CHAPTER XXXII.
LEGEND OF KING ASOKA IN A FORMER BIRTH, AND HIS NARAKA.
When king Asoka, in a former birth,( 1) was a little boy and played on the road, he met Kasyapa Buddha walking.

(The stranger) begged food, and the boy pleasantly took a handful of earth and gave it to him.

The Buddha took the earth, and returned it to the ground on which he was walking; but because of this (the boy) received the recompense of becoming a king of the iron wheel,( 2) to rule over Jambudvipa.

(Once) when he was making a judicial tour of inspection through Jambudvipa, he saw, between the iron circuit of the two hills, a naraka( 3) for the punishment of wicked men.

Having thereupon asked his ministers what sort of a thing it was, they replied, "It belongs to Yama,( 4) king of demons, for punishing wicked people." The king thought within himself:--"(Even) the king of demons is able to make a naraka in which to deal with wicked men; why should not I, who am the lord of men, make a naraka in which to deal with wicked men ?" He forthwith asked his ministers who could make for him a naraka and preside over the punishment of wicked people in it.