[43] 5. "Devatā, you who stand with surpassing beauty,
… like the star Osadhī:
by what means is such beauty yours? …
and your radiance shines forth in all directions?"
That devatā, gladdened at being questioned by Moggallāna,
… of what deed (kamma) this is the fruit:
"At Andhakavinda I gave to the Buddha, the Kinsman of the Sun (ādiccabandhu),
sour gruel (kañjika) prepared with jujube and seasoned with oil,
mixed with long pepper, with garlic, and with lāmajjaka;
I gave it to the upright one with a serene and confident mind.
Whatever woman might exercise queenship to a universal monarch (cakkavatti) —
a woman lovely in every limb, of peerless aspect in her husband's eyes —
she is not worth the sixteenth part
of this gift of sour gruel (kañjikadāna).
A hundred nikkhas of gold, a hundred horses,
a hundred chariots drawn by she-mules,
a hundred thousand maidens adorned with jeweled earrings —
these are not worth the sixteenth part
of this gift of sour gruel.
A hundred elephants of the Himavant,
with tusks like chariot-poles, mighty ones,
mātaṅga elephants with girths of gold, clad in golden trappings —
these are not worth the sixteenth part
of this gift of sour gruel.
And even one whom they might here make lord over all four continents —
that is not worth the sixteenth part
of this gift of sour gruel."
The Kañjikadāyikā Vimāna (the Mansion of the Giver of Sour Gruel), the fifth.
English translation from the Pali (Siam Raṭṭha edition) — under review, not for citation.