauty,
grace, and charm that many young Princes strove with each other to possess her,
till, in order to end their strife, and because the power of karma impelled
them, they agreed to appoint her courtezan. Later on, out of faith in the
Master, she built a Vihāra 337 in her own gardens, and handed it over to him and
the Order. And when she had heard her own son, the Elder Vimala-Kondañña, preach
the Norm, she worked for insight, and studying the law of impermanence as
illustrated in her own ageing body, she uttered the following verses:
Glossy and black as the down of the bee my curls once clustered.
They with the waste of the years are liker to hempen or bark cloth.
Such and not otherwise runneth the rune, the word of the Soothsayer. 338
(252)

Fragrant as casket of perfumes, as full of sweet blossoms the hair of me.
All with the waste of the years now rank as the odour of hare's fur.
Such and not otherwise runneth the rune, the word of the Soothsayer. (253)

Dense as a grove well planted, and comely with comb, pin, and parting.
All with the waste of the years dishevelled the fair plaits and fallen.
Such and not otherwise runneth the rune, the word of the Soothsayer. (254)

Glittered the swarthy plaits in head-dresses jewelled and golden.
All with the waste of the years broken, and shorn are the tresses.
Such and not otherwise runneth the rune, the word of the Soothsayer. (255)

Wrought as by sculptor's craft the brows of me shone, finely pencilled.
They with the waste of the years are seamèd with wrinkles, o'erhanging.
Such and not otherwise runneth the rune, the word of the Soothsayer. (256)

Flashing and brilliant as jewels, dark-blue and long-lidded the eyes of
me.
They with the waste of the years spoilt utterly, radiant no longer.
Such and not otherwise runneth the rune, the word of the Soothsayer. (257)

Dainty and smooth the curve of the nostrils e'en as in children.
Now with the waste of the years searèd 339 the nose is and shrivelled.
Such and not otherwise runneth the rune, the word of the Soothsayer. (258)

Lovely the lines of my ears as the delicate work of the goldsmith. 340
They with the waste of the years are seamèd with wrinkles and pendent.
Such and not otherwise runneth the rune, the word of the Soothsayer. (259)

Gleamed as I smiled my teeth like the opening buds of the plantain.
They with the waste of the years are broken and yellow as barley.
So and not otherwise runneth the rune, the word of the Soothsayer. (260)

Sweet was my voice as the bell of the cuckoo 341 through woodlands
flitting.
Now with the waste of the years broken the music and halting.
So and not otherwise runneth the rune, the word of the Soothsayer. (261)

Softly glistened of yore as mother-of-pearl the throat of me.
Now with the waste of the years all wilted its beauty and twisted.
So and not otherwise runneth the rune, the word of the Soothsayer. (262)

Beauteous the arms of me once shone like twin pillars cylindrical.
They with the waste of the years hang feeble as withering branches. 342
So and not otherwise runneth the rune, the word of the Soothsayer. (263)

Beauteous of yore were my soft hands with rings and gewgaws resplendent.
They with the waste of the years like roots are knotted and scabrous. 343
So and not otherwise runneth the rune, the word of the Soothsayer. (264)

Full and lovely in contour rose of yore the small breasts of me.
They with the waste of the years droop shrunken as skins without water.
So and not otherwise runneth the rune, the word of the Soothsayer. (265)

Shone of yore this body as shield of gold well-polishèd.
Now with the waste of the years all covered with network of wrinkles.
So and not otherwise runneth the rune, the word of the Soothsayer. (266)

Like to the coils of a snake 344 the full beauty of yore of the thighs of
me.
They with the waste of the years are even as stems of the bamboo.
So and not otherwise runneth the rune, the word of the Soothsayer. (267)

Beauteous to see were my ankles of yore, bedecked with gold bangles.
They with the waste of the years are shrunken as faggots of sesamum.
So and not otherwise runneth the rune, the word of the Soothsayer. (268)

Soft and lovely of yore as though filled out with down were the feet of
me.
They with the waste of the years are cracked open and wizened with
wrinkles.
So and not otherwise runneth the rune, the word of the Soothsayer. (269)

Such hath this body been. Now age-weary and weak and unsightly,
Home of manifold ills; old house whence the mortar is dropping.
So and not otherwise runneth the rune, the word of the Soothsayer. (270)

And inasmuch as the Therī, by the visible signs of impermanence in her own
person, discerned impermanence in all phenomena of the three planes, and bearing
that in mind, brought into relief the signs of Ill and of No-soul, she, making
clear her insight in her Path-progress, attained Arahantship.



