The Victor, Padumuttara,
was a Master of Everything.
That Leader arose in the world
one hundred thousand aeons hence.

I was born in Haṃsavatī,
in a clan of millionaires then,
glistening with various gems,
endowed with supreme happiness.

Having approached that Great Hero,
I heard him preaching the Dhamma.
Then, pleasure born in my heart, I
approached the Victor for refuge.

Then the Great Compassionate One,
the Leader, Padumuttara,
fixed a nun in the foremost place
of those with quick intuition.

Hearing that, being overjoyed,
having given the Great Sage alms,
bowing my head down at his feet
I aspired to attain that place.

The Great Hero approved of that:
“Lucky one, there will be success
in everything for which you wish.
Be happy, you should feel appeased.

In one hundred thousand aeons,
arising in Okkāka’s clan,
the one whose name is Gotama
will be the Teacher in the world.

Worthy heir to that one’s Dhamma,
Dhamma’s legitimate offspring,
named Bhaddākuṇḍalakesā
you’ll be the Teacher’s follower.”

Due to that karma done very well,
with intention and firm resolve,
discarding my human body,
I went to Tāvatiṃsa then.

Fallen thence, I went to Yāma,
and then I went to Tusita,
and then to Nimmānarati,
and then Vāsavatti city.

In whichever place I’m reborn,
in accordance with that karma,
everyplace I was made chief queen
of the gods who were the kings there.

Fallen thence, in the human state,
everyplace I was made chief queen
of kings who turn the wheel of law,
and powerful regional kings.

Having experienced success,
among gods as well as humans,
becoming happy everywhere,
I transmigrated for aeons.

In this present lucky aeon,
Brahma’s Kinsman, Greatly Famed One,
the Buddha known as Kassapa
was born, the Best of Debaters.

The attendant of the Great Sage
was the ruler of men back then,
the king of Kāsi, named Kiki,
in Benares, greatest city.

I was then that king’s fourth daughter,
well-known as Bhikkhadāyikā.
Hearing the Best Victor’s Teaching,
I chose to seek ordination.

Our father did not permit it;
we stayed at home during that time,
comfortable royal maidens
doing our practice with vigor
in virginal celibacy,
for twenty times a thousand years,
fond of waiting on the Buddha,
the king’s seven joyful daughters.

Samaṇī, and Samaṇaguttā,
Bhikkhunī, Bhikkhadāyikā,
Dhammā, and also Sudhammā,
and seventh Saṅghadāyikā,

now Uppalavaṇṇā, Khemā
also Paṭācārā and I,
Kisāgotamī, Dhammadinnā,
and Visākhā is the seventh.

Due to those karmas done very well,
with intention and firm resolve,
discarding my human body,
I went to Tāvatiṃsa then.

And now, in my final rebirth,
in Giribbaja, best city,
I was born to rich millionaires.
When I’d become a young woman,

attracted to a thief I saw
being led to execution,
my father, paying a thousand,
had him freed from execution.

After that, discerning my mind,
my father gave me to that thief.
I was trustworthy for him, and
extremely kindly and friendly.

He, out of greed for my jewels,
that enemy with ill-intent,
led me to the thieves’ precipice
on a mountain, plotting murder.

Then stretching out to Sattuka,
hands which were well pressed together,
protecting my own breath of life,
I spoke these words to him just then:

“This bracelet which is made of gold,
containing many pearls and gems,
Sir, carry all of this away;
announce that I’m your bed-slave.”

“Take it off, O beautiful one,
and do not feel a lot of grief;
I am unable to accept
wealth that I did not kill to get.

For as long as I remember,
ever since I reached discretion,
I have accepted no other
more beloved than you to me.”

“Come here! Having embraced you, \[just
one more\] circumambulation.
And after now there will not be
intercourse between you and me.”

The man is not the one who’s wise
in every single circumstance;
paying attention, here and there,
the woman is the one who’s wise.

The man is not the one who’s wise
in every single circumstance;
quick-thinking, with good strategy,
the woman is the one who’s wise.

Quickly indeed, in just a flash,
I came up with a clever trick:
like a deer by a mighty bow,
Sattuka was slaughtered by me.

Who fails quickly to understand
the circumstances that arise,
he gets murdered, that silly thief,
in the belly of a mountain.

Who does not fail to quickly grasp
the circumstances that arise,
she is freed from creaturely bonds;
such was I from Sattuka then.

Then I made him, Sattuka, fall
from a treacherous mountain road.
Coming into the presence of
some white-clad adepts, I went forth.

Then after plucking out my hair
altogether, using tweezers,
being ordained, in no long time,
they detailed their own tradition.

Then after I had learned all that,
gone off by myself, sitting down,
I thought about that tradition.
Then a dog brought a human hand,
chewed off, and after dropping it
in my vicinity, ran off.
Seeing that maggoty hand, I
took it up for meditation.

Then producing deep emotion,
I asked my co-religionists.
They said: “the Śākyan Buddhist monks
know the answers to your questions.”

“I’ll ask that meaning, approaching
the followers of the Buddha.”
Taking me along they all went
into the Best Buddha’s presence.

He preached Dhamma to me: the heaps
in the thought-spheres and elements;
the Leader taught unpleasantness,
impermanence, dis-ease, no-self.

After hearing his Dhamma, I
then purified the “Dhamma eye.”
Learned in the good Teaching, I
asked to go forth and be ordained.
At that time he said this to me:
“Come, lucky one,” said the Leader.
Then being fully ordained, I
saw a little bit of water.

Cleaning my feet, discerning that
some water splashed up, some spilled down,
then at that time I realized,
“all conditioned things are like that.”

Then my heart was liberated,
altogether, without clinging.
Then the Victor dubbed me foremost
of those with quick intuition.

I’ve mastered the superpowers
like the “divine ear” element.
I know the hearts of others too,
I have done what the Teacher taught.

I remember my former lives;
my “divine eye” is purified.
Throwing off all the defilements,
I am purified, I’m stainless.

The Teacher’s been worshipped by me;
I have done what the Buddha taught.
The heavy load has been laid down,
the ties to existence severed.

The reason for which I went forth,
from my home into homelessness —
I have now achieved that purpose:
destruction of all the fetters.

In meaning and in the Teaching,
etymology and preaching,
my knowledge is vast and flawless,
through the Great Sage’s majesty.

My defilements are now burnt up;
all new existence is destroyed.
Like elephants with broken chains,
I am living without constraint.

Being in Best Buddha's presence
was a very good thing for me.
The three knowledges are attained;
I have done what the Buddha taught!

The four analytical modes,
and these eight deliverances,
six special knowledges mastered,
I have done what the Buddha taught!

Thus indeed Bhikkhunī Bhaddā-Kuṇḍalakesā spoke these verses.

The legend of Bhaddā-Kuṇḍalakesā Therī is finished.