PSALMS OF THE BRETHREN

Canto I.
Psalms of Single Verses

XXV
Nandiya

Translated from the Pali by Mrs. C.A.F. Rhys Davids.

Public Domain

[Pali]

 

Born in this Buddha-age at Kapilavatthu, in the house of a Sākiyan rāja, his parents said: He is born bringing us bliss; and they called him Nandiya (Beatus). Grown up, he went forth, when Anuruddha and the rest left the world under the Master. And because of his studies and his resolve made in the past, he soon attained arahantship. Thereafter he dwelt with Anuruddha the Thera^[1] and his [30] friends, in the Eastern Bamboo Wood. There Māra, the Evil One, wishing to frighten him, appeared in a terrifying shape. But the Thera drove him away with the words, 'O Evil One! what canst thou do with those that have transcended thy realm? 'Tis thou that thereby wilt meet with defeat and ruin.'

[25] To him whose thought is ever newly born
From splendour of the Path, and eke hath touched
The Fruit - if such a Brother thou assail'st,
Black-hearted sprite, to misery thou must go.^[2]

 

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^[1] On Anuruddha and his friends, see Ps. CXXXVIII. - CXXXIX., CCLVI. (cf. Ps. CXXXVIII). The only passage where Nandiya is mentioned independently is Saɱy., v. 403. Dhammapada Com., on verses 219, 220, refers to a quite different Nandiya (verse 11, Nandika, Nanda) of Benares, a lay-adherent.

^[2] Cf. verse 1189.