[44]
For the sage (muni) Anomadassī, the eldest of the world, the Steadfast One (tādī),
I had a walking path (caṅkama) made, giving it a coating of lime plaster (sudhā).
With flowers of various colors I strewed that walking path;
making a canopy in the air above, I fed the supreme Buddha.
Raising my joined palms and venerating the One of good vows (subbata),
I then made over a long hall (dīghasālā) to the Blessed One.
Knowing my intention, the Teacher, unsurpassed in the world —
the Blessed One, the One with Vision (cakkhumā) — accepted it out of compassion.
Having accepted it, the Fully Awakened One, worthy of offerings (dakkhiṇeyya) in the world with its devas,
sat down amid the Saṅgha of bhikkhus (bhikkhusaṅgha) and spoke these verses:
"He who with joyful mind has given me the long hall —
him I shall proclaim; listen to my words.
At the hour of death for this one, endowed with his meritorious deed,
a chariot yoked with a thousand steeds will present itself that very moment.
By that vehicle this man will go to the deva world;
the devas will rejoice when he has arrived in a wholesome existence.
A mansion (byamha) of great worth, most excellent, plastered with jewel-clay
and furnished with superb peaked-roof chambers (kūṭāgāra) — that mansion he will inhabit.
For thirty thousand aeons (kappa) he will delight in the deva world,
and for twenty-five aeons he will be king of the devas.
And seventy-seven times he will be a wheel-turning monarch (cakkavatti);
they will bear the name Yasodhara — all of them of one and the same name.
Having enjoyed the two attainments and heaped up¹ a store of merit,
in the twenty-eighth aeon he will be a wheel-turning monarch.
[Variants: ¹ Ma vaḍḍhetvā, "having increased"; Yu viditvā, "having known." (Ma = Burmese-script edition; Yu = European/PTS edition.)]
There too (he will have) a most excellent mansion, fashioned by Vissakamma;
he will inhabit that city, never empty of the ten sounds.
In an incalculable aeon from now, a guardian of the earth, of great might,
a king, Okkāka by name, will arise in the realm.
Of all his sixteen thousand women the foremost, in the prime of her life²,
a nobly born khattiya lady (khattiyānī), will give birth to nine children.
Having borne the nine children, the khattiya lady will die,
and a young and beloved maiden will assume the place of chief queen (mahesī).
Having gratified Okkāka, that maiden will obtain a boon,
and having obtained her boon, she will have the children banished.
Banished³, all of them will go to the supreme mountain;
for fear of a breach of lineage, all will live with their sisters⁴.
But one maiden will be beset⁵ by disease;
'Let not our lineage be broken!' — (so resolving,) the khattiyas will bury her.
A khattiya, having brought her out, will live together with her;
and then there will be a branching-off sprung from the Okkāka clan.
Their progeny will be, by lineage, Koliyas by name;
there they will enjoy human wealth in no small measure.
Passing away from that body, he will go to the deva world;
there too he will gain a most excellent and delightful mansion.
[Variants: ² Ma pavarā ca sā; Yu pavarā mayā. ³ Yu pabbajitvā, "having gone forth." ⁴ Yu saṃvasissare, "will live together." ⁵ Ma parikkhatā.]
Passing away from the deva world, urged on by the bright root (sukkamūla),
and coming to the human state, he will be named Soṇa.
With energy (vīriya) aroused, resolute, striving in the Teacher's dispensation,
having fully understood all the taints (āsava), he will attain Nibbāna, free of taints.
The Blessed One of boundless vision, Gotama, bull of the Sakyans,
the discerner of excellence, the great hero, will establish him in the foremost place."
When the sky-god has rained down and the grass stands four fingers high,
its blades⁶ stirred by the breeze —
setting aside the steadfast one devoted to exertion,
no perfection is found that goes beyond that.
Tamed by the supreme taming, my mind is well directed;
my whole burden has been laid down; I am quenched (nibbuta), free of taints.
Aṅgīrasa, the great nāga, like a maned lion of noble birth,
sat down amid the Saṅgha of bhikkhus and set me in the foremost place (etadagga).
The four analytical knowledges (paṭisambhidā), and these eight liberations (vimokkha),
and the six direct knowledges (chaḷabhiññā) have been realized; the Buddha's teaching has been done.
Thus indeed the Venerable Soṇa Koṭiyavessa⁷ the Elder spoke these verses.
The Apadāna of the Elder Soṇa Koṭiyavessa is concluded.
[Variants: ⁶ Ma …aṅgaṇamhi, "on the open ground." ⁷ Ma Koḷiviso; Yu Koḷiyavesso.]
Third: the Apadāna of the Elder Bhaddiya Kāḷigodhāyaputta (43)
English translation from the Pali (Siam Raṭṭha edition) — under review, not for citation.