[296. Padapūjaka1]

On a Himalayan mountain,
I was a kinnara2 back then.
I saw the Buddha, Stainless One,
[bright but cool] like a rayless sun3
who had approached me at that time,
Vipassi Buddha, World-Leader.
And then I rubbed upon [his] feet
sandalwood and also incense.4 (1-2) [2697-2698]

In the ninety-one aeons since
I performed pūjā to those feet,
I’ve come to know no bad rebirth:
the fruit of doing foot-pūjā. (3) [2699]

The four analytical modes,
and these eight deliverances,
six special knowledges mastered,
[I have] done what the Buddha taught! (4) [2700]

Thus indeed Venerable Padapūjaka Thera spoke these verses.

The legend of Padapūjaka Thera is finished.

  1. “Foot-Worshipper”

  2. the kinnara (Sinh. kandura) has a human head and a horse’s body; “centaur”.

  3. vītaraṃsa; see above, note to #215, v. 1 [2339]. xxx should this, and the two sun metaphors in #215, and again #305, be treated as epithets? The distinction is taken to be the presence (or not, in the case of epithets) of comparative enclitics like va, iva

  4. a specific type of it, Sinh. tuvaralā, frankincense