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Art. XIV.—Asoka and the Buddha-relics
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 15 March 2011
Extract
Our oldest authority, the Mahā-parinibbāna Suttanta, which can be dated approximately in the fifth century b.c.,1 states that after the cremation of the Buddha's body at Kusinārā, the fragments that remained were divided into eight portions. These eight portions were allotted as follows:—
1. To Ajātasattu, king of Magadha.
2. To the Licchavis of Vesālī.
3. To the Sakyas of Kapilavastu.
4. To the Bulis of Allakappa.
5. To the Koliyas of Rāmagāma.
6. To the brahmin of Veṭhadīpa.
7. To the Mallas of Pāvā.
8. To the Mallas of Kusinārā.
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- Copyright © The Royal Asiatic Society 1901
References
page 397 note 1 That is substantially, as to not only ideas, but words. There was dotting of i's and crossing of t's afterwards. It was naturally when they came to write these documents that the regulation of orthography and dialect arose. At the time when the Suttanta was first put together out of older material, it was arranged for recitation, not for reading, and writing was used only for notes. See the Introduction to my “Dialogues of the Buddha,” vol. i.
page 400 note 1 See J.P.T.S., 1899, p. 89.
page 401 note 1 See Yuan Thsang, chap, vii; Beal, ii, 65.
page 401 note 2 Introduction, etc., p. 372.
page 401 note 3 Bhaktimato is omitted. The discussion of its meaning, irrelevant to the question in hand, is here unnecessary. It is of value for the very important history of bhakti in India.
page 402 note 1 Quoted Sumangala, i, 24.
page 403 note 1 Chinese-English for Nāga.
page 403 note 2 “It” must be wrong. What he wanted to take away was the relics. Beal translates, “Let me take you out,” a more likely rendering, and one that would harmonize with the Divyāvadāna legend as given above.
page 404 note 1 Oldenberg's Vinaya, iii, 304 foll.
page 405 note 1 Is it possible that this idea can lie behind the enigmatic expressions given above, p. 401, from the Divyāvadāna?
page 405 note 2 This harmonizes with the distances given in the Jātaka. See my “Buddhist Birth Stories,” p. 87.
page 405 note 3 So the text. We ought perhaps to read Caṇḍāsoka.
page 407 note 1 There are six Aśvaghoṣas mentioned in Chinese works quoted by Mr. Suzuki in his translation of the “Awakening of Faith,” p. 7.
page 407 note 2 About 850 a.d.: see Rockhill, pp. 218 and 223.
page 407 note 3 “Asiatic Researches,” xx, 309–317.
page 408 note 1 “Life of Buddha,” pp. 122–148, and especially 141–148.
page 408 note 2 M. Léon Feer has not heen able always to give volume and page of the originals of these Tibetan texts, often because they had not been edited. It may be useful, therefore, to point out that his
page 145 = Anguttara, 5. 108.
„ 222 = Ang. 5. 342, Jat. 6. 14.
„ 231 = Ang. 4. 55 (which gives better readings), comp. 2. 61.
„ 293 = Divy. 193, Itiv. 76.
page 408 note 3 J.R.A.S., 1899, p. 422.
page 409 note 1 “Asiatic Researches,” xx, 317.