[110] 13. There was a king, Brahmadatta,
bull of the chariot-lords of the Pañcālas;
with the passing of days and nights
the king came to his end.
Having gone to his cremation ground,
his wife Ubbarī wailed;
not seeing Brahmadatta,
"O Brahmadatta!" she wailed.
And a seer came there,
a sage accomplished in conduct,
and there he asked
those who were gathered there:
"Whose is this cremation ground,
pervaded with many scents?
Whose wife is she that wails here
for a husband gone far hence,
not seeing Brahmadatta,
wailing, 'O Brahmadatta!'?"
And they explained it there,
those who were gathered there:
"Brahmadatta's, venerable sir;
Brahmadatta's, dear sir:
his is this cremation ground,
pervaded with many scents,
and his the wife who wails here
for a husband gone far hence,
not seeing Brahmadatta,
wailing, 'O Brahmadatta!'"
"Six-and-eighty thousand
bearing the name Brahmadatta
have been burned in this cremation ground:
which of them do you mourn?"
"The king who was Cūḷanī's son,
bull of the chariot-lords of the Pañcālas —
him, venerable sir, I mourn,
my husband, granter of every desire."
"All of them were kings
bearing the name Brahmadatta,
all of them Cūḷanī's sons,
bulls of the chariot-lords of the Pañcālas;
over all of them in succession
you exercised the rank of chief queen:
why, passing over the earlier ones,
do you mourn the last?"
"Dear sir, have I in my own person
been a woman all that long time —
I of whom, as a woman in saṃsāra,
you speak so much?"
"You have been a woman, you have been a man,
you have come even to the womb of beasts:
so it is — of these past lives
no limit is to be seen."
"Truly, aflame as I was,
like a fire sprinkled with ghee,
as though dousing it with water
he has extinguished all my anguish.
Truly drawn out is my dart,
the sorrow that lodged in my heart:
he it is who, for me overcome by sorrow,
has dispelled the grief for my husband.
I am one whose dart is drawn out;
I have grown cool, I am quenched;
I sorrow not, I weep not,
having heard you, O great sage."
Having heard that word of his,
the ascetic's well-spoken word,
she took bowl and robe
and went forth into homelessness.
And she, having gone forth
from home into homelessness,
developed a mind (citta) of loving-kindness (mettā)
for rebirth in the Brahma world,
wandering from village to village,
through market towns and royal capitals.
Uruvelā was the name of the village
where she came to her end:
having developed a mind of loving-kindness
for rebirth in the Brahma world,
having made the mind of a woman fade away,
she attained to the Brahma world.
The Ubbarī Petavatthu, the thirteenth.
Summary (uddāna):
Paṇḍu, the mother, and the husband;
Nandi, Kuṇḍalī, Ghata;
the two treasurers, the weaver;
the monastery, the thread, the dog, and Ubbarī.
The Ubbarī Chapter, the second.
_________________
The Third Chapter: the Cūḷavagga
[Variant readings in the Siam edition's apparatus: at "the king came to his end" (kālamakrubbatha), Sī. and Yu. read kālaṃ kari tadā ("then he made his time"); the adjacent note "Yu. bhutvā" anchors on the preceding page, outside this item. At "you have come even to the womb of beasts" (pasuyoniṃ pi āgamā), Yu. reads pasuṃ yonim pi agamā. At "truly drawn out is my dart" (abbūḷhi), Ma. reads abḷahī and Yu. abbūḷhaṃ. The markers on Uruvelaṃ, ābhāvetvā, Paṇḍumātā, tantavāyo, and the final uddāna line refer to notes not included on this source page.]
English translation from the Pali (Siam Raṭṭha edition) — under review, not for citation.