釋迦方志 2.14

2.14

When the Buddha was in the world, the Bodhi Tree was several hundred feet high, with yellow branches and green leaves that never withered in winter or summer. When the Buddha passed into nirvāṇa, its leaves withered, but soon flourished again. Later, King Aśoka had it cut down, piled it several tens of paces to the west, and burned it as a sacrifice to the gods. Before the smoke and flames had died down, two trees suddenly sprang forth, both displaying lush green foliage amidst the raging fire; thus it was named the Ash Bodhi Tree. The king, witnessing this, gave rise to faith and watered the remaining roots with fragrant milk; by morning, the tree grew as before. The queen, enraged, had it cut down again at night. The king renewed his supplication and watered it with milk; within days, it grew back. He piled stones into a surrounding wall over ten cubits high. Recently, King Śaśāṅka of Karṇasuvarṇa cut down this tree again, digging down to the water table without exhausting its roots. He then set fire to it and poured sugarcane juice over it to scorch and rot it, intending to destroy its roots. Several months later, King Pūrṇavarman (which means 'Full Armor'), who was the great-great-grandson of King Aśoka, heard that the tree had been cut down and cast himself to the ground. He invited monks to perform circumambulations around the tree for seven days, and poured milk from thousands of cows into a large pit. After six days and nights, the tree grew more than ten cubits. Fearing it would be cut down again, he erected a surrounding stone wall twenty-four cubits high. The tree now rises more than twenty cubits above the stone wall, with a circumference of about three feet.