Therīgāthā (Psalms of the Sisters)

1 Parinibbutd. Cf. ver. 53. 2 Cf. p. 40, n 3. 3 See Ps. Ixix. 4 Ndga , a term not seldom applied to a great and mysterious per¬ sonality. I can find no English equivalent. grasp of the Norm in form and in spirit. Keflecting on her attainment, she exulted thus : Nowhere, now there, lightheaded, crazed with grief, Mourning my child, I wandered up and down, Naked, unheeding, streaming hair unkempt, (133) Lodging in scourings of the streets, and where The dead lay still, and by the chariot-roads — So three years long I fared, starving, athirst. (134) And then at last I saw Him, as He went AVithin that blessed city Mithila : Great Tamer of untamed hearts, yea, Him, The A^ery Buddha, Banisher of fear. (135) Came back my heart to me, my errant mind ; Forthwith to Him I went low worshipping, And there, e’en at His feet 1 heard the Norm. F or of His great compassion on us all, ’Twas He who taught me, even Got am a.1 (136) I heeded all He said and left the world And all its cares behind, and gave myself To follow where He taught, and realize

Life in the Path to great good fortune bound. (137) Now all my sorrows are hewn down, cast out, Uprooted, brought to utter end, In that I now can grasp and understand The base on which my miseries were built. (138) 1 More than once in these verses — never, I believe, in prose— the family name of the Buddha is used by the faithful— e.g., Ps. liv. Now she, when Padumuttara was Buddha, became a slave to others, dependent for her livelihood on others, at Hagsavatl. And one day, seeing the Elder, Sujata, seeking alms, she gave him three sweet cakes, and at the same time took down her hair1 and gave it to the Elder, saying: ‘ May I in the future become a disciple, great in wisdom, of a Buddha !’ After many fortunate rebirths as Queen among both gods and men, for that she had wrought good karma to the uttermost, she became a human, when Vipassi2 was Buddha. Renouncing the world, she became a learned preacher of the Norm. Beborn, when Kakusandha was Buddha, in a wealthy family, she made a great park for the Order, and delivered it over to the Order with the Buddha at their head. She did this again when Konagamana was Buddha. When Kassapa was Buddha she became the eldest daughter of King Kiki,3 named Samani, lived a pious life, and gave a cell to the Order. Finally, in this Buddhaera, she was born in Magadha, at Sagala,4 as one of the King’s family, and named Khema.

Beautiful, and with skin like gold, she became the consort of King Bimbisara. While the Master was at the Bamboo Grove5 she, being infatuated with her own beauty, would not go to see him, fearing he would look on this as a fault in her. The King bade persons praise the Grove to her to induce her to visit it. And accordingly she asked him to let her see it. The King went to the Vihara, and seeing no Master, but determined that she should not get away, he instructed his men to let the

1 The usual word ‘ cut off ’ is not used. 2 First of the seven Buddhas of the Pitakas. See Dialogues of the Buddlia , ii. 3. 3 See Ps. xii. 4 Cf. Ps. xxxvii. 5 Presented by Bimbisara to the Order, six miles from Rajagaha. For a more detailed version of this story (I have slightly condensed a slightly less detailed original), see Mrs. Bode, J.R.A.S. , 1893, p. 529 ff. Queen see Him of the Ten Powers, even by constraining her. And this they did when the Queen was about to leave without meeting the Master. As they brought her reluctant, the Master, by mystic potency, conjured up a woman like a celestial nymph, who stood fanning him with a palmyra leaf. And Khema, seeing her, thought : ‘ Verily the Exalted One has around him women as lovely as goddesses. I am not fit even to wait upon such. I am undone by my base and mistaken notions !’ Then, as she looked, that woman, through the steadfast will of the Master, passed from youth to middle age and old age, till, with broken teeth, grey hair, and wrinkled skin, she fell to earth with her palm-leaf. Then Khema, because of her ancient resolve, thought :

‘ Has such a body come to be a wreck like that ? Then so will my body also !’ And the Master, knowing her thoughts, said : ‘ They who are slaves to lust drift down the stream, Like to a spider gliding down the web He of himself has wrought. But the released, . Who all their bonds have snapt in twain, With thoughts elsewhere intent, forsake the world, And all delight in sense put far away.’1 The Commentaries say that when he had finished, she attained Arahantship, together with thorough grasp of the Norm in form and meaning. But according to the Apadana, she was established only in the Fruit of one who has entered the Stream, and, the King consenting, entered the Order ere she became an Arahant.2 Thereafter she became known for her great insight, and was ranked foremost herein by the Exalted One, seated in the conclave of Ariyans at the Jeta Grove Vihara. And as she sat one day in siesta under a tree, Mara the Evil One, in youthful shape, drew near, tempting her with sensuous ideas : 1 Dhammapada, ver. 347. 2 The Apadana version in ninety-two verse-couplets is then quoted. Arahantship outside the Order was very rare, though not unknown.

Thou art fair, and life is young, beauteous Khema I1 I am young, even I, too — Come, O fairest lady ! While in our ear fivefold harmonies murmur melo¬ dious, Seek we our pleasure,’ (139) ‘ Through this body vile, foul seat of disease and corruption, Loathing I feel, and oppression. Cravings of lust are uprooted. (140) Lusts of the body and sense-mind2 cut like daggers and javelins. Speak not to me of delighting in aught of sensuous pleasure ! Verily all such vanities now no more may delight me. (141) Slain on all sides is the love of the world, the flesh, and the devil.3 Rent asunder the gloom of ignorance once that beset me. Know this, O Evil One ! Destroyer, know thyself worsted ! (142) Lo ! ye who blindly worship constellations of heaven, Ye who fostering fire in cool grove, wait upon Agni, Ignorant are ye all, ye foolish and young, of the Real, Deeming ye thus might find purification from evil.4 (143) 1 In the text the usual aloha metre is employed. 2 I.e., the Khandhas, or five constituents making up a person under conditions of sense experience. 3 Nandi, sensuous delight, ilnplying more or less love of all three.

4 These two lines, which are somewhat turgidly amplified, run in Lo ! as for me I worship th’ Enlightened, the Uttermost Human,* 1 Utterly free from all sorrow, doer of Buddha’s commandments.’ (144) She, too, having made her resolve under former Buddhas, and accumulating good of age-enduring efficacy in this and that rebirth, and consolidating the essential conditions for emancipation, was, in this Buddha-era, reborn at Saketa, in the Treasurer’s family. Given by her parents in marriage to a Treasurer’s son of equal rank, she lived happily with him. Going one day to take part in an Astral Festival2 in the pleasure-grounds, she was returning with her attendants to the town, when, in the Anjana Grove, she saw the Master, and her heart being drawn to him, she drew near, did obeisance, and seated herself. The Master, finishing his discourse in order, and knowing the sound state of her mind, expounded the Norm to her in an inspiring lesson. Thereat, because her intelligence was fully ripe, she, even as she sat, attained Arahantship, together with thorough grasp of the Norm in form and meaning. Saluting the Master, and going home, she obtained her husband’s and her parents’ consent, and by command of the Master was admitted to the Order of Bhikkhunls. Beflecting on her attainment, she exulted thus :

literal terseness thus : ‘ Ye foolish young ones, who know not things as they really have come to be, [those rites] ye have fancied to be purification ’ ( suddhi )„ 1 Purisuttamo , ‘ supreme among men.’/ ^ NakTihattakilar) , constellation-sports. Cy. verse 143 in the pre¬ ceding Psalm. Adorned in finery, in raiment fair, In garlands wreathed, powdered with sandalwood, Bedecked with all my jewelry, begirt (145) With troop of handmaidens, and well-supplied With food solid and soft, and drink enow, From home I drove me to the fair pleasaunce. (146) There did we sport and make a merry time, Then gat us once more on the homeward way. So entered we the grove called Anjana, Hard by Saketa, where amidst the trees Stands the Vihara [of the holy men]. (147) Him saw I sitting there, Light of the World, And went into his presence worshipping. And of his great compassion for us all, He taught to me the Norm — the One who Sees! (148) Forthwith I, too, could pierce and penetrate, Hearing the truth taught by the mighty Seer, For there, e’en as I sat, my spirit touched1 The Norm Immaculate, th’ Ambrosial Path. (149)

Then first it was I left the life of home, When the blest Gospel2 I had come to know, And now the Threefold Wisdom have I won. O wise and sure the bidding of the Lord ! (150) 1 This is another subtle stroke of artistry, to let the visual emphasis in the poem culminate in the intenser metaphor of touch. * Seeing is believing, but touch is the real thing.’ The word is frequently so used in the Pitakas, but without the theosophical mysticism of the Neo¬ platonic cupT), 2 Saddhamma means good teaching (eOayyt\iov), not, of course, God's ‘ spell.’ She, too, having made resolve under former Buddhas, and heaping up good of age-enduring efficacy in this and that rebirth, perfecting the conditions tending to bring about emancipation, was, in this Buddha-era, reborn at Saketa as the daughter of the Treasurer, Majjha. Because of her beauty she got the name 'Peerless’ (An-opama). When she grew up, many rich men’s sons, Kings’ ministers, and Princes, sent messengers to the father, saying : ‘ Give us your daughter Anopama, and we will give this, or that.’ Hearing of this, she — for that the promise of the highest was in her — thought : ‘ Profit to me in the life of the House there is none ’ ; and sought the Master’s pre¬ sence. She heard him teach, and her intelligence maturing, the memory of that teaching, and the strenuous effort for insight she made, established her in the Third Path — that of No-return. Asking the Master for admission, she was by his order admitted among the Bhikkhunls. And on the seventh day thereafter, she realized Arahantship. Reflect¬ ing thereon, she exulted :

Daughter of Treas’rer Map ha’s famous house, Rich, beautiful and prosperous, I was born To vast possessions and to lofty rank. (151) Nor lacked I suitors — many came and wooed ; The sons of Kings and merchant princes came With costly gifts, all eager for my hand. And messengers were sent from many a land With promise to my father : ‘ Give to me (152) Anopama, and look ! whatever she weighs, Anopama thy daughter, I will give Eightfold that weight in gold and gems of price.’ (153) But I had seen th’ Enlightened, Chief o’ the World, The One Supreme. In lowliness I sat And worshipped at his feet. He, Gotama, (154) Out of his pity taught to me the Norm. And seated even there I touched in heart The Anagami-Fruit, Third of the Paths, And knew this world should see me ne’er re¬ turn. (1 55) Then cutting off the glory of my hair, I entered on the homeless ways of life. ’Tis now the seventh night since first all sense Of craving dried up within my heart. (156) Now she was born, when Padumuttara was Buddha, in the city of Haijsavati, in a clansman’s family. Hearing the Master preaching, and assigning the foremost place for experience to a certain Bhikkhunl, she vowed such a place should one day be hers. Then, after many births, once more was she reborn in the Buddha-empty era, between Kassapa and our Buddha, at Benares, as the forewoman among 500 slave-girls.1 Now, when the rains drew near, five Silent Buddhas came down from the Nandamulaka mountain-cave to Isipatana, seeking alms; and those women got their husbands to erect five huts for the Buddhas during the three rainy months, and they provided them with all they required during that time. Beborn once more in a

1 See this episode in fuller detail in Mrs. Bode, op. cit ., p. 523 ff. The two Commentaries agree in all salient points, ours being less detailed. The above is considerably condensed. The Apadana devotes 190 versecouplets to the chronicle of this ‘ Great ’ Mother of the Sisters’ Order. weaver’s village near Benares, in the headman’s family, she again ministered to Silent Buddhas. Finally, she was reborn, shortly before our Master came to us, at Devadaha, in the family of Maha-Suppabuddha.1 Her family name was Gotama, and she was the younger sister of the Great Maya. And the interpreters of birthmarks declared that the children of both sisters would be Wheel-rolling Eulers.2 Now, King Suddhodana, when he came of age, held a festival, and wedded both the sisters. After this, when our Master had arisen, and, in turning the excellent wheel of the Norm, came in course of fostering souls to Vesali, his father, who had reached Arahantship, died. Then the great Pajapatl, wishing to leave the world, asked the Master for admission, but obtained it not. Then she cut off her hair, put on the robes, and at the end of the sermon now forming the Suttanta on strife and contention, she sallied forth, and together with 500 Sakya ladies whose husbands had renounced the world, went to Vesali, and asked the Master, through Ananda the Thera, for ordination. This she then obtained, with the eight maxims for Bhikkhunls.

