Narrator
A brahmin who’d mastered all mantras,
Desiring the state of no-thingness,
From Kosalans’ fair city he left then
Towards the southern parts.

By Godhāvarī river he sojourned
In Assaka’s realm near Alaka’s border,
Surviving on gleanings and fruit.

Close by to him a village large,
With revenue derived from there,
Great the sacrifice he performed.

With ritual offerings made
For the sacrifice, he returned
To his hermitage again,
And there another brahmin came.

Footsore and thirsty, he,
with teeth unclean, dust-covered head,
then approached him begging for
at least five hundred coins.

Having seen him, Bāvarī
invited him to take a seat
and asked about his comfort, health—
then to the stranger spoke these words:

Bāvarī
Whatever was given for me to give,
All this I’ve given away,
So brahmin please forgive me,
I’ve not five hundred coins.

Brahmin
If your honour will not give
To me who begs from him,
Then let your head be split apart
In seven days from now.

Narrator
Having done preparatory rites
That charlatan a fearful curse pronounced,
So that having heard his words
“one-with-dukkha” did Bāvarī become.

He took no food and withered up,
afflicted with the dart of grief;
and then with mind of such a kind,
his heart enjoyed no jhāna.

Seeing him suffering, terrified,
a deva there who wished his good,
on drawing near to Bāvarī,
to him she spoke these words:

Devī
He doesn’t know about the head,
that charlatan desiring wealth;
of heads, and splitting heads apart,
in him no knowing’s found.

Bāvarī
If my lady knows of this,
when asked, please tell me too;
let me hear your words on this,
on heads and splitting heads apart.

Devī
I do not know about this thing,
in me no knowing’s found,
on heads and splitting heads apart
but by Victors it has been Seen.

Bāvarī
Who, then knows about this thing?
Who on this sphere of earth?
On heads and splitting heads apart,
O deva, tell me this.

Devī
From out of Kapilavatthu town
came lately, Leader of the world,
a Sakyan son bringing light,
a scion of Okkāka king.

He is indeed a Wakened One
all dharmas gone across,
all straightly-knowing’s power won,
in all dharmas, Seer,
to exhaustion of all dharmas won,
freed by all assets’ wearing out—

One Awakened, lord of the world,
the Seer who teaches Dharma,
go to him and then enquire—
that matter he’ll explain.

Narrator
On hearing “Sambuddha”—that word,
Bāvarī was overjoyed,
and grief diminished too,
while rapture then arose in him.
Glad at heart, overjoyed, in awe,
spoke Bāvarī to that devatā:

Bāvarī
In which village, in which town,
in which state is the world’s lord found?
Where should we go to honour him,
the All-awakened, best of men?

Devī
In Kosala’s kingdom he dwells,
the greatly wise truly of Knowledge profound,
of Sakyas the scion, burdenless, from inflows free,
the eminent among men knows splitting the head.

Narrator
Addressing then his brahmin pupils,
those who had mastered the mantras:

Bāvarī
Come here, young brahmins, listen well
for I shall speak to you.

Whose rare appearance in the world
is hard then to experience,
has appeared for us today,
acclaimed as All-awakened One,
quickly now go to Sāvatthī,
to see this Best of men.

Pupils
How, O brahmin, shall we know
on seeing him that he’s Awake?
Tell us, who are so ignorant,
that him we’ll recognize?

Bāvarī
In mantra-hymns come down to us,
the signs of Superman—
two and thirty there complete,
in order are described.

Upon whose body these appear—
these signs of the Superman—
two possibilities are there for birth,
a third bourn is not found:

So should he choose the household life,
this world he’ll conquer weaponless,
non-violently, without a sword,
by Dharma rule it righteously.

But if he go forth from home
to the state of homelessness,
he’ll be Awake, removed the veils,
one of worth, the unexcelled.

Question in your mind alone
my birth, my caste, how I appear,
my mantras, pupils and so on,
with heads and splitting heads apart.

