經律異相 6.10

6.10

When King Aśoka passed away, the ministers wished to establish the crown prince to succeed to the royal throne. There was a great minister named *Atuladharma (Atuoluodi) who said, "The Great King Aśoka vowed to donate a full hundred thousand kotis of gold to perform various meritorious deeds, but four koti were still lacking. The crown prince sealed the treasury and would not give it. The king then donated the earth of Jambudvīpa to give to the Buddha, the Dharma, and the Saṅgha, wishing to fulfill it thereby. Today the great earth all belongs to the Three Jewels; how could we simply make the crown prince king?" The ministers then provided the four koti of gold and sent them to the monastery, and only then did they jointly establish him. Note that this was the fourth-generation king, named Puṣyamitra. He asked the ministers, "What kind of deed should I do to make my name and deeds endure for a long time?" A minister replied, saying, "Your Majesty, the former king, Aśoka, built eighty-four thousand stupas for the Tathāgata and also initiated various kinds of offerings, so that his fame and virtue have been handed down without interruption." The king said, "The former king possessed great awe-inspiring virtue and was able to accomplish this. I cannot do it; think of something else." Another minister said, "There are two ways for a name to be handed down without perishing: the first is doing good, and the second is doing evil. The former king built stupas; now let Your Majesty destroy the stupas. Both will equally endure immortal." The king then followed his counsel. He immediately mobilized the fourfold army and went to the monasteries. First he arrived before the central gate of Kukkuṭārāma Monastery, where there was a stone lion that instantly let out a lion's roar. When the king heard it, he was terrified and returned into the city. Having done so two or three times, he summoned the monks and asked them, "If I destroy the stupas or destroy the dwellings, which is preferable?" The monks replied, saying, "Neither should be done at all. If it is absolutely unavoidable, it would be better to destroy the monks' dwellings rather than destroy the stupas." The king thereupon slaughtered the monks and destroyed the stupas and monasteries. Arriving at the kingdom of Śākala, he furthermore proclaimed, "If anyone obtains the head of a śramaṇa, I shall reward him with a thousand pieces of gold." In this country there was an arhat who transformed himself into many monks' heads and passed them to the common people, who brought them forward to claim the gold. The king's storehouses of gold and treasures were completely exhausted. When he later discovered that this was an arhat, he grew doubly enraged. The arhat entered the concentration of cessation (nirodhasamāpatti). The king went to kill him, but in the end was unable to do so; through the power of the concentration of cessation, his body could not be harmed. Proceeding gradually in this manner, he reached the side of the gate of the Stupa of the Tooth Relic. The deity of the stupa said, "There is a crawling-insect spirit who previously sought my daughter's hand, but I did not grant it to him. Now, to protect the Dharma, I shall call for my daughter and give her to him, making a mutual pledge: 'Subdue this king so that he does not destroy the true Dharma!'" The crawling-insect spirit then went into the southern ocean, shoved and propped up a great mountain, and pushed it down upon the king and his fourfold army, so that none failed to die. The crowd cried out, "Splendid! Splendid! The lineage of the Mauryas has ended forever with this!" (Drawn from the *Saṃyuktāgama*, fascicle 25).