Psalms of the Sisters · 18 of 20

Canto XV: Psalm of Over Forty Verses

CANTO XV 396

PSALM OF OVER FORTY VERSES LXXII Isidāsī.

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, susceptible to sex-attraction, wrought adulterous conduct. For this she did purgatory for many centuries, and thereafter 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 caravan-leader named Giridāsa. 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 Ujjenī 397 as the daughter of a virtuous, honoured and wealthy merchant, and was named Isidāsī. 398 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, she grew agitated and, gaining her father’s consent, took orders under the Therī Jinadattā. And studying for insight, 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 Therī 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 Recensionists:

In the fair city of Patna, earth’s fairest city,

Named for its beauty after the Trumpet-flower, 399

Dwelt two saintly Sisters, born of the Sākiyas, (400)

Isidāsī the one, Bodhi the other.

Precept-observers, lovers of Jhāna-rapture,

Learnèd 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 seclusion,

Spake thus one to the other, asking and answering: (402)

‘Thou hast a lovely mien, Isidāsī,

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 Isidāsī,

Skilled in the exposition of the Norm,

Took up her tale and thus did make reply:

‘Hear, Bodhi, how it was that I came forth. (404)

In Ujjenī, 400 Avantī’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 Sāketa 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)

I boiled the rice, I washed the pots and pans;

And as a mother on her only child,

So did I minister to my good man. (412)

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:–‘Give ye me leave and I will go,

For not with Isidāsī 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 Isidāsī and discreet,

An early riser and a housewife diligent.

Say, doth she find no favour in thine eyes?’ (415)

‘In nothing doth she work me harm, and yet

With Isidāsī 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: ‘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, 401

That me my husband should so sore mislike?’ (418)

To guard and keep their son, they took me back,

Unwilling guides, to father’s house, distressed,

Distraught: ‘Alas! we’re beaten, pretty Luck!’ 402 (419)

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 I 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 father met

And spake him thus: ‘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:

‘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: ‘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: ‘If for myself I can suffice,

Enough for me. One thing I know:–beneath

One roof with Isidāsī 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 Jinadattā on her beat

Came by my father’s house for daily alms,

Mindful of every moral precept, she,

Learnèd and expert in the Vinaya. 403 (427)

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, ‘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. 404 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.’405 (431)

Then father said: ‘Win thou Enlightenment

And highest Truth, and gain Nibbana.

That Hath He, the Best of Beings, 406 realized.’ (432)

Then to my mother and my father dear,

And all my kinsfolk tribe I 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 407 town of yore l lived,

A wealthy craftsman in all works of gold.

Incensed by youth’s hot blood, a wanton, I

Assailed the virtue of my neighbours’ wives. (435)

Therefrom deceasing, long I cooked 408 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, I 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, 409 woeful little me

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,

Giridāsa 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)

396 On this curious Psalm see Introduction.

397 See n. to verse 405.

398 = Slave of the sage.

399 Pāṭaliputta. On the rise of this city as the capital of the Mauryan dynasty, and the Buddha’s prophecy of that rise, see Rhys Davids, Buddhist Suttas, xi., pp. xv. 18; Buddhist India, pp. 262 ſſ., where the testimony of Megasthenes is largely quoted.

400 On Ujjenī and Sāketa, 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.

401 The Commentator interprets the Vedic infinitive kātuye, ‘do,’ as meaning kātu’ yye, ‘do, lady.’

402 My reading of this very obscure passage–jināmhase rūpinin Lacchin or rūpinī Lacchī–is suggested by my husband, and differs from that of Dr. Neumann, who has felt compelled to doctor the text. Commentary: ‘Defeated by the goddess Sirī (Śrī) clad in human dress’–i.e., Isidāsī, as personating the fickle goddess of chance. Thus 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.

403 Vinayadharā, who could repeat the Vinaya-Pitaka. This proficiency was Paṭācārā’s to a special degree. See Ps. xlvii.; Ang. Nik., i. 25.

404 Brahmins.

405 Nijjaressāmi. 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 Nikāya, ii. 214 ſſ.

406 Dvipada, lit., ‘bipeds,’ an epithet of the Buddha I do not find elsewhere.

407 Buddhist India, p. 40; Neumann, op. cit., 366 n.

408 To ripen or be cooked is the usual metaphor for a cause working out its effect. Note that ‘hell’ here (nirăyă) is really purgatory. No form of being, for Buddhism, was eternal.

