LEGEND OF KING ASOKA IN A FORMER BIRTH, AND HIS NARAKA.
When king Asoka, in a former birth,(1) was a little boy and played on
the road, he met Kasyapa Buddha walking. (The stranger) begged food,
and the boy pleasantly took a handful of earth and gave it to him. The
Buddha took the earth, and returned it to the ground on which he was
walking; but because of this (the boy) received the recompense of
becoming a king of the iron wheel,(2) to rule over Jambudvipa. (Once)
when he was making a judicial tour of inspection through Jambudvipa, he
saw, between the iron circuit of the two hills, a naraka(3) for the
punishment of wicked men. Having thereupon asked his ministers what
sort of a thing it was, they replied, “It belongs to Yama,(4) king of
demons, for punishing wicked people.” The king thought within
himself:—“(Even) the king of demons is able to make a naraka in which
to deal with wicked men; why should not I, who am the lord of men, make
a naraka in which to deal with wicked men?” He forthwith asked his
ministers who could make for him a naraka and preside over the
punishment of wicked people in it. They replied that it was only a man
of extreme wickedness who could make it; and the king thereupon sent
officers to seek everywhere for (such) a bad man; and they saw by the
side of a pond a man tall and strong, with a black countenance, yellow
hair, and green eyes, hooking up the fish with his feet, while he
called to him birds and beasts, and, when they came, then shot and
killed them, so that not one escaped. Having got this man, they took
him to the king, who secretly charged him, “You must make a square
enclosure with high walls. Plant in it all kinds of flowers and fruits;
make good ponds in it for bathing; make it grand and imposing in every
way, so that men shall look to it with thirsting desire; make its gates
strong and sure; and when any one enters, instantly seize him and
punish him as a sinner, not allowing him to get out. Even if I should
enter, punish me as a sinner in the same way, and do not let me go. I
now appoint you master of that naraka.”
Soon after this a bhikshu, pursuing his regular course of begging his
food, entered the gate (of the place). When the lictors of the naraka
saw him, they were about to subject him to their tortures; but he,
frightened, begged them to allow him a moment in which to eat his
midday meal. Immediately after, there came in another man, whom they
thrust into a mortar and pounded till a red froth overflowed. As the
bhikshu looked on, there came to him the thought of the impermanence,
the painful suffering and insanity of this body, and how it is but as a
bubble and as foam; and instantly he attained to Arhatship. Immediately
after, the lictors seized him, and threw him into a caldron of boiling
water. There was a look of joyful satisfaction, however, in the
bhikshu’s countenance. The fire was extinguished, and the water became
cold. In the middle (of the caldron) there rose up a lotus flower, with
the bhikshu seated on it. The lictors at once went and reported to the
king that there was a marvellous occurrence in the naraka, and wished
him to go and see it; but the king said, “I formerly made such an
agreement that now I dare not go (to the place).” The lictors said,
“This is not a small matter. Your majesty ought to go quickly. Let your
former agreement be altered.” The king thereupon followed them, and
entered (the naraka), when the bhikshu preached the Law to him, and he
believed, and was made free.(5) Forthwith he demolished the naraka, and
repented of all the evil which he had formerly done. From this time he
believed in and honoured the Three Precious Ones, and constantly went
to a patra tree, repenting under it, with self-reproach, of his errors,
and accepting the eight rules of abstinence.(6)
The queen asked where the king was constantly going to, and the
ministers replied that he was constantly to be seen under (such and
such) a patra tree. She watched for a time when the king was not there,
and then sent men to cut the tree down. When the king came, and saw
what had been done, he swooned away with sorrow, and fell to the
ground. His ministers sprinkled water on his face, and after a
considerable time he revived. He then built all round (the stump) with
bricks, and poured a hundred pitchers of cows’ milk on the roots; and
as he lay with his four limbs spread out on the ground, he took this
oath, “If the tree do not live, I will never rise from this.” When he
had uttered this oath, the tree immediately began to grow from the
roots, and it has continued to grow till now, when it is nearly 100
cubits in height.
NOTES
(1) Here is an instance of {.} used, as was pointed out in chap. ix,
note 3, for a former age; and not merely a former time. Perhaps “a
former birth” is the best translation. The Corean reading of Kasyapa
Buddha is certainly preferable to the Chinese “Sakya Buddha.”
(2) See chap. xvii, note 8.
(3) I prefer to retain the Sanskrit term here, instead of translating
the Chinese text by “Earth’s prison {.} {.},” or “a prison in the
earth;” the name for which has been adopted generally by Christian
missionaries in China for gehenna and hell.
(4) Eitel (p. 173) says:—“Yama was originally the Aryan god of the
dead, living in a heaven above the world, the regent of the south; but
Brahmanism transferred his abode to hell. Both views have been retained
by Buddhism.” The Yama of the text is the “regent of the narakas,
residing south of Jambudvipa, outside the Chakravalas (the double
circuit of mountains above), in a palace built of brass and iron. He
has a sister who controls all the female culprits, as he exclusively
deals with the male sex. Three times, however, in every twenty-four
hours, a demon pours boiling copper into Yama’s mouth, and squeezes it
down his throat, causing him unspeakable pain.” Such, however, is the
wonderful “transrotation of births,” that when Yama’s sins have been
expiated, he is to be reborn as Buddha, under the name of “The
Universal King.”
(5) Or, “was loosed;” from the bonds, I suppose, of his various
illusions.
(6) I have not met with this particular numerical category.