337 See Rhys Davids, Buddhist Suttas (S.B.E., xi.), pp. 30-33.
338 Used in its first intention, Truth-speaker. On this, and on the metre, see
Introduction. The 'rune' is the Impermanence of everything. Cf. Ps lxiii.
339 Upakūlitā, not yet found elsewhere, may be from the root kūl, to burn.
340 It is interesting that the Commentary speaks of the goldsmith's work of
past ages, as if conscious of living (himself) in a decadent period of such
arts.
341 Kokilā, rendered by lexicons 'Indian cuckoo.' The name seems to point to
somewhat similar bird-notes.
342 Lit., as the weak trumpet-flower (plant), the Commentary adding phalita,
broken, or fruit-laden, and so heavily drooping.
343 Lit., more simply, 'like one little root after another.'
344 I here follow Dr. Neumann, and not the Commentator. The latter calls
nāgabhoga an elephant's trunk; the Pitakas apply the term, it would seem, only
as in the text. Cf. Majjhima Nikāya, i. 134.



LXVII
Rohiṇī.
She, too, having made her resolve under former Buddhas, and heaping up good of
age-enduring efficacy in this and that rebirth, was born, ninety-one æons ago,
in the time of Vipassi Buddha, in a clansman's family. One day she saw the
Exalted One seeking alms in the city of Bandhumatī, and filling his bowl with
sweet cakes, she worshipped low at his feet in joy and gladness. And when, after
many rebirths in heaven and on earth in consequence thereof, she had accumulated
the conditions requisite for emancipation, she was, in this Buddha-era, reborn
at Vesālī, in the house of a very prosperous brahmin, and named Rohiṇī. 345 Come
to years of discretion, she went, while the Master was staying at Vesālī, to the
Vihāra, and heard the doctrine. She became a 'Stream-entrant,' and teaching her
parents the doctrine, and they accepting it, she gained their leave to enter the
Order. Studying for insight, she not long after attained Arahantship, together
with thorough grasp of the Norm in form and meaning.
And reflecting on a discussion she had had with her father while she had yet
only entered the Stream, she uttered the substance of it as verses of
exultation:
'"See the recluses!" dost thou ever say.
"See the recluses!" waking me from sleep.
Praise of recluses ever on thy tongue.
Say, damsel, hast a mind recluse to be? (271)
Thou givest these recluses as they come,
Abundant food and drink. Come, Rohiṇī. 346
I ask, why are recluses dear to thee? (272)
Not fain to work are they, the lazy crew.
They make their living off what others give.
Cadging are they, and greedy of tit-bits–
I ask, why are recluses dear to thee?' (273)

Full many a day, dear father, hast thou asked
Touching recluses. Now will I proclaim
Their virtues and their wisdom and their work. (274)

Full fain of work are they, no sluggard crew.
The noblest work they do, they drive out lust
And hate. Hence are recluses dear to me. (275)

The three fell roots of evil they eject,
Making all pure within, leaving no smirch,
No stain. Hence are recluses dear to me. (276)

Their work 346 in action's pure, pure is their work
In speech, and pure no less than these their work
In thought. Hence are recluses dear to me. (277)

Immaculate as seashell or as pearl,
Of lustrous characters compact, without,
Within. 347 Hence are recluses dear to me. (278)

Learn'd and proficient in the Norm; elect,
And living by the Norm that they expound
And teach. Hence are recluses dear to me. (279)

Learn'd and proficient in the Norm; elect,
And living by the Doctrine; self-possessed,
Intent. Hence are recluses dear to me. (280)

Far and remote they wander, self-possessed;
Wise in their words and meek, they know the end
Of Ill. Hence are recluses dear to me. (281)

And when along the village street they go,
At naught they turn to look; incurious
They walk. Hence are recluses dear to me. (282)

They lay not up a treasure for the flesh,
Nor storehouse-jar nor crate. The Perfected
Their Quest. Hence are recluses dear to me. (283)

They clutch no coin; no gold their hand doth take,
Nor silver. For their needs sufficient yields
The day. 348 Hence are recluses dear to me. (284)

From many a clan and many a countryside
They join the Order, mutually bound
In love. Hence are recluses dear to me.' (285)

'Now truly for our weal, O Rohiṇī,
Wert thou a daughter born into this house!
Thy trust is in the Buddha and the Norm
And in the Order; keen thy piety. (286)
For well thou know'st this is the Field supreme
Where merit may be wrought. We too henceforth
Will minister ourselves to holy men.
For thereby shall accrue to our account
A record of oblations bounteous.' (287)

'If Ill thou fearest, if thou like it not,
Go thou and seek the Buddha and the Norm,
And Order for thy refuge; learn of them
And keep the Precepts. So shalt thou find weal.' 349 (288)

'Lo! to the Buddha, I for refuge go
And to the Norm and Order. I will learn
Of them to take upon myself and keep
The Precepts. So shall I indeed find weal. (289)




Once but a son of brahmins born was I.
To-day I stand brahmin in very deed.
The nobler Threefold Wisdom have I won,
Won the true Veda-lore, and graduate
Am I from better Sacrament returned,
Cleansed by the inward spiritual bath.' 350 (290)

For the brahmin, established in the Refuges and the Precepts, when later on he
became alarmed, renounced the world, and, developing insight, was established in
Arahantship. Reflecting on his attainment, he exulted in that last verse.



