Mahâ-Parinibbâna-Suttanta: The Book of the Great Decease

[1. On p. xxxvi.] p. xxxix religious legends of this kind vary and grow; and the existence of these Chinese translations affords ground for the hope that we may some day discover an earlier Sanskrit work on the same subject[1]. ------------------------ The cremation ceremonies described in the sixth chapter are not without interest. It would be natural enough that Gotama should have been buried without any of those ritualistic forms the usefulness of which he denied, and without any appeal to gods whose power over men he ignored. But the tone of the narrative makes it at least possible that there was not really anything unusual in the method of his cremation; and that the elaborate rites prescribed in the Brâhmanical books for use at a funeral[2] were not, in practice, observed in the case of the death of any person other than a wealthy Brâhman, or some layman of rank who was a devoted adherent of the Brâhmans. In the same way we find that in those countries where the more ancient form of Buddhism still prevails, there are a few simple forms to be used in the case of the cremation of a distinguished Bhikkhu or Upâsaka; but in ordinary cases bodies are buried without any ceremony. So in Ceylon, Robert Knox--whose rare and curious work, one of the most trustworthy books of travels extant, deserves more notice than it has received, and who was a captive there for many years before the natives were influenced by any contact with Europeans--says[3],