法苑珠林 91.64

91.64

又阿育王經云。爾時諸比丘見而問尊者優波毱多。有何因緣。尊者答曰。駒那羅往昔波羅柰國作一獵師。於山窟中得五百鹿。若都殺者。肉則臭爛。挑其眼出。日食一鹿。從是已來。五百身中常被挑眼。又於過去拘樓孫佛入涅槃後。時有國王。名曰端嚴。為起石塔。七寶莊嚴。王死之後有一惡王。名曰不信。壞塔取寶。唯留土木。駒那爾時為長者子。還以七寶修治此塔。復造大像共佛齊等。發誓願言。使我來世如似此佛得勝解脫。緣本造塔生尊貴家。由昔作像常得端正。以發願故今獲道迹。

The *Aśokarāja-sūtra* also states: At that time, the monks saw this and asked the Venerable Upagupta, “What was the cause and condition for this?” The Venerable replied, “In the past, Kuṇāla was a hunter in the kingdom of Vārāṇasī. In a mountain cave, he caught five hundred deer. If he killed them all, the meat would rot; so he gouged out their eyes and ate one deer each day. From that time onward, across five hundred lifetimes, his eyes were constantly gouged out. Furthermore, in the past, after Krakucchanda Buddha entered nirvāṇa, there was a king named Duan-yan (Subha), who erected a stone stūpa for him, adorned with the seven treasures. After the king died, there was an evil king named Bu-xin (Aśraddha), who dismantled the stūpa to take the treasures, leaving only the earth and timber. Kuṇāla at that time was the son of an elder; he restored this stūpa using the seven treasures. He also made a great statue equal in size to the Buddha, and made a vow, saying, ‘May I in a future life become like this Buddha and attain supreme liberation!’ Because he originally restored the stūpa, he was born into a noble family; because he previously made the statue, he was always handsome; and because he made that vow, he has now attained the traces of the Path.”