PSALMS OF THE BRETHREN
Canto I.
Psalms of Single Verses
CVI
Suhemanta
Translated from the Pali by Mrs. C.A.F. Rhys Davids.
Public Domain
[Pali]
Reborn in this Buddha-age in the Border country as the son of a wealthy brahmin, he went to hear the Exalted One teach the Norm in the deer park at the town of Sankassa.[1] Leaving the world he joined the Order, and became a reciter of the Three Piṭakas,[2] becoming in due course possessor of sixfold abhiññā. Thereupon he thought: 'I have won all that a disciple may win. What if I were now to do a service to the brethren?' So he lectured to them and solved their difficulties. And one day he addressed them and other intelligent persons concerning himself in this verse:
[106] A hundred tokens show, a hundred marks
Betray wherein the hidden meaning[3] lies.
Whoso hath eyes to see but one, a dullard is,
Who can discern the hundred, he is wise.
Thus the Thera magnified before the Brethren his attainment of analytic knowledge that was so excellent.
[1] Mentioned by Fa-Hien as a thriving Buddhist centre. The name exists to this day, the village being 45 miles north-east of Kanuj (Legge's Travels of Fa-Hien, 1886).
[3] Attha = ñeyya, Cy.