345 I.e., Latinized, Flavia. Childers instances a red cow so called, and a
constellation.
346 Note her emphasis on work or action (kamma or karma) to meet her
father's–the typically worldly man's–failure to discern the fact and value of
any 'work' that had no worldly object.
347 Unspotted by greed, hate, or dulness; full of the A-sekha's
qualities–virtue; contemplation, concentration, insight (Commentary).
348 This phrase is amplified in Sanyutta Nikāya, i. 5: 'They mourn not over
the past, nor hanker after the future. They maintain themselves by the
present.' Cf. the same attitude prescribed in the Sermon on the Mount (Matt.
vi. 25-34).
349 I.e., she referred him to the true source of the 'weal' he imputed to her.
The rest is borrowed from Ps. lxv.
350 Cf. Psalm lxv.



LXVIII
Cāpā.
She, too, having made her resolve under former Buddhas, and heaping up good of
age-enduring efficacy in this and that rebirth, till she had accumulated the
sources of good, and matured the conditions for emancipation, was, in this
Buddha-age, reborn in the Vankahāra country, at a certain village of trappers,
as the daughter of the chief trapper, and named Cāpā. 351 And at that time
Upaka, an ascetic, 352 met the Master as he was going to Benares, there to set
rolling from his Bo-tree throne 353 the Wheel of the Norm, and asked him: 'You
seem, my friend, in perfect health! Clear and pure is your complexion. Wherefore
have you, friend, left the world? or who may your teacher be? or whose doctrine
do you believe in?' And he was thus answered:
'All have I overcome. All things I know,
'Mid all things undefiled. Renouncing all,
In death of Craving wholly free. My own
The Deeper View. Whom should I name to thee?
For me no teacher lives. I stand alone
On earth, in heav'n rival to me there's none.

Now go I on seeking Benares town,
To start the Wheel, the gospel of the Norm,
To rouse and guide the nations blind and lost,
Striking Salvation's drum, Ambrosia's alarm.'
The ascetic, discerning the omniscience and great mission of the Master, was
comforted in mind, and replied: 'Friend, may these things be! Thou art worthy
354 to be a conqueror, world without end!' Then, taking a by-road, he came to
the Vankahāra country, and abode near the hamlet of the trappers, where the head
trapper supplied his wants. One day the latter, setting off on a long hunt with
sons and brothers, bade his daughter not neglect 'the Arahant' 355 in his
absence. Now, she was of great beauty; and Upaka, seeking alms at her home, and
captivated by her beauty, could not eat, but took his food home, and laid down
fasting, vowing he would die should he not win Cāpā. After seven days the father
returned, and, on inquiring for his 'Arahant,' heard he had not come again after
the first day. The trapper sought him, and Upaka, moaning, and rolling over,
confessed his plight. The trapper asked if he knew any craft, and he answered,
'No;' but offered to fetch their game and sell it. The trapper consented, and,
giving him a coat, brought him to his own home, and gave him his daughter. In
due time she had a son, whom they called Subhadda. 356 Cāpā, when the baby
cried, sang to him: 'Upaka's boy, ascetic's boy, game-dealer's boy, don't cry,
don't cry!' mocking her husband. And he said at length: 'Do not thou, Cāpā,
fancy I have none to protect me. 357 I have a friend, even a conqueror eternal,
and to him I will go.' She saw that he was vexed, and teased him again and again
in the same way, till one day, in anger, he got ready to go. She said much, but
vainly, to prevent him, and he set out westward. And the Exalted One was then at
Sāvatthī in the Jeta Grove, and announced this to the brethren: 'He who to-day
shall come asking, "Where is the Conqueror eternal?" send him to me.' And Upaka
arrived, and, standing in the midst of the Vihāra, asked: 'Where is the
Conqueror eternal?' So they brought him, and when he saw the Exalted One, he
said: 'Dost know me, Exalted One?' 'Yea, I know. But thou, where hast thou spent
the time?' 'In the Vankahāra country, lord.' 'Upaka, thou art now an old man;
canst thou bear the religious life?' 'I will enter thereon, lord.' The Master
bade a certain Bhikkhu, 'Come, do thou, Bhikkhu, ordain him.' And he thereafter
exercising and training himself, was soon established in the Fruition of the
Path-of-No-Return, and thereupon died, being reborn in the Aviha heavens. 358 At
the moment of that rebirth he attained Arahantship.
Seven have thus attained it, as it has been said.
But Cāpā, sick at heart over his departure, delivered her boy to his
grandfather, and, following in the way Upaka had gone, renounced the world at
Sāvatthī, and attained Arahantship. And uniting Upaka's verses with her own, she
thus exulted:
(Her husband speaks.)
'Once staff in hand homeless I fared and free.
Now but a trapper am I, sunken fast
In baneful bog of earthly lusts, yet fain
To come out on the yonder side. My wife (291)
Plays with her child and mocks my former state,
Deeming her charm yet holdeth me in thrall.
But I will cut the knot and roam again.' (292)

