Namakkārapāḷi with the Namakkāraṭīkā

Nine verses of homage to the Buddha, and after them their commentary — the Namakkārapāḷi with its ṭīkā.

This is a text in daily use, not a text in a library. Bode records what became of it in Burma after 1870: among the works reprinted again and again she lists “the Lokaniti, Namakara, and Ratanapanjara, the last two of which are devotional poems”, and places them among “short texts that have become household words with the laity” (Bode 1909, p. 95).

Its date cannot be given, and the reason is oddly specific. The subcommentary's closing verses do supply a year, a month and a day — but in an era that has not been identified, so the figure cannot yet be converted into a date in this calendar. Until it is, no year is claimed here.

The Cūḷagandhavaṃsa closes its catalogue by naming this whole class of text and saying what it was for: ime buddhapaṇāmādikā gāthāyo. Attano attano buddhaguṇapakāsanatthāya attano ca pare ca anantapaññāpavattanatthāya ca paṇḍitehi laṅkādīpādīsu viṃsu viṃsu katā — these verses of homage to the Buddha and the like were made by wise men in Laṅkādīpa and elsewhere, each for his own part, to make the Buddha's qualities known and to set boundless understanding going in themselves and in others. Anonymity here is not a loss; it is the genre.