Thus ordained, the Great Pajapatl came and saluted the Master, and stood on one side. Then he taught her the Norm ; and she, exercising herself and practising, soon after obtained Arahantship, accompanied by intuitive and analytical knowledge. The remaining 500 Bhikkhunls, after Nandaka’s homily, became endowed with the six branches of intuitive knowledge. Now, one day, when the Master was seated in the conclave of Ariyans at the great Jeta Grove Vihara, he assigned the foremost place in experience to Great Pajapatl, the Gotamid. She, dwelling in the bliss of fruition and of Nibbana, testified her gratitude one day by declaring her Anna before the Mastei, in praising his virtue, who had brought help where before there had been none : 1 In the Apadana he is called Aiijana the Sakiyan. I.e., should be Emperors, either of worldly dominions or else of the hearts of men. Buddha the Wake,1 the Hero, hail ! all hail ! Supreme o’er every being that hath life, Who from all ill and sorrow hast released Me and so many, many stricken folk.2 (157) Now have I understood how Ill doth come. Craving, the Cause, in me is dried up. Have I not trod, have I not touched the End Of Ill — the Ariyan, the Eightfold Path ? (158)

Oh ! but ’tis long I’ve wandered down all time. Living as mother, father, brother, son, And as grandparent in the ages past — Not knowing how and what things really are, And never finding what I needed sore. (159) But now mine eyes have seen th’ Exalted One ; And now I know this living frame’s the last, And shattered is th’ unending round of births. No more Pajapati shall come to be ! (160) Behold the company who learn of him — In happy concord of fraternity, Of strenuous energy and resolute, From strength to strength advancing toward the Goal— The noblest homage this to Buddhas paid.3 (161) Oh ! surely for the good of countless lives Did sister Maya bring forth Gotama, Dispeller of the burden of our ill, Who lay o’erweighted with disease and death ! (162) 1 Buddho = awake. ‘2 So K. E. Neumann : Erloser vielem vielem Volk. 3 Esd Buddhdna-vandand. Cf. Savonarola’s words : ‘ . righteous¬ ness of living, which is the grandest homage and truest worship that the creature can render to his Creator ’ ( The Triumph of the Cross). She, too, having made her resolve under former Buddhas, and accumulating good of age-enduring efficacy in this and that rebirth, and consolidating the essential conditions for emancipation, was, in this Buddha-era, reborn at Savatthi, in a brahmin’s family, and named Gutta. When adoles¬ cent, life in the house became repugnant to her, and she obtained her parents’ consent to enter the Order under the Great Pajapatl. Thereafter, though she practised with devotion, her heart long persisted in running after external interests, and this destroyed concentration. Then the Master, to encourage her, sent forth glory, and appeared near her, as if seated in the air, saying these words :

Bethink thee, Gutta, of that high reward1 For which thou wast content to lose thy world, Renouncing hope of children, lure of wealth. To that direct and consecrate the mind, Nor give thyself to sway of truant thoughts. (163) Deceivers ever are the thoughts of men, Fain for the haunts where Mara finds his prey ; And running ever on from birth to birth, To the dread circle bound— a witless world. (164) But thou, O Sister, bound to other goals, Thine is’t to break those Fetters five : the lust Of sense, ill-will, delusion of the Self, The taint of rites and ritual, and doubt, (165) That drag thee backward to the hither shore. Tis not for thee to come again to this ! (166) 1 Attho, good, advantage, profit. Get thee away from life-lust,1 from conceit, From ignorance, and from distraction’s craze ; Sunder the bonds ; so only shalt thou come •To utter end of Ill. Throw off the Chain (167) Of birth and death-r-thou knowest what they mean. So, free from craving, in this life on earth, Thou shalt go on thy way calm and serene. (168) And when the Master had made an end of that utterance, the Sister attained Arahantship, together with thorough grasp of the Norm in form and meaning. And exulting thereon, she uttered those lines in their order as spoken by the Exalted One, whence they came to be called the Then’s psalm.

She, too, having made her resolve under former Buddhas, and heaping up good of age-enduring efficacy, was, in this Buddha-era, reborn at Bajagaha, in a certain clansman’s family. When grown up she became the companion of Khema, afterwards Then, but then of the laity. Hearing that Khema had renounced the world, she said: ‘If she, as a King’s consort, can leave the world, surely I can.’ So to Khema Then she went, and the latter, discerning whereon her heart was set, taught her the Norm so as to agitate her mind concerning rebirth, and to make her seek comfort in the system. And so it came to pass ; and the Then ordained her. She, serving as was due, and studying as was due, 1 Longing to live again, embodied or disembodied. This and the following three terms are the last five Fetters, ‘ the sundering of which leads immediately to Arahantship.’ See Rhys Davids, American Lectures , 141-152. grew in insight, and, the promise being in her, soon attained to Arahantship, together with thorough grasp of the Norm in form and meaning. And she, reflecting thereon, exulted thus : Four1 times, nay five, I sallied from my cell, And roamed afield to find the peace of mind I lacked, and governance of thoughts I could not bring into captivity. (169)

Then to a Bhikkhuni2 I came and asked Full many a question of my doubts. To me she taught the Norm : the elements, (170) Organ and object in the life of sense,3 [And then the factors of the Nobler life :] The Ariyan Truths, the Faculties, the Powers, The Seven Features of Awakening, The Eightfold Way, leading to utmost good. (171) I heard her words, her bidding I obeyed. While4 passed the first watch of the night there rose Long memories of the bygone line of lives. (172) While passed the second watch, the Heavenly Eye, Purview celestial, I clarified. While passed the last watch of the night, I burst And rent aside the gloom of ignorance. (173) 1 = Ps. xxviii. and xxx. Here is a case where Atthakatha and Gatha are badly welded, as he who runs may read. The commentator, nothing doubting, identifies the Bhikkhuni as Khema. 3 Gf. Ps. xxx., xxxviii. The following ‘ factors ’ give twenty-five of the thirty-seven known as the Bodhipakkhiya Dhamma, omitting the four applications of mindfulness ( sati'patthana ), the four stages of potency ( iddhipddd ), and the four right efforts (sammapjJadhanani), but introducing the doctrinal four truths.

4 = Ps. xlviii. Then, letting joy and blissful ease of mind Suffuse my body, seven days I sat, Ere stretching out cramped limbs I rose again. Was it not rent indeed, that muffling mist?1 (174) 1 This question sign is a translator's liberty. The Pali reiterates only the final stage of relief and attainment. She, too, having made her resolve under former Buddhas, and heaping up good of age-enduring efficacy in this and that rebirth, so that in her the root of good (karma) was well planted, and the requisites for emancipation were well stored up, was, in this Buddha-era, reborn at Savatthi, in a certain clansman’s family, and called Uttara. Come to years of discretion, she heard Patacara preach the Norm, became thereby a believer, entered the Order, and became an Arahant. And, reflecting on her attainment, she exulted thus : 4 Men in their prime, with pestle and with quern Are busied pounding rice and grinding corn. Men in their prime gather and heap up wealth, To have and nourish wife and children dear.1 (175) \ ours is the task to spend yourselves upon The Buddha’s will which bringeth no remorse. Swiftly bathe ye your feet, then sit ye down (176) Apart. Planting your minds in Steadfastness,

W ith concentrated effort well composed, Ponder how what ye do, and say, and think, Proceeds not from a Self, is not your Self.’2 (177) 1 See Ps. xlvii., xlviii. 2 Lit., consider the sankharas as other, not as self. The will of her who spake — Patacara — I heard and marked and forthwith carried out. Bathing my feet, I sat me down apart. (178) While passed the first watch of the night there rose Long memories of the bygone line of lives. While passed the second watch, the Heavenly Eye, Purview celestial, I clarified. (179) While passed the third watch of the night, I burst And rent aside the gloom of ignorance. Now rich in Threefold Wisdom I arose : 6 O Lady ! verily thy will is done. (180) And like to Sakka o’er the thrice ten gods, Chieftain unconquered in celestial wars, I place thee as my chief, and so shall live. The Threefold Wisdom have I gotten now. From deadly drugs my soul is purified.’ (181) Now this Sister, one day, when under Patacara she had established herself in an exercise, went into her own dwell¬ ing, and seating herself cross-legged, thought : ‘ I will not break up this sitting until I have emancipated my heart from all dependence on the Asavas.’ Thus resolving, she incited her intellectual grasp, and gradually clarifying insight as she progressed along the Paths, she attained Arahantship, together with the power of intuition and thorough grasp of the Norm. Thus contemplating nine¬ teen subjects1 in succession, with the consciousness that * Now have I done what herein I had to do,’ she uttered in her happiness the verses given above, and stretched her limbs. And when the dawn arose, and night brightened into day, she sought the Then’s presence, and repeated her verses.

2 Why ‘ nineteen ’ I am unable to explain. They may be bodliipaTclchiyd dliammd — e.g ., the § atipatthdnas , the bojjliangas, and the Path = nineteen factors. She, too, having made her resolve under former Buddhas, and heaping up good of age-enduring efficacy in subsequent rebirths, was, in this Buddha-era, reborn in Magadha, at the village of Nalaka,1 the child of Surupasarl, the Brahminee. And on her name-giving day they called her Gala.2 Her younger sister was Upacala, and the youngest Slsupacala, and all three "were junior to their brother Sariputta, Captain of the Norm. Now, when the three heard that their brother had left the world for the Order, they said : ‘This can be no ordinary system, nor ordinary renunciation, if one like our brother have followed it !’ And full of desire and longing, they too renounced the world, putting aside their weeping kinsfolk and attendants. Thereupon, with striving and endeavour, they attained Arahantship, and abode in the bliss of Nibbana. Now, Cala BhikkhunI, after her round and her meal, entered one day the Dark Grove to take siesta. Then Mara came to stir up sensual desires in her. Is it not told in the Sutta ?

Again, Cala BhikkhunI, after her round in Savatthi and her meal, entered one day the Pleasant Grove for siesta. And, going on down into the Dark Grove, she sat down under a tree. Then Mara came, and, wishing to upset the consistency of her religious life, asked her the questions in her Psalm. When she had expounded to him the virtues of the Master, and the guiding power of the Norm, she 1 Called also Nala-village. Sariputta seems to have continued at times, to reside there {Sayy. N„ iv. 251), and it was there that he died (ibid., v. 161). 2 These three Sisters are all included in the Bhikkhunl-Sapyutta as having been tempted by Mara ; but there Cala’s reply is put into Sisu- pacala’s mouth, Upacala’s is given to Cala, and Slsupacala’s is given to Upacala. See Appendix. showed him how, by her own attained proficiency, he was exceeding his tether. Thereat Mara, dejected and melan¬ choly, vanished. But she discoursed in exultation on what both of them had said, as follows : Lo here ! a Sister who the fivefold sense1 Of higher life hath trained and, self-possessed, Herself well held in hand, hath made her way Where lies the Holy Path, where dwells the Bliss Of mastery over action, speech and thought. (182)

Why now and whereto art thou seen thus garbed And shaven like a nun, yet dost not join Ascetics of some sect, and share their rites ? What, futile and infatuate, is thy quest ? (183) Tis they that are without, caught in the net2 Of the vain shibboleths on which they lean _ Bis they that have no knowledge of the Truth, Tis they that lack all competence therein. (184) Lo ! in the princely Sakiya clan is born A Buddha, peerless mong the sons of men : Tis he hath shown the saving Truth to me Which vain opinions doth overpass. (185) Even the What and Why of III, and how Ill comes, and how Ill may be overpassed, 1 The five indriyas, replacing, in the higher life, the importance, in worldly things, of the five senses — viz., faith, energy, mindfulness, concentration, and insight. 2 ‘ Sectaries ’ are termed pasandd. The Commentary connects the word with pdso, snare, net, but by a false etymology* The origin of the term is obscure. ‘ Without ’ (ito bahiddhd)—i.e., not of us. ° E’en by the Ariyan, the Eightfold Path, That leadeth to th’ abating of all Ill. (186)

And I who heard his blessed words abide Fain only and alway to do his will. The Threefold Wisdom have I gotten now,1 And done the bidding of the Buddha blest. (187) On every hand the love of sense is slain.2 And the thick gloom of ignorance is rent In twain. Know this, thou Evil One, avaunt ! Here, O Destroyer ! shalt thou not prevail. (188) Her story has been told in the foregoing number. Like Cala, she, too, as Arahant, exulted, after Mara had tempted her in vain, as follows : Lo ! here a Sister who the fivefold sense Of higher life hath trained, with memory And power of inward vision perfected, And thus hath made her way into the Path Of Holiness, by noble spirits trod. (189) Why lovest thou not birth3 ? since, being born, Thou canst enjoy what life of sense doth bring. Enjoy the sport of sense and take thy fill, Lest thou too late with bitter pangs regret.4 (190) 1 Cf. Ps. xxiv. 2 Cf. Pss. xxxv., xxxvi. 3 Cf. Appendix, where this is spoken to Cala. 4 =Ps.xxxv. To one that’s bom death cometh soon or late, And many perils at the hands of men :

Scathe, torture, loss of limb,1 of liberty. Nay, life. So Ill-ward bound is the born child. (191) Lo ! in the princely Sakiya clan is born He who is Wholly W ake, Invincible. ’Tis he hath shown the saving Truth to me By which the round of birth is overpassed, (192) Even the What and Why of III, and how 111 comes, and how Ill may be overpassed, E’en by the Ariyan, the Eightfold Path, That leadeth to th’ abating of all Ill. (193) And I who heard his blessed words, abide Fain only and alway to do his will. The Threefold Wisdom have I gotten now, And done the bidding of the Buddha blest. (194) On every hand the love of sense is slain. And the thick gloom of ignorance is rent In twain. Know this, thou Evil One, avaunt ! Here, O Destroyer ! may’st thou not prevail. (195) 1 Lit., 1 cutting (loss) of hand or foot,’ referring generally, says the Commentary, to the thirty-two constituents of the body (read kdydkdrci for kammakard). Her story has been told in that of Cala her sister — how she followed in her great brother’s steps, entered the Order, and became an Arahant. Dwelling in the bliss of fruition, she reflected one day on her attainment, and having done all that was to be done, exulted in her happiness thus :

Lo ! here a Sister, in the Precepts sure, Well-guarded in the sixfold way of sense,1 Who hath attained to that Holy Path, That ever- welling elixir of life.2 (196) Now think upon the Three-and-Thirty Gods, And on the gods who rule in realm of Shades, On those who reign in heaven of Bliss, and on Those higher deities who live where life Yet flows by way of sense and of desire :3 1 Here indriya, as something to be restrained, not trained — i.e., developed — refers to the senses of external perception (plus sensememory). See Ps. lix., 182 n. 2 Cf. Ps. xxxiv. 55. The ‘ higher deities ’ are the two last in these five Deva worlds which, by the Buddhists, were included with hell, the Peta’s or ghosts, animals, men, Asuras, and firmamental spirits, in the ‘ Kamaloka of Think and thither aspire with longing heart, Where in past ages thou hast lived before. (197) When the Therl heard, she said : 4 Stop, Mara ! the Kamaloka of which you talk is, even as is the whole of the world, burning and blazing with the fires of lust, hate, and ignorance. ’Tis not there the discerning mind can find any charm.’ And showing Mara how her mind was turned away from the world and from desires of sense, she upbraided him thus :

Ay, think upon* 1 the Three-and- Thirty gods. And on the gods who rule in realm of Shades ; On those who reign in heaven of Bliss, and on Those higher deities who live where life Yet flows by way of sense and of desire. (198) Consider how time after time they go From birth to death, and death to birth again, Becoming this and then becoming that, Ever beset by the recurring doom Of hapless individuality, Whence comes no merciful enfranchisement. (199) On fire is all the world, is all in flames ! Ablaze is all the world, the heav’ns do quake !2 (200) But that which quaketh not, that ever sure, That priceless thing, unheeded by the world, Even the Norm — that hath the Buddha taught To me, therein my mind delighted dwells. (201) And I who heard his blessed word abide sense-desire,’ inferior in space to the Heavens of ‘ Form ’ and the ‘ Form¬ less.’ They were the Nimmanarati and Paranimmita-vasavatti gods. In Ps- lxxiii. (Commentary) I attempt a translation of the last two titles of gods, but they are more translatable in prose than in verse. 1 ‘ Think upon ’ is the translator’s interpolation.

