三寶感應要略錄 2.50

2.50

Anciently, within three hundred years of the Buddha's parinirvāṇa, in the country of Ayodhyā, there was a poor woman who had none of the six kinds of kin; she gathered firewood to survive. In her spare time, she accepted and upheld the Śrīmālā-sūtra. The poor woman entered the mountains once more for firewood; exhausted in body, she could not return, and lay in the mountains reciting the sūtra. At that time, the king of the country entered the mountains on a hunt, and suddenly saw this woman, with clouds canopying her body. The king marveled at it and approached to see an upright and fair woman. Rejoicing, he took her back to the palace and established her as his empress. In that country, this scripture had long been lost and unpracticed. At this time, it was revived by those who sought the Dharma, and they obtained the text of this sūtra through this [woman].