A Record Of Buddhistic Kingdoms - Being An Account By The Chinese Monk Fa-hien Of His Travels In India And Ceylon (a.d. 399-414) By James Legge
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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-nirvana 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 Amanda 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-nirvana 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 viharas; 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.
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