2 Quoted from the Samyutta-Nikdya, i. 31, 133. Fain only and alway to do his will. The Threefold Wisdom have I gotten now, And done the bidding of the Buddha blest. (202) On every hand the love of sense is slain And the thick gloom of ignorance is rent In twain. Know this, O Evil One, avaunt ! Here, O Destroyer, shalt thou not prevail ! (203) She, too, having made her resolve under former Buddhas, and heaping up good of age-enduring efficacy in this and that rebirth, till the preparation for achieving emancipa¬ tion was gradually become perfect, was, in this Buddha-era, reborn at the town of Bharukaccha,1 in a clansman’s family. When married, she bore one son, and he was given the name Vaddha. From that time she was known as Vaddha’s mother. Hearing a Bhikkhu preach, she became a believer, and, handing her child over to her kin, she went to the Bhikkhunis, and entered the Order. The rest, not told here, may be filled in from Brother Vaddha’’ story told in the Psalms of the Elder Brethren (Ps. ccii.). Vaddha, to see his mother, went alone into and through the Bhikkhunis’ quarters ; and she, saying, ‘ Why have you come in here alone ?’ admonished him as follows :

O nevermore, my Vaddha, do thou stray Into the jungle of this world’s desires. Child of my heart ! come thou not back and forth To share, reborn, in all the ills of life. (204) True happiness, O Vaddha mine, is theirs Who, wise and freed from longing and from doubt, 1 A seaport on the north-west seaboard, the Bharoch of to-day. See Jdtaka, iii. 188. Cool and serene, have tamed the craving will, And dwell immune from all the deadly drugs. (205) The Way that Sages such as these have trod — Leading to that pure vision how they may Make a sure end of Ill — do thou, dear lad, Study and cause to grow1 to thine own weal. (200) And Vaddha, thinking, 4 My mother is surely established in Arahantship,’ expressed himself thus : Now in good hope and faith thou speakest thus, O little mother ! well I trow, for thee. Dear mother mine, no jungle bars the way. (207) Then the Therl replied, showing her work was done : Ah, no ! my V addha, whatsoe’er I do, Or say, or think, in things or great or small, Not e’en the smallest growth of jungly vice2 Yet standeth in the onward way for me. (208)

For all the deadly poison-plants are killed In me who meditate with strenuous zeal. The Threefold Wisdom have I gotten now, And all the Buddha s word have I fulfilled. (209) The Brother, using her exhortation as a goad, and stimulated thereby, went to his Vihara, and, seated in his wonted resting-place, so made insight to grow that he attained Arahantship. And reflecting in happiness on his attainment, he went to his mother, and declared his Anna : O splendid was the spur my mother used, And no less merciful the chastisement 1 Anubruliaya — vaddheyydsi (Commentary). The name Vaddha means grow, increase, develop ; often applied to religions culture. 2 Vanatho. Jungle and vice are equally implied in this word. ‘ Poison-plants ’ = simply Asavd. She gave to me, even the rune she spoke, Fraught with its burden of sublimest good.1 (210) I heard her words, I marked her counsel wise, And thrilled with righteous awe as she called up The vision of salvation to be won. (211) And night and day I strove unweariedly Until her admonitions bore their fruit, And I could touch Nibbana s utter peace. (212) 1 Vaddha’s gdtlnd commences with a MoJca to the same effect, using the same metaphor. Theragdthd, ver. 385-9.

Now she was born, when Padumuttara was Buddha, in the city of Haijsavati, in a clansman’s family. And one day she heard the Master preach the Dhamma, and assign fore¬ most rank to a BhikkhunI with respect to the wearing of rough garments. She vowed that this rank should one day be hers. In this Buddha-era she was reborn at SavatthI, in a poor family. Gotami was her name, and from the leanness of her body she was called Lean Gotami. And she was disdainfully treated when married, and was called a nobody’s daughter. But when she bore a son, they paid her honour. Then, when he was old enough to run about and play, he died, and she was distraught with grief. And, mindful of the change in folk’s treatment of her since his birth, she thought : ‘ They will even try to take my child and expose him.’ So, taking the corpse upon her hip, she went, crazy with sorrow, from door to door, saying: ‘Give me medicine for my child!’ And people said with contempt : * Medicine ! What’s the use ?’ She understood them not. But one sagacious person thought : ‘ Her mind is upset with grief for her child. He of the Tenfold Power will know of some medicine for her.’ And he said : ‘ Dear woman, go to the Very Buddha, and ask him for medicine to give your child.’ She went to the Vihara at the time when the Master taught the Doctrine, and said :

‘ Exalted One, give me medicine for my child !’ The Master, seeing the promise in her, said : ‘ Go, enter the town, and at any house where yet no man hath died, thence bring a little mustard-seed.’ * ’Tis well, lord!’ she said, with mind relieved ; and, going to the first house in the town, said : ‘ Let me take a little mustard, that I may give medicine to my child. If in this house no man hath yet died, give me a little mustard.’ ‘ Who may say how many have not died here?’ ‘With such mustard, then, I have nought to do.’ So she went on to a second and a third house, until, by the might of the Buddha, her frenzy left her, her natural mind was restored, and she thought : ‘ Even this will be the order of things in the whole town. The Exalted One foresaw this out of his pity for my good.’ And, thrilled at the thought, she left the town and laid her child in the charnel-field, saying : ‘ No village law1 is this, no city law, No law for this clan, or for that alone ;

For the whole world— ay, and the gods in heav’n — This is the Law : All is impermanent !’ So saying, she went to the Master. And he said : ‘ GotamI, hast thou gotten the little mustard ?’ And she said: ‘Wrought is the work, lord, of the little mustard. Give thou me confirmation.’ Then the Master spoke thus : ‘ To him whose heart on children and on goods2 Is centred, cleaving to them in his thoughts, Death cometh like a great flood in the night, Bearing away the village in its sleep.’3 When he had spoken, she was confirmed in the fruition of the First (the Stream - entry) Path, and asked for ordination. He consented, and she, thrice saluting by the 2 ‘ Goods’— lit., cattle or herds — is pertinent, since she had counted on her child for her improved status, which the absence of ‘goods’ in her own family had made of no account. 3 Dhamma]) ada , ver. 47, &87. right,1 went to the Bhikkhunls, and was ordained. And not long afterwards, studying the causes of things, she caused her insight to grow. Then the Master said a Glory- verse :2 ‘ The man who, living for an hundred years,

Beholdeth never the Ambrosial Path, Had better live no longer than one day, So he behold within that day the Path.’3 When he had finished, she attained Arahantship. And becoming pre-eminent in ascetic habits, she was wont to wear raiment of triple roughness. Then the Master, seated in the Jeta Grove in conclave, and assigning rank of merit to the Bhikkhunls, proclaimed her first among the wearers of rough raiment. And she, reflecting on what great things she had won, uttered this Psalm before the Master, in praise of friendship with the elect : Friendship with noble souls throughout the world The Sage hath praised.4 A fool, in sooth, grows wise If he but entertain a noble friend. (213) Cleave to the men of worth ! In them who cleave Wisdom doth grow ; and in that pious love From all your sorrows shall ye be released. (214) Mark Sorrow well ; mark ye how it doth come, And how it passes ; mark the Eightfold Path lhat endeth woe, the Four great Ariyan Truths. (215) Woeful is woman’s lot ! hath he declared, Tamer and Driver of the hearts of men : Woeful when sharing home with hostile wives, Woeful when giving birth in bitter pain,

1 Cf. Ps. lxviii., ver. 307. 2 Cfm Ps> ii# and 3 Cf. Ps. xlvii. 4 Sanyutta-Nikdya, i. 87, v. 2, etc. Some seeking death, or e’er they suffer twice, (216) Piercing the throat ; the delicate poison take. Woe too when mother-murdering embryo Comes not to birth, and both alike find death. (217) ‘ Returning1 home to give birth to my child, I saw my husband in the jungle die. Nor could I reach my kin ere travail came. (218) My baby boys 1 lost, my husband too. And when in misery I reached my home, Lo ! where together on a scanty pyre, My mother, father, and my brother burn !’ (219) O wretched, ruined woman ! all this weight Of sorrows hast thou suffered, shed these tears Through weary round of many thousand lives. (220) I too have seen where, in the charnel-field, Devoured was my baby’s tender flesh.2 Yet she, her people slain, herself outcast, Her husband dead, hath thither come Where death is not ! (221) Lo ! I have gone Up on the Ariyan, on the Eightfold Path 1 She here incorporates the story of Patacara (Ps. xlvii.) in her own Psalm, as if more fully to utter, as ‘Woman,’ the pageant and tragedy of the woeful possibilities inherent in ‘ woman’s lot,’ whereof her own case was but a phase. Criticism may discern herein another ‘ fault ’ — geologically speaking — in the historical concordance between verses and commentary. Yet here, anyway, is a feature that no poem of purely literary construction would ever have borne. And in aesthetic intensity the poem gains wondrously through this groundwave of deeper tragedy underlying Kisa-gotamfs own sorrow, and through the blended victory in the fine paean at the end.

2 The Commentary names dogs, jackals, tigers, panthers, cats, etc., as the scavengers of corpses thus exposed. That goeth to the state ambrosial.1 Nibbana have I realized, and gazed Into the Mirror of the holy Norm. (222) I, even I, am healed of my hurt, Low is my burden laid, my task is done, My heart is wholly set at liberty. I, sister Kisa-gotamI, have uttered this ! (223) 1 This line in Pali is simply amat.agdmi, going to the ambrosial, or the not-dead. ‘ State ’ is a concession to metrical and grammatical exigencies. ‘ Gone up on ; lit., practised myself in. Note how verses 216-223 carry out the fourfold ‘ mark ’ of verse 215. The metre in the Pali throughout is not the sloka , and is too irregular to be easily classifiable. Gf. that in lines 2-6 above— Nibbanay sacchlkatav Dhammddasay avekkhitay . Ahay amid k cm t as alia ohitabhdvd katay me kav anly a y with the sloka- metre, beginning of next Psalm : TJblio maid ca dhita ca ^ « • U U o U She, too, was born, when Padumuttara was Buddha, at the city Haijsavatl, in a clansman’s family. And, when grown up, she heard, with a great multitude, the Master teach, and assign a certain BhikkhunI the chief place among those who had mystic potency.1 And she gave great gifts for seven days to the Buddha and the Order, and aspired to that same rank. . . .

In this Buddha-age, she was reborn at SavatthI as the daughter of the Treasurer. And because her skin was of the colour of the heart2 of the blue lotus, they called her Uppalavanna.3 Now, when she was come of age, kings and commoners from the whole of India sent messengers to her father, saying: ‘Give us your daughter.’ There¬ upon the Treasurer thought : ‘ I cannot possibly meet the wishes of all. I will devise a plan.’ And, sending for his daughter, he said : ‘ Dear one, are you able to leave the world ?’ To her, because she was in her final stage of life, 2 Gabbha, or matrix. So also Ang. Nik. Commentary. But cf. Dr. Neumann’s note. And below, verse 257. 3 Lotus-hued. The lengthy legend, or chain of legends, associating the past lives of this famous Theri with the lotus-flower is fully trans¬ lated from the Anguttara Commentary in Mrs. Bode’s Women Leaders , etc., J.B.A.S., 1893, 540-551. It is only interesting as folk-lore, and not as illustrating any point 'in her Psalm, hence is here omitted. his words were as if oil a hundred times refined had anointed her head. Therefore she said : ‘ Dear father, I will renounce the world !’ He, honouring her, brought her to the Bhikkhunls’ quarters, and let her be ordained.

