CANTO XVI PSALM OF THE GREAT CHAPTER

LXXIII
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) THE NECTAR OF THE NORM IS HERE! 434 O how Canst thou be satisfied with bitter draughts Of sense satiety? All sensual joys Are bitterer for the fivefold dogging Ill. 435(503) THE NECTAR OF THE NORM IS HERE! O how Canst thou be satisfied with fevered fits Of sense-satiety? All sensual joys Are burning, boiling, ferment, 436 stew. (504) THERE IS, WHERE ENMITY IS NOT! 437 O how 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) EMANCIPATION 438 WAITS! O how canst thou 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) THERE IS, THAT GROWETH NEVER OLD! 443 O how 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)

COMMENTATOR'S ENVOI

The Psalms of them who through the Gospel's grace Became the true-born children and the heirs, Mouth-born, of Him who is the Master Blest, King o' the Norm, creations of the Norm, Excelling in all virtue, Arahants, Who wrought all that 'twas possible to do– These Psalms, their utterances when AÑÑĀ They did proclaim, or whensoe'er it was, Beginning with Brother SUBHŪTI'S verse, With Sisters Psalms, headed by 'STURDYKIN'– All these the Leaders of the Order took, And in one ordered serial compiled, The THERAGĀTHĀ-THERĪGĀTHĀ named. To elucidate the import of that work Three Older Commentaries are extant. 453 Thereto this exegesis I have tried T' indite, the which, in that where'er 'twas fit, I strove to set the highest meaning forth, I named the Paramattha-Dīpanī; The whole whereof, now finished to the end, By orderly decision is arranged, For recitation from the sacred text, In chapters of the number ninety-two. Thus by the efficacy of such good As has accrued to me, by me applied, Have I made bright the glory of the word, The system, of the Sovran of the world; That, by their pure attainment in all truth And virtue, mortals all may come to taste The essence of emancipation won. Long may the Very Buddha's Word and Law Abide, and ever may it be revered By every creature that hath life and breath! And may the weather-god in season due Send rain on earth, and may the powers that be Govern the world as lovers of the Norm!

Thus endeth the Commentary on the Therigāthā, by the Teacher, Brother Dhammapāla, residing at the Padara-Tittha-Vihāra.

⁴¹⁰ See Ps. lxi., n.

⁴¹¹ The two Kings and their capitals are all names unknown in Indian records. Vāraṇavatī=having elephants, or ramparts. Koñca = heron.

⁴¹² Cf. Ps xli. In the Commentary, p. 273, read, for patikulamanasikāraŋ, paṭikkūla°.

⁴¹³ Sāsanakārā=, according to the Commentary, Ariyans–i.e., Arahants, including the Buddhas. Just below, sāsana is rendered by 'system.' Sumedhā=very wise.

⁴¹⁴ See note, verse 436.

⁴¹⁵ In Pali 'no eternal rebirth.'

⁴¹⁶ Rebirth in 'hell,' as animal, as 'ghost,' as demon, are the four ('purgatorial lives,' vinipāta, in 452); as human or as god. the two.

⁴¹⁷ The Ten Powers peculiar to a Tathāgata are: (1) He knows thoroughly right and wrong occasions; (2) he knows thoroughly the effect of all karma-series; (3) the methods for accomplishing anything; (4) the elements (data) of the world; (5) the various tendencies, inclinations, of beings; (6) the capacities of beings; (7) the nature and procedure of all contemplative disciplines; (8) former lives; (9) he has the 'celestial vision'; (10) he has realized the intellectual emancipation of the Arahant (A., v. 33 ſſ.).

⁴¹⁸ Kāyakalinā asārena. The rendering of the former obscure term is, perhaps, a trifle forced, but was chosen from the use of kali in Jātaka, v. 134 (=khela, spittle, froth), because of the juxtaposition of asāra=pithless, without essence (cf. Saŋy. Nik., iii. 140), in preference to the more usual association of kali with gambling. See ver. 501.

⁴¹⁹ Vāreyyam. So above, lit., 'Let there be choosing for thee, child,' the term for marriage in high life, whether or no the woman had any voice in the matter.

⁴²⁰ Lit., 'What is it like?'

⁴²¹ Apetaviññāṇo.

⁴²² Yoniso aruciŋ. Cf. Pss. xxx., xxxviii., lvii.

⁴²³ Cf. Samyutta Nikāya, iii. 149: 'Eternal, brethren, is the wandering (saŋsāro)–nor is the beginning thereof revealed–of them, who, hindered by ignorance and fettered by craving, run to and fro, and wander (among rebirths). . . .' So op. cit., v. 431: 'It is because we had not grasped the Four Truths, brethren, that we have run and wandered up and down so long, both I and you.'

⁴²⁴ 'In the Nirayas.' See p. 162, n. 1.

⁴²⁵ The Commentary holds she went on to the other 'signs'–Ill, or Sorrow, and Soullessness.

⁴²⁶ A mythical ancestor of Sumedhā's and the Buddha's people, the Sākiyas. Mentioned in Ang. Nik., ii. 7; Jātaka, ii. 310, iii. 454 ſſ.; Dīpavansa, iii. 5; Mahāvansa, 8, 231; Milindapañha, 115, 291, etc.

⁴²⁷ These similes are all quoted from Majjhima Nikāya, i. 130, 364 ſſ. Cf. Saŋy. Nik., i. 128; Ang. Nik., iii. 97. See below.