Cāpā.
'O be not angry with me, hero mine!
O thou great prophet, be not wroth with me!
For how may he who giveth place to wrath
Attain to holy life and purity?' (293)

'Nay, I'll go forth from Nāla. 359 Who would live
At Nāla now, where he who fain to lead
A life of righteousness sees holy men
Beguilèd by the beauty of a girl!' (294)

'O turn again, my dark-eyed lover, come
And take thy fill of Cāpā's love for thee,
And I, thy slave, will meet thy every wish,
And all my kinsfolk shall thy servants be.' (295)

'Nay, were a man desirous of thy love,
He well might glory didst thou promise him
A fourth of what thou temp'st me here withal!' (296)

'O dark-eyed love, am I not fair to see,
As the liana swaying in the woods,
As the pomegranate-tree in fullest bloom
Growing on hill-top, or the trumpet-flower
Drooping o'er mouth of island cavern? See, (297)
With crimson sandal-wood perfumed, I'll wear
Finest Benares robe for thee–O why,
O how wilt thou go far away from me?' (298)

'Ay! so the fowler seeketh to decoy
His bird. Parade thy charms e'en as thou wilt,
Ne'er shalt thou bind me to thee as of yore.' (299)

'And this child-blossom, O my husband, see
Thy gift to me-–now surely thou wilt not
Forsake her who hath borne a child to thee?' (300)

'Wise men forsake their children, wealth and kin,
Great heroes ever go forth from the world,
As elephants sever their bonds in twain.' (301)

'Then this thy child straightway with stick or axe
I'll batter on the ground–to save thyself
From mourning for thy son thou wilt not go!' (302)

'And if thou throw the child to jackals, wolves,
Or dogs, child-maker without ruth, e'en so
'Twill not avail to turn me back again!' (303)

'Why, then, go if thou must, and fare thee well.
But tell me to what village wilt thou go,
What town or burg or city is thy goal?' (304)

'In the past days we went in fellowship,
Deeming our shallow practice genuine.
Pilgrims we wandered–hamlet, city, town,
And capital–we tramped to each in turn.' (305)

'But the Exalted Buddha now doth preach,
Along the banks of the Nerañjarā, 360
The Norm whereby all may be saved from ill.
To him I go; he now my guide shall be.' (306)

'Yea, go, and take my homage unto him
Who is the supreme Sovran of the World,
And making salutation by the right, 361
Do thou from us to him make offering.' (307)

'Now meet and right is this, e'en as thou say'st,
That I in doing homage, speak for thee
To him, the Supreme Sovran of the World.
And making salutation by the right,
I'll render offering for thee and me.' (308)

So Kāla went to the Nerañjarā,
And saw the very Buddha on the bank,
Teaching the Way Ambrosial: of Ill, (309)
And of how Ill doth rise, and how Ill may
Be overpast, and of the way thereto,
Even the Ariyan, the Eightfold Path. (310)
Low at his feet the husband homage paid,
Saluted by the right and Cāpā's vows
Presented; then the world again renounced
For homeless life; the Threefold Wisdom won,
And brought to pass the bidding of the Lord. (311)



351 Pronounce Chāpā. The name of her native district has, so far, not been met
with elsewhere.
352 An Ājīvaka (-ika), described in Dialogues of the Buddha, i. 221.
353 I.e., when he left the Bo-tree as Buddha and went to preach his first
sermon at Isipatana by Benares. The meeting is told in Majjhima Nikāya, i.
170, 171, and Vinaya Texts, i. 90.
354 In the Majjhima Nikāya there is another śloka before the last above, in
which the Buddha says, 'I am worthy,' etc., thus:
'I am the Arahant [i.e., worthy] of the world, I am
The Guide supreme, the one Truly Awake.
Cool and serene I in Nibbana dwell (nibbuto).'
355 The 'holy man,' as our tradition might say. He was no Arahant in the
Buddhist sense.
356 Fortunatus.
357 His humility was due, apart from his natural disposition, to his having no
status among a group of independent huntsmen.
358 This ranked among the five 'topmost' heavens of the 'world of form,' or
Brahma-world. See Buddh. Psy., p. 334; Dīgha N., ii. 52.
359 The Commentator explains this intrusion of Nāla, a village 'in Magadha,
near the Bo-tree' (of Gayā) (see Ps. lix.), by saying it was Upaka's native
place, and that the pair had gone to live there. As he was the trappers'
middleman, and therefore in frequent communication with them, this would
locate the Vankahāra country in the forests or jungles immediately to the
south of Magadha, Gayā being in South Magadha.
360 This river flows from the watershed south of the Ganges past Gayā, and the
Buddha was coming from it when Upaka first met him. But the Buddha, in the
Commentary, is said to have awaited Upaka at Sāvatthī to the north-west. Upaka
sets out 'westward' to find him. The geography here forms a pretty crux.
Whatever may be decided by archæologists in the near future as to the site of
Sāvatthī, that site was north-westward of Gayā.
361 Keeping the right side toward the object of adoration in walking around
him.




