The ministers name the city gate through which the Buddha leaves the “Gotama Gate” (Gotama being the Buddha's clan name), and the place where he crosses the river the “Gotama Ford”. The Ganges is then full to the brim; the Buddha and the monks vanish from this bank and appear on the far bank, crossing the Ganges, and the Buddha speaks a verse. Taishō Canon
More sources (2)
Pali Canon
More sources (3)
Different Accounts
Direction of the gate: the Chinese Bannihuan jing has the east gate; the Sanskrit Mahāparinirvāṇa Sūtra has leaving by the west gate and then turning north; the Chinese Mūlasarvāstivāda Vinaya has leaving westward by the gate and then going north.
More differences between accounts (3)
The supernormal power: the Chinese Fo bannihuan jing says only that everyone had crossed, without stating the vanishing and reappearing; the Buddha biography Buddhacarita says the Buddha used his powers because there were many boats and he did not wish to favour one family's boat.
The Chinese Mahīśāsaka and Dharmaguptaka Vinayas have another account of the Buddha crossing the Ganges, but King Bimbisāra was still alive at the time, so it cannot be the last year; it is treated here as a different journey.
The means of crossing: the Sanskrit Mahāparinirvāṇa Sūtra says the local people crossed on silk-cotton fruits, gourds, floats and leather bags; the Pali canon of the Southern tradition has boats, rafts and floats.
Dating
Year 45 after the Awakening, the Buddha aged seventy-nine to eighty, before the , in the afternoon of the day after the arrival at Pāṭaliputta; the river being full to the brim is the only seasonal clue, but no month is given; inferred from the sequence of events, known only to be a certain day in this year.
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Research Notes: Reliability, Dating and Sources
- How Reliability Is Assessed
Recorded by four schools: the Pali canon of the Southern tradition, the Chinese Dharmaguptaka Vinaya (Sifen lü), the Sanskrit Mahāparinirvāṇa Sūtra and the Chinese Fo bannihuan jing and Bannihuan jing. Attested across multiple schools.
- Dating Evidence and Precision
Inferred from the sequence of events (neither the canonical texts nor the commentaries give the time; the year is worked out from the order of this event and those around it). Time precision: fixed to the day.
Sources
- 藏譯（德格版）德格版 D6 da 238b4–239a5
- 梵文原典梵文《大般涅槃經》（Waldschmidt）§7.4–7.11
- 大正藏大正藏 T01 no.6 p.178a
- 轉引自現代整理本轉引自現代整理本
- 梵文原典梵文《大般涅槃經》（Waldschmidt）§7.4
- 大正藏大正藏 T22 no.1421 p.135a–b
- 大正藏大正藏 T22 no.1428 p.855c
- 藏譯（德格版）德格版 D6 da 238b4–239a4
- 梵文原典梵文《大般涅槃經》§7.4–7.7
- Pali Canon巴利 DN 16:1.32.1–1.34.6
- Pali Canon巴利律 Kd 6:28.12.1–28.13.2
- Pali Canon巴利 DN 16Entire text
- Pali Canon巴利 Ud 8.6Entire text
- 大正藏大正藏 T01 no.1 p.12c–13a
- 大正藏大正藏 T01 no.5 p.163a
- 大正藏大正藏 T24 no.1451 p.385b
- 大正藏大正藏 T04 no.192 p.41b
- 梵文原典梵文《大般涅槃經》（Waldschmidt）§7.3–7.11