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

32. Then immediately all Kusinârâ down even to the dust bins and rubbish heaps became strewn knee-deep with Mandârava flowers from heaven! and while both the spirits from the skies, and the Mallas of Kusinârâ upon earth, paid honour, and reverence, and respect, and homage to the body of the Blessed One, with dance and song and music, with garlands and with perfumes, they carried the p. 125 body by the north to the north of the city; and entering the city by the north gate they carried it through the midst of the city into the midst thereof; and going out again by the eastern gate they carried it to the shrine of the Mallas, called Makuta-bandhana; and there, to the cast of the city, they laid down the body of the Blessed One[1]. 33.[2] Then the Mallas of Kusinârâ said to the venerable Ânanda: 'What should be done, Lord, with the remains of the Tathâgata?' 'As men treat the remains of a king of kings, so, Vâsetthas, should they treat the remains of a Tathâgata.' 'And how, Lord, do they treat the remains of a king of kings?' 'They wrap the body of a king of kings, Vâsetthas, in a new cloth. When that is done they wrap it in cotton wool. When that is done they wrap it in a new cloth,--and so on till they have wrapped the body in five hundred successive layers of both kinds. Then they place the body in an oil vessel of iron, and cover that close up with another oil vessel of iron. They then build a funeral pile of all kinds of perfumes, and burn the body of the king of kings. And then at the four cross roads they erect a dâgaba to the king of kings. This, Vâsetthas, is the way in which they treat the remains of a king of kings.