page_title: Mahākāśyapa
section_title: Final respects to the Buddha
hierarchical_section_title: Mahākāśyapa / In early Buddhist texts / Final respects to the Buddha
caption_attribution_description: English: At the age of 80 the Buddha set out on his last journey with Ananda, his cousin and beloved disciple, and a group of bhikkhus from Rajagaha to Kusinara. The Buddha arrived at Vesali and stayed there during the rainy retreat (vassa). After leaving Vesali, on his way to Kusinara, he arrived at Pava where he had an attack of dysentery. The Buddha then arrived at Kusinara and lay down on a couch between two sal trees in the grove of the Malla kings. Though he was very weak, he addressed Ananda and the bhikkhus, and preached the Mahasudasana Sutta and made one last convert. Then the Buddha attained parinibbana or entry into the final nibbana on the full moon day of the month of Vesakha (May). The Buddha’s body was placed in a golden coffin upon a pyre, and a gilded and white umbrella was held above. Mahakassapa, the Buddha’s senior disciple, kneels before the Buddha’s coffin, uncovers the Buddha’s feet and pays homage with full prostrations. The grieving monks are gathered at the Buddha’s funeral in respectful adoration. The Malla kings also gather together to pay their respects to the Buddha with perfume, incense, dancing and music. British Library, Or. 14298, f. 20 Noc The sacred relics of the Buddha were divided and enshrined across Asia in monuments called stupas. These stupas are considered by Buddhists to be the living presence of the Buddha. These sacred places became centres of pilgrimage where people come and honour the Buddha, who taught the Dhamma and established the Sangha.
context_page_description: Mahā Kāśyapa or Mahākāśyapa was one of the principal disciples of Gautama Buddha. He is regarded in Buddhism as an enlightened disciple, being foremost in ascetic practice. Mahākāśyapa assumed leadership of the monastic community following the paranirvāṇa of the Buddha, presiding over the First Buddhist Council. He was considered to be the first patriarch in a number of early Buddhist schools and continued to have an important role as patriarch in the Chan and Zen traditions. In Buddhist texts, he assumed many identities, that of a renunciant saint, a lawgiver, an anti-establishment figure, but also a "guarantor of future justice" in the time of Maitreya, the future Buddha—he has been described as "both the anchorite and the friend of mankind, even of the outcast".
  In canonical Buddhist texts in several traditions, Mahākāśyapa was born as Pippali in a brahmin caste family, and entered an arranged marriage with a woman named Bhadra-Kapilānī. Both of them aspired to lead a celibate life, however, and they decided not to consummate their marriage. Having grown weary of the agricultural profession and the damage it did, they both left the lay life behind to become mendicants.
context_section_description: According to the early Pāli discourse about the Buddha's last days and passing into Nirvāṇa (Pali: Mahāparinibbāna Sutta), Mahākāśyapa learnt about the Buddha's parinirvāṇa (Pali: parnibbāna; death and attainment of final Nirvāṇa) after seven days. He was resting from a journey with a following of monks when he met an ājīvika ascetic who was carrying a flower from a coral tree which originated from heaven. He asked him about the flower, and it turned out it the entire area of Kuśinagara (Pali: Kusinara), where the Buddha had passed away, was covered in it. According to some Tibetan sources, however, Mahākāśyapa knew of the Buddha's passing because of an earthquake. In the Pāli texts, Mahākāśyapa then rushed back from the Pāva Mountain to arrive in Kuśinagara seven days later. But in the Tibetan texts, Mahākāśyapa was concerned that King Ajātaśatru might die of shock when he heard of the Buddha's passing. He therefore warned a brahmin who worked at the court, who was able to prevent the king from dying. Only then did he proceed to Kuśinagara.
  It turned out the Malla people from Kuśinagara had attempted to light the funeral pyre of the Buddha, but were unable to. Pāli accounts state that the monk Anuruddha explained to them that deities prevented the funeral pyre from being lit until the arrival of Mahākāśyapa, although sixth-century Chinese Buddhist texts say it was the spiritual power of the Buddha instead which caused the delay. The accounts continue that Mahākāśyapa paid "deep and tender homage" at the Buddha's feet. The Buddha's feet miraculously emerged from the coffin, in which the Buddha's body was enshrouded with many layers of cloth. As soon as he had finished, the pyre lit spontaneously, although in some versions, Mahākāśyapa lit the pyre himself in the traditional Indian role of the eldest son.
  Buddhologist André Bareau (1921–1993) regarded the episode of Mahākāśyapa learning of the Buddha's parinirvāṇa and his lighting of the pyre as an embellishment that was inserted by authors of monastic discipline over the fifth, fourth and third centuries BCE, to emphasize the person of Mahākāśyapa. Bareau reasoned that Mahākāśyapa did not attend the Buddha's cremation in the original version, and that Mahākāśyapa could have taken a route of just a few hours via Pāva to Kuśinagara. Regardless, the story of the delay and of Mahākāśyapa eventually lighting the funeral pyre indicates how much Mahākāśyapa was respected, as he was regarded as the most important heir to the Buddha's dispensation.
caption: Burma, mid 19th century. Mahākassapa meeting the ājīvika ascetic (above) and paying homage to the Buddha's feet before the funeral pyre is lit (below)
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