Reading guide
An invitation, not a personal narrative
Unlike most poems opening a new book in this collection, Kāḷudāyī's verse contains no account of his own going forth or attainment. Every one of its ten verses is addressed outward — to the Buddha directly, urging a journey, describing the season, and finally speaking of the Buddha's own family.
Autumn imagery, precisely observed
The first three verses build a specific seasonal case for travel: trees turning crimson and shedding their leaves in preparation to fruit, blossoms wafting scent in every direction, and weather ‘neither too hot nor too cold... a pleasant season for traveling’. This is some of the most concretely observed natural description in this collection, entirely in service of a practical argument.
A meditation on hope, before returning to travel
The fourth verse, extended to six lines, pauses on a broader reflection: farmers plow in hope, merchants sail in hope, ‘the hope that I stand for: may it succeed!’ This personal aside, before the poem returns to its main argument, briefly makes Kāḷudāyī's own voice, not just his advocacy, visible.
The Buddha's own genealogy, named directly
The eighth and ninth verses state the Buddha's parents' names outright: ‘the father of the great seer is named Suddhodana; and the Buddha's mother is named Māyā’ — before describing her death and rebirth ‘in the Third Heaven’, ‘surrounded by hosts of gods’. Few poems anywhere in this collection state such specific biographical and cosmological detail about the Buddha's own family.
A closing claim of Dhamma kinship
The final verse turns from advocacy to a striking personal claim: ‘I'm the son of the Buddha... you, Sakya, are my father's father; Gotama, you are my grandfather in the Dhamma.’ Kāḷudāyī addresses the Buddha by clan name and personal name in the same breath, closing this book's opening poem on a relationship claimed through practice rather than blood.
Key terms
The text
§1“The trees are now crimson, venerable sir, they’ve shed their foliage, and are ready to fruit. They shine as if aflame; great hero, this season is full of flavor.
§2The blossoming trees are delightful, wafting their scent all around, in all directions. They’ve shed their leaves and wish to fruit, hero, it is time to leave here.
§3It is neither too hot nor too cold, venerable sir, it’s a pleasant season for traveling. Let the Sākiyans and Koliyans see you, heading west across the Rohiṇī river.
§4In hope, the field is plowed; the seed is sown in hope; in hope, merchants travel the seas, carrying rich cargoes. The hope that I stand for: may it succeed!
§5Again and again, they sow the seed; again and again, the king of the heavens sends rain; again and again, farmers plow the field; again and again, grain is produced for the nation.
§6Again and again, the beggars wander, again and again, the donors give. Again and again, when the donors have given, again and again, they take their place in heaven.
§7A hero of vast wisdom purifies seven generations of the family in which they’re born. Sakya, I believe you’re the king of kings, since you fathered the one who is truly called a sage.
§8The father of the great seer is named Suddhodana; and the Buddha’s mother is named Māyā. Having borne the Bodhisatta in her belly, she rejoices in the Third Heaven.
§9When she died and passed away from here, she was blessed with heavenly sensual pleasures; enjoying the five kinds of sensual stimulation. Gotamī is surrounded by those hosts of gods.”
§10“I’m the son of the Buddha, the incomparable Aṅgīrasa, the unaffected, the bearer of the unbearable. You, Sakya, are my father’s father; Gotama, you are my grandfather in the Dhamma.”
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