A little while afterwards it became her turn for office in the house of the Sabbath.1 And, lighting the lamp, she swept the room. Then taking the flame of the lamp as a visible sign, and contemplating it continually, she brought about Jhana by way of the Lambent Artifice,2 and making that her stepping-stone, she attained Arahantship. With its fruition, intuition and grasp of the Norm were achieved, and she became especially versed in the mystic potency of transformation.3 And the Master, seated in conclave in the Jeta Grove, assigned her the foremost rank in the mystic powers. She, pondering the bliss of Jhana and of fruition, repeated one day certain verses. They had been uttered in anguish by a mother who had been living as her daughter’s rival with him who later, when a Bhikkhu, became known as the Ganges-bank Elder,4 and were a reflection on the harm, the vileness and corruption of sensual desires : 4 In enmity we lived, bound to one man, Mother and daughter, both as rival wives ! O what a woeful plight, I found, was ours, Unnatural offence! My hair stood up. (224) Horror fell on me. Fie upon this life Of sensual desire, impure and foul,

A jungle thick with thorny brake, wherein We hapless pair, my girl and I, had strayed !’ (22 5) 1 TJposathdgare kdlavdro jadpuni , a phrase I have not yet met with elsewhere. 2 See Buddhist Psy., 43, n. 4 ; 57, n. 2 ; 58. 3 I he standard description of the modes of Iddhi are given in English in Rhys Davids’ Dialogues of the Buddha , i. 277. 4 See Theragdtha , verses 127, 128. See note below, p. 114. The evils in the life of sense, the strong Sure refuge in renouncing all, she saw. At Rajagaha went she forth1 and left ihe home to live the life where no home is. (226) Joyful and happy, she meditates on the distinction she has won : How erst 1 lived I know ; the Heavenly Eye, Purview celestial, have I clarified ; Clear too the inward life that others lead ; Clear too I hear the sounds ineffable ; (227) Powers supernormal have I made mine own ; And won immunity from deadly Drugs. These, the six higher knowledges are mine. Accomplished is the bidding of the Lord. (228) She works a marvel before the Buddha with his consent, and records the same :

With chariot and horses four I came, Made visible by supernormal power, And worshipped, wonder working, at his feet, ihe wondrous Buddha, Sovran of the world. (229) She is disturbed by Mara in the Sal-tree Grove, and rebukes him : I have read pabbaji, not pabbajiy , following the majority of the MSS. consulted by Pischel, as well as the Commentary. It is less forced to read, in sd , ‘ she,’ and not ‘ I,’ where no other pronoun follows (sa hay). Verse (226) thus becomes the comment of Uppalavanna on the mother’s distressful utterance. PSALMS or THE SISTERS Thou1 that art come where fragrant the trees stand crowned writh blossoms, Standest alone [in the shade, maiden so [fair and] foolhardy, None to companion thee — fearest thou not the wiles of seducers ? (230) W ere there an hundred thousand seducers e’en such as thou art, Ne’er would a hair of me stiffen or tremble — alone what canst thou do ? (231) Here though I stand, I can vanish and enter into thy body.2 See ! I stand ’twixt thine eyebrows, stand where thou canst not see me. (232) For all my mind is wholly self-controlled, And the four Paths to Potency are throughly learnt,

Yea, the six Higher Knowledges are mine. Accomplished is the bidding of the Lord. (233) Like3 spears and jav’lins are the joys of sense, 1 The Pali metre changes here from the usual sloka to a mixed jagatl and trishstubh metre, but changes back again after verse 231. Cf. the other version of this Psalm in the Appendix. E.g. ; u o , kj kj — . kj __ kj Supupphitaggarj upagamma padaparj |[ {jagatl). \j o w o yj \j eka tuvar) titthasi rukkhamule || {trishtubh) . 2 Mara was himself an adept at this kind of magic (see Majjh. Nik., i. 382). I follow the Commentary and Dr. Windisch {Mara und Buddha, 139 ff.) in making the Sister speak the verse, her special gift being ‘mystic potency/ or Iddhi. 3 Cf. Ps. xxxv. That pierce and rend the mortal frames of us. These that thou speak’st of as the joys of life — Joys of that ilk to me are nothing worth. (234) On every hand the love of pleasure yields, And the thick gloom of ignorance is rent In twain. Know this, O Evil One, avaunt ! Here, O Destroyer ! shalt thou not prevail. (235)

Note. — Four gdthd's ascribed to this famous Sister are, in the Therlgdthd , recorded without break. The Commentary breaks them up into four episodes. In the first, a merchant’s wife at SavatthI, about to bear her first child in her husband’s prolonged absence on business at Rajagaha, is turned out by his mother, who disbelieves the wife’s fidelity. She seeking her husband, and delivered of a son at a wayside bungalow, another merchant carries off the babe in her absence, and adopts it. A robber-chief finds the distracted mother, and she bears him a daughter. This child she accidentally injures, and flees from the chiefs wrath. Years after her son, yet a youth, weds both mother and daughter, ignorant of the kinship. The mother discovers the scar on her daughter’s head, and identifies her rival as her own child. Punna op Punnika.1 • • • • She, too, having made her resolve under former Buddhas, and heaping up good of age-enduring efficacy in this and that rebirth, was, when Vipassi was Buddha, reborn in a clansman’s family. Come to years of discretion, because of the promise that was in her, she waxed anxious at the prospect of rebirth, and, going to the Bhikkhunis, heard the Norm, believed, and entered the Order. Perfect in virtue, and learning the Three Pitakas, she became very learned in the Norm, and a teacher of it. The same destiny befell her under the five succeeding Buddhas — Sikhi, Vessabhu, Kakusandha, Konagamana, and Kassapa. But because of her tendency to pride, she was unable to root out the defilements.2 So it came to pass, through the karma of her pride, that, in this Buddha-era, she wras

1 The Commentary gives her the latter name, of which the former is the diminutive. Possibly Punnika may have been used to distinguish her from the Therl Punna of Ps. iii. It is curious that in the SubhaSutta of the Majjhima Nikdya , where young brahmins come to the Jeta Grove, Anathapindika’s gift, to interview the Buddha, a slave-girl Punnika is alluded to in the conversation. Subha says : ‘ They [certain brahmin teachers] are not able to read the thoughts of slave-girl Punnika. How should they be able to know the minds of all recluses?’ If this is our Punnika, she would not yet be a Therl, or she would be referred to as such. 2 Kilesd. For the ten, see Buddh. Psy pp. 327 ff. reborn at SavatthI, in the household of Anathapindika, the Treasurer, of a domestic slave. She became a Streamentrant after hearing the discourse of the Lion’s Boar.1 Afterwards, when she had converted (lit. tamed) the baptist2 brahmin, and so won her master’s esteem that he made her a freed woman, she obtained his consent, as her guardian and head of her home, to enter the Order. And, practising insight, she in no long time won Arahantship, together with thorough grasp of the Norm in form and in meaning. Keflecting on her attainment, she uttered these verses in exultation :

Drawer of water, I down to the stream,3 Even in winter, went in fear of blows, Harassed by fear of blame from mistresses. (236) 4 What, brahmin, fearest thou that ever thus Thou goest down into the river ? Why With shiv ring limbs dost suffer bitter cold V (237) ‘ Well know’st thou, damsel Punnika, why ask One who by righteous karma thus annuls Effect of evil karma ? Who in youth, (238) Or age ill deeds hath wrought, by baptism Of water from that karma is released.’ (239) 4 Nay now, who, ignorant to the ignorant, Hath told thee this : that water-baptism From evil karma can avail to free ? (240) Why then the fishes4 and the tortoises, 1 Majjhima NiJcdya, i., Sutta xi. or xii. 2 TJdakasuddliika. Believer in purification through water (as a mystic rite), and not through sacrifice by fire. 3 The Ac(h)iravatl (now Rapti), a tributary (with the Gogra) of the Ganges, flowing past SavatthI. 4 Not specified in the text. The frogs, the watersnakes, the crocodiles And all that haunt the water straight to heaven (241) Will go. Yea, all who evil karma work — Butchers of sheep and swine, hunters of game, Thieves, murderers — so they but splash themselves With water, are from evil karma free ! (242)

And if these streams could bear away what erst Of evil thou hast wrought, they’d bear away Thy merit too, leaving thee stripped and bare. (243) That, dreading which, thou, brahmin, comest e’er To bathe and shiver here, that, even that Leave thou undone, and save thy skin from frost.’ (244) ‘ Men who in error’s ways had gone aside Thou leadest now into the Ariyan Path. Damsel, my bathing raiment give I thee.’ (245) 6 Keep thou thy raiment ! Raiment seek I none. If ill thou fearest, if thou like it not, (246) Do thou no open, nor no hidden wrong. But if thou shalt do evil, or hast done, (247) Then is there no escape for thee from ill, E’en tho’ thou see it come, and flee away. If thou fear ill, if ill delight thee not, (248) Go thou and seek the Buddha and the Norm And Order for thy refuge ; learn of them To keep the Precepts. Thus shalt thou find good.’ (249) 4 Lo ! to the Buddha I for refuge go, And to the Norm and Order. I will learn Of them to take upon myself and keep The Precepts ; so shall I indeed find good. (250)

Once but a son of brahmins born was 1, To-day I stand brahmin in very deed. The nobler Threefold Wisdom have I won, W on the true V eda-lore, and graduate Am I, from better Sacrament returned, Cleansed by the inward spiritual bath.’1 (251) For the brahmin, established in the Refuges and the Precepts, when later he had heard the Master preach the Norm, became a believer and entered the Order. Using every effort, he not long after became Thrice-Wise,2 and, reflecting on his state, exulted in those verses. And the Sister, repeating them of herself, they all became her Psalm. 1 These four last lines are expansions of four brahminical technical terms, each connoting more than we could express with equal terseness : Tevijjo veclasamj) anno sotthiyo c'amhi nhdtako. The brahmin student performed, like a new knight, a bath-rite before returning home from* his teacher’s house. 2 See Ps. xxii. 26 n. She, too, having made her resolve under former Buddhas, and heaping up good of age-enduring efficacy in this or that rebirth, entered the Order when Sikhi was Buddha. And one day, while yet a novice, she was walking in procession with Bhikkhunls, doing homage at a shrine, when an Arahant Then in front of her hastily spat in the court of the shrine. Coming after her, but not having noticed the Then’s action, she said in reproof : i What prostitute has been spitting in this place ?’

As a Bhikkhum, observing the Precepts, she felt repug¬ nance for rebirth by parentage, and set her mind intently on spontaneous re-generation. So in her last birth she came into being spontaneously at VesalT, in the King’s gardens, at the foot of a mango-tree. The gardener found her, and brought her to the city. She was known as the Mangoguardian’s girl. And such was her beauty, grace, and charm that many young Princes strove with each other to possess her, till, in order to end their strife, and because the power of karma impelled them, they agreed to appoint her courtezan. Later on, out of faith in the Master, she built a Vihara1 in her own gardens, and handed it over to him and the Order. And when she had heard her own son, the Elder Vimala-Kondanna, preach the Norm, she worked 1 See Rhys Davids, Buddhist Suttas (S.B.E., xi.), pp. 30-33. for insight, and studying the law of impermanence as illus¬ trated in her own ageing body, she uttered the following verses : Glossy and black as the down of the bee my curls once clustered. They with the waste of the years are liker to hempen or bark cloth.

Such and not otherwise runneth the rune, the word of the Soothsayer.1 (252) Fragrant as casket of perfumes, as full of sweet blossoms the hair of me. All with the waste of the years now rank as the odour of hare’s fur. Such and not otherwise runneth the rune, the word of the Soothsayer. (253) Dense as a grove well planted, and comely with comb, pin, and parting. All with the waste of the years dishevelled the fair plaits and fallen. Such and not otherwise runneth the rune, the word of the Soothsayer. (254) Glittered the swarthy plaits in head-dresses jewelled and golden. All with the waste of the years broken, and shorn are the tresses. Such and not otherwise runneth the rune, the word of the Soothsayer. (255) Wrought as by sculptor’s craft the brows of me shone, finely pencilled. 1 Used in its first intention, Truth- speaker. On this, and on the metre, see Introduction. The 1 rune ’ is the Impermanence of every¬ thing. Cf. Ps. lxiii. They with the waste of the years are seamed with wrinkles, o’erhanging. Such and not otherwise runneth the rune, the word of the Soothsayer. (256) Flashing and brilliant as jewels, dark-blue and longlidded the eyes of me.

They with the waste of the years spoilt utterly, radiant no longer. Such and not otherwise runneth the rune, the word of the Soothsayer. (257) Dainty and smooth the curve of the nostrils e’en as in children. Now with the waste of the years seared1 the nose is and shrivelled. Such and not otherwise runneth the rune, the word of the Soothsayer. (258) Lovely the lines of my ears as the delicate work of the goldsmith.2 They with the waste of the years are seamed with wrinkles and pendent. Such and not otherwise runneth the rune, the word of the Soothsayer. (259) Gleamed as 1 smiled my teeth like the opening buds of the plantain. They with the waste of the years are broken and yellow as barley. So and not otherwise runneth the rune, the word of the Soothsayer. (260) 1 Upakiilita, not yet found elsewhere, may be from the root hul, 2 It is interesting that the Commentary speaks of the goldsmith’s work of past ages, as if conscious of living (himself) in a decadent period of such arts. Sweet was my voice as the bell of the cuckoo1 through woodlands flitting. Now with the waste of the years broken the music and halting.

So and not otherwise runneth the rune, the word of the Soothsayer. (261) Softly glistened of yore as mother-of-pearl the throat of me. Now with the waste of the years all wilted its beauty and twisted. So and not otherwise runneth the rune, the word of the Soothsayer. (262) Beauteous the arms of me once shone like twin pillars cylindrical. They with the waste of the years hang feeble as withering branches.2 So and not otherwise runneth the rune, the word of the Soothsayer. (263) Beauteous of yore were my soft hands with rings and gewgaws resplendent. They with the waste of the years like roots are knotted and scabrous.3 So and not otherwise runneth the rune, the word of the Soothsayer. (264) Full and lovely in contour rose of yore the small breasts of me. 1 KoTrild, rendered by lexicons ‘Indian cuckoo.’ The name seems to point to somewhat similar bird-notes. 2 Lit., as the weak trumpet-flower (plant), the Commentary adding jihalita, broken, or fruit-laden, and so heavily drooping. 3 Lit., more simply, ‘like one little root after another.’ They with the waste of the years droop shrunken as skins without water. So and not otherwise runneth the rune, the word of the Soothsayer. (265)

Shone of yore this body as shield of gold wellpolished. Now with the waste of the years all covered with network of wrinkles. So and not otherwise runneth the rune, the word of the Soothsayer. (266) Take to the coils of a snake1 the full beauty of yore of the thighs of me. They with the waste of the years are even as stems of the bamboo. So and not otherwise runneth the rune, the word of the Soothsayer. (267) Beauteous to see were my ankles of yore, bedecked with gold bangles. They with the waste of the years are shrunken as faggots of sesamum. So and not otherwise runneth the rune, the word of the Soothsayer. (268) Soft and lovely of yore as though filled out with down were the feet of me. l hey with the waste of the years are cracked open and wizened with wrinkles. So and not otherwise runneth the rune, the word of the Soothsayer. (269) 1 I here follow Dr. Neumann, and not the Commentator. The latter calls nagabhoga an elephant’s trunk ; the Pitakas apply the term, it would seem, only as in the text. Cf. Majjhima NiJcdya, Such hath this body been. Now age-weary and weak and unsightly,

