[Footnote 5:  Or the Vinaya-pitaka.  The meeting referred to was an important one, and is generally spoken of as the second Great Council of the Buddhist Church.  The first Council was that held at Rajagriha, shortly after Buddha’s death, under the presidency of Kasyapa—­say about B.C. 410.  The second was that spoken of here—­say about B.C. 300.]

CHAPTER XXVI

Remarkable Death of Ananda

Four yojanas on from this place to the east brought the travellers to the confluence of the five rivers.  When Ananda was going from Magadha to Vaisali, wishing his pari-nirvana to take place there, the devas informed king Ajatasatru [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 Vaisali had heard that Ananda 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 [2], and his pari-nirvana 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 Bimbisara, 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:  “Samadhi,” 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 Nirvana, consistently culminating in total destruction of life.”]

CHAPTER XXVII

King Asoka’s Spirit-built Palace and Halls

Having crossed the river, and descended south for a yojana, the travellers came to the town of Pataliputtra [1], in the kingdom of Magadha, the city where king Asoka ruled.  The royal palace and halls in the midst of the city, which exist now as of old, were all made by spirits which he employed, and which piled up the stones, reared the walls and gates, and executed the elegant carving and inlaid sculpture-work—­in a way which no human hands of this world could accomplish.