經律異相 46.9

46.9

In the past, the asuras raised an army to fight the Lord of Heaven. Śakra Devānām Indra was not victorious; he rode in his thousand-spoke jewelled chariot and retreated in fear. On the road he saw a śāla tree with a bird's nest containing two chicks. He immediately ordered his charioteer, "This tree has two young birds. You must turn the chariot to avoid it. Better that they come and harm me than injure these!" He immediately turned the chariot around. When the asuras saw this from afar, they said to one another, "Śakra has turned his chariot; he surely wishes to return and fight. He cannot be withstood!" They immediately dispersed and retreated, and the heavens thus attained victory. (The Saṃyuktāgama says that in the grove there was a garuḍa nest; they thought he had come to fight, fled in great terror, and ran.) The asuras surpass Jambudvīpa in three matters: first, their palaces are tall and vast; second, their palaces are adorned; third, their palaces are pure (from the Dīrghāgama, fascicle 21).