Chapter 26

Remarkable Death of �nanda

Four yojanas on from this place to the east brought the travellers to the confluence of the five rivers. When �nanda was going from Magadha to Vais�l�, wishing his pari-nirv�na to take place there, the devas informed king Aj�tasatru [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 Vais�l� had heard that �nanda 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 �nanda considered that, if he went forward, king Aj�tasatru 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 Sam�dhi [2], and his pari-nirv�na 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 Bimbis�ra, 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: "Sam�dhi," 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 Nirv�na, consistently culminating in total destruction of life."]