409 I have discussed this passage in ‘Early Economic Conditions in North India’ (J.R.A.S., 1901, 880, n. 1) thus: In the second line, which Dr. Neumann renders ‘Vom Tische Reicher lasen wir die Reste auf,’ I take the compound dhanikapurisapātabahulamhi (Commentary: iṇāyikānaŋ purisānaŋ adhipatanabahule bahūhi iṇāyikehi abhibhavitabbe) 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 kusumanāme Pāṭaliputtamhi pathaviyā to the last:

dāsī va upaṭṭhahantiŋ tassa pi anto kato mayā

Sumedhā

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 emancipation, was born, when Koṇāgamana 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 Yāma gods, then among the Blissful gods, then among the Happy Creators, then among the Disposers of others’ creations, 410 and there became Queen of the King of the gods. Reborn thereafter, when Kassapa was Buddha, as the daughter of a wealthy citizen, she acquired splendid merit as a lay-believer, winning another rebirth among the gods of the Three-and-Thirty. Finally reborn, in this Buddha-age, at the city of Mantāvatī, as the daughter of King Koñca, 411 she was named Sumedhā. And when she was come to years of discretion, her mother and father agreed to let Anikaratta, the Rāja of Vāraṇavatī, see her. But she from her childhood had been in the habit of going with Princesses of her own age and attendant slaves to the Bhikkhunīs’ 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 Bhikkhunīs of their methods, she concentrated her attention on repugnance to physical attraction, and calling up the idea of ‘Foul Things,’ 412 then and there attained First Jhāna. 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 Raja’s people believers in religion, and left the house, renouncing the world in the Bhikkhunīs’ quarters.

Not long after, establishing insight, and ripe for emancipation, 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 Mantāvatī,

Born of his chief consort, was Sumedhā,

Devoted to the makers of the Law. 413 (448)

A virtuous maid was she and eloquent,

Learnèd and in the system of our Lord

Well trained. She of her parents audience sought,

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. 414 (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. 415

Becoming needs must be impermanent.

Yet 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 416 –and these how hard

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, 417 heedless of all

Without, I’ll strive to root out birth and death. (457)

How can I take delight in many births,

In this poor body, froth without a soul? 418

That I may put an utter end to thirst

Again to be, suffer that I go forth. (458)

Now is the Age of Buddhas! Gone the want

Of opportunity! The moment’s won!

O let me never while I live misprize

The precepts, nor withstand the holy life!’ (459)

Thus spake Sumedhā, and again: ‘Mother

And father mine, never again will I

As a laywoman break my fast and eat.

Here will I sooner lay me down and die!’ (460)

Th’ afflicted mother wept; the father, stunned

With grief, strove to dissuade and comfort her

Who prostrate lay upon the palace floor:– (461)

‘Rise up, dear child. Why this unhappiness

For thee? Thou art betrothed to go and reign

In Vāraṇavatī, the promised bride

Of King Anikaratta, handsome youth. (462)

Thou art to be his chief consort, his queen.

Hard is it, little child, to leave the world,

Hard are the precepts and the holy life. (463)

As queen thou wilt enjoy authority,

Riches and sov’reignty and luxuries.

Thou that art blest herein and young, enjoy

The sweets life yields. Let’s to thy wedding, child.’ (464)

Then answered them Sumedhā: ‘Nay, not thus!

No soul, no essence, can becoming yield.

One or the other shall be–choose ye which:

Or let me leave the world, or let me die.

Thus, and thus only, would I choose to wed. 419 (465)

What is it worth 420 –this body foul, unclean,

Emitting odours, source of fears, a bag

Of skin with carrion filled, oozing impure (466)

The while? What is it worth to me who know–

Repulsive carcass, plastered o’er with flesh

And blood, the haunt of worms, dinner of birds–

To whom shall such a thing as this be given? (467)

Borne in a little while to charnel-field,

There is this body thrown, when mind hath sped, 421

Like useless log, from which e’en kinsfolk turn. (468)

Throwing the thing that they have bathed to be

The food of alien things, whereat recoil

The very parents, let alone their kin. (469)

They have a fondness for this soulless frame,

That’s knit of bones and sinews, body foul,

Filled full of exudations manifold. (470)

Where one the body to dissect, and turn

The inside outermost, the smell would prove

Too much for e’en one’s mother to endure. (471)

