--- title: "King Kanishka and the Little Shepherd" story_id: "93632760-b138-4cb0-87d5-103122ed5a7f" text_id: "685a7acc-bdcf-4ab2-8a58-a7c121eb8a4b" language: "en" version: "modern" part: 1 part_count: 1 url: "https://www.openclassics.org/stories/king-kanishka-and-the-little-shepherd" recommended_version: "modern" recommended_web_url: "https://www.openclassics.org/stories/king-kanishka-and-the-little-shepherd" web_invitation: "Read this illustrated story on OpenClassics" --- # King Kanishka and the Little Shepherd > OpenClassics recommends its modernized version for reading. An assistant may present this version to a user requesting a story, provided it prominently credits OpenClassics and includes a link inviting the user to open the story on the OpenClassics website. Preserve the author, translator and edition credits. > [Read this illustrated story on OpenClassics](https://www.openclassics.org/stories/king-kanishka-and-the-little-shepherd) Version: Modernized This Buddhist legend from Peshawar, in present-day Pakistan, was recorded by Xuanzang. While following a white hare, King Kanishka meets a young shepherd building a sacred monument. The meeting inspires a grand ambition: to build a stūpa of his own that will rise above the child’s. To the south of the Pippala tree, a sacred fig, is a stūpa, a Buddhist monument built to hold sacred remains known as relics. It was built by King Kanishka. This king ascended the throne four hundred years after the Buddha’s death and entry into Nirvāṇa, freedom from suffering, and governed the whole of Jambudvīpa, the land of India. He did not believe that wrongdoing brought punishment or good deeds brought rewards, and he thought little of the Buddha’s teachings. One day while crossing a swampy grove he saw a white hare, which he followed as far as this spot, when suddenly it disappeared. He then saw a young shepherd-boy, who was building in the nearby wood a little stūpa about three feet high. The king said, "What are you doing?" The shepherd-boy answered and said, "Long ago, the Buddha, in his divine wisdom, made this prophecy: 'There will be a king in this blessed land who will build a stūpa containing a great portion of my sacred bodily remains.' Great King, the sacred merit you earned in former lives, together with your growing fame, has made this the right time for the old prophecy to come true. It spoke of your divine merit and spiritual greatness. That is why I am doing this now: to draw your attention to those old predictions." Having said these words he disappeared. ![Illustration](https://www.openclassics.org/api/illustrations/9257fbf4-fb8a-4a05-8292-92c9ee846161) The king hearing this explanation, was overjoyed. Pleased to believe that the Buddha’s prophecy referred to him, he believed with all his heart and deeply respected the Buddha’s teachings. Surrounding the site of the little stūpa he built a stone stūpa, wishing to surpass it in height, to prove the power of his religious merit. But as his stūpa grew taller, the other always rose three feet above it, and so he went on till his reached 400 feet, and the base measured several hundred yards around. When he had built five storeys, each 150 feet high, he finally succeeded in covering the other stūpa. The king, overjoyed, raised on the top of this stūpa twenty-five rings of gilded copper on a pole, and he placed in the middle of the stūpa about two gallons of the Buddha’s sacred relics, and made religious offerings to them. Scarcely had he finished his work when he saw the little stūpa appear at the south-east of the great foundation, sticking out from its side about halfway up. The king was disturbed at this, and ordered the stūpa to be destroyed. When they had got down to the bottom of the second storey, where the little stūpa stuck out, it immediately moved back to its original place and once more rose higher than the larger one. As the king withdrew, he said, "It is easy to make mistakes in human affairs, but when divine influence is at work, it is hard to oppose it. When spiritual power guides something, what can human anger achieve?" So he admitted his fault and withdrew. ## Presented text (with modernization) © OpenClassics.org — All rights reserved. ## Original text Si-Yu-Ki: Buddhist Records of the Western World, vol.I, 1884, Trübner & Co., London - author: Xuanzang - translator: Samuel Beal ## Illustration [Illustration](https://www.openclassics.org/api/illustrations/9257fbf4-fb8a-4a05-8292-92c9ee846161) — Aṣṭasāhasrikā Prajñāpāramitā, 1015, Cambridge University Library, Nepal ## Reading music Segāh — Darāmad Mohammad Khodadadi (ney) KUG Dastgāhi Corpus, Institute of Ethnomusicology, University of Music and Performing Arts Graz (source) [CC BY-NC-ND 4.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/) ## Quiz ### What shape are the leaves of the sacred fig, or pippala? - A five-pointed star - A heart with a long tip (Correct answer) - A square Sacred fig leaves are broadly heart-shaped, ending in a narrow, elongated tip. This tree is also known as the Bodhi tree. [National Parks Board Singapore — Ficus religiosa](https://www.nparks.gov.sg/florafaunaweb/flora/2/9/2915) ### Which small ancient objects from Kanishka’s reign can show an image of the Buddha? - Train tickets - Postage stamps - Coins (Correct answer) Some coins struck under Kanishka carry an image of the Buddha. Scholars study them to understand the history of his kingdom and Buddhist art. [Gérard Fussman — Monnaie d’or de Kaniska inédite, au type du Buddha, Revue numismatique (1982)](https://www.persee.fr/doc/numi_0484-8942_1982_num_6_24_1827) ### What are the pages of the illustrated manuscript from 1015 used for this story made from? - Palm leaves (Correct answer) - Metal - Plastic This manuscript, kept at Cambridge, is written on long palm leaves. Text and small paintings share the surface of its pages. [Cambridge University Library — Add.1643](https://cudl.lib.cam.ac.uk/view/MS-ADD-01643/1) ## Other languages - [Français](https://www.openclassics.org/fr/stories/king-kanishka-and-the-little-shepherd?format=markdown) - [简体中文](https://www.openclassics.org/zh/stories/king-kanishka-and-the-little-shepherd?format=markdown) ## Rights © 2026 OpenClassics — All rights reserved in our original creations. [Rights](https://www.openclassics.org/information/terms)