PSALMS OF THE BRETHREN

Canto II.
Psalms of Two Verses

CXLII
Bhaddaji

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

Public Domain

[Pali]

 

Reborn in this Buddha-age at Bhaddīya,^[1] as the only child of a councillor whose fortune was worth eighty crores,^[2] he was named Bhaddaji, and was brought up in luxury, like that attending the Bodhisat in his last rebirth. ... (The Commentary then relates the story of his sudden [130] realization of arahantship while listening for the first time to the Buddha, the latter having come from Sāvatthī purposely to seek him out; together with his following the Master and his company, the week after, to Koṭigama, and retiring to the bank of the Ganges to become absorbed in jhāna. Thence he emerges only when the Master came by, not heeding the preceding chief Theras. To vindicate his new supreme attainments, the Buddha invites him on to his own ferry-boat, and bids him work a wonder. Bhaddaji thereupon raises the submerged palace he dwelt in when he was King Panāda, all being told in the 'Maha-panada-Jātaka,' ii., No. 264.) Then the Thera described the golden mansion in which he had once lived, speaking of himself, that self having passed away,^[3] as of another:

[163] Panada was that king by name
Whose palace was of gold;
Sixteen apartments deep it stood,
Aloft a thousandfold.

[164.] A thousand flights it rose on high,
Its walls with scroll-work dight,
With many a flaunting banner hung,
With emeralds glittering bright.
'Twas there they danced, Gandharvas danced,
Six thousand in seven bands.

 

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^[1] In the Angas' country, east of Magadha. Koṭigama was near Patna. The Bodhisat is, of course, Gotama, before he became a Buddha. The Commentary differs from the Jātaka version (see next page) only in a few small details, and uses independent phraseology.

^[2] I.e., 800,000,000. The unit seems to have been a copper coin, termed kahapana. See Bud. India, p. 100 ff.

^[3] On this mythical king see also Dīgha, iii. 76; Jāt., iv., No. 489. Dīpavaɱsa, iii. 7; Mahāvaɱsa (translation), xxxi. 7 ff. Jat. No. 264 gives a fuller account of Bhaddaji's performance. The text versions are uncertain in some of the descriptive terms, and the Commentary's authorities are equally divided. Hence the attempt at ballad form above does not claim to have selected an absolutely correct rendering. The last two lines refer to the vain efforts of mimes or musicians, collected by Panāda's father to make the prince smile. He, reminiscent of celestial art, was only moved to a slight smile when Sakka, the god, sent a celestial harlequin (Jāt., op. cit.). Cf. Mil. 130.