[160] The Victor (Jina) named Padumuttara, gone to the far shore of all dhammas,
the Leader, arose one hundred thousand kappas from this one.
At that time I was born at Haṃsavatī in the family of a wealthy merchant,
resplendent with many kinds of gems, and I was endowed with great happiness.
Having approached that Great Hero, I heard his teaching of the Dhamma;
then, with confidence arisen in me, I went to the Victor for refuge.
Then the Leader praised as foremost of those who bear the Vinaya (the Discipline)
a bhikkhunī who was conscientious, steadfast, and skilled in what is allowable and what is not.
Then, with gladdened mind, I longed for that position;
having invited the Ten-Powered One, the Leader of the World, together with his Saṅgha,
having fed them for seven days and given bowls and robes,
having bowed with my head at his feet, I spoke these words:
"She whom you praised, O Wise One, on the eighth day before now, O Sage —
such a one shall I become, if it may be accomplished, O Leader."
Then the Teacher said to me: "Good lady, do not fear; take heart:
in the time to come you shall obtain that heart's desire.
One hundred thousand kappas from now, sprung from the family of Okkāka,
there will be in the world a Teacher, Gotama by name.
An heir in his dhammas, a true offspring formed by the Dhamma,
Paṭācārā by name, she shall be a disciple of the Teacher."
Then, rejoicing, for as long as I lived, with a mind of loving-kindness (mettā)
I attended upon the Victor, the Leader of the World, together with his Saṅgha.
By that deed well done, and by my volition and aspirations,
on abandoning the human body I went to Tāvatiṃsa.
In this auspicious kappa there arose the kinsman of Brahmā, of great fame,
Kassapa by name, the best of speakers.
The attendant of the Great Seer at that time was the lord of men,
the king of Kāsi, Kikī by name, in Bārāṇasī, supreme among cities.
I was his third daughter, renowned by the name of "Bhikkhunī";
having heard the Dhamma of the supreme Victor, I set my heart upon the going forth (pabbajjā).
Our father did not permit us; so then, at home itself,
we fared untiring for twenty thousand years,
we seven daughters — royal maidens, established in comfort,
delighting in attendance upon the Buddha, rejoicing — in the maidenly holy life (brahmacariya):
Samaṇī and Samaṇaguttā, Bhikkhunī, Bhikkhudāsikā,
Dhammā and Sudhammā too, and Saṅghadāsikā the seventh.
[We are now] I and Uppalavaṇṇā, Khemā and the bhikkhunī Bhaddā,
Kisāgotamī, Dhammadinnā — and Visākhā is the seventh.
By those deeds well done, and by my volition and aspirations,
on abandoning the human body I went to Tāvatiṃsa.
And now, in my final existence, I was born in a wealthy merchant's family
in Sāvatthī, best of cities — prosperous, flourishing, of great wealth.
And when, come to youth, I had fallen under the sway of [sensual] thought,
seeing a man of the countryside, I went away with him.
I had brought forth one son, and a second was in my womb;
then I resolved firmly: "I shall go to see my mother and father."
I did not tell my husband; then, while he was away,
I slipped out of the house alone, to go to supreme Sāvatthī.
Afterwards my husband came and overtook me on the road;
and just then the winds born of kamma arose in me, exceedingly cruel.
At the very time of my delivery a great storm-cloud rose up;
and my husband, going then to fetch grass [for a shelter], was killed by a snake.
Then, in the pain of childbirth, helpless and wretched,
as I went on toward my own family's home I saw a little river in flood.
Taking my newborn, I went down [into the water], and alone on the farther bank,
having suckled my infant son, I [turned back] to bring the other across.
As I turned back, a hawk bore off the tender babe as he wailed,
and the current swept the other away; and I was overwhelmed with sorrow.
Having gone to the city of Sāvatthī, I heard that my own people were dead.
Then, stricken with grief, overwhelmed with great sorrow, I said:
"Both my sons are dead, and in the forest my husband lies dead;
my mother and my father and my brother burn upon a single pyre."
Then, gaunt and pale, helpless, dejected in mind,
going here and there, I saw the Charioteer of Men.
Then the Teacher said to me: "Do not grieve for your sons; take heart.
Seek your own self: why are you uselessly distressed?
Sons are no shelter, nor kinsmen, nor yet relations:
for one who is seized by the Ender (Death) there is no shelter among kin."
Having heard that word of the Sage, I attained the first fruit;
and having gone forth, before long I attained arahatship.
I have mastery in the psychic powers and in the divine ear-element;
I know the minds of others: I am one who carries out the Teacher's teaching.
I know my former abodes; the divine eye has been purified;
having exhausted all the taints (āsava), I became pure, thoroughly stainless.
Then, in the presence of the All-Seeing One, I learned the entire Vinaya
in all its fullness, and I declared it exactly as it is.
The Victor, pleased with that quality, established me in the foremost place:
"Foremost of those who bear the Vinaya is Paṭācārā, she alone."
The Teacher has been served by me; the Buddha's teaching has been done;
the heavy burden has been laid down; the conduit to existence has been uprooted.
The goal for whose sake I went forth from home into homelessness —
that goal has been attained by me: the destruction of all fetters (saṃyojana).
My defilements (kilesa) have been burned away; all existences have been uprooted;
like a she-elephant that has burst her bonds, I dwell free of taints.
Welcome indeed was my coming into the presence of the best of Buddhas!
The three true knowledges (vijjā) have been attained; the Buddha's teaching has been done.
The four analytic insights (paṭisambhidā), and these eight liberations (vimokkha) as well,
and the six superknowledges (chaḷabhiññā) have been realized; the Buddha's teaching has been done.
Thus indeed did the bhikkhunī Paṭācārā speak these verses.
The Apadāna of the Therī Paṭācārā is concluded.
Summary (Uddāna)
Ekuposathikā and Salaḷā, then Modakā,
Ekāsanā, Pañcadīpā, and Naḷamālī, and Gotamī,
Khemā and Uppalavaṇṇā, and the bhikkhunī Paṭācārā:
there are five hundred verses, and nine over and above.
The Ekuposatha Chapter, the Second.
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The Third Chapter: the Kuṇḍalakesī Chapter
First: the Apadāna of the Therī Kuṇḍalakesī (21)
English translation from the Pali (Siam Raṭṭha edition) — under review, not for citation.