[179] He who was the Great Sage named Phussa, wearing a chaplet gleaming with rays —
I was his sister; I was born in a khattiya family.
Having heard his Dhamma, with a serenely confident mind,
I gave a great gift and aspired to the excellence of beauty (rūpasampadā).
In the thirty-first aeon from now, Sikhī, foremost leader of the world,
arose — the lamp of the world, refuge of the three worlds, the Victor (jina).
Then, born of a brahmin family in delightful Aruṇapura,
being angered, I cursed a bhikkhunī whose mind (citta) was liberated:
"You are a harlot, ill-conducted, a corrupter of the Victor's dispensation!"
Having reviled her thus, by that evil kamma
I went to a dreadful hell (niraya), beset with great suffering (dukkha);
passing away from there, I was reborn among human beings, a wretched woman (tapassinī).
For ten thousand births I plied the trade of a courtesan (gaṇikā);
I was not released from that evil, like one who has swallowed virulent poison.
I took up the holy garb (brahmavesa) in the dispensation of Kassapa the Victor;
through the ripening of that kamma I was born in the city of the Thirty [gods].
When my last existence came, I was spontaneously born (opapātika),
arisen amid the branches of a mango tree — hence I am "Ambapālī."
Surrounded by crores of living beings, I went forth in the Victor's dispensation;
I have attained the unshakable state; I am the Buddha's true-born daughter.
I have mastery of the psychic powers (iddhi) and of the divine ear element (dibbasotadhātu);
I have mastery of the knowledge that penetrates the minds of others (cetopariyañāṇa), O Great Sage.
I know my former abodes (pubbenivāsa); the divine eye (dibbacakkhu) has been purified;
all taints (āsava) are utterly destroyed; now there is no renewed existence.
In meaning (attha), in dhamma, in language (nirutti), and likewise in perspicacity (paṭibhāna),
my knowledge (ñāṇa) is stainless and pure, through the power of the supreme Buddha.
My defilements (kilesa) have been burned away; all existences have been extirpated;
like a she-elephant that has burst her bonds, I dwell without taints.
Truly welcome was my coming into the presence of the supreme Buddha;
the three true knowledges (vijjā) have been attained; the Buddha's teaching has been done.
The four analytic insights (paṭisambhidā), and also these eight liberations (vimokkha),
and the six superknowledges (abhiññā) have been realized; the Buddha's teaching has been done.
Thus indeed did the bhikkhunī Ambapālī utter these verses.
The Apadāna of the Therī Ambapālī is concluded.
Tenth: the Apadāna of the Therī Selā (40)
[Variant readings noted in the Siam edition: (1) Burmese ed.: "vinassati"; (2) Burmese and European eds.: "…raṃsiphusitāveḷo"; (1) Burmese and European eds.: "va" (for "ca"); (2) European ed.: "bhuttā"; (3) European ed.: "brahmaceraṃ asevissaṃ"; (4) Burmese and European eds.: "sotadhātuvisuddhiyā".]
English translation from the Pali (Siam Raṭṭha edition) — under review, not for citation.