A brahmin reasons with the countries: the Buddha praised forbearance in his lifetime, and they should not slaughter one another over his . He divides the relics into eight equal portions, one for each party to build a stūpa over, and himself takes the urn used to measure the relics and builds a stūpa for the urn; another clan takes the embers of the cremation and builds a stūpa for the embers.
Different Accounts
The name of the brahmin who divided the relics differs between sources; the Chinese renderings include Xiangxing, Tunqu, Maojue, Tuluna, Tulunu, Xingyan and Duluna (all renderings of Doṇa).
More differences between accounts (3)
Number of stūpas: most accounts have ten in all; the Chinese Youxing jing adds a stūpa for the hair from the Buddha's birth, and the Chinese Fo bannihuan jing and Bannihuan jing add an ash stūpa, making eleven.
Total quantity of relics (in ancient units of volume): the Chinese Youxing jing has about one dan; the Chinese Mūlasarvāstivāda Vinaya has one dan and six dou. Taishō Canon
The Pali canon of the Southern tradition and the Chinese Mūlasarvāstivāda Vinaya further record the Buddha's four teeth, enshrined respectively in the heavens, in Gandhāra and Kaliṅga (two regions of ancient India), and in the realm of the nāgas.
Dating
The Buddha has already passed away (aged eighty at his passing); this is still counted in Year 45 after the Awakening, after the ; the Chinese Mūlasarvāstivāda Vinaya states that the relics were divided only seven days after the passing, while the later commentaries of the Southern tradition say the twenty-first day; depending on the version followed it can be fixed to a day.
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Research Notes: Reliability, Dating and Sources
- How Reliability Is Assessed
The episode of “the eightfold division of the relics, the urn stūpa and the ember stūpa” is recorded by five schools: the Pali canon of the Southern tradition, the Chinese sutras and Vinaya transmitted by the Dharmaguptaka, the Chinese Kṣudrakavastu of the Mūlasarvāstivāda Vinaya, the Chinese Fo bannihuan jing and Bannihuan jing and the Chinese three-fascicle Mahāparinirvāṇa Sūtra. Attested across multiple schools. The “stūpa for the hair from his lifetime” within it is recorded only in the Chinese sutras and Vinaya transmitted by the Dharmaguptaka; the “ash stūpa” only in the Chinese Fo bannihuan jing and Bannihuan jing.
- Dating Evidence and Precision
Stated in the canonical text (the text itself gives the time); commentarial dating (the canonical texts give no date; later commentaries record it). Time precision: fixed to the day.
Sources
- 巴利註解書巴利註釋 Sv，§237
- 藏譯（德格版）德格版 D6 da 299a5–300b7
- 藏譯（德格版）德格版 D6 da 299a3–299a7
- 藏譯（德格版）德格版 D6 da 300a1–300a4
- 藏譯（德格版）德格版 D6 da 300b1–300b4
- 大正藏大正藏 T24 no.1451 p.402b
- 藏譯（德格版）德格版 D6 da 300b6
- 藏譯（德格版）德格版 D6 da 297b4
- 藏譯（德格版）德格版 D6 da 300a3