A Record of Buddhistic Kingdoms

Chapter XXXII · LEGEND OF KING AŚOKA IN A FORMER BIRTH, AND HIS NARAKA.

James Legge translation

[Chinese]

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 in this chapter

Note 1 · Here is an instance of 昔 used, as was pointed out in chap. ix, note 3, for a former age; and not merely a former time. Perhaps ‘a former bir Note 2 · See chap. xvii note 8.Note 3 · I prefer to retain the Sanskrit term here, instead of translating the Chinese text by ‘Earth’s prison (地獄),’ or ‘a prison in the earth;’ the Note 4 · Eitel (p. 173) says:—‘Yama was originally the Âryan god of the dead, living in a heaven above the world, the regent of the south; but Brahmâ Note 5 · Or, ‘was loosed;’ from the bonds, I suppose, of his various illusions.Note 6 · I have not met with this particular numerical category.Note 7 · When king Aśoka, in a former birth,1 was a little boy and played on the road, he met Kâśyapa Buddha walking. (The stranger) begged food, and Note 8 · 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