'But the Exalted Buddha now doth preach
Along the banks of the Neraŋjarā.
To face p. 134.
LXIX
Sundarī.
She too, having made her resolve under former Buddhas, and heaping up good of
age-enduring efficacy in this and that rebirth, was reborn thirty-one æons ago,
when Vessabhu was Buddha, in a clansman's family. One day she ministered to the
Master with alms, and worshipped him, and he perceived her believing heart, and
thanked her. After celestial and other happy rebirths, her knowledge having come
to maturity, she was, in this Buddha-age, reborn at Benares as the daughter of
Sujāta, a brahmin. Because of her perfect form they called her Sundarī (Beauty).
When she grew up, her younger brother died. Her father, overmastered by grief,
and going to and fro, met the Therī Vāsiṭṭhī 362 When she asked him what
afflicted him, he answered as in the first two verses. Wishing to allay his
grief, she spoke the next two verses, and told him of her own griefless state.
The brahmin asked her: 'How, lady, did you become free from grief (a-sokā)?' The
Therī told him of the Three Jewels, the Refuges. 'Where,' he asked, 'is the
Master?' 'He is now at Mithilā.' So the brahmin drove in his carriage to Mithilā
and sought audience of the Master. To him the Master taught the Norm; and he
believed, and entered the Order, attaining Arahantship on the third day, after
strenuous effort in establishing insight.
But the charioteer drove his chariot back to Benares, and told the brahminee
what had taken place. When Sundarī heard of it, she asked her mother, saying:
'Mother, I too would leave the world.' The mother said: 'All the wealth in this
house belongs to you. You are the heiress of this family. Take up your heritage
and enjoy it. Go not forth.' But Sundarī said: 'Wealth is no use to me. Mother,
I would leave the world;' and, bringing the mother to consent, she abandoned her
great possessions like so much spittle, and entered the Order (at Benares). And
studying and striving because of the promise in her and the maturity of her
knowledge, she attained Arahantship, with thorough grasp of the Norm in form and
meaning.
Dwelling thereafter in the ease of fruition and the bliss of Nibbana, she
thought: 'I will utter a Lion's Roar 363 before the Master.' And asking
permission of her teacher, she left Benares, accompanied by a great following of
Bhikkhunīs, and in due course came to Sāvatthī, did obeisance to the Master, and
stood on one side. Welcomed by him, she declared her AÑÑĀ by extolling her
relation to him as the 'daughter of his mouth,' and so on. Thereupon all her
kinsfolk, beginning with her mother, and their attendants, renounced the world.
She, reflecting on her attainment, and using her father's utterances in her own
Psalm, exulted as follows:
Sujāta.
Dame of the brahmins, thou too in the past–
Thou knowest–'twas thy little babes 364 Death robbed
And preyed upon; and thou all night, all day
Madest thy bitter wail. Vāsiṭṭhī, say! (312)
How comes it that to-day thou, who hast lost
So many–was it seven?–all thy sons,
No more dost mourn and weep so bitterly? (313)
Vāsiṭṭhī.
Nay, brahmin, many hundreds of our babes,
And of our kinsfolk many hundred more,
Have we in all the ages past and gone
Seen preyed upon by Death, both you and I. (314)
But I have learnt how from both Birth and Death
A way there is t' escape. Wherefore no more
I mourn, nor weep, nor make my bitter wail. (315)
Sujāta.
Wondrous in sooth, Vāsiṭṭhī, are the words
Thou speakest! Whose the doctrine thou hast learnt?
Whence thine authority for speech like this? (316)
Vāsiṭṭhī.
'Tis He, the Very Wake, the Buddha, He
Who late, hard by the town of Mithilā,
Did teach the Norm, brahmin, whereby
All that hath life may put off every ill. (317)
When I, O brahmin, when I heard the Arahant
Reveal the Doctrine of the Non-Substrate,365
Forthwith the Gospel sank into my heart,
And all my mother-grief fell off from me. (318)
Sujāta.
Then I too straight will go to Mithilā,
If haply the Exalted Buddha may
Me, even me, release from every ill. (319)

