The ''Mahāparinibbāna Sutta'' is Sutta 16 in the ''

Dīgha Nikāya The ''Dīgha Nikāya'' ("Collection of Long Discourses") is a Buddhist scriptures collection, the first of the five Nikāyas, or collections, in the Sutta Piṭaka, which is one of the "three baskets" that compose the Pali Tipiṭaka of Th ...

'', a scripture belonging to the

Sutta Piṭaka The ''Sutta Piṭaka'' (also referred to as ''Sūtra Piṭaka'' or ''Suttanta Piṭaka''; English: ''Basket of Discourse'') is the second of the three division of the Pali Tripitaka, the definitive canonical collection of scripture of Therava ...

Theravāda Buddhism ''Theravāda'' (; 'School of the Elders'; ) is Buddhism's oldest existing school. The school's adherents, termed ''Theravādins'' (anglicized from Pali ''theravādī''), have preserved their version of the Buddha's teaching or ''Dharma (Buddhi ...

. It concerns the end of

Gautama Buddha Siddhartha Gautama, most commonly referred to as the Buddha (),* * * was a śramaṇa, wandering ascetic and religious teacher who lived in South Asia during the 6th or 5th century BCE and founded Buddhism. According to Buddhist lege ...

's life - his parinibbāna - and is the longest sutta of the

Pāli Canon The Pāḷi Canon is the standard collection of scriptures in the Theravada Buddhism, Buddhist tradition, as preserved in the Pāli language. It is the most complete extant Early Buddhist texts, early Buddhist canon. It derives mainly from t ...

. Because of its attention to detail, it has been resorted to as the principal source of reference in most standard accounts of the Buddha's death.

Content

The sutta begins a few days before the rainy retreat when Vassakara, the minister, visited the Buddha in

Rajgir Rajgir, old name Rajagriha, meaning "The City of Kings," is an ancient city and university town in the Nalanda district of Bihar, India. It was the capital of the Haryanka dynasty, the Pradyota dynasty, the Brihadratha dynasty, the Maurya ...

on the initiative of Ajātasattu, a king of the

Haryanka dynasty The Haryanka dynasty was the ruling dynasty of Magadha, according to the Buddhist text Mahavamsa between 544 BC and 413 BC though some scholars favour a later chronology (5th century BCE to first half of 4th century BCE). Initially, the capi ...

Magadha Magadha was a region and kingdom in ancient India, based in the eastern Ganges Plain. It was one of the sixteen Mahajanapadas during the Second Urbanization period. The region was ruled by several dynasties, which overshadowed, conquered, and ...

. The narrative continues beyond the three months of the rainy retreat and records the passing away of the Buddha, his cremation and the division of relics finally ending with the erection of eight

cetiya Cetiya, "reminders" or "memorials" (Sanskrit ''caitya''), are objects and places used by Buddhists to remember Gautama Buddha.Kalingabodhi jātaka, as quoted in John Strong, ''Relics of the Buddha'' (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2004), ...

s or monuments enshrining the relics of the Buddha. This shows the Indian origin of Buddhist funeral customs.

Versions

There are numerous versions of the ''Mahāparinibbāna Sutta''. Among them, the Pali version is of an early date in respect of language and contents. The ''Mahāparinibbāna Sutta'' is of utmost historical and cultural value and therefore it has become a sourcebook for students of Buddhism, Buddha biography and history of Buddhist thought and literature. Other versions of the text exist in Sanskrit, Tibetan and Chinese.

Date of Composition

On the basis of

philological Philology () is the study of language in oral and written historical sources. It is the intersection of textual criticism, literary criticism, history, and linguistics with strong ties to etymology. Philology is also defined as the study of ...

evidence, Indologist and Pali expert

Oskar von Hinüber Oskar von Hinüber (born 18 February 1939 in Hanover) is a German Indologist. He joined the German Navy after leaving high school, and holds the rank of commander as a reservist. From 1960 to 1966 he studied at University of Tübingen, Univer ...

says that some of the Pali suttas have retained very archaic place-names, syntax, and historical data from close to the Buddha's lifetime, including the ''Mahāparinibbāna Sutta''. Hinüber proposes a composition date of no later than 350-320 BCE for this text, which would allow for a "true historical memory" of the events approximately 60 years prior if the short chronology for the Buddha's lifetime is accepted (but also reminds us that such a text was originally intended more as

hagiography A hagiography (; ) is a biography of a saint or an ecclesiastical leader, as well as, by extension, an adulatory and idealized biography of a preacher, priest, founder, saint, monk, nun or icon in any of the world's religions. Early Christian ...

than as an exact historical record of events).''see also'':

Michael Witzel Michael Witzel (born July 18, 1943) is a German-American philologist, comparative mythologist and Indologist. Witzel is the Wales Professor of Sanskrit at Harvard University and the editor of the Harvard Oriental Series (volumes 50–100). He ...

, (2009)
"Moving Targets? Texts, language, archaeology and history in the Late Vedic and early Buddhist periods."
in ''Indo-Iranian Journal'' 52(2-3): 287-310. The contents of narratives about the

First Buddhist Council Since the Mahaparinirvana of the historical Buddha, Siddhartha Gautama, Buddhist monastic communities, the "''sangha''", have periodically convened for doctrinal and disciplinary reasons and to revise and correct the contents of the Buddhist ...

follow closely the narrative presented in the ''Mahāparinibbāna Sutta'', leading scholars like Louis Finot and

Erich Frauwallner Erich Frauwallner (December 28, 1898 – July 5, 1974) was an Austrian professor, a pioneer in the field of Buddhist studies.Walter Slaje: Rezensionen, Stuchlik, Jakob: Der arische Ansatz. Erich Frauwallner und der Nationalsozialismus, Asiatisc ...

to conclude that they originally formed a single continuous narrative. These narratives of the First Council and found in part or in whole in all six extant

Vinaya The Vinaya (Pali and Sanskrit: विनय) refers to numerous monastic rules and ethical precepts for fully ordained monks and nuns of Buddhist Sanghas (community of like-minded ''sramanas''). These sets of ethical rules and guidelines devel ...

traditions, whose organization and basic contents are believed by many scholars to stem from before the earliest schisms in the Buddhist Sangha. In some versions, the contents of the Sutta are included before the narrative of the First Council that ends the Skandhaka section of the Vinaya Pitakas. In other cases, the sutta narrative and the council narrative are divided between the Sutta Pitaka and Vinaya Pitaka.

References

Bibliography

* * Rhys Davids, T. W. and C. A. F. trans. (1910)
''Dialogues of the Buddha'', part II
Oxford University Press, pp. 78–191. * von Hinüber, Oskar (2009)
Cremated like a King: The Funeral of the Buddha within the Ancient Indian Cultural Context
Journal of the International College for Postgraduate Buddhist Studies 13, 33-66 * Walshe, Maurice, trans. (1987). “Mahaparinibbana Sutta: The Great Passing.” In Thus Have I Heard: The Long Discourses of the Buddha. London: Wisdom Publications.

External links

Pali text
Mahāparinibbānasutta in the original Pali
SuttaCentral Translations
The Great Discourse on the Buddha's Extinguishment
translation by Bhikkhu Sujato
The Discourse about the Great Emancipation
translation by Bhikkhu Ānandajoti

o
PDF
translated from the Pali by Sister Vajira & Francis Story Essays

article by Louis Finot, published in the "Indian Historical Quarterly" (8:2, 1932 June 1, pp. 241–46), concerning the Mahaparinibbana Sutta and a related text. {{Gautama Buddha Digha Nikaya