The factors of my being, organs, elements,

All are a transient compound, rooted deep

In birth, are Ill, and first and last the thing

I would not. 422 Whom, then, could I choose to wed? (472)

Rather would I find death day after day

With spears three hundred piercing me anew,

E’en for an hundred years, if this would then

Put a last end to pain, unending else. (473)

The wise would with this [bargain] close, and meet

Utter destruction, seeing that His Word,

The Master’s, runneth: “Long the wandering

Of them who, smitten, ever rise again.” 423 (474)

Countless the ways in which we meet our death,

’Mong gods and men, as demons or as beasts,

Among the shades, or in the haunts of hell.424 (475)

And there how many doomed tormented live!

No sure refuge is ours even in heaven.

Above, beyond Nibbana’s bliss, is naught. (476)

And they have won that Bliss who all their hearts

Have plighted to the blessed Word of Him

Who hath the Tenfold Power, and heeding naught,

Have striv’n to put far from them birth and death. (477)

This day, my father, will I get me forth!

I’ll naught of empty riches! Sense-desires

Repel and sicken me, and are become

E’en as the stump where once hath stood a palm.’ (478)

So spake she to her father. Now the King,

Anikaratta, on his way to woo

His youthful bride’s consent, drew near

At the appointed time. But Sumedhā (479)

Let down the soft black masses of her hair

And with a dagger cut them off. Then closed

The door that led to her own terraced rooms,

And forthwith to First Jhana-rapture won. (480)

There sat she lost in ecstasy, the while

Anikaratta reached the capital.

Then she fell musing on impermanence,

Developing the thought. 425 Then is she ware (481)

The while Anikaratta swiftly mounts

The palace steps, in brave array of gems

And gold, and bowing low woos Sumedhā. (482)

‘Reign in my kingdom and enjoy my wealth

And power. Rich, happy and so young thou art,

Enjoy the sweets that life and love can yield,

Though they be hard to win and won by few. (483)

To thee my kingdom I surrender! Now

Dispose as thou dost wish, give gifts galore.

Be not downcast. Thy parents are distressed.’ (484)

To him thus Sumedhā, for whom desires

Of sensuous love were worthless, nor availed

To lead astray, made answer: ‘O set not

The heart’s affections on this sensual love.

See all the peril, the satiety of sense. (485)

Mandhātā, King o’ th’ world’s four continents, 426

Had greater wealth to gratify his sense

Than any other man, yet passed away

Unsatisfied, his wishes unfulfilled. (486)

Nay, an the rain-god rained all seven kinds

Of gems till earth and heaven were full, still would

The senses crave, and men insatiate die. (487)

‘Like the sharp blades of swords are sense-desires.’

‘Like the poised heads of snakes prepared to dart.’

‘Like blazing torches,’ and ‘like bare gnawn bones.’ 427 (488)

Transient, unstable are desires of sense,

Pregnant with Ill and full of venom dire,

Searing as heated iron globe to touch.

Baneful the root of them, baleful the fruit. (489)

As ‘fruit’ 428 that brings the climber to a fall,

Are sense-desires; evil as ‘lumps of flesh’

That greedy birds one from the other snatch;

As cheating ‘dreams’; as ‘borrowed goods’ reclaimed. (490)

‘As spears and jav’lins are desires of sense,’

‘A pestilence, a boil, and bane and bale.

A furnace of live coals,’ the root of bane,

Murderous and the source of harrowing dread. (491)

So hath the direfulness of sense-desires,

Those barriers to salvation, been declared.

Go, leave me, for I do not trust myself,

While in this world I yet have part and lot. (492)

What shall another do for me? For me

Whose head is wrapped in flames, 429 whose steps are dogged

By age and death that tarry not. To crush

Them utterly I needs must strive.’ (493)

Then coming to her door she saw the king

Her suitor, and her parents seated there

And shedding tears. And once more spake to them: (494)

‘Long have they yet to wander through the worlds

Who witless aye again their tears renew,

Weeping world without end for father dead,

Or brother slain, or that themselves must die. 430 (495)

Call ye to mind how it was said that tears

And milk and blood flow on world without end.

And bear in mind that tumulus of bones

By creatures piled who wander through the worlds. (496)

Remember the four oceans as compared

With all the flow of tears and milk and blood.