Home of manifold ills ; old house whence the mortar is dropping. So and not otherwise runneth the rune, the word of the Soothsayer. (270) And inasmuch as the Therl, by the visible signs of im¬ permanence in her own person, discerned impermanence in all phenomena of the three planes, and bearing that in mind, brought into relief the signs of Ill and of No-soul, she, making clear her insight in her Path-progress, attained Arahantship. She, too, having made her resolve under former Buddhas, and heaping up good of age-enduring efficacy in this and that rebirth, was born, ninety-one seons ago, in the time of Yipassi Buddha, in a clansman’s family. One day she saw the Exalted One seeking alms in the city of Bandhumati, and filling his bowl with sweet cakes, she worshipped low at his feet in joy and gladness. And when, after many rebirths in heaven and on earth in consequence thereof, she had accumulated the conditions requisite for emancipa¬ tion, she was, in this Buddha-era, reborn at Yesall, in the house of a very prosperous brahmin, and named Rohinl.1 Gome to years of discretion, she went, while the Master was staying at Yesall, to the Yihara, and heard the doc¬ trine. She became a ‘ Stream-entrant,’ and teaching her parents the doctrine, and they accepting it, she gained their leave to enter the Order. Studying for insight, she not

1 I.e., Latinized, Flavian Childers instances a red cow so called, and a constellation. long after attained Arahantship, together with thorough grasp of the Norm in form and meaning. And reflecting on a discussion she had had with her father while she had yet only entered the Stream, she uttered the substance of it as verses of exultation : 4 44 See the recluses !” dost thou ever say. 44 See the recluses !” waking me from sleep. Praise of recluses ever on thy tongue. Say, damsel, hast a mind recluse to be ? (271) Thou givest these recluses as they come, Abundant food and drink. Come, Rohinl.1 I ask, why are recluses dear to thee? (272) Not fain to work are they, the lazy crew. They make their living off what others give. Cadging are they, and greedy of tit-bits — I ask, why are recluses dear to thee V (273) Full many a day, dear father, hast thou asked Touching recluses. Now will I proclaim Their virtues and their wisdom and their work. (27 4) Full fain of work are they, no sluggard crew. The noblest work they do ; they drive out lust And hate. Hence are recluses dear to me. (27 5)

The three fell roots of evil they eject, Making all pure within, leaving no smirch, No stain. Hence are recluses dear to me. (276) Their work1 in action’s pure, pure is their work In speech, and pure no less than these their work In thought. Hence are recluses dear to me. (277) 1 Note her emphasis on work or action ( kamma or Tcar?na) to meet her father’s — the typically worldly man’s — failure to discern the fact and value of any ‘ work ’ that had no worldly object. Immaculate as seashell or as pearl, Of lustrous characters compact, without, Within.1 Hence are recluses dear to me. (278) Learn’d and proficient in the Norm ; elect, And living by the Norm that they expound And teach. Hence are recluses dear to me. (279) Learn’d and proficient in the Norm ; elect, And living by the Doctrine ; self-possessed, Intent. Hence are recluses dear to me. (280) Far and remote they wander, self-possessed ; Wise in their words and meek, they know the end Of Ill. Hence are recluses dear to me. (281) And when along the village street they go, At naught they turn to look ; incurious

They walk. Hence are recluses dear to me. (282) They lay not up a treasure for the flesh, Nor storehouse-jar nor crate. The Perfected Their Quest. Hence are recluses dear to me. (283) They clutch no coin ; no gold their hand doth take, Nor silver. For their needs sufficient yields The day.2 Hence are recluses dear to me. (284) From many a clan and many a countryside They join the Order, mutually bound In love. Hence are recluses dear to me.’ (285) 1 Unspotted by greed, hate, or dulness ; full of the A-sekha’s qualities — virtue, contemplation, concentration, insight (Commentary). 2 This phrase is amplified in Sanyutta Nikaya , i. 5 : ‘ They mourn not over the past, nor hanker after the future. They maintain them¬ selves by the present.’ Cf. the same attitude prescribed in the Sermon on the Mount (Matt. vi. 25-34). 4 Now truly for our weal, O RohinI, Wert thou a daughter born into this house ! Thy trust is in the Buddha and the Norm And in the Order ; keen thy piety. (286) For well thou know’st this is the Field supreme Where merit may be wrought. We too henceforth Will minister ourselves to holy men.

For thereby shall accrue to our account A record of oblations bounteous.’ (287) 4 If Ill thou fearest, if thou like it not, Go thou and seek the Buddha and the Norm, And Order for thy refuge ; learn of them And keep the Precepts. So shalt thou find weal.’1 (288) 4 Lo ! to the Buddha, I for refuge go And to the Norm and Order. I will learn Of them to take upon myself and keep The Precepts. So shall I indeed find weal. (289) Once but a son of brahmins born was I. To-day I stand brahmin in very deed. The nobler Threefold Wisdom have I won, W on the true V^eda-lore, and graduate Am I from better Sacrament returned, Cleansed by the inward spiritual bath.’2 (290) For the brahmin, established in the Befuges and the Precepts, when later on he became alarmed, renounced the world, and, developing insight, was established in Arahantship. Beflecting on his attainment, he exulted in that last verse. 1 I.e she referred him to the true source of the * weal * he imputed to her. The rest is borrowed from Ps. lxv. 2 Cf. Psalm lxv. She, too, having made her resolve under former Buddhas, and heaping up good of age-enduring efficacy in this and that rebirth, till she had accumulated the sources of good, and matured the conditions for emancipation, was, in this Buddha-age, reborn in the Yankahara country, at

a certain village of trappers, as the daughter of the chief trapper, and named Capa.1 And at that time Upaka, an ascetic,2 met the Master as he was going to Benares, there to set rolling from his Bo-tree throne3 the Wheel of the Norm, and asked him : 4 You seem, my friend, in perfect health ! Clear and pure is your complexion. Wherefore have you, friend, left the world ? or who may your teacher be ? or whose doctrine do you believe in ?’ And he was thus answered :

‘ All have I overcome. All things I know, ’Mid all things undefiled. Renouncing all, In death of Craving wholly free. My own The Deeper View. Whom should I name to thee ? For me no teacher lives. I stand alone On earth, in heav’n rival to me there’s none. Now go I on seeking Benares town, To start the Wheel, the gospel of the Norm, To rouse and guide the nations blind and lost, Striking Salvation’s drum, Ambrosia’s alarm.’ 1 Pronounce Chapa. The name of her native district has, so far, not been met with elsewhere. 2 An Ajlvaka (-ika), described in Dialogues of the Buddha , i. 221. 3 /.<?., when he left the Bo-tree as Buddha and went to preach his first sermon at Isipatana by Benares. The meeting is told in Majjhima Nikdya , i. 170, 171, and Vinaya Texts , i. 90. The ascetic, discerning the omniscience and great mission of the Master, was comforted in mind, and replied : ‘Friend, may these things be ! Thou art worthy1 to be a conqueror, world without end !’ Then, taking a by-road, he came to the Vankahara country, and abode near the hamlet of the trappers, where the head trapper supplied his wants. One day the latter, setting off on a long hunt with sons and brothers, bade his daughter not neglect ‘ the Arahant ’ 2 in his absence. Now, she was of great beauty ;

and Upaka, seeking alms at her home, and captivated by her beauty, could not eat, but took his food home, and laid down fast¬ ing, vowing he would die should he not win Capa. After seven days the father returned, and, on inquiring for his ‘ Arahant,’ heard he had not come again after the first day. The trapper sought him, and Upaka, moaning, and rolling over, confessed his plight. The trapper asked if he knew any craft, and he answered, ‘No;’ but offered to fetch their game and sell it. The trapper consented, and, giving him a coat, brought him to his own home, and gave him his daughter. In due time she had a son, whom they called Subhadda.3 Capa, when the baby cried, sang to him : ‘ Upaka’s boy, ascetic’s boy, game-dealer's boy, don’t cry, don’t cry !’ mocking her husband. And he said at length : ‘ Do not thou, Capa, fancy I have none to protect me.4 I have a friend, even a conqueror eternal, and to him I will go.’ She saw that he was vexed, and teased him again and again in the same way, till one day, in anger, he got ready to go. She said much, but vainly, to prevent him, and he

1 In the Majjhima Nika y a there is another sloka before the last above, in which the Buddha says, ‘ I am worthy,’ etc., thus : ‘ I am the Arahant [ i.e ., worthy] of the world, I am The Guide supreme, the one Truly Awake. Cool and serene I in Nibbana dwell ( nibbuto ).’ 2 The ‘ holy man,’ as our tradition might say. He was no Arahant in the Buddhist sense. 4 His humility was due, apart from his natural disposition, to his having no status among a group of independent huntsmen. set out westward. And the Exalted One was then at SavatthI in the Jeta Grove, and announced this to the brethren: ‘He who to-day shall come asking, “Where is the Conqueror eternal?” send him to me.’ And Upaka ai rived, and, standing in the midst of the Vihara, asked : ‘ Where is the Conqueror eternal ?’ So they brought him, and when he saw the Exalted One, he said : ‘ Dost know me, Exalted One ?’ ‘ Tea, I know. But thou, where hast thou spent the time ?’ ‘ In the Vankahara country, lord. ‘ Upaka, thou art now an old man ; canst thou bear the religious life?’ ‘I will enter thereon, lord.’ The Master bade a certain Bhikkhu, * Come, do thou, Bhikkhu, ordain him.’ And he thereafter exercising and training himself, was soon established in the Fruition of the Path-of-No-Keturn, and thereupon died, being reborn in the Aviha heavens.1 At the moment of that rebirth he attained Arahantship.

Seven have thus attained it, as it has been said. But Capa, sick at heart over his departure, delivered her boy to his grandfather, and, following in the way Upaka had gone, renounced the world at SavatthI, and attained Arahantship. And uniting Upaka’s verses with her own, she thus exulted : ( Her husband speaks.) 4 Once staff in hand homeless I fared and free. Now but a trapper am I, sunken fast In baneful bog of earthly lusts, yet fain To come out on the yonder side. My wife (291) Plays with her child and mocks my former state, Deeming her charm yet holdeth me in thrall. But I will cut the knot and roam again.5 (292) 1 This ranked among the five * topmost ’ heavens of the ‘ world of form,’ or Brahma- world. See Buddh. Psy ., p. 334; Digha N., ii. 52. 4 O be not angry with me, hero mine ! O thou great prophet, be not wroth with me ! For how may he who giveth place to wrath Attain to holy life and purity ?’ (293) 4 Nay, I’ll go forth from Nfila.1 Who would live At Nala now, where he who fain to lead A life of righteousness sees holy men Beguiled by the beauty of a girl !’ (294)

4 O turn again, my dark-eyed lover, come And take thy fill of Capa’s love for thee, And I, thy slave, will meet thy every wish, And all my kinsfolk shall thy servants be.’ (295) 4 Nay, were a man desirous of thy love, He well might glory didst thou promise him A fourth of what thou temp’st me here withal !’ 4 O dark-eyed love, am I not fair to see, As the liana swaying in the woods, As the pomegranate-tree in fullest bloom Growing on hill- top, or the trumpet-flower Drooping o’er mouth of island cavern ? See, (297) With crimson sandal-wood perfumed, 111 wear Finest Benares robe for thee — O why, O how wilt thou go far away from me ?’ (298) 1 The Commentator explains this intrusion of Nala, a village ‘ in Magadha, near the Bo-tree’ (of Gaya) (see Ps. lix.), by saying it was Upaka’s native place, and that the pair had gone to live there. As he was the trappers’ middleman, and therefore in frequent communica¬ tion with them, this would locate the Vankahara country in the forests or jungles immediately to the south of Magadha, Gaya being in South Magadha. 4 Ay ! so the fowler seeketh to decoy

His bird. Parade thy charms e’en as thou wTilt, Ne: er shalt thou bind me to thee as of yore.’ (299) 4 And this child-blossom, O my husband, see Thy gift to me — now surely thou wilt not Forsake her who hath borne a child to thee ?’ (300) 4 Wise men forsake their children, wealth and kin, Great heroes ever go forth from the world, As elephants sever their bonds in twain.’ (301) 4 Then this thy child straightway with stick or axe I’ll batter on the ground — to save thyself From mourning for thy son thou wilt not go !’ 4 And if thou throw the child to jackals, wolves, Or dogs, child-maker without ruth, e’en so ’Twill not avail to turn me back again !’ (303) 4 Why, then, go if thou must, and fare thee well. But tell me to what village wilt thou go, What town or burg or city is thy goal ?’ (304) 4 In the past days we went in fellowship, Deeming our shallow practice genuine. Pilgrims we wandered — hamlet, city, town, And capital — we tramped to each in turn.’ (305) 4 But the Exalted Buddha now doth preach, Along the banks of the Neranjara,1

1 This river flows from the watershed south of the Ganges past Gaya, and the Buddha was coming from it when Upaka first met him. But the Buddha, in the Commentary, is said to have awaited Upaka at SavatthI to the north-west. Upaka sets out ‘ westward’ to find him. The geography here forms a pretty crux. Whatever may be decided by archaeologists in the near future as to the site of SavatthI, that site was north-westward of Gaya. The Norm whereby all may be saved from ill. To him I go ; he now my guide shall be.’ (306) 4 Yea, go, and take my homage unto him Who is the supreme Sovran of the World, And making salutation by the right,1 Do thou from us to him make offering.’ (307) 4 Now meet and right is this, e’en as thou say’st, That I in doing homage, speak for thee To him, the Supreme Sovran of the World. And making salutation by the right, I’ll render offering for thee and me.’ (308) So Kala went to the Neranjara, And saw the very Buddha on the bank, Teaching the AYay Ambrosial : of Ill, (309) And of how Ill doth rise, and how Ill may Be overpast, and of the way thereto,

