For forty-five years after entering on his mission Gautama itinerated in the valley of the Ganges, not going further than about 150 miles from Benares, and always spending the rainy months at one spot—usually at one of the vihāras, or homes,[1] which had been given to the Society. In the twentieth year his cousin Ānanda became a mendicant, and from that time seems to have attended on Gautama, being constantly near him, and delighting to render him all the personal service which love and reverence could suggest. Another cousin, Dewadatta, the son of the rāja of Koli, also joined the society, but became envious of the teacher, and stirred up Ajātaṣatru (who having killed his father, Bimbisāra, had become king of Rājagriha) to persecute Gautama. The account of the manner in which the Buddha is said to have overcome the wicked devices of this apostate cousin and his parricide protector is quite legendary; but the general fact of Ajātaṣatru's opposition to the new sect and of his subsequent conversion may be accepted. The rival teachers, or sophists, as might be expected, were bitter enemies of the new philosophy, and the Brahmins did all they could to put down a faith which inculcated such dangerous doctrines as the equality within the Society of all ranks and castes, and the possibility of salvation without sacrifices or the assistance of the priests. They instigated certain men to murder Moggallāna, one of the two chief disciples, and made several attempts on the life of the teacher himself; but many of the chiefs, and the great bulk of the common people, are represented, with probable truth, as being uniformly in favour of his doctrine, though the number of those who actually joined the Society was comparatively small.
The confused and legendary notices of the journeyings of Gautama are succeeded by tolerably clear accounts of the last few days of his life. On a journey towards Kusi-nagara, a town about 120 miles N.N.E of Benares, and about 80 miles due E. of Kapilavastu, the teacher, being then eighty years of age, had rested for a short time in a grove at Pāwā, presented to the Society by a goldsmith of that place named Chunda. Chunda prepared for the mendicants a mid-day meal, consisting of rice and pork; and it may be noticed in passing how highly improbable it is that any Buddhist would have invented the story of the Buddha's last illness having been brought on by such a cause. He started for Kusi-nagara in the afternoon, but had not gone far when he was obliged to rest, and soon afterwards he said, "Ąnanda, I am thirsty;" and they gave him water to drink. Half-way between the two towns flows the River Kukushṭā. There Gautama rested again, and bathed for the last time. Feeling that he was dying, and careful lest Chunda should be reproached by himself or others, he said to Ānanda, "After I am gone tell Chunda that he will receive in a future birth very great reward; for, having eaten of the food he gave me, I am about to pass into Nirvāna; and if he should still doubt, say that it was from my own mouth that you heard this. There are two gifts which will be blest above all others, namely, Sujātā's gift before I attained wisdom under the Bo tree, and this gift of Chunda's before I enter the final rest of Nirvāna." After halting again and again the party at length reached the River Hiranyavatī, close by Kusi-nagara, and there for the last time Gautama rested; and lying down under some Sal trees, with his face towards the south, he talked long and earnestly with Ānanda about his burial, and about certain rules which were to be observed by the Society after his death. Towards the end of this conversation, when it was evening, Ānanda broke down and went aside to weep, but Gautama missed him, and sending for him comforted him with the promise of Nirvāna, and repeated what he had so often said before about the impermanence of all things,—"O Ānanda! do not weep; do not let yourself be troubled. You know what I have said; sooner or later we must part from all we hold most dear. This body of ours contains within itself the power which renews its strength for a time, but also the causes which lead to its destruction. Is there anything put together which shall not dissolve? But you, too, shall be free from this delusion, this world of sense, this law of change. Beloved," added he, speaking to the rest of the disciples, "Ānanda for long years has served me with devoted affection. He knows all that should be done; after I am gone listen to his word." And he spoke to them at some length on the insight and kindness of Ānanda.
- ↑ These houses were at first simple huts, built for the mendicants in some grove of palm trees as a retreat during the rainy season; but they gradually increased in splendour and magnificence till the decay of Buddhism set in. See the authorities quoted in the Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society for 1875, p. 22 of the article on "Two Sinhalese Inscriptions."
- ↑ These are perhaps the teachers of the six systems of orthodox Hindu philosophy referred to above (note 2, p. 427); but the meaning of this expression, and of that in Buddha's reply about the "twelve great disciples," is not clear.