The brahmin went; he saw the Awaken'd One,
Th' Emancipated, Him in whom
No base is found for rebirth, and from Him,
The Seer, Him who hath passed beyond all ill, (320)
He heard the Norm: the Truth of Ill, and how
Ill comes, and how Ill may be overpassed,
E'en by the Ariyan, the Eightfold Path,
That leadeth to the abating of all Ill. 366 (321)
Forthwith the Gospel sank into his heart.
He left the world, he chose the homeless life.
On the third night of contemplation rapt,
Sujāta touched and won the Threefold Lore. 367 (322)

'Come, charioteer, now drive this chariot home!
Wish thy good mistress health, the brahminee,
And say: "'The brahmin hath renounced the world.
On the third night of contemplation rapt
Sujāta touched and won the Threefold Lore."' (323)

And so the driver took the car and purse
Of money home, and wished his mistress health,
And said: 'The brahmin hath renounced the world.
On the third night of contemplation rapt
Sujāta touched and won the Threefold Lore.' (324)
Sundarī's Mother.
For this that thou hast heard, O Charioteer,
And tellest: that the brahmin hath attained
The Threefold Lore, no half-gift give I thee. 368
Take thou the chariot, take the horses both,
And take a thousand pieces for thy pains. (325)

'Let them remain thine own, O brahminee,
Horses and chariot and the thousand coins,
For I, too, have a mind to leave the world,
Near him of chiefest wisdom to abide.' (326)

'But thou, my Sundarī, now that thy father hath gone forth, 369
Leaving his home, renouncing all his great estate–
Cattle and horses, elephants, jewels and rings–
Dost thou at least come to thine own! Thou art the heir
Of this thy family. Do thou enjoy thy wealth.' (327)

'Cattle and horses, elephants, jewels and rings–
Ay, all that goes to make this fair and broad estate
Hath he put far from him, my father dear,
And left the world, afflicted for his son.
I, too, afflicted at my brother's death,
I have a mind like him to leave the world.' (328)

'May this, then, thine intention, Sundarī,
Thy heart's desire, be crownèd with success!
The food from hand to mouth, 370 glean'd here and there,
The patchwork robe–these things accomplishèd
Will purify in other after-world
Whate'er has poisoned life for thee in this.'371 (329)
Sundarī.
I've trained me, Lady, in the threefold course. 372
Clear shines for me the Eye Celestial.
I know the how and when I came to be
Down the long past, and where it was I lived. (330)
To thee I owe it, O thou noble friend,
Thou loveliest of the Therī Sisterhood,
That I the Threefold Lore have gotten now,
And that the Buddha's will hath been obeyed. (331)
Give to me, Lady, thy consent, for I
Would go to Sāvatthī, so that I may
Utter my 'lion's roar,'—my 'Hail, all hail!'—
In presence of the Buddha, Lord and Chief. 373 (332)




See, Sundarī, the Master fair in hue,
His countenance as fine gold, clear and bright,
Him who is All-enlightened, Buddha, Best,
Tamer of untamed, never tasting fear. (333)

And see, O Master, Sundarī, who comes
To tell thee of Emancipation won,
And of the right no more to he reborn.
Who hath herself from passion freed
Unyoked from bondage, loosened from the world.
Accomplished now is her appointed work,
And all that drugged her heart is purged away. 374 (334)



Lo! from Benares I am come to thee–
I, Sundarī, thy pupil, at thy feet,
O mighty Hero, see me worship here. (335)
Thou art Buddha! thou art Master! and thine,
Thy daughter am I, issue of thy mouth,
Thou Very Brahmin! 375 even of thy word.
Accomplished now is my appointed task,
And all that drugged my heart is purged away. (336)

'Welcome to thee, thou gracious maiden! thence
For thee 'twas but a little way to come. 376
For so they come who, victors over self,
Are fain to worship at the Master's feet,
Who also have themselves from passion freed,
Unyoked from bondage, loosened from the world,
Who have accomplished their appointed task,
And all that drugged their hearts have purged away.' (337)



