諸經要集 14.89

14.89

Furthermore, Wang Xuance's Xingtuan says: When the Buddha was in the world, in the city of Vaiśālī he contemplated all sentient beings who had suffering and affliction, wishing to rescue and deliver them. He then observed that in this country there were two communities of Kaivartas, totaling five hundred people, who caught in their nets in the Bālukamatī River a great makara fish with eighteen heads and thirty-six eyes, its heads mostly those of beasts (the rest is as above). The Buddha expounded the Dharma for it. Having heard the Dharma, the fish immediately ended its life and obtained rebirth in heaven as a devaputra. Looking back at its former body, [it saw that] its body had been a great fish, and through the Buddha's expounding of the Dharma it had attained heavenly rebirth. It then held various sorts of incense, flowers, necklaces, and precious gems, and descended from heaven to the Buddha to make offerings. At that time, the two communities both resolved their minds in repentance, and one hundred-odd paces north of the Bālukamatī River, they burned the fishing nets, put the ashes into bronze jars, and buried them. At the place where the Dharma had been expounded, they erected a stūpa above them. The venerable image stands dignified and remains there to this day; carved and adorned according to the rule, those who see it produce wholesome roots.