འདལ་བ་གཞ notes.1.103
The Chapter on Going Forth; The Chapter on the Restoration Rite; The Chapter on Lifting Restrictions; The Chapter on the Rains; The Chapter on Medicines notes.1.103
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notes.1.103
103. It is not clear why the Buddha addresses Dīrghanakha / Koṣṭhila as “son of a self-immolator.” Though the gatekeeper at Nālada told Dīrghanakha / Koṣṭhila that his father Māṭhara and his mother had died, the cause of their death is not mentioned. Perhaps Māṭhara’s wife joined her dead husband on his funeral pyre in an act of sati, for which there are mythical precedents and which was regarded as a legitimate path to liberation (White, 1996, 118–21). As Māṭhara and his wife were Śāriputra’s grandparents, the Buddha may well have known, even without his omniscience, how they died. Apart from sati, self-immolation (Skt. agnipraveśa) was practiced as a form of religious suicide in India (Śreyas, 2007, 293–303).