Verses of the Elder Bhikkhunīs

Chapter of the Fives

Verses of the Elder Bhaddā Kuṇḍalakesā

“In the past I would wander with only one robe,

my head shaved and my body covered in mud.

I would see the blameworthy as blameless,

and the blameless as blameworthy.

Having ventured out from my day’s abiding

at Vulture’s Peak Mountain,

I saw the stainless Buddha,

leading the monastic Saṅgha.

I knelt in respect before him,

my hands in añjali.

‘Come, Bhaddā!,’ he said.

That was my higher ordination.

I traveled to Aṅga, Magadha,

Vajji, Kāsi, and Kosala.

Free of debt, for fifty years

I ate the country’s almsfood.

Surely he accumulated so much merit,

that wise lay devotee,

who gave a robe to Bhaddā,

released from all fetters.”

The Elder Bhaddā Kuṇḍalakesā