大唐西域記 5.9

5.9

於是從諸王東上大窣堵波，登臨觀覽。方下階陛，忽有異人持刃逆王，王時窘迫，却行進級，俯執此人，以付群官。是時群官惶遽，不知進救。諸王咸請誅戮此人，戒日王殊無忿色，止令不殺。王親問曰：「我何負汝，為此暴惡？」對曰：「大王德澤無私，中外荷負。然我狂愚，不謀大計，受諸外道一言之感，輒為刺客，首圖逆害。」王曰：「外道何故興此惡心？」對曰：「大王集諸國，傾府庫，供養沙門，鎔鑄佛像，而諸外道自遠召集，不蒙省問，心誠愧恥。乃令狂愚，敢行凶詐。」於是究問外道徒屬。有五百婆羅門，並諸高才，應命召集，嫉諸沙門蒙王禮重，乃射火箭，焚燒寶臺，冀因救火，眾人潰亂，欲以此時殺害大王，既無緣隙，遂雇此人，趨隘行刺。是時諸王、大臣請誅外道，王乃罰其首惡，餘黨不罪，遷五百婆羅門出印度之境。於是乃還都也。

On this, in company with the kings, he went to the east, and mounted the great stupa. Having reached the top, he looked around on the scene, and then descending the steps, suddenly a heretic (or, a strange man), knife in hand, rushed on the king. The king, startled at the sudden attack, stepped back a few steps up the stairs, and then bending himself down he seized the man, in order to deliver him to the magistrates. The officers were so bewildered with fright that they did not know how to move for the purpose of assisting him. The kings all demanded that the culprit should be instantly killed, but Siladitya-raja, without the least show of fear and with unchanged countenance, commanded them not to kill him; and then he himself questioned him thus: "What harm have I done you, that you have attempted such a deed?" The culprit replied, "Great king! your virtues shine without partiality; both at home and abroad they bring happiness. As for me, I am foolish and besotted, unequal to any great undertaking; led astray by a single word of the heretics, and flattered by their importunity, I have turned as a traitor against the king." The king then asked, "And why have the heretics conceived this evil purpose?"

He answered and said, "Great king! you have assembled the people of different countries, and exhausted your treasury in offerings to the Sramanas, and cast a metal image of Buddha; but the heretics who have come from a distance have scarcely been spoken to. Their minds, therefore, have been affected with resentment, and they procured me, wretched man that I am! to undertake this unlucky deed." The king then straitly questioned the heretics and their followers. There were 500 Brahmans, all of singular talent, summoned before the king. Jealous of the Sramans, whom the king had reverenced and exceedingly honoured, they had caused the precious tower to catch fire by means of burning arrows, and they hoped that in escaping from the fire the crowd would disperse in confusion, and at such a moment they purposed to assassinate the king. Having been foiled in this, they had bribed this man to lay wait for the king in a narrow passage and kill him. Then the ministers and the kings demanded the extermination of the heretics. The king punished the chief of them and pardoned the rest. He banished the 500 Brahmans to the frontiers of India, and then returned to his capital.