The Buddha’s Funeral

Ananda and Aniruddha spent the night discussing the Dharma, and then Aniruddha sent Ananda to the Mallas to inform them that the Buddha had died. The Mallas were distraught, but eventually they gathered together in the sal grove to pay their respects to the Buddha with perfume, incense, dancing and music. In fact they set up tents and kept putting off the cremation until a full week of dancing and singing in honor of the Buddha had gone by.

At the end of the week they prepared the body and after some deliberation decided to carry it to the north of Kushinagara, then going in through the north gate they processed to the middle of the town and then out through the east gate. Ananda then instructed the Mallas in what to do, just as the Buddha had told him. First they wrapped the body in linen, and then wrapped it again in teased cotton wool, and then in a new cloth. This was repeated 500 times. Then they placed the body in an iron vat that was then covered with an iron pot. They then prepared to cremate the body on a scented funeral pyre.

As this was being done, Mahakashyapa was traveling to Kushinagara with a large company of 500 monks. On the road a wandering ascetic informed them that the Buddha had passed away. As before, the unenlightened monks were distraught and Mahakashyapa consoled them just as Aniruddha had consoled the monks at Kushinagara. One unenlightened monk named Subhadra (not the same Subhadra as the Buddha’s last disciple) did not need to be consoled.

And sitting in the group was one Subhadra who had gone forth late in life, and he said to those monks: “Enough, friends, do not weep and wail! We are well rid of the Great Ascetic. We were always bothered by his saying: ‘It is fitting for you to do this, it is not fitting for you to do that!’ Now we can do what we like, and not do what we don’t like!” (Ibid, p. 274)

One has to wonder why someone like Subhadra would have even joined the Sangha in the first place with an attitude like that. It is curious that there is no record of Mahakashyapa rebuking Subhadra for saying this, though it has been pointed out that one of the reasons Mahakashyapa convened the first council of 500 arhats after the Buddha’s passing was to ensure that such licentiousness would not prevail, and that instead the Buddha’s Dharma and discipline, recited by Ananda and Upali respectively, would be preserved just as he had taught it.

Back in Kushinagara the Mallas discovered that they were unable to light the funeral pyre. Aniruddha informed them that the gods were preventing them from doing so until Mahakashyapa arrived. When Mahakashyapa did arrive he circumambulated the funeral pyre three times, then he uncovered the Buddha’s feet and paid homage with full prostrations. When this was done the pyre ignited by itself. Once the body was cremated and the fires had burned out, the Mallas honored the relics for another week with more music, singing, dancing, and the offering of incense and garlands.

Once the word got out that the Buddha had passed away and that his relics were in Kushinagara, the surrounding kingdoms all laid claim to the relics. King Ajatashatru of Magadha, the Licchavis, the Shakyas (whose survivors had built a new Kapilavastu), the Bulayas of Allakappa, the Koliyas of Ramagama, the brahmin of Vethadipa, and the the Mallas of Pava all demanded the relics.

On hearing all this, the Mallas of Kushinagara addressed the crowd saying: “The Lord passed away in our district. We will not give away any share of the Lord’s remains.” At this time the brahmin Dona addressed the crowd in this verse:

“Listen, lords, to my proposal.

Forbearance is the Buddha’s teaching.

It is not right that strife should come

From sharing out the best of men’s remains.

Let’s all be joined in harmony and peace,

In friendship sharing out portions eight:

Let stupas far and wide be put up,

That all may see – and gain in faith!”

(Ibid, p. 276)

Then Dona divided the remains of the Buddha. Dona kept the urn for himself. A little later the Moriyas of Pipphalavana requested remains so that they too could build a stupa, but the remains had already been divided. Instead they had to be content with the embers from the fire. Then each of those who had received relics and also Dona and the Moriyas built a stupa so that there were ten in all. These would become centers of pilgrimage where people could come and honor the Buddha and take faith in the fact that a Buddha had come and taught the Dharma and established the Sangha so that it would be possible for all people thereafter to join the Sangha, practice the Dharma, and attain the enlightenment of the Buddha.