~Remarkable Death of Ânanda~
Four yojanas on from this place to the east brought the travellers to
the confluence of the five rivers. When Ânanda was going from Magadha to
Vaisâlî, wishing his pari-nirvâna to take place there, the devas
informed king Ajâtasatru [1] 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 Vaisâlî had heard that
Ânanda 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 Ânanda
considered that, if he went forward, king Ajâtasatru 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 Samâdhi [2], and his pari-nirvâna was attained. He divided
his body into two parts, leaving one part on each bank; so that each of
the two kings got one part as a sacred relic, and took it back to his
own capital, and there raised a tope over it.
[Footnote 1: He was the son of king Bimbisâra, 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 Sakyamuni, and a favorer
of Devadotta. When converted, he became famous for his liberality in
almsgiving.]
[Footnote 2: "Samâdhi," 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."]