Dictionary of Pali Proper Names v2.c31.1369

v2.c31.1369

The Relic Chamber was of unparalleled magnificence, and consisted of four medavaṇṇapāsāṇā, each eighty cubits in length and in breadth and eight inches thick. These were brought from Uttarakura by two sāmaṇeras, Uttara and Sumana. In the Chamber were placed sculptural representations of the chief events connected with the Buddha's life² as well as pictures of several Jātakas, including the Vessantara. The work of the Relic Chamber was under the personal supervision of Indagutta Thera, of great iddhi-power. When the Chamber was ready for the enshrining of the Relics, Soṇuttara of Pūjā-pariveṇa was entrusted with the task of obtaining them. In a previous birth, as Nanduttara, he had vowed to have the power of doing this, and now was his opportunity. He went to Mañjerika Nāga-bhavana, where the Relics, washed away from the Thūpa at Rāmagāma, were in the custody of the Nāga Mahākāla, and by a display of iddhi-power obtained them from the Nāga against his desire. They represented one doṇa of the Buddha's Relics, and the Buddha had predicted that they would ultimately be placed in the Mahā Thūpa. These Relics were enshrined on the fifteenth uposatha-day in the light half of the month of Āsāḷha, under the constellation of Uttarāsāḷha. Many devas and brahmas and nāgas were present as on the day of the Buddha's Enlightenment, and ninety