362 See Ps. li.
363 An idiomatic phrase for a pæan or congratulatory or proclamatory speech.
Cf. the two discourses so named, Majjhima N., i., pp. 63. ſſ.
364 Vāsiṭṭhī, it will be remembered, is in her legend represented as losing
but one child. The Commentary, undaunted by this discrepancy, explains it by
the grief-distracted state of the father. Her name is that of a brahmin
gens–the Vāseṭṭhas–yet she is not called a brahmin in her own legend. On the
other hand, her individual point of view regarding the Dhamma is very
consistently reproduced. Dr. Neumann, ignoring the Commentary as elsewhere,
sees in Vāseṭṭhī, or Vāsiṭṭhī, the family name of Sundarī, introducing a very
baffling complication into the dramatic simplicity of the Psalm quá ballad.
365 Nirupadhi–i.e., of how to live so as to undo the conditions or bases for
rebirth. The following line reads literally: 'I, being one who had understood
the Gospel, dispelled my child-grief then and there.'
366 Ps. lix. 186.
367 See Ps. xxii. n.
368 Lit., I give thee a full bowl.
369 For this and one half the next verse (327, 328) the Pali verses become
redundant. Two are irregular in metre, one has an additional half śloka. No
gloss, apparently, has crept into the text. Conceivably the redundancy may be
intentionally used to express the abundance of her heritage–that papañca to
which the higher life, as a simplification, selection, elimination, stood in
sharp contrast.
370 See verse 349 n. Lit., food left over, scraps.
371 Tradition places this speech in the mother's mouth. Dr. Neumann's guess
ascribes it to the Bhikkhunī who receives Sundarī into the Order. But the
whole tone of it, especially the last sentiment–paraloke anāsavā–is that of
the laity's point of view. The mere routine to sustain life becomes a tapas to
win future compensations. No word is said of the real object of the religious
life–the training of the mind and emotions. And salvation here and
now—diṭṭhadhamme anāsavā—was the goal of those entering the Order. Cf. Ps.
lxx. 349, ſſ for the Sister's point of view. In this Psalm I follow the
Commentary, which does not interrupt the little drama with its expositions,
but gives them separately.
372 Cf. Ps. xlv. 104.
373 So Sundarī went with Bhikkhunīs to Sāvatthī, and, entering the Vihāra, saw
the Master sitting on the Seat of Doctrine. And, thrilled with a glory of joy
and gladness, she said a verse, as if to herself.
374 It is clear from this affirmation–viz., that she was Anāsavā– that Sundarī
was Arahant. Curiously, hers is the sole case where the attainment is not
explicitly recorded. She is only said to be tevijjā. To be Anāsavā was the
sixth and last stage in vijjā or paññā or abhiññā.

Thus she spoke, declaring her AÑÑĀ, by way of expressing her joy. Then the
Master, to relieve her nervousness, asked her: 'But whence comest thou? and
wherefore? and who is this Sundarī?' Then she made answer: 'Lo! from Benares.
. . .'
375 Brahmana! Cf. Dhammapada, ch. xxvi; Dialogues of the Buddha, i, 138-140;
Neumann, op. cit. 347, n 2.
376 She had travelled approximately rather under 300 miles for this
pilgrimage. But she was near the end of her infinitely long life.



LXX
Subhā (The Goldsmith's Daughter)
She, too, having made her resolve under former Buddhas, and heaping up good of
age-enduring efficacy, so that she had progressively planted the root of good
and accumulated the conditions of emancipation, was, in this Buddha-era, reborn
at Rājagaha as the daughter of a certain goldsmith. From the beauty of her
person she was called Subhā. Come to years of discretion, she went one day,
while the Master was at Rājagaha, and belief in him had come to her, and did
obeisance, seating herself on one side. The Master, seeing the maturity of her
moral faculties, and in accordance with her wish, taught her the Norm enshrined
in the Four Truths. She was thereby established in the fruition of Stream-entry,
which is in countless ways adorned. Later she realized the disadvantages of
domestic life, and entered the Order under the Great Pajāpatī the Gotamid,
devoting herself to the higher Paths. From time to time her relations invited
her to return to the world, urging its charms. To them thus come one day, she
set forth the danger in house-life and in the world, preaching the Norm in the
twenty-four verses below, and dismissed them cured of their desire. She then
strove for insight, purifying her faculties, till at length she won Arahantship.
As Arahant she spoke thus:
A maiden I, all clad in white, once heard (338)
The Norm, and hearkened eager, earnestly,
So in me rose discernment of the Truths.
Thereat all worldly pleasures irked me sore,
For I could see the perils that beset
This reborn compound, 'personality,'
And to renounce it was my sole desire. (339)
So I forsook my world–my kinsfolk all,
My slaves, my hirelings, and my villages,
And the rich fields and meadows spread around,
Things fair and making for the joy of life–
All these I left, and sought the Sisterhood,
Turning my back upon no mean estate. (340)

Amiss were't now that I, who in full faith
Renounced that world, who well discerned the Truth,
Who, laying down what gold and silver bring,
Cherish no worldly wishes whatsoe'er,
Should, all undoing, come to you again! (341)
Silver and gold avail not to awake, 377
Or soothe. Unmeet for consecrated lives, 378
They are not Ariyan–not noble–wealth. (342)
Whereby greed is aroused and wantonness,
Infatuation and all fleshly lusts,
Whence cometh fear for loss and many a care:
Here is no ground for lasting steadfastness. (343)
Here men, heedless and maddened with desires,
Corrupt in mind, by one another let
And hindered, strive in general enmity. (344)
Death, bonds, and torture, ruin, grief; and woe
Await the slaves of sense, and dreadful doom. (345)
Why herewithal, my kinsmen–nay, my foes–
Why yoke me in your minds with sense-desires?
Know me as one who saw, and therefore fled,
The perils rising from the life of sense. (346)
Not gold nor money can avail to purge
The poison of the deadly Āsavas.
Ruthless and murderous are sense-desires;
Foemen of cruel spear and prison-bonds. (347)
Why herewithal, my kinsmen–nay, my foes–
Why yoke me in your minds with sense-desires?
Know me as her who fled the life of sense,
Shorn of her hair, wrapt in her yellow robe. (348)
The food from hand to mouth, 379 glean'd here and there,
The patchwork robe–these things are meet for me,
The base and groundwork of the homeless life. 380 (349)

