The Buddhist, too, is a thorough Hindū in contemning the living body; but when the corpse is burnt, he does not scatter the ashes on rivers. He takes measures to preserve them.
We know that according to the teaching of Brāhmanism the burning of a corpse is followed by religious ceremonies called Ṡrāddhas[262]. The greater the number of Ṡrāddhas which a living man is able to perform in behalf of his deceased relatives, the greater is the benefit which accrues to their souls; and if the dead man’s soul happens to be in one of the hells, the sooner it is released from its purgatorial pains.
A true Buddhist, on the other hand, considers all such Ṡrāddhas as useless; although it is certainly a fact that in the end the more developed Buddhism of the North invented similar ceremonies, called Bardo (see pp. [293], [334]).
True Buddhism, in short, has only one way of honouring ancestors, and only one method of keeping alive the memory of those perfected saints whose whole personality has become extinct, and whose transition into other forms of life has finally ceased.
The calcined ashes, or certain unconsumed portions of the body—such as fragments of bone or hair or nails or teeth—are deposited in relic-shrines.
Of course the most sacred of all Buddhist relics are those of the Buddha himself. It is said that after the cremation of his corpse the chief remains consisted of four teeth, the two cheek-bones, and fragments of the skull. But it is believed that, even before his death, portions of his hair and nails were preserved and placed under Dāgabas (Stūpas). One legend relates that when Gautama had decided on abandoning all worldly associations, his first act was to cut off the mass of his hair, with its ornament (ćūḍā-maṇi), and that these were taken up by the god Indra to the Trayastriṉṡa heaven, and there placed under a Dāgaba and worshipped by the gods.
Fā-hien, in a passage already alluded to, says that in the country of Nagāra there is a particular spot where Buddha shaved off his hair and clipt his nails, and, having done so, proceeded to erect a lofty mound or Stūpa to enshrine them, as well as to be a model for all future Stūpas ([p. 504] of this volume).
Hiouen Thsang relates a tradition that when the two travelling merchants Trapusha and Bhallika (see [p. 40]) were converted, the Buddha gave them at their own request some of his own hair and nail-parings, besides his alms-bowl, staff, and a portion of his clothing, and bade them deposit each article in Stūpas or Dāgabas. The two merchants, it is narrated, went home to their own country and acquired an enormous stock of religious merit by being the first to erect a Stūpa for the reception of personal memorials of the great Buddha. According to a tradition the two merchants were from Burma, and the shrine which was erected to receive eight of his hairs afterwards developed into the great Rangoon Dāgaba (Pagoda). It may be inferred from this legend (as Dr. Oldenberg has already remarked) that the care of the Buddha’s relics, and the institution of ceremonies in their honour, were in the first instance left to the devotion of religiously minded Buddhist laymen.
‘What are we to do,’ Ānanda asks of the Master, when his end is drawing near[263], ‘with the body of the Perfect One?’ ‘Let not the honours due to the body of the Perfect One trouble you, Ānanda. Seek ye rather perfection for yourselves. There are, Ānanda, wise men among the nobles, the Brāhmans, and the citizens, who believe in the Perfect One; they will honour the body of the Perfect One.’
Hiouen Thsang (Beal, ii. 40) also states that when certain Indian Rājas, eight in number, heard of the Buddha’s death, they collected armies and marched to Kusi-nārā ([p. 424]) to seize portions of the relics; but the prince of Kusi-nārā refused to give them up. In the end the matter was settled amicably, and the relics were divided, so that each of the eight princes might take a share. Then all departed to their own homes, and each prince built a Stūpa over his own portion of the relics. The gods also took their portions.