佛祖統紀 34.57

34.57

In the thirty-third year, one hundred years after the Buddha's parinirvāṇa, King Aśoka (translated as 'Free of Sorrow') of Pāṭaliputra in Central India (the royal palace had many flowers) sent an envoy to inform Upagupta that he wished to pay his respects. Upagupta went to the king's dwelling, rubbed his head, spoke a verse, and pointed out the places where the Tathāgata had walked and stayed in the past, causing stūpas to be erected at all of them. Furthermore, from the dragon palace in the Ganges, he retrieved the relics of Śākyamuni that had been enshrined by King Ajātaśatru, and fashioned eighty-four thousand jewel stūpas. He commanded the spirits and deities to erect one stūpa in every city and settlement across Jambudvīpa with a population of one hundred million households, and so forth. Formerly, when the Buddha was begging for food in Rājagṛha, a young boy saw the World-Honoured One from afar and thought: 'I should make an offering of roasted flour.' He thereupon took fine sand in both hands and put it into the World-Honoured One's bowl, making the vow: 'By this merit, may I become a parasol king ruling over the world' (referring to the sense of covering over). He thus made an offering to the Buddha in that very life. The World-Honoured One smiled and told Ānanda: 'One hundred years after my nirvāṇa, this boy will govern one quarter as a wheel-turning king, of the Maurya clan, named Aśoka. Governing and transforming by the correct Dharma, he will widely distribute my relics and build eighty-four thousand stūpas for the King of the Dharma.'