Great sages 381 spue forth all desires of sense,
Whether they be in heaven or on earth;
At peace they dwell, for they freeholders are,
For they have won unfluctuating bliss. (350)
Ne'er let me follow after worldly lusts,
Wherein no refuge is; for they are foes,
And murderers, and cruel blazing fires. 382 (351)
Oh! but an incubus is here, the haunt
Of dread and fear of death, a thorny brake,
A greedy maw it is, a path impassable,
Mouth of a pit wherein we lose our wits, (352)
A horrid shape of doom impending–such
Are worldly lusts; uplifted heads of snakes.
Therein they that be fools find their delight–
The blinded, general, average, sensual man. (353)

For all the many souls, who thus befooled
Err ignorant in the marsh of worldly lusts,
Heed not that which can limit birth and death. (354)

Because of worldly lusts mankind is drawn
By woeful way to many a direful doom–
Where ev'ry step doth work its penalty. 383 (355)

Breeders of enmity are worldly lusts,
Engendering remorse and vicious taints.
Flesh baits, to bind us to the world and death. (356)

Leading to madness, to hysteria,
To ferment of the mind, are worldly lusts,
Fell traps by Māra laid to ruin men. (357)

Endless the direful fruit of worldly lusts,
Surcharged with poison, sowing many ills,
Scanty and brief its sweetness, stirring strife,
And withering the brightness of our days. (358)

For me who thus have chosen, ne'er will I
Into the world's disasters come again,
For in Nibbana is my joy alway. (359)

So, fighting a [good] fight with worldly lusts,
I wait in hope for the Cool Blessedness,
Abiding earnest in endeavour, till
Nought doth survive that fetters me to them. (360)

THIS is my Way, the Way that leads past grief,
Past all that doth defile, the haven sure,
Even the Ariyan Eightfold Path, called Straight. 384
There do I follow where the Saints 385 have crossed. (361)
* * * * *
See now this Subhā, standing on the Norm,
Child of a craftsman in the art of gold!
Behold! she hath attained to utter calm;
Museth in rapture 'neath the spreading boughs. (362)
To-day, the eighth it is since she went forth
In faith, and radiant in the Gospel's light.
By Uppalavaṇṇā 386 instructed, lo!
Thrice wise is she and conqueror over death. (363)

Freed woman she, discharged is all her debt,
A Bhikkhunī, trained in the higher sense.
All sundered are the Bonds, her task is done,
And the great Drugs that poisoned her are purged. (364)




To her came Sakka, and his band of gods
In all their glory, worshipping Subhā,
Child of a craftsman in the art of gold,
But lord of all things that have life and breath. 387 (365)

When, on the eighth day after her ordination, she won Arahantship, attaining
fruition, seated beneath a tree, the Exalted One uttered these three verses
(362-364) in her praises, pointing her out to the Brethren. And the last verse
was added by them who recited (the canon at the Council), to celebrate Sakka's
adoration.



377 Na bodhāya na santiyā: not for enlightenment, lit., being awake, or peace.
George Eliot has lines in sympathy with Subhā:
'Nay, falter not–'tis an assured good
To seek the noblest–'tis your only good,
Now you have seen it; for that higher vision
Poisons all meaner choice for evermore.'
378 Literally, for samaṇa's or recluses (religieux).
379 Lit., left over, given as alms. Cf. Jātaka, iv. 380.
380 Cf. Ps. lxix. 329 n.
381 I read with the Commentary mahesihi. Cf. the te on next line and 361.
382 These are similes occurring in discourses ascribed to the Buddha –e.g.,
Ang. Nik., iv. 128; Saŋy. Nik., v. 112-114; iv. 189, 198; Udāna, 24; Majjh.
Nik., i. 130, etc.
383 Lit., Bringer-along of its (the way's) own affliction.
384 'Ujuko nāma so maggo.'
'Straight' is the name that Way is called. (Saŋy. Nik., i. 33.)
385 Mahesino, as in 350.
386 See Ps. lxiv.
387 Bhūtapati; issaro, lord or god of beings in the three planes of sense,
says the Commentary; presumably gods, men, and animals. Note that she is not
called Queen or Goddess, but pati (masculine).



Next: Canto XIV. Psalms of About Thirty Verses