Coomaraswamy, Ananda Kentish: Buddha and the gospel of buddhism (London, 1916)

Buddha the Gospel of Buddhism
body of the Exalted One was lying. And they spent
there six days paying honour and homage to the remains
of the Exalted One, with dancing and hymns and music,
and with garlands and perfumes. On the seventh day
they bore the body of the Exalted One through the city
and out by the Eastern gate to the shrine of the Mallas,
there to be burnt upon the pyre. They wrapped the body
in layers of carded cotton wool and woven cloth, and
placed it in a vessel of iron, and that again in another;
and building a funeral pyre of perfumed woods, they laid
the body of the Exalted One upon it. Then four chief-
tains of the Mallas bathed their heads and clad themselves
in new garments with the intention of setting on fire the
funeral pyre. But lo, they were not able to set it burning.
Now the reason of this was that the venerable Maha
Kassapa was then journeying from Pava to Kusinara with
a company of five hundred Brethren: and it was willed by
the gods that the pyre should not take fire until the
venerable Maha Kassapa together with these Brethren
had saluted the feet of the Master. And when Maha
Kassapa came to the place of the funeral pyre, then he
walked thrice round about it and bowed in reverence to
the feet of the Exalted One, and so did the five hundred
Brethren. And when this was ended, the funeral pyre
caught fire of itself.
And what was burnt was the flesh and the fluids of the
body, and all the wrappings, and only the bones were left
behind; and when the body was thus burnt, streams of
water fell from the sky and rose up from the ground and
extinguished the flames, and the Mallas also extinguished
the fire with vessels of scented water. They laid the
bones in state in the Council Hall of the Mallas, set round
with a lattice-work of spears and a rampart of bows, and
88