CREMATION OF AN ARHAT. SERMON OF A DEVOTEE.
South of the city seven le there is a vihâra, called the Mahâ-vihâra,
where 3000 monks reside. There had been among them a Śramaṇa, of
such lofty virtue, and so holy and pure in his observance of the
disciplinary rules, that the people all surmised that he was an Ârhat.
When he drew near his end, the king came to examine into the point;
and having assembled the monks according to rule, asked whether the
bhikshu had attained to the full degree of Wisdom.[1] They answered
in the affirmative, saying that he was an Ârhat. The king accordingly,
when he died, buried him after the fashion of an Ârhat, as the regular
rules prescribed. Four of five le east from the vihâra there was
reared a great pile of firewood, which might be more than thirty
cubits square, and the same in height. Near the top were laid sandal,
aloe, and other kinds of fragrant wood.
On the four sides (of the pile) they made steps by which to ascend it.
With clean white haircloth, almost like silk, they wrapped (the body)
round and round.[2] They made a large carriage-frame, in form like our
funeral car, but without the dragons and fishes.[3]
At the time of the cremation, the king and the people, in multitudes
from all quarters, collected together, and presented offerings
of flowers and incense. While they were following the car to the
burial-ground,[4] the king himself presented flowers and incense. When
this was finished, the car was lifted on the pile, all over which oil
of sweet basil was poured, and then a light was applied. While the
fire was blazing, every one, with a reverent heart, pulled off his
upper garment, and threw it, with his feather-fan and umbrella, from a
distance into the midst of the flames, to assist the burning. When
the cremation was over, they collected and preserved the bones, and
proceeded to erect a tope. Fâ-hien had not arrived in time (to see the
distinguished Shaman) alive, and only saw his burial.
At that time the king,[5] who was a sincere believer in the Law of
Buddha and wished to build a new vihâra for the monks, first
convoked a great assembly. After giving the monks a meal of rice,
and presenting his offerings (on the occasion), he selected a pair of
first-rate oxen, the horns of which were grandly decorated with
gold, silver, and the precious substances. A golden plough had been
provided, and the king himself turned up a furrow on the four sides
of the ground within which the building was supposed to be. He then
endowed the community of the monks with the population, fields, and
houses, writing the grant on plates of metal, (to the effect) that
from that time onwards, from generation to generation, no one should
venture to annul or alter it.
In this country Fâ-hien heard an Indian devotee, who was reciting
a Sûtra from the pulpit, say:—‘Buddha’s alms-bowl was at first in
Vaiśâlî, and now it is in Gandhâra.[6] After so many hundred years’
(he gave, when Fâ-hien heard him, the exact number of years, but he
has forgotten it), ‘it will go to Western Tukhâra;[7] after so
many hundred years, to Khoten; after so many hundred years, to
Kharachar;[8] after so many hundred years, to the land of Han; after
so many hundred years, it will come to Siṉhala; and after so many
hundred years, it will return to Central India. After that, it will
ascend to the Tushita heaven; and when the Bodhisattva Maitreya sees
it, he will say with a sigh, “The alms-bowl of Śâkyamuni Buddha
is come;” and with all the devas he will present to it flowers and
incense for seven days. When these have expired, it will return to
Jambudvîpa, where it will be received by the king of the sea nâgas,
and taken into his nâga palace. When Maitreya shall be about to attain
to perfect Wisdom (and become Buddha), it will again separate into
four bowls,[9] which will return to the top of mount Anna,[9] whence
they came. After Maitreya has become Buddha, the four deva kings will
again think of the Buddha (with their bowls as they did in the case
of the previous Buddha). The thousand Buddhas of this Bhadra-kalpa,
indeed, will all use the same alms-bowl; and when the bowl
has disappeared, the Law of Buddha will go on gradually to be
extinguished. After that extinction has taken place, the life of man
will be shortened, till it is only a period of five years. During this
period of a five years’ life, rice, butter, and oil will all vanish
away, and men will become exceedingly wicked. The grass and trees
which they lay hold of will change into swords and clubs, with which
they will hurt, cut, and kill one another. Those among them on whom
there is blessing will withdraw from society among the hills; and when
the wicked have exterminated one another, they will again come forth,
and say among themselves, “The men of former times enjoyed a very
great longevity; but through becoming exceedingly wicked, and doing
all lawless things, the length of our life has been shortened and
reduced even to five years. Let us now unite together in the practice
of what is good, cherishing a gentle and sympathising heart, and
carefully cultivating good faith and righteousness. When each one in
this way practises that faith and righteousness, life will go on to
double its length till it reaches 80,000 years. When Maitreya appears
in the world, and begins to turn the wheel of his Law, he will in
the first place save those among the disciples of the Law left by the
Śâkya who have quitted their families, and those who have accepted
the three Refuges, undertaken the five Prohibitions and the eight
Abstinences, and given offerings to the three Precious Ones; secondly
and thirdly, he will save those between whom and conversion there is a
connexion transmitted from the past.”’[10]
(Such was the discourse), and Fâ-hien wished to write it down as a
portion of doctrine; but the man said, ‘This is taken from no Sûtra,
it is only the utterance of my own mind.’
NOTES
[1] Possibly, ‘and asked the bhikshu,’ &c. I prefer the other way of
construing, however.
[2] It seems strange that this should have been understood as a
wrapping of the immense pyre with the cloth. There is nothing in
the text to necessitate such a version, but the contrary. Compare
‘Buddhist Suttas,’ pp. 92, 93.
[3] See the description of a funeral car and its decorations in the
Sacred Books of the East, vol. xxviii, the Lî Kî, Book XIX. Fâ-hien’s
此間, ‘in this (country),’ which I have expressed by ‘our,’ shows
that whatever notes of this cremation he had taken at the time, the
account in the text was composed after his return to China, and when
he had the usages there in his mind and perhaps before his eyes. This
disposes of all difficulty occasioned by the ‘dragons’ and ‘fishes.’
The 耳 at the end is merely the concluding particle.
[4] The pyre served the purpose of a burial-ground or grave, and hence
our author writes of it as such.
[5] This king must have been Mahâ-nâna (A.D. 410–432). In the time
of his predecessor, Upatissa (A.D. 368–410), the piṭakas were first
translated into Singhalese. Under Mahâ-nâna, Buddhaghosha wrote his
commentaries. Both were great builders of vihâras. See the Mahâvaṉśa,
pp. 247, foll.
[6] See chapter xii. Fâ-hien had seen it at Purushapura, which Eitel
says was ‘the ancient capital of Gandhâra.’
[7] Western Tukhâra (西肢) is the same probably as the Tukhâra
(肢) of chapter xii, a king of which is there described as trying to
carry off the bowl from Purushapura.
[8] North of the Bosteng lake at the foot of the Thien-shan range (E.
H., p. 56).
[9] See chap. xii, note 9. Instead of ‘Anna’ the Chinese recensions
have Vîna; but Vîna or Vînataka, and Ana for Sudarśana are names of
one or other of the concentric circles of rocks surrounding mount
Meru, the fabled home of the deva guardians of the bowl.
[10] That is, those whose Karma in the past should be rewarded by such
conversion in the present.