經律異相 21.23

21.23

Devadatta was in Rājagṛha, plotting murder in his mind, and later the matter was exposed. Then King Ajātaśatru said to Devadatta, "You should leave the kingdom; you must not stay here. None among the sixteen great kingdoms fails to hear that Devadatta commits evil against the Tathāgata." Having heard this, Devadatta harboured grief within. Ensnared by resentment, he returned to his home country and insolently entered the Bodhisattva's inner palace, saying to Gopī, "I wish to install you as my foremost lady; I wonder if the holy lady will permit it?" Gopī said to him, "Extend your right hand; I wish to hold it." Devadatta stretched out his hand and let her grasp it. She crushed his wrist bone and blood came from his five fingers; at that moment he fell unconscious and revived only after a long time. Then Devadatta went further into the palace and sat upon the Bodhisattva's couch. When the palace attendants saw him, they seized and threw him off the couch, injuring his left hip so that he could not walk. He was carried on a litter back to his residence. The Śākyas all despised him and came to tell him, "You should now go to the Buddha and repent." Hearing this, Devadatta secretly devised a clever deceit: he made iron claws in secret and smeared them with deadly poison, looking gentle on the outside while harbouring fury within. At that time Devadatta recalled the Buddha's words: "The śramaṇa Gautama always says this: 'One whose body is without wounds is not harmed by poison; poison cannot affect what has no wound; without evil, nothing is created.' I will now go, pretending to repent, scratch and tear his feet with my claws, and when the poisonous vapour spreads, he will naturally meet his death." Men carried him on a litter to the Bhagavat. Twenty-one fathoms away, he told the attendants, "Put me down on the ground; I wish to walk." As soon as he was put on the ground, leaping flames boiled forth, wrapped around his body, and dragged him down into hell. (From the Sūtra on Devadatta Entering Hell in His Physical Body.)