~Legend of King Asoka in a Former Birth~
When king Asoka, in a former birth, was a little boy and playing 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, to rule over Jambudvîpa. Once when he was making a
judicial tour of inspection through Jambudvîpa, he saw, between the iron
circuit of the two hills, a naraka for the punishment of wicked men.
Having thereupon asked his ministers what sort of a thing it was, they
replied, "It belongs to Yama, [1] 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
mid-day 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 inanity 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. Forthwith he demolished the naraka, and repented of all
the evil which he had formerly done. From this time he believed in and
honored 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.
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 one hundred cubits in height.
[Footnote 1: Yama was originally the Âryan 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 Jambudvîpa, outside the Chakravâlas (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."]