If he’s indeed the One Awake,
who, lacking obscurations, Sees;
to Questions asked in mind alone,
he will reply with words.

Narrator
The voice of Bāvarī they heard,
those brahmin pupils—all sixteen:
Ajita, Tissamettayya,
Puṇṇaka, then there’s Mettagu,

Dhotaka, Upasīva then
Nanda, also Hemaka,
Todeyya, Kappa—just those two,
Jātukaṇṇa the learned one,

Bhadrāvudha, Udaya and
as well the brahmin Posala,
Moghāraja the very wise
and Piṅgiya the greatest sage—

All of them with their pupils’ groups
in all the world they’re famed—
enjoyers of jhāna, meditators Wise,
patterned by past good karmas made.

Having bowed down to Bāvarī
and circumambulated him,
then in deer-skins clad, with dreadlocks all,
they headed for the north:

From Patiṭṭhāna in Aḷaka’s land,
then to the city, Māhissati,
from there to Ujjeni and Gonaddha,
to Vedisa and to Vana town,

Next to Kosambi and Sāketa,
and Sāvatthī of cities best
on to Setavya, Kapilavatthu,
Kusināra and surrounding lands,

To Pāvā and to Bhoga town,
to the Māgadhans’ city of Vesāli,
to the rocky Pāsāṇaka Shrine—
delightful, mind-delighting place.

As a person thirsty for water,
or merchant for profit great,
or a sunburnt person seeks for shade,
so they hastily climbed the Rock.

The Lord on that occasion was
in honour seated with the bhikkhu-Saṅgha,
teaching Dharma to all the monks,
as lion roaring in the jungly woods.

Ajita saw then the Sambuddha
as the sun’s brilliance devoid of rays,
or as the moon completely full,
arrived at its fifteenth day.

Then standing to one side he saw
the set of signs complete
upon the Buddha’s body, so
joyful, in his mind he asked:

Ajita
Speak now about my Master’s age,
tell of his clan and body-marks,
say how far he’s mastered the mantras
and how many the brahmins he instructs.

Buddha
His age is a hundred and twenty years,
by clan he is a Bāvarī,
upon his body appear three signs,
Three Vedas he has mastered all.

In lore of signs and legends in tradition—
in the glossaries and the ritual treatises—
in his own Dharma to perfection he’s arrived,
and five hundred students he instructs.

Ajita
O highest of men, with craving cut,
describe in detail all the signs
upon the body of Bāvarī,
so there may be no doubt in us.

Buddha
Cover his face with his tongue he can,
hair grows between his brows,
ensheathed is the cloth-concealed:
Know this, O brahmin youth.

Narrator
Now none there heard the questions asked,
but all the answers heard;
then the people, overjoyed,
with lotussed hands they thought:

What deva indeed, whether Brahma
or Indra or Sujampati—
these questions asked in mind,
to whom are they addressed?

Ajita
Bāvarī has questioned you
on heads and splitting heads apart.
O Lord, do you explain this,
dispel our doubt, O Sage.

Buddha
Know ignorance as “head”,
gnosis as that which “splits the head”,
with mindfulness, meditation, faith
by determination, effort too.

Narrator
Then the young brahmin overawed,
with great emotion overcome,
(respectfully) with his deerskin (cloak)
over one shoulder (placed),
put his head at (the Buddha’s) feet.

Ajita
Sir, the brahmin Bāvarī,
with all his pupils too,
overjoyed, glad-minded,
to the great Seer’s feet bowed down.

Buddha
May all be well with Bāvarī,
with his brahmin pupils too,
and you as well be happy,
live long O brahmin youth!

Bāvarī, yourself as well
and all the rest have many doubts,
ask now whatever’s in your minds—
you have the opportunity.

So permitted by the All-awake,
Ajita sat, and with lotussed hands,
asked the initial question,
addressed to the Tathāgata.