Even the Ariyan, the Eightfold Path. (310) Low at his feet the husband homage paid, Saluted by the right and Capa’s vows Presented ; then the world again renounced For homeless life ; the Threefold AA^isdom won, And brought to pass the bidding of the Lord. (31 1 ) She too, having made her resolve under former Buddhas, and heaping up good of age-enduring efficacy in this and that lebirth, was reborn thirty-one aeons ago, when Ves- Keeping the right side toward the object of adoration in walking round him. ‘ But the Exalted Buddha noiv doth preach Along the banks of the Nerahjard.' sabhu was Buddha, in a clansman’s family. One day she ministered to the Master with alms, and worshipped him, and he perceived her believing heart, and thanked her. After celestial and other happy rebirths, her knowledge having come to maturity, she was, in this Buddha-age, reborn at Benares as the daughter of Sujata, a brahmin. Because of her perfect form they called her Sundari (Beauty). When she grew up, her younger brother died. Her father, overmastered by grief, and going to and fro, met the Then Vasitthi.1 When she asked him what afflicted him, he answered as in the first two verses. Wishing to allay his grief, she spoke the next two verses, and told him of her own griefless state. The brahmin asked her : ‘ How, lady, did you become free from grief (a-sokd) ?’ The Then told him of the Three Jewels, the Befuges. ‘ Where,’ he asked, ‘ is the Master ?’ ‘ He is

now at Mithila.’ So the brahmin drove in his carriage to Mithila and sought audience of the Master. To him the Master taught the Norm ; and he believed, and entered the Order, attaining Arahantship on the third day, after strenuous effort in establishing insight. But the charioteer drove his chariot back to Benares, and told the brahminee what had taken place. When Sundari heard of it, she asked her mother, saying : * Mother, I too would leave the world.’ The mother said : ‘ All the wealth in this house belongs to you. You are the heiress of this family. Take up your heritage and enjoy it. Go not forth.’ But Sundari said : ‘ Wealth is no use to me. Mother, I would leave the world and, bringing the mother to consent, she abandoned her great possessions like so much spittle, and entered the Order (at Benares). And studying and striving because of the pro¬ mise in her and the maturity of her knowledge, she attained Arahantship, with thorough grasp of the Norm in form and meaning. Dwelling thereafter in the ease of fruition and the bliss 1 See Ps. li. of Nibbana, she thought : ‘ I will utter a Lion’s Boar 1 before the Master.’ And asking permission of her teacher, she left Benares, accompanied by a great following of Bhikkhunis, and in due course came to Savatthi, did obeisance to the Master, and stood on one side. Welcomed by him, she declared her Anna by extolling her relation to him as the ‘ daughter of his mouth,’ and so on. There¬ upon all her kinsfolk, beginning with her mother, and their attendants, renounced the world. She, reflecting on her attainment, and using her father’s utterances in her own Psalm, exulted as follows :

Dame of the brahmins, thou too in the past — Thou knowest — ’twas thy little babes 2 Death robbed And preyed upon ; and thou all night, all day Madest thy bitter wail. Vasitthl, say ! (312) How comes it that to-day thou, who hast lost So many — was it seven ? — all thy sons, No more dost mourn and weep so bitterly ? (313) Nay, brahmin, many hundreds of our babes, And of our kinsfolk many hundred more, Have we in all the ages past and gone 1 An idiomatic phrase for a paean or congratulatory or proclamatory speech. Cf. the two discourses so named, Majjliima N., i., pp. 63 ff. 2 Vasitthl, it will be remembered, is in her legend represented as losing but one child. The Commentary, undaunted by this dis¬ crepancy, explains it by the grief-distracted state of the father. Her name is that of a brahmin gens — the Vasetthas — yet she is not called a brahmin in her own legend. On the other hand, her individual point of view regarding the Dhamma is very consistently reproduced. Dr. Neumann, ignoring the Commentary as elsewhere, sees in VasetthI, or Vasitthl, the family name of Sundari, introducing a very baffling complication into the dramatic simplicity of the Psalm qua ballad.

Seen preyed upon by Death, both you and I. (314) But I have learnt how from both Birth and Death A way there is t’ escape. Wherefore no more 1 mourn, nor weep, nor make my bitter wail. (315) Wondrous in sooth, Vasittln, are the words Thou speakest ! Whose the doctrine thou hast learnt ? Whence thine authority for speech like this ? (316) ’Tis He, the Very Wake, the Buddha, He Who late, hard by the town of Mithila, Did teach the Norm, brahmin, whereby All that hath life may put off every ill. (317) When I, O brahmin, when I heard the Arahant Reveal the Doctrine of the Non-Substrate,1 Forthwith the Gospel sank into my heart, And all my mother-grief fell off from me. (318) Then 1 too straight will go to Mithila, If haply the Exalted Buddha may Me, even me, release from every ill. (319) The brahmin went ; he saw the Awaken’d One, Th’ Emancipated, Him in whom No base is found for rebirth, and from Him, The Seer, Him who hath passed beyond all ill, (320) 1 Nirupadhi — i.e. , of how to live so as to undo the conditions or bases for rebirth. The following line reads literally : ’ I, being one who had understood the Gospel, dispelled my child-grief then and there.’

PSALMS OF THE SISTEltS He heard the Norm : the Truth of Ill, and how Ill comes, and how Ill may be overpassed, E’en by the Ariyan, the Eightfold Path, That leadeth to the abating of all Ill.1 (*321) Forthwith the Gospel sank into his heart. He left the world, he chose the homeless life. On the third night of contemplation rapt, Sujata touched and won the Threefold Lore. 2 (322) 4 Come, charioteer, now drive this chariot home ! Wish thy good mistress health, the brahminee, And say : 4 4 The brahmin hath renounced the world. On the third night of contemplation rapt Sujata touched and won the Threefold Lore. ” (323) And so the driver took the car and purse Of money home, and wished his mistress health, And said : 4 The brahmin hath renounced the world. On the third night of contemplation rapt Sujata touched and won the Threefold Lore.’ (324) For this that thou hast heard, O Charioteer, And tellest : that the brahmin hath attained The Threefold Lore, no half-gift give I thee.3 Take thou the chariot, take the horses both, And take a thousand pieces for thy pains. (325) 4 Let them remain thine own, O brahminee, Horses and chariot and the thousand coins,

1 Ps. lix. 186. 2 See Ps. xxii. n. 3 Lit., I give tliee a full bowl. For I, too, have a mind to leave the world, Near him of chiefest wisdom to abide.’ (326) 4 But thou, my Sundari, now that thy father hath gone forth,1 Leaving his home, renouncing all his great estate — Cattle and horses, elephants, jewels and rings — Dost thou at least come to thine own ! Thou art the heir Of this thy family. Do thou enjoy thy wealth.' 6 Cattle and horses, elephants, jewels and rings — Ay, all that goes to make this fair and broad estate Hath he put far from him, my father dear, And left the world, afflicted for his son. I, too, afflicted at my brother’s death, I have a mind like him to leave the world.' (328) 4 May this, then, thine intention, Sundari, Thy heart’s desire, be crowned with success ! The food from hand to mouth,2 glean’d here and there, The patchwork robe — these things accomplished Will purify in other after-world Whate’er has poisoned life for thee in this.’3 (329) 1 For this and one half the next verse (327, 328) the Pali verses become redundant. Two are irregular in metre, one has an additional half sloka. No gloss, apparently, has crept into the text. Conceivably the redundancy may be intentionally used to express the abundance of her heritage — that papaiica to which the higher life, as a simplification, selection, elimination, stood in sharp contrast.

2 See verse 349 n. Lit., food left over, scraps. 3 Tradition places this speech in the mother’s mouth. Dr. Neu¬ mann’s guess ascribes it to the BhikkhunI who receives Sundari into the Order. But the whole tone of it, especially the last sentiment — paraloke andsavd — is that of the laity's point of view. The mere routine to sustain life becomes a tapas to win future compensations. I’ve trained me, Lady, in the threefold course.* 1 Clear shines for me the Eye Celestial. I know the how and when I came to be Down the long past, and where it was I lived. (330) To thee I owe it, O thou noble friend, Thou loveliest of the Theri Sisterhood, That I the Threefold Lore have gotten now, And that the Buddha’s will hath been obeyed. (331) Give to me, Lady, thy consent, for I W ould go to SavatthI, so that I may LTtter my 4 lion’s roar,’ — my 4 Hail, all hail !’ — In presence of the Buddha, Lord and Chief.2 * (332) See, Sundarl, the Master fair in hue, His countenance as fine gold, clear and bright, Him who is All-enlightened, Buddha, Best, Tamer of untamed, never tasting fear. (333)

And see, O Master, Sundarl, who comes To tell thee of Emancipation won, And of the right no more to be reborn. Who hath herself from passion freed, Unyoked from bondage, loosened from the world. No word is said of the real object of the religious life — the training of the mind and emotions. And salvation here and now — ditthadhamme anasavd — was the goal of those entering the Order. Cf. Ps. lxx. 349^’. for the Sister's point of view. In this Psalm I follow the Commen¬ tary, which does not interrupt the little drama with its expositions, but gives them separately. 1 Cf. Ps. xlv. 104. 2 So Sundarl went with Bhikkhunis to SavatthI, and, entering the Vihara, saw the Master sitting on the Seat of Doctrine. And, thrilled with a glory of joy and gladness, she said a verse, as if to herself. Accomplished now is her appointed work, And all that drugged her heart is purged away.1 (334) Lo ! from Benares 1 am come to thee — I, Sundari, thy pupil, at thy feet, O mighty Hero, see me worship here. (335) Thou art Buddha ! thou art Master ! and thine, Thy daughter am I, issue of thy mouth,

Thou V ery Brahmin ! 2 even of thy word. Accomplished now is my appointed task, And all that drugged my heart is purged away. (336) 4 W elcome to thee, thou gracious maiden ! thence For thee ’twas but a little way to come.3 For so they come who, victors over self, Are fain to worship at the Master’s feet, Who also have themselves from passion freed, Unyoked from bondage, loosened from the world, Who have accomplished their appointed task, And all that drugged their hearts have purged away.’ (337) 1 It is clear from this affirmation — viz., that she was Anasavd — that Snndarl was Arahant. Curiously, hers is the sole case where the attainment is not explicitly recorded. She is only said to be tevijjd. To be Anasavd was the sixth and last stage in vijjd or pamid or abhinnd. Thus she spoke, declaring her Anna, by way of expressing her joy. Then the Master, to relieve her nervousness, asked her : ‘ But whence comest thou ? and wherefore ? and who is this Sundari ?’ Then she made answer : ‘ Lo ! from Benares. . . .’ 2 Brahmana ! Cf. Dhammapada, ch. xxvi ; Dialogues of the Buddha , i, 138-140; Neumann, op. cit. 347, n 2.

3 She had travelled approximately rather under 300 miles for this pilgrimage. But she was near the end of her infinitely long life. She, too, having made her resolve under former Buddhas, and heaping up good of age-enduring efficacy, so that she had progressively planted the root of good and accumulated the conditions of emancipation, was, in this Buddha-era, reborn at Rajagaha as the daughter of a certain goldsmith. From the beauty of her person she was called Subha. Come to years of discretion, she went one day, while the Master was at Rajagaha, and belief in him had come to her, and did obeisance, seating herself on one side. The Master, seeing the maturity of her moral faculties, and in accordance with her wish, taught her the Norm en¬ shrined in the Four Truths. She was thereby established in the fruition of Stream-entry, which is in countless ways adorned. Later she realized the disadvantages of domestic life, and entered the Order under the Great Pajapati the Gotamid, devoting herself to the higher Paths. From time to time her relations invited her to return to the world, urging its charms. To them thus come one day, she set forth the danger in house-life and in the world, preaching the Norm in the twenty-four verses below, and dismissed them cured of their desire. She then strove for insight, purifying her faculties, till at length she won Arahantship. As Arahant she spoke thus :

A maiden I, all clad in white, once heard (338) The Norm, and hearkened eager, earnestly, So in me rose discernment of the Truths. Thereat all worldly pleasures irked me sore, For 1 could see the perils that beset This reborn compound, ‘ personality,’ And to renounce it was my sole desire. (339) So I forsook my world — my kinsfolk all, My slaves, my hirelings, and my villages, And the rich fields and meadows spread around, Things fair and making for the joy of life — All these I left, and sought the Sisterhood, Turning my back upon no mean estate. (340) Amiss were’t now that I, who in full faith Renounced that world, who well discerned the Truth, Who, laying down what gold and silver bring, Cherish no worldly wishes whatsoe’er. Should, all undoing, come to you again ! (341) Silver and gold avail not to awake,1 Or soothe. Unmeet for consecrated lives,2 They are not Ariyan — not noble — wealth. (342) Whereby greed is aroused and wantonness, Infatuation and all fleshly lusts, Whence cometh fear for loss and many a care : Here is no ground for lasting steadfastness. (343) Here men, heedless and maddened with desires, Corrupt in mind, by one another let And hindered, strive in general enmity. (344 ) Death, bonds, and torture, ruin, grief, and woe Await the slaves of sense, and dreadful doom. (345) Why herewithal, my kinsmen — nay, my foes — Why yoke me in your minds with sense-desires ?

