PSALMS OF THE BRETHREN
Canto I.
Psalms of Single Verses
CXX
Isidatta
Translated from the Pali by Mrs. C.A.F. Rhys Davids.
Public Domain
[Pali]
Reborn in this Buddha-age in the kingdom of Avanti at Veḷugama,[1] as the son of a caravan guide, he became (by correspondence) the unseen friend of Citta, a house-father at Macchikasaṇḍa. The latter wrote to him on the excellence of the Buddha, and sent him a copy of the system. This so moved him that he sought ordination under the Thera Kaccāna the Great. In due course he acquired sixfold abhiññā. Thereupon he had a mind to visit the Buddha, and taking leave of the Thera, came in course of time to the Middle Country,[2] and had an interview with the Master. The latter asked him the question, 'How goes [108] it with you, bhikkhu? Are you prospering?' And he replied: 'Exalted One, from the time when I was admitted into your Rule, all sorrow and pain left me, all sense of peril was calmed.' And he declared aññā in making that confession, uttering this verse:
[120] The factors of my life well understood
Stand yet a little while with severed root.[3]
Sorrow is slain! that quest I've won, and won
Is purity from fourfold Venom's stain.[4]
[1] Avanti lay north of the Vindhya Mountains, north-east of Bombay. It was one of the four chief monarchies in India when Buddhism arose, and was later absorbed into the Moriyan Empire. Its capital was Ujjenī. Veḷugāma (Bamboo-village) is not, so far, met with in other works (see Buddhist India, p. 1 ff.). Citta, whose home lay near Sāvatthī, was one of the most eminent lay-supporters of the Buddha. On this further instance, in the later tradition, of the doctrine being propagated by writing, cf. XCVII. On Kaccāma, see CXXIX. Pronounced Chitta, Kacchāna.
[2] The Ganges Valley (Rhys Davids, 'The Middle Country,' JRAS, 1904, p. 83 ff.).
[4] Āsavas.