⁴²⁸ The text in these four lines gives merely the metaphor As this would call up no associated similes in us, I expand the terms after the similes in Majjhima Nikāya, 54th Sutta, whence they are borrowed.

⁴²⁹ A simile frequent in the Nikāyas. Presumably muslin turbans, let alone oily hair-dressing, often caused such mishaps. Cf. Saŋy. Nik., i. 108, v. 440; Any. Nik., ii. 93, etc.

⁴³⁰ These and the following verses are apparently allusions to the first Vagga of the Anamatagga Saŋyutta ('World-without-end' Collocation) in the Saŋyutta Nikāya, vol. ii., 178 ſſ. The only feature lacking there is the perennial blood-flow–a point not without interest in the history of the Pali Canon. The bone-cairn gāthā in the Vagga is quoted by the Commentator, and runs thus:

'But one man's bones who has one æon lived
Might form a cairn–so said the Mighty Seer–
High as Vipulla, higher than the Peak
Of Vultures, mountain-burg of Magadha'–

i.e., the ancient hill fortress of the Magadhese before they built their capital Rājagaha in the plain. No more ancient remains than these in India have yet been identified (Rhys Davids, Buddhist India, 37).

The repetition in verses 496, 497 is curious in a work where redundancy is so severely repressed. Either it goes to strengthen the symptoms that the last two Psalms are by a different and later hand, or else two versions have here been incorporated. In 496 Sumedhā first speaks to all her three chief hearers: 'Call ye to mind' (saratha); the following admonitions are to the Prince only: 'bear in mind' and 'remember' (sarāhi, sara).

⁴³¹ In the Vagga just alluded to, the earth itself, and not India (Jambudīpa), is the insufficient source. The 'squares of straw' is from the same Vagga.

⁴³² This simile is from Majjhima Nik., iii. 169, and Saŋyutta Nik., v. 455. The 'body-parable' is from the latter work (iii. 140). The body (rūpa) is as empty of essence (soul) as the clot of foam drifting down the Ganges.

⁴³³ The danger from crocodiles is, in two of the Nikāyas, used metaphorically for gluttony, one of the four perils of 'those who go down to the water'; it is in the Canon applied only to a Bhikkhu's temptations (Majjh. Nik., i. 460; Ang. Nik., ii. 124).

⁴³⁴ Nectar=amataŋ, rendered elsewhere in this work by 'ambrosia,' its etymological equivalent. Usually considered one of the many terms for Nibbana, it is here by the commentarial tradition associated with the Dhamma–'the Amata of the Norm brought to us by the Very Buddha in his great compassion.'

⁴³⁵ Lit., 'Are bitterer by the fivefold-bitter,' explained by the Commentary as 'by the following after of the yet sharper Ill' (dukkhaŋ). Fivefold, referring to the five senses.

⁴³⁶ Kuthitā may be from one of three roots: kuth, smell; kuth, distressed; kvath, cook (cf. Müller, Pali Grammar, 41). The first, chosen by Dr. Neumann, seems forced here. The last accords best with the other three metaphors of heating process.

⁴³⁷ Lit., 'The unhostile being' (locative absolute). The Pali has no metaphor of place whatever.

⁴³⁸ Mokkhamhi vijjamāne, lit., exists. Mokkho, probably substituted metri causa for vimutti, is a relatively late term.

⁴³⁹ These two terms are, in the text, the same as the corresponding pair in the preceding line.

⁴⁴⁰ In Majjhima Nik., i. 365, where the torch is said to be borne against the wind, not held too long.

⁴⁴¹ A simile from Saŋyutta Nik., ii. 226,–iv. 158; Jātaka, v. 389; vi. 416, 432, 437.

⁴⁴² The dog, according to the Commentary, being unable to get away from them, is killed, and presumably eaten. There is no suggestion to the effect that it was acting as watch-dog, and that the pariahs were thieves, beyond stealing the dog. 'Will they do'=kāhinti; Commentary= karissanti. Pischel pronounced the other reading khāhinti as 'no doubt correct,' because of a passage in Hemacandra's Prakrit Grammar. But Dhammapāla, nearer to the age of the Therigāthā Pali by at least 500 years, seems to me to have the stronger claim, let alone plausibility.

⁴⁴³ She now, says the Commentary, turns to show forth the excellence of Nibbana.

⁴⁴⁴ Asambādhaŋ. The Commentary takes this figuratively: 'from the absence of the crowd of corruptions' (or torments, kilesā.). In view of the cardinal importance in the Vinaya of cultivating solitude (cf. Dhammadinnā in Ps. xii.), because, too, of its being the path of the minority, and because of the Suttanta phrase calling the lay life sambādha, and the religious life abbhokāsa, free as air, I incline to take it literally.

⁴⁴⁵ [No footnote matches this number in the original text.]

⁴⁴⁶ This narrative repeated in from the Apadāna.

⁴⁴⁷ The two friends are said to have been Khemā (Ps. lii.) and Dhanañjānī, a brahminee convert (Saŋ. Nik., i. 160).

⁴⁴⁸ For these, see Buddhist Suttas (S.B.E., xi.), pp. 251 ſſ.

⁴⁴⁹ Khanti. See Dīgha Nik. ii. 49.

⁴⁵⁰ Another reading is, 'Thus telling.'

⁴⁵¹ Lit., 'Who has immeasurable wisdom.'

⁴⁵² This line expands the Pali word virajjati, according to the commentary, which supplements 'purified' by 'set free.' On the metre of the whole Psalm, see Introduction.

⁴⁵³ On these, see my Buddhist Psychology, xx.-xxii.