1 Na bodhaya na santiyd ; not for enlightenment, lit., being awake, or peace. George Eliot has lines in sympathy with Subha : ‘ Nay, falter not — 3tis an assured good To seek the noblest — ’tis your only good, Now you have seen it ; for that higher vision Poisons all meaner choice for evermore.3 * Literally, for samancCs or recluses ( religieux ). Know me as one who saw, and therefore fled, The perils rising from the life of sense. (346) Not gold nor money can avail to purge The poison of the deadly Asavas. Ruthless and murderous are sense-desires ; Foemen of cruel spear and prison-bonds. (347) Why here withal, my kinsmen — nay, my foes — Why yoke me in your minds with sense-desires ? Know me as her who fled the life of sense, Shorn of her hair, wrapt in her yellow robe. (348) The food from hand to mouth,1 glean’d here and there, The patchwork robe — these things are meet for me, The base and groundwork of the homeless life.2 (349) Great sages3 spue forth all desires of sense. Whether they be in heaven or on earth ; At peace they dwell, for they freeholders are,

For they have won unfluctuating bliss. (350) Ne: er let me follow after worldly lusts, Wherein no refuge is ; for they are foes, And murderers, and cruel blazing fires.4 (351) Oh ! but an incubus is here, the haunt Of dread and fear of death, a thorny brake, A greedy maw it is, a path impassable, Mouth of a pit wherein we lose our wits, (352) A horrid shape of doom impending — such Are worldly lusts ; uplifted heads of snakes. 1 Lit., left over, given as alms. Cf. Jataka , iv. 380. 2 Cf. Ps. lxix. 329 n. 3 I read with the Commentary mahesihi. Cf. the te on next line and 361. 4 These are similes occurring in discourses ascribed to the Buddha — e.g., Ang. Nik., iv. 128 ; Sayy. Nik., v. 112-114*; iv. 189, 198 ; Uddna, 24 ; Majjh. Nik., i. 130, etc. Therein they that be fools find their delight— The blinded, general, average, sensual man. (353) For all the many souls, who thus befooled Err ignorant in the marsh of worldly lusts, Heed not that which can limit birth and death. (354) Because of worldly lusts mankind is drawn By woeful way to many a direful doom —

Where ev’ry step doth work its penalty.1 (355) Breeders of enmity are worldly lusts, Engendering remorse and vicious taints. Flesh baits, to bind us to the world and death. (356) Leading to madness, to hysteria, To ferment of the mind, are worldly lusts, Fell traps by Mara laid to ruin men. (357) Endless the direful fruit of worldly lusts, Surcharged with poison, sowing many ills, Scanty and brief its sweetness, stirring strife, And withering the brightness of our days. (358) For me who thus have chosen, ne’er will I Into the world’s disasters come again, For in Nibbana is my joy alway. (359) So, fighting a [good] fight with worldly lusts, I wait in hope for the Cool Blessedness, Abiding earnest in endeavour, till Nought doth survive that fetters me to them. (360) 1 Lit., Bringer-along of its (the way’s) own affliction. This is my Way, the Way that leads past grief, Past all that doth defile, the haven sure, Even the Ariyan Eightfold Path, called Straight.1 There do I follow where the Saints2 have crossed. (361) See now this Subha, standing on the Norm, Child of a craftsman in the art of gold ! Behold ! she hath attained to utter calm ;

Museth in rapture neath the spreading boughs. (362) To-day, the eighth it is since she went forth In faith, and radiant in the Gospels light. By Uppalavanna3 instructed, lo ! Thrice wise is she and conqueror over death. (363) Freed woman she, discharged is all her debt, A Bhikkhuni, trained in the higher sense. All sundered are the Bonds, her task is done, And the great Drugs that poisoned her are purged. (364) To her came Sakka, and his band of gods In all their glory, worshipping Subha, Child of a craftsman in the art of gold, But lord of all things that have life and breath.4 (365) 1 ‘ Ujuko nama, so maggot ‘ Straight ’ is the name that Way is called. ( Sayy . Nik., i. 33.) 2 Mahesino , as in 350. 3 gee ps jxjv> 4 BJmtapati ; issaro , lord or god of beings in the three planes of sense, says the Commentary ; presumably gods, men, and animals. Note that she is not called Queen or Goddess, but pati (masculine). When, on the eighth day after her ordination, she won Arahantship, attaining fruition, seated beneath a tree, the Exalted One uttered these three verses (862-364) in her praises, pointing her out to the Brethren. And the last verse was added by them who recited (the canon at the Council), to celebrate Sakka’s adoration.

Subha of JIvaka’s Mango-grove.1 She too, having made her resolve under former Buddhas, and heaping up good of age-enduring efficacy in this and that rebirth, fostering the root of good and perfecting the conditions for emancipation through the ripening of her knowledge, was in this Buddha-era reborn at Rajagaha, in the family of a very eminent brahmin. Her name was Subha, and truly lovely was her body in all its members. It was for this reason that she came to be so called. While the Master sojourned at Rajagaha, she received faith and became a lay-disciple. Later she grew anxious over the round of life, and saw the bane of the pleasures of sense, and discerned that safety lay in renunciation. She entered the Order under the Great Pajapatl the Gotamid, and exer¬ cising herself in insight, was soon established in the fruition of the Path of No-return. Now one day a certain libertine of Rajagaha, in the prime of youth, was standing in the Jivaka Mango-grove, and saw 1 Jivaka Komarabliacca, physician to King Bimbisara at the court of Rajagaha, is a very prominent layman in the first chronicles of the Order, prescribing for its members on different occasions. See Vinaya Texts ( S.B.E. ), i. 191, ii. 178 ff., iii. 102; Majjh. Nik., i. 368 ff. ; Digha Nik., i. 49 (. Dialogues , i. 67), in which the Grove is men¬ tioned.

SUBHA OF JIVAKA’s MANGO-GROVE 149 her going to siesta ; and feeling enamoured, he barred her way, soliciting her to sensual pleasures. She declared to him by many instances the bane of sensuous pleasures and her own choice of renunciation, teaching him the Norm. Even then he was not cured, but persisted. The Then, not stopping short at her own words, and seeing his passion for the beauty of her eyes, extracted one of them, and handed it to him, saying : ‘ Come, then ! here is the offend¬ ing eye of her ! ’ Thereat the man w^as horrified and appalled and, his lust all gene, asked her forgiveness. The Therl went to the Master’s presence, and there, at sight of Him, her eye became as it was before. Thereat she stood vibrating with unceasing joy at the Buddha. The Master, knowing the state of her mind, taught her, and showed her exercise for reaching the highest. Repressing her joy, she developed insight, and attained Arahantship, together with thorough grasp of the Norm in form and meaning. Thereafter, abiding in the bliss and fruition of Nibbana, she, reflecting on what she had won, uttered her dialogue with the libertine in these verses :

In Jlvaka’s pleasant woodland walked Subha The Bhikkhunl. A gallant met her there And barred the way. To him thus spake 4 What have I done to offend thee, that thus in my path thou comest ? No man, O friend, it beseemeth to touch a Sister in Orders. (367) 1 The metre now changes from sloka to that termed vetdliya, or, at least, to a metre which in later literature became formulated under that name. It runs approximately thus (‘ What have 1/ etc.) : — u ° ^ ° |j _ _uo_u ow Kin te aparddhitan may a yan may ovariydna titthasi ? ° ° ° ° _!l u w__ ^ ^ „ u Na hi pabbajitdya, dvuso, puriso samphussandya happati. So hath my Master ordained in the precepts we honour and follow ; So hath the Welcome One taught in the training wherein they have trained me, Purified discipline holy. Why standest thou block¬ ing my pathway ? (368) Me pure, thou impure of heart ; me passionless, thou of vile passions ; Me who as to the whole of me freed am in spirit and blameless, Me whence comes it that Thou dost hinder, stand¬ ing obnoxious V (369)

4 Young art thou, maiden, and faultless — what seekest thou in the holy life ? Cast off that yellow-hued raiment and come ! in the blossoming woodland Seek we our pleasure. Filled with the incense of blossoms the trees waft (370) Sweetness. See, the spring’s at the prime, the season of happiness ! Come with me then to the flowering woodland, and seek we our pleasure. (371) Sweet overhead is the sough of the blossoming crests of the forest Swayed by the Wind-gods. But an thou goest alone in the jungle, Lost in its depths, how wilt thou find aught to delight or content thee ? (372) Haunted is the great forest with many a herd of wild creatures, Broken its peace by the tramplings of elephants rutting and savage. ‘ Sweet overhead is the sough of the blossoming crests of the forest Swayed by the wind-gods.'1 Tu face p. 150, Empty of mankind and fearsome 1 — is’t there thou would’st go uncompanioned ? (373) Thou like a gold-wrought statue, like nymph in celestial garden Movest, O peerless creature. Radiant would shine thy loveliness Robed in raiment of beauty, diaphanous gear of Benares. (374) I would live but to serve thee, an thou would’st abide in the woodland.

Dearer and sweeter to me than art thou in the world is no creature, Thou with the languid and slow-moving eyes of an elf of the forest. (37 5) If thou wilt list to me, come where the joys of the sheltered life2 wait thee ; Dwell in a house of verandas and terraces, hand¬ maidens serving thee. (376) Robe thyself in delicate gear of Benares, don gar¬ lands, use unguents. Ornaments many and divers I give to thee, fashioned with precious stones, Gold work and pearls. And thou shalt mount on a couch fair and sumptuous, (377) Carved in sandalwood, fragrant with essences, spread with new pillows, Coverlets fleecy and soft, and decked with im¬ maculate canopies. (378) Like to a lotus upborne on the bosom of spritehaunted water, 1 ‘ Although,5 remarks the Commentator, ‘ in that wood there was then nothing of the sort. But this he said, wishing to make her afraid.’ 2 Lit., ‘ Come, dwell in a house.’ Thou, O chaste anchorite, farest to old age, thy beauty unmated.’ (379) 4 What now to thee, in this carrion-filled, grave¬ filling carcase so fragile Seen by thee, seemeth to warrant the doctrine thou speakest, infatuate ?’ (380)

4 Eyes hast thou like the gazelle’s, like an elf’s in the heart of the mountains — Tis those eyes of thee, sight of which feedeth the depth of my passion. (381) Shrined in thy dazzling, immaculate face as in calyx of lotus, ’Tis those eyes of thee, sight of which feedeth the strength of my passion. (382) Though thou be far from me, how could I ever forget thee, O maiden, Thee of the long-drawn eyelashes, thee of the eyes so miraculous ? Dearer to me than those orbs is naught, O thou witching- eyed fairy !’ (383) 4 Lo ! thou art wanting to walk where no path is ; thou seekest to capture Moon from the skies for thy play ; thou would’st jump o’er the ridges of Meru,1 Thou who presumest to lie in wait for a child of the Buddha ! (384) Nowhere in earth or in heaven lives now any object of lust for me. Him I know not. What like is he ? Slain, root and branch, through the Noble Path. (385) 1 The mythical central mountain of the universe, called also Sineru. Hurled as live coal from the hand, and rated as deadly as poison-cup,

Him I see not. What like is he ? Slain, root and branch, through the Noble Path. (386) tempt thou some woman who hath not discerned what I say, or whose teacher Is but a learner ; haply she’ll listen ; tempt thou not Subha ; She understandeth. And now ’tis thyself hast vexation and failure. (387) t or I have set my mind to be watchful in whatso befalls me — Blame or honour, gladness or sorrow — and knowing the principle : — ‘Foul are all composite things,’ nowhere the mind of me clings to them. (388) \ ea, the disciple am I of the Welcome One ; onward the march of me Riding the Car of the Road that is Eightfold. Drawn are the arrows Out of my wounds, and purged is my spirit of drugging Intoxicants. So I am come to haunts that are Empty.1 There lies my pleasure. (389) Oh ! I have seen it — a puppet well painted, with new wooden spindles, Cunningly fastened with strings and with pins, and diversely dancing. (390) But if the strings and the pins be all drawn out and loosened and scattered, 1 Suniia , for the earnest Buddhist, connoting both solitude and the ejection of the Ego-delusion. Cf. Ps. xxxi. 46.

So that the puppet be made non-existent and broken in pieces, Which of the parts wilt thou choose and appoint for thy heart’s rest and solace ? (391) Such is the manner wherein persist these poor little bodies : Take away members and attributes — nothing surviveth in any wise. Nothing surviveth ! Which dost thou choose for thy heart’s rest and solace ? (392) E’en as a fresco one sees drawn on a wall, painted in ochre, [Giveth us naught of the true and the real, save in the seeming ;]* Thou herein with vision perverted [canst not dis¬ tinguish ; Judgest with] wisdom of average human, fallible, worthless. (393) O thou art blind ! thou chasest a sham, deluded by puppet shows Seen in the midst of the crowd ; thou deemest of value and genuine Conjurer’s trickwork, trees all of gold that we see in our dreaming. (394) What is this eye but a little ball lodged in the fork of a hollow tree, Bubble of film, anointed with tear-brine, exuding slime-drops, Compost wrought in the shape of an eye of manifold aspects?’1 2 (395) 1 I have filled up the somewhat elliptical style of the text from the

2 Cf. Balzac’s philosojihe : ‘ Tiens,’ dit-il, en voyant les pleurs de sa femme, ‘j’ai decompose les larmes. Elies contiennent un peu de 1* orthwith the maiden so lovely tore out her eye and gave it him : * Here, then ! take thou thine eye F Nor sinned she, her heart unobstructed. (396) Straightway the lust in him ceased and he her pardon imploring : 4 O that thou mightest recover thy sight, thou maid pure and holy ! Never again will I dare to offend thee after this fashion. (397) Sore hast thou smitten my sin ; blazing flames have I clasped to my bosom ; Poisonous snake have I handled — but O ! be thou heal’d and forgive me !’ (398) Freed from molesting, the BhikkhunI went on her way to the Buddha, Chief of th’ Awakened. There in his presence, seeing those features Born of uttermost merit, straightway her sight was restored to her. (399) phosphate, de chaux, de chlorure de sodium, du mucus et de l’eau.’ — La Recherche de VAbsolu. She too, having made her resolve under former Buddhas, and persisting in her former disposition in this and that rebirth, in that she heaped up good of age-enduring efficacy, in the seventh rebirth before her last phase of life, sus¬ ceptible to sex- attraction, wrought adulterous conduct. For this she did purgatory for many centuries, and there¬ after for three rebirths was an animal.

