REMARKABLE DEATH OF ANANDA.
Four yojanas on from this place to the east brought the travellers to
the confluence of the five rivers.(1) When Ananda was going from
Magadha(2) to Vaisali, wishing his pari-nirvâna to take place (there),
the devas informed king Ajatasatru(3) of it, and the king immediately
pursued him, in his own grand carriage, with a body of soldiers, and
had reached the river. (On the other hand), the Lichchhavis of Vaisali
had heard that Ananda was coming (to their city), and they on their
part came to meet him. (In this way), they all arrived together at the
river, and Ananda considered that, if he went forward, king Ajatasatru
would be very angry, while, if he went back, the Lichchhavis would
resent his conduct. He thereupon in the very middle of the river burnt
his body in a fiery ecstasy of Samadhi,(4) and his pari-nirvâna was
attained. He divided his body (also) into two, (leaving) the half of it
on each bank; so that each of the two kings got one half as a (sacred)
relic, and took it back (to his own capital), and there raised a tope
over it.
NOTES
(1) This spot does not appear to have been identified. It could not be
far from Patna.
(2) Magadha was for some time the headquarters of Buddhism; the holy
land, covered with vihâras; a fact perpetuated, as has been observed in
a previous note, in the name of the present Behar, the southern portion
of which corresponds to the ancient kingdom of Magadha.
(3) In Singhalese, Ajasat. See the account of his conversion in M. B.,
pp. 321-326. He was the son of king Bimbisara, who was one of the first
royal converts to Buddhism. Ajasat murdered his father, or at least
wrought his death; and was at first opposed to Sâkyamuni, and a
favourer of Devadatta. When converted, he became famous for his
liberality in almsgiving.
(4) Eitel has a long article (pp. 114, 115) on the meaning of Samadhi,
which is one of the seven sections of wisdom (bodhyanga). Hardy defines
it as meaning “perfect tranquillity;” Turnour, as “meditative
abstraction;” Burnouf, as “self-control;” and Edkins, as “ecstatic
reverie.” “Samadhi,” says Eitel, “signifies the highest pitch of
abstract, ecstatic meditation; a state of absolute indifference to all
influences from within or without; a state of torpor of both the
material and spiritual forces of vitality; a sort of terrestrial
nirvâna, consistently culminating in total destruction of life.” He
then quotes apparently the language of the text, “He consumed his body
by Agni (the fire of) Samadhi,” and says it is “a common expression for
the effects of such ecstatic, ultra-mystic self-annihilation.” All this
is simply “a darkening of counsel by words without knowledge.” Some
facts concerning the death of Ananda are hidden beneath the darkness of
the phraseology, which it is impossible for us to ascertain. By or in
Samadhi he burns his body in the very middle of the river, and then he
divides the relic of the burnt body into two parts (for so evidently
Fâ-Hien intended his narration to be taken), and leaves one half on
each bank. The account of Ananda’s death in Nien-ch’ang’s “History of
Buddha and the Patriarchs” is much more extravagant. Crowds of men and
devas are brought together to witness it. The body is divided into four
parts. One is conveyed to the Tushita heaven; a second, to the palace
of a certain Naga king; a third is given to Ajatasatru; and the fourth
to the Lichchhavis. What it all really means I cannot tell.