CHAPTER OF POEMS WITH TWELVE VERSES

Verses 224-235: Uppalavaṇṇā

VERSE 224

The two of us, mother and daughter, were co-wives. [On discovering the reality of my situation] there arose in me an earnest attitude [to the practice], extraordinary and hair-raising.

Ubho mātā ca dhītā ca mayaṃ āsuṃ sapattiyo
Tassā me ahu saṃvego abbhuto lomahaṃsano

COMMENT

‘[On discovering the reality of my situation]’: In her first marriage Uppalavaṇṇā had had a son, Gaṅgātīriya (Th.v.127-128). After his birth Uppalavaṇṇā was banished by her mother-in-law and had a daughter in a second marriage who she also lost contact with. Uppalavaṇṇā’s third marriage was to Gaṅgātīriya, her own son. And further, Gaṅgātīriya’s second wife turned out to be his half-sister, Uppalavaṇṇā’s daughter. When this was discovered, the shock of it sent both Gaṅgātīriya and Uppalavaṇṇā into robes. In her verses Uppalavaṇṇā freely admits the blood relationship to the co-wife, but on the relationship to the husband she is silent (Thī.v.224-5).

An effort to suppress the story would explain why, in his introduction to Paramatthadipani, Mller quotes Dhammapāla as saying that when Uppalavaṇṇā ‘was grown up all the kings and princes of Jambudīpa sent messengers to ask for her in marriage, but her father thought that he could not satisfy them all, and proposed to his daughter to take holy orders. She consented, and after spending some time in a nunnery she realised arahantship... A particular difficulty seems to lie in the first stanzas attributed to Uppalavaṇṇā, namely stanzas 224 and 225. In order to explain the two stanzas Dhammapāla gives us a special story of the Thera Gaṅgātīriya, who married his own mother and sister. After having recognised her daughter by a mark on the head, the mother went into a nunnery at Rājāgaha and took holy orders. The story is considered as an episode in one of Uppalavaṇṇā’s former lives, although I cannot say why Dhammapāla did not combine it with his introductory chapter’ (p.xiv-xv). Both BDPPN and Mrs. Rhys Davids relate both accounts without questioning the discrepancy.

Likewise, on Gaṅgātīriya’s verses Mrs. Rhys Davids says ‘The allusion here to his incest is so delicately or vaguely worded that it needs the explanation afforded by the Sister-chronicle.’ The explanation that introduces her verses is this: Sā jhānasukhena phalasukhena nibbānasukhena ca vītināmentī ekadivasaṃ kāmānaṃ ādīnavaṃ okāraṃ saṅkilesañca paccavekkhamānā gaṅgātīriyattherassa mātuyā dhītāya saddhiṃ sapattivāsaṃ uddissa saṃvegajātāya vuttagāthā paccanubhāsantī.

COMMENT

Saṃvego: ‘an earnest attitude [to the practice].’ See IGPT sv Saṃvega.

 

VERSE 225

Woe upon foul, foul-smelling, sensuous pleasures, full of thorns, involved in which we, mother and daughter, were co-wives.

Dhiratthu kāmā asucī duggandhā bahukaṇṭakā
Yattha mātā ca dhītā ca sabhariyā mayaṃ ahuṃ

COMMENT

Bahukaṇṭakā: ‘full of thorns.’ Commentary: bahuvidhakilesakaṇṭakā.

• So, too, whatever in the world [of phenomena] is agreeable and pleasing is called a thorn in the [terminology of the] Noble One’s training system.
evaṃ kho bhikkhave yaṃ loke piyarūpaṃ sātarūpaṃ ayaṃ vuccati ariyassa vinaye kaṇṭako (S.4.189).

 

VERSE 226

Seeing danger in sensuous pleasures, and safety in the practice of unsensuousness I went forth from the household life into the ascetic life in Rājagaha.

Kāmesvādīnavaṃ disvā nekkhammaṃ daṭṭhu khemato
Sā pabbajiṃ rājagahe agārasmānagāriyaṃ

COMMENT

Nekkhammaṃ: ‘the practice of unsensuousness.’ See IGPT sv Nekkhamma.

 

VERSE 227

I know my past lives. My divine vision is purified. I have knowledge [of the minds of other beings and persons], having encompassed them with my own mind. My [divine] ear is purified.

Pubbenivāsaṃ jānāmi dibbacakkhuṃ visodhitaṃ
Cetopariccañāṇañca sotadhātu visodhitā

COMMENT

Cetopariccañāṇañca: ‘I have knowledge [of the minds of other beings and persons], having encompassed them with my own mind.’ See comment on verse 71.

 

VERSE 228

I have attained psychic powers. I have accomplished the destruction of perceptually obscuring states. I have realised the six supernormal attainments. I have fulfilled the Buddha’s training system.

Iddhīpi me sacchikatā patto me āsavakkhayo
Chaḷabhiññā sacchikatā kataṃ buddhassa sāsanaṃ

 

VERSE 229

Having created by psychic power a four-horsed chariot, I venerated the feet of the Buddha, the Saviour of the World, the one of excellent qualities.

