DN17.2.1. The Wheel Treasure

Mahasudassana Sutta ("King Mahāsudassana")

King Mahāsudassana possessed seven treasures and four blessings. What seven?

On a fifteenth day sabbath, King Mahāsudassana had bathed his head and gone upstairs in the stilt longhouse to observe the sabbath. And the heavenly wheel-treasure appeared to him, with a thousand spokes, with rim and hub, complete in every detail. Seeing this, the king thought, ‘I have heard that when the heavenly wheel-treasure appears to a king in this way, he becomes a wheel-turning monarch. Am I then a wheel-turning monarch?’

Then King Mahāsudassana, rising from his seat and arranging his robe over one shoulder, took a ceremonial vase in his left hand and besprinkled the wheel-treasure with his right hand, saying: ‘Roll forth, O wheel-treasure! Triumph, O wheel-treasure!’

Then the wheel-treasure rolled towards the east. And the king followed it together with his army of four divisions. In whatever place the wheel-treasure stood still, there the king came to stay together with his army.

And any opposing rulers of the eastern quarter came to him and said, ‘Come, great king! Welcome, great king! We are yours, great king, instruct us.’

The king said, ‘Do not kill living creatures. Do not steal. Do not commit sexual misconduct. Do not lie. Do not drink alcohol. Maintain the current level of taxation.’ And so the opposing rulers of the eastern quarter became his vassals.

Then the wheel-treasure, having plunged into the eastern ocean and emerged again, rolled towards the south. …

Having plunged into the southern ocean and emerged again, it rolled towards the west. …

Having plunged into the western ocean and emerged again, it rolled towards the north, followed by the king together with his army of four divisions. In whatever place the wheel-treasure stood still, there the king came to stay together with his army.

And any opposing rulers of the northern quarter came to him and said, ‘Come, great king! Welcome, great king! We are yours, great king, instruct us.’

The king said, ‘Do not kill living creatures. Do not steal. Do not commit sexual misconduct. Do not lie. Do not drink alcohol. Maintain the current level of taxation.’ And so the opposing rulers of the northern quarter became his vassals.

And then the wheel-treasure, having triumphed over this land surrounded by ocean, returned to the royal capital of Kusāvatī. There it stood still by the gate to Mahāsudassana’s royal compound at the High Court as if fixed to an axle, illuminating the royal compound. Such is the wheel-treasure that appeared to King Mahāsudassana.



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