Thereafter she was brought forth by a slave-woman as an hermaphrodite, and thereafter she was born as the daughter of a poor common man, and was, when of age, married to the son of a caravanleader named Giridasa. Now the wife that he had was virtuous and of noble qualities, and the new wife envied her, and quarrelled with the husband because of her. After her death she was, in this Buddha-era, reborn at Ujjeni2 as the daughter of a virtuous, honoured and wealthy merchant, and was named Isidasi.3 When she was of age, her parents gave her in marriage to a merchant’s son, a good match with herself. For a month she dwelt with him as a devoted wife ; then, as the fruit of her previous actions, her husband became estranged from her, and turned her out of his house. All this is told in the Pali text. Because she had not proved desirable for one husband after another,

1 On this curious Psalm see Introduction. 2 See n. to verse 405. 3 = Slave of the sage. she grew agitated and, gaining her father’s consent, took 01 dei s under the Therl Jinadatta. And studying for in¬ sight, she not long after attained Arahantship, together with thorough grasp of the Norm in form and meaning. Dwelling in the bliss of fruition and Nibbana, she one day, after seeking her meal in the city of Patna and dining, sat down on a sandbank of great Ganges, and being asked by her companion, the Therl Bodhi, about her previous experience, she related it by way of verses. And to show the connection of her former and latter replies, these three stanzas were inserted by the Becensionists : In the fair city of Patna, earth’s fairest city, Named for its beauty after the Trumpet-flower.1 Dwelt two saintly Sisters, born of the Sakiyas, (400) Isidasi the one, Bodhi the other. Precept-observers, lovers of Jhana-rapture, Learned ladies and cleansed from the taint of all worldliness. (401) These having made their round, and broken their fasting, Washed their bowls, and sitting in happy seclu¬ sion, Spake thus one to the other, asking and answer¬ ing : (402)

4 Thou hast a lovely mien, Isidasi, Fresh and unwithered yet thy woman’s prime. What flaw in the life yonder hast thou seen, That thou didst choose surrender for thy lot ?’ (403) Then in that quiet spot Isidasi, Skilled in the exposition of the Norm, Pataliputta. On the rise of this city as the capital of the Mauryan dynasty, and the Buddha’s prophecy of that rise, see Khys Davids, Buddhist Suttas, xi., pp. xv. 18 ; Buddhist India , pp. 262 ff., where the testimony of Megasthepes is largely quoted. Took up her tale and thus did make reply : ‘ Hear, Bodhi, how it was that 1 came forth. (404) In Ujjenl,1 Avantl’s foremost town. My father dwells, a virtuous citizen, His only daughter I, his well-beloved, The fondly cherished treasure of his life. (405) Now from Saketa came a citizen Of the first rank and rich exceedingly To ask my hand in marriage for his son. And father gave me him, as daughter-in-law. (406) My salutation morn and eve I brought To both the parents of my husband, low Bowing my head and kneeling at their feet, According to the training given me. (407) My husband’s sisters and his brothers too,

And all his kin, scarce were they entered when I rose in timid zeal and gave them place. (408) And as to food, or boiled or dried, and drink, That which was to be stored I set aside, And served it out and gave to whom ’twas due. (409) Rising betimes, I went about the house, Then with my hands and feet well cleansed I went To bring respectful greeting to my lord, (410) And taking comb and mirror, unguents, soap, I dressed and groomed him as a handmaid might. (411) / boiled the rice, / washed the pots and pans ; And as a mother on her only child, So did I minister to my good man. (412) 1 On Ujjenl and Saketa, see Rhys Davids, Buddhist India , pp. 39, 40; Neumann, op. cit., 361 n. They may have been some 500 miles apart, and the journey would be largely by river. Cf. Rhys Davids, op. cit., 103. For me, who with toil infinite thus worked, And rendered service with a humble mind, Rose early, ever diligent and good, For me he nothing felt save sore dislike. (413) Nay, to his mother and his father he Thus spake : — 4 Give ye me leave and I will go,

1 or not with Isidasi will I live Beneath one roof, nor ever dwell with her.’ (414) O son, speak not on this wise of thy wife, For wise is Isidasi and discreet, An early riser and a housewife diligent. Say, doth she find no favour in thine eyes ?’ (415) 4 In nothing doth she work me harm, and yet With Isidasi will I never live. I cannot suffer her. Let be, let be ! Give ye me leave and I will go away.’ (416) And when they heard, mother and father-in-law Asked of me : 4 What then hast thou done t’ offend ? Speak to us freely, child, and speak the truth.’ (417) Naught have I done that could offend, nor harm. Nor nagged at evil words. What can I do,1 That me my husband should so sore mislike ?’ (418) 1 o guard and keep their son, they took me back, Unwilling guides, to father’s house, distressed, Distraught: 4 Alas! we’re beaten, pretty Luck!’2 3 (419) 1 The Commentator interprets the Vedic infinitive kutuye, 4 do,’ as meaning katu' ijije, 4 do, lady.’ 3 My reading of this very obscure passa ge—jindmhase rupinin Lacclnn or rupinl Lacchi— is suggested by my husband, and differs from that of Dr. Neumann, who has felt compelled to doctor the text. Commentary: 4 Defeated by the goddess Sir! (Sri) clad in human dress i.e., Isidasi, as personating the fickle goddess of chance. Thus

Then father gave me for the second time as bride, Content with half my husband’s sire had paid. (420) From that house too, when 1 had dwelt a month, I was sent back, though I had worked and served. Blameless and virtuous, as any slave. (421) And yet a third, a friar begging alms — One who had self controlled, and could control Favour in fellow-men — my hither met And spake him thus : 4 Be thou my son-in-law ! Come, throw away that ragged robe and pot !’ (422) He came, and so we dwelt one half moon more Together. Then to father thus he spake : 4 O give me back my frock, my bowl and cup. Let me away to seek once more my scraps.’ (423) Then to him father, mother, all the tribe Of kinsfolk clamouring : 4 What is it then Here dwelling likes you not ? Say quick, what is’t That we can do to make you better pleased ?’ (424) Then he : 4 If for myself I can suffice. Enough for me. One thing I know : — beneath One roof with Isidasi I’ll not live !’ (425) Dismissed he went. I too, alone I thought.

And then I asked my parents’ leave to die, Or, that they suffer me to leave the world. (426) Now Lady Jinadatta on her beat Came by my father’s house for daily alms, Mindful of every moral precept, she, Learned and expert in the Vinaya.* 1 (427) they call her ‘Luck!’ I cannot believe that, had the young divorcee been enceinte, she would have been sent home so ignominiously, or that the tale would have been silent about the child when born. 1 Vinayadhard , who could repeat the Vinaya- Pitaka. This proficiency was Patacara’s to a special degree. See Ps. xlvii. ; Any. Nik., i. 25. And seeing her we rose, and I prepared A seat for her, and as she sat I knelt, Then gave her food, both boiled and dried, (428) And water — dishes we had set aside — And satisfied her hunger. Then I said : ‘ Lady, I wish to leave the world.’ Why here,’ (429) My father said, 4 dear child, is scope for thee To walk according to the Norm. With food And drink canst gratify the holy folk And the twice-born.1 But of my father I, (430) Weeping and holding out clasped hands, besought : * Nay, but the evil karma I have done,

That would I expiate and wear away.’2 (431) Then father said : 4 Win thou Enlightenment And highest Truth, and gain Nibbana. That Hath He, the Best of Beings,3 realized.’ (432) Then to my mother and my father dear, And all my kinsfolk tribe 1 bade farewell. And only seven days had I gone forth Ere I had touched and won the Threefold Lore. (433) Then did I come to know my former births, E’en seven thereof, and how e’en now I reap The harvest, the result, that then I sowed. That will I now declare to thee, an thou Wilt listen single-minded to my tale. (434) In Erakaccha’s 4 town of yore I lived, A wealthy craftsman in all works of gold. 2 Nijjaressdmi. This was the ascetic aspect taken of the religious life. As a Jainist opinion, it is criticized by the Buddha in the ‘ Devadaha Sutta,’ Majjhima NiMya, ii. 214^’. 3 Dvipada , lit., ‘ bipeds,’ an epithet of the Buddha I do not find -elsewhere. 4 Buddhist India , p. 40; 'Neumann, op. cit ., 366 n. Incensed by youth’s hot blood, a wanton, I Assailed the virtue of my neighbours’ wives. (43.5) Therefrom deceasing, long I cooked 1 in hell,

Till, fully ripened, I emerged, and then Found rebirth in the body of an ape. (436) Scarce seven days I lived before the great Dog-ape, the monkeys’ chief, castrated me. Such was the fruit of my lasciviousness. (437) Therefrom deceasing in the woods of Sindh, Reborn the offspring of a one-eyed goat (438) And lame; twelve years a gelding, gnawn by worms. Unfit, I carried children on my back. Such was the fruit of my lasciviousness. (439) Therefrom deceasing, 1 again found birth, The offspring of a cattle-dealer’s cow, A calf of lac-red hue ; in the twelfth month (440) Castrated, yoked, I drew the plough and cart, Purblind and worried, driven and unfit. Such was the fruit of my lasciviousness. (441) Therefrom deceasing, even in the street I came to birth, child of a household slave, Neither of woman nor of man my sex. Such was the fruit of my lasciviousness. (442) At thirty years of age I died, and was reborn A girl, the daughter of a carter, poor And of ill-fortune, and oppressed with debts Incurred to usurers. To pay the sum (443) Of interest that ever grew and swelled, In place of money,2 woeful little me

1 To ripen or be cooked is the usual metaphor for a cause working out its effect. Note that ‘hell’ here ( nirdya ) is really purgatory. No form of being, for Buddhism, was eternal. 2 I have discussed this passage in ‘ Early Economic Conditions in North India' ( J.B.A.S. , 1901, 880, w.M) thus: In the second line,. The merchant of a caravan dragged off, Bearing me weeping from my home. (444) Now in my sixteenth year, when I Blossomed a maiden, that same merchant's son, Giridasa the name of him, loved me And made me wife. Another wife he had, (445) A virtuous dame of parts and of repute, Enamoured of her mate. And thus I brought Discord and enmity within that house. (446) Fruit of my karma was it thus that they, In this last life, have slighted me, e’en tho’ I waited on them as their humble slave. Well ! of all that now have I made an end ! (447) which Dr. Neumann renders ‘ Vom Tische Reicher lasen wir die Reste auf,’ I take the compound dJianikapurisapdtabahulamhi (Commen¬ tary : inayikdnay purisdnay a d h ip a t an a bahule bahuhi inayikehi abhibliavitabbe) to mean ‘fallen into the power of usurers.’ This leads up to the next line, giving a point to it which is lacking in the rendering alluded to.

I am unable to classify the metre throughout this poem, from the first line : nagaramhi kusumandme Pdtaliputtamhi pathaviyd to the last : ddsi va upatthahantirj tassa pi anto kato mayd She too, having made her resolve under former Buddhas, and heaping up good of age-enduring efficacy in this and that rebirth, thoroughly preparing the conditions of eman¬ cipation, was born, when Konagamana was Buddha, in a clansman’s family. When she was of age, she and her friends, clansmen’s daughters, agreed together to have a great park made, and handed it over to the Buddha and his Order. Through the merit of that act, she was reborn in the heaven of the Three-and-Thirty. After a glorious period there, she arose once more among the Yama gods, then among the Blissful gods, then among the Happy Creators, then among the Disposers of others’ creations,1 and there became Queen of the King of the gods. Keborn thereafter, when Kassapa was Buddha, as the daughter of a wealthy citizen, she acquired splendid merit as a laybeliever, winning another rebirth among the gods of the Three-and-Thirty. Finally reborn, in this Buddha-age, at the city of Mantavatl, as the daughter of King Konca,2 she wTas named Sumedha. And when she was come to years of discretion, her mother and father agreed to let Anikaratta,

1 See Ps. lxi., n. 2 The two Kings and their capitals are all names unknown in Indian records. Varanavatl = having elephants, or ramparts. Koilca = heron. the Baja of Varanavati, see her. But she from her child¬ hood had been in the habit of going with Princesses of her own age and attendant slaves to the Bhikkhums’ quarters to hear them preach the Doctrine, and for a long time, because of her pristine resolve, she had grown fearful of birth in the round of life, devoted to religion and averse to the pleasures of sense. Wherefore, when she heard the decision of her parents and kinsfolk, she said : ‘ My duty lies not in the life of the house. I will leave the world.’ And they were not able to dissuade her. She thinking, ‘ Thus shall I gain permission to leave the world,’ laid hold of her purpose, and cut off her own hair. Then using her hair in accordance with what she had heard from the Bhikkhums of their methods, she concentrated her attention on repugnance to physical attrac¬ tion, and calling up the idea of 'Foul Things,’1 then and there attained First Jhana. And when she was thus rapt, her parents came to her apartments in order to give her away. But she made them first and all their retinue and all the Baja’s people believers in religion, and left the house, renouncing the world in the Bhikkhums’ quarters.

Not long after, establishing insight, and ripe for emancipa¬ tion, she attained Arahantship, with thorough grasp of the Norm in form and in meaning. And reflecting on her victory, she broke forth in exultation : King Heron’s daughter at Mantavati, Born of his chief consort, was Sumedha, Devoted to the makers of the Law.2 (448) A virtuous maid was she and eloquent, Learned and in the system of our Lord Well trained. She of her parents audience sought, 1 Cf. Ps. xli. In the Commentary, p. 273, read, for patikulamanasikdrarj , patikkula0 . 2 Sdsanakdrd= , according to the Commentary, Ariyans — i.e., Arahants, including the Buddhas. Just below, sdsanci is rendered by ‘system.1 Sumedha = very wise. And spake: ‘Now listen, mother, father, both ! (449) All my heart’s love is to Nibbana given. Transient is everything that doth become, E’en if it have the nature of a god. What truck have I, then, with the empty life Of sense, that giveth little, slayeth much ? (450) Bitter as serpents’ poison are desires Of sense, whereafter youthful fools do yearn. For that full many a night in wretchedness They drag out tortured lives in realms of woe.1 (451) The vicious-minded, vicious doers mourn In purgatorial lives. Ever are fools Without restraint in deed and word and thought. (452)

Oh ! but the foolish have no wit or will. They cannot grasp what maketh sorrow rise — When taught, they learn not ; in their slumb’ring minds The Fourfold Ariyan Truth awakens not. (453) Those Truths, O mother, that th’ Awakened One, The Best, the Buddha, hath revealed to us, They, the Majority, know not, and they Delight in coming aye again to be, And long to be reborn among the gods. (454) E’en with the gods is no eternal home.2 Becoming needs must be impermanent. \ et they, the foolish souls, are not afraid Again, again to come somewhere to birth. (455) Four are the ways of doleful life, and two Alone the ways of weal 3 — and these how hard 1 See note, verse 436. 2 In Pali ‘ no eternal rebirth.’ 3 Rebirth in ‘ hell/ as animal, as ‘ ghost,’ as demon, are the four (• purgatorial lives,’ vinipdta, in 452) ; as human or as god. the two. To win ! Nor if one come into the four, Is there renunciation from that world. (456) Suffer ye both that I renounce my world ; And in the blessed teaching of the Lord, Him of the Powers Ten,1 heedless of all Without, I’ll strive to root out birth and death. (457)