PSALMS OF THE BRETHREN
Canto II.
Psalms of Two Verses
CXLIX
Bhāradvāja
Translated from the Pali by Mrs. C.A.F. Rhys Davids.
Public Domain
Reborn in this Buddha-age at Rājagaha in a brahmin's family, he came to be designated by his gens-name of Bhāradvāja.[1] Living the domestic life, a son was born to him, and he named him Kaṇhadinna. When the boy was of proper age, his father said, 'Come, dear boy, and study under such and such a teacher,' and sent him to Takkasilā.[2] On his way thither he made friends with a great Thera, a disciple of the Master, heard him teach the Norm, took orders, and after due training won arahantship.
Now his father Bhāradvāja heard the Exalted One teach the Norm at the Bamboo Grove Vihāra, and he, too, left the world and realized arahantship. But Kaṇhadinna came to salute the Master at Rājagaha, and with joy he saw his father seated near the latter. And he asked himself: 'My father, too, has gone forth. Has he, I [137] wonder, attained the end of the religious life?' Then he discerned that his father was an arahant, and wishing to make him utter a lion-roar, asked him: 'Hast thou succeeded in attaining the end of that for which we leave the world?' Then Bhāradvāja showed his attainment in these verses:
[177] 'Tis thus th' enlightened lift their triumph-song,
Like lions roaring in the hill-ravine,[3]
Heroes who in the holy war have won,
And conquered evil, Māra and his host.
[178] The servant of the blessed Master I,
A votary of the Norm and Brotherhood;
And glad and gratified my heart to see
My son purged of the poisons, sane, immune.
[1] A numerous gens, but not reckoned of high rank (Vinaya Texts, iv. 6). At least twenty individuals of this surname are met with in the Piṭakas.
[2] The Taxila of Greek chroniclers, a famous ancient seat of learning in Kashmir. See the numerous references in the Jātaka.
[3] Cf. the introductory verses.