Iddhiyā abhinimmitvā caturassaṃ rathaṃ ahaṃ
Buddhassa pāde vanditvā lokanāthassa tādino

COMMENT

Vanditvā: ‘I venerated.’ Norman notes no finite verb, and therefore parenthesises ‘and I stood to one side.’ We ourselves treat vanditvā as a finite verb.

 

VERSE 230

[Māra, having approached Uppalavaṇṇā in solitude:]

‘Having approached a tree in full flower you remain alone at the root of the tree. And you do not even have a companion. Lass, do you not fear rogues?’

Supupphitaggaṃ upagamma pādapaṃ ekā tuvaṃ tiṭṭhasi sālamūle
Na cāpi te dutiyo atthi koci na tvaṃ bāle bhāyasi dhuttakānaṃ

COMMENT

The corresponding verse in the Uppalavaṇṇā Sutta says this:

Supupphitaggaṃ upagamma bhikkhunī ekā tvaṃ tiṭṭhasi sālamūle
Na catthi te dutiyā vaṇṇadhātu idhāgatā tādisikā bhaveyyuṃ
Bāle na tvaṃ bhāyasi dhuttakānanti
(S.1.131).

 

VERSE 231

[Uppalavaṇṇā:]

‘Even if a hundred thousand rogues like you gathered [here] I would stir or tremble not a hair’s [breadth]. So, what will you alone do to me, Māra?’

Sataṃ sahassānipi dhuttakānaṃ samāgatā edisakā bhaveyyuṃ
Lomaṃ na iñje napi sampavedhe kiṃ me tuvaṃ māra karissaseko

COMMENT

Lomaṃ: ‘hair’s [breadth].’ Commentary: lomamattampi.

 

VERSE 232

[Māra:]

‘I will disappear from you. Or, I will enter your belly or stand between your eyebrows: you will not see me standing there.’

Esā antaradhāyāmi kucchiṃ vā pavisāmi te
Bhamukantare tiṭṭhāmi tiṭṭhantiṃ maṃ na dakkhasi

COMMENT

The commentary and the Uppalavaṇṇā Sutta (S.1.131) say Uppalavaṇṇā speaks this verse. We reject this for two reasons:

1) It is not the right speech one would expect of an arahant.

2) It does not harmonise with the assertion ‘I would not stir.’

3) It is reminiscent of Mara’s interaction with Moggallana: Tena kho pana samayena māro pāpimā āyasmato mahāmoggallānassa kucchigato hoti... ajānameva kho maṃ ayaṃ samaṇo apassaṃ (M.1.332).

 

VERSE 233

[Uppalavaṇṇā:]

‘I have mastery over my mind. I have fully developed the [four] paths to psychic power. I have realised the six supernormal attainments. I have fulfilled the Buddha’s training system.

Cittamhi vasībhūtāhaṃ iddhipādā subhāvitā
Chaḷabhiññā sacchikatā kataṃ buddhassa sāsanaṃ

COMMENT

The corresponding verse in the Uppalavaṇṇā Sutta says Māra disappears after Uppalavaṇṇā speaks the following slightly different words, which seem a more satisfactory conclusion to this threatening conversation. We will show that the following verses 234-5 cannot be held to fulfill this concluding role:

• ‘I have mastery over my mind. I have fully developed the [four] paths to psychic power. I am free of all bonds [to individual existence]. I do not fear you, friend.
Cittasmiṃ vasībhūtāmhi iddhipādā subhāvitā
Sabbabandhanamuttāmhi na taṃ bhāyāmi āvuso ti
(S.1.132).

 

VERSE 234

‘[Indulging in] sensuous pleasures is like [being executed] by a sword or [impaled] on a stake. The [five] aggregates are like [sensual pleasures’] chopping block. What you call sensuous delight is now for me [a source of] disgust.

Sattisūlūpamā kāmā khandhā’saṃ adhikuṭṭanā
Yaṃ tvaṃ kāmaratiṃ brūsi aratī dāni sā mama

COMMENT

Sattisūlūpamā kāmā: ‘[Indulging in] sensuous pleasures is like [being executed] by a sword or [impaled] on a stake.’ The parenthesis ‘impaled’ is suggested by sūlaṃ āropamānakaṃ (Th.v.213).

COMMENT

This verse and the following verse are likely interpolative, copied as a pair from verses 58-9 (Selā’s verses) or verses 141-2 (Khemā’s verses), because of the discrepancy noted in the comment above, and the comment on verse 142.

 

VERSE 235

‘Spiritually fettering delight has been utterly dispelled. The mass of inward darkness is obliterated. Thus know, Maleficent One, you are defeated, Destroyer.’

Sabbattha vihatā nandi tamokkhandho padālito
Evaṃ jānāhi pāpima nihato tvamasi antakā ti

COMMENT

Nandi: ‘spiritually fettering delight.’ See IGPT sv Nandi.

COMMENT

Tamo: ‘inward darkness.’ Inward darkness equals the āsavas. See IGPT sv Kaṇha.

COMMENT

This verse is likely interpolative. See comment on verse 142.