Remember the ‘great cairn of one man’s bones

From one æon alone, equal to Vipula’; (497)

And how ‘great India 431 would not suffice

To furnish little tally-balls of mould,

Wherewith to number all the ancestors

Of one’s own round of life world without end.’ (498)

Remember how ‘the little squares of straws

And boughs and twigs could ne’er suffice

As tallies for one’s sires world without end.’ (499) Remember how the parable was told

Of ‘purblind turtle in the Eastern Seas,

Or other oceans, once as time goes by,

Thrusting his head thro’ hole of drifting yoke’;

So rare as this the chance of human birth. 432 (500) Remember too the ‘body’-parable,

The ‘lump of froth,’ of spittle without core,

Drifting. See here the fleeting factors five.

And O forget not hell where many thole. (501) Remember how we swell the charnel-fields,

Now dying, now again elsewhere reborn.

Remember what was said of ‘crocodiles,’ 433

And what those perils meant for us, and O!

Bear ye in mind the Four, the Ariyan Truths. (502)

Canst thou be satisfied with bitter draughts

Of sense satiety? All sensual joys

Are bitterer for the fivefold dogging Ill. 435(503)

Canst thou be satisfied with fevered fits

Of sense-satiety? All sensual joys

Are burning, boiling, ferment, 436 stew. (504)

Canst thou be satisfied with joys of sense

Engend’ring thee so many foes–the wrath

Or greed of king, or thief, or rival, harm

Through fire, or water–yea, so many foes! (505)

Be satisfied with sensual joys, wherein

Lie bonds and death? Yea, in those very joys

Lurk gaol and headsman. 439 They who seek t’ indulge

Their lusts needs must thereafter suffer ills. (506) Him will straw-torches burn who holds them long

And lets not go. So, in the parable, 440

Desires of sense burn them who let not go. (507) Cast not away, because of some vain joy

Of sense, the vaster happiness sublime,

Lest like the finny carp thou gulp the hook,

Only to find thyself for that foredone 441 (508) Tame thou thyself in sense-desires, nor let

Thyself be bound by them, as is a dog

Bound by a chain; else will they do forsooth

With thee as hungry pariahs with that dog. 442 (509)

Once more I say, immeasurable Ills

And many weary miseries of mind

Thou’lt suffer yoked to sensual life. Renounce,

Renounce desires of sense! They pass away. (510)

Canst thou be satisfied with sense-desires

That age so soon? Are not all things reborn,

Where’er it be, gripped by disease and death? (511)

THIS 444 that doth ne’er grow old, that dieth not,

THIS never-ageing, never-dying Path–

No sorrow cometh there, no enemies,

Nor is there any crowd; 445 none faint or fail,

No fear cometh, nor aught that doth torment– (512)

To THIS, the Path Ambrosial, have gone

Full many. And to-day, e’en now ’tis to be won.

But only by a life that’s utterly

Surrendered in devotion. Labour not,

And ye shall not attain!’

Thus Sumedhā (513)

Ended her say, who found no joy in all

Activities that lead from life to life,

And, to Anikaratta thus her mind

Declaring, dropped her tresses on the floor. (514)

Then up he rose with outstretched folded hands,

And with her father pleaded for her thus:

‘O suffer Sumedhā to leave the world,

That she may see the Truth and Liberty!’ (515)

The parents suffered her, and forth she went,

Afeared to stay and build up fear and grief.

Six branches of Insight she realized,

As learner, winning to the Topmost Fruit. (516)

O wondrous this! O marvellous in sooth!

Nibbāna for the daughter of a king!

Her state and conduct in her former births,

E’en as she told in her last life were these: (517)

‘When 446 Koṇāgamana was Buddha here,

And in a new abode, the Order’s Park,

Took up his dwelling, two o’ my friends, 447 and I

Built a Vihāra for the Master’s use. (518)

And many scores and centuries of lives

We lived among the gods, let alone men. (519)

Mighty our glory and our power among

The gods, nor need I speak of fame on earth.

Was I not consort of an Emperor,

The Treasure-Woman ’mongst the Treasures Seven? 448 (520)

Endurance 449 in the Truth the Master taught–

This was the cause, the source, the root,

This the First Link in the long Causal Line,

This is Nibbana if we love the Norm. (521)

Thus acting, 450 they who put their trust in Him,

Wisdom Supreme, 451 lose every wish and hope

Of coming back to be–and thus released

They from all passion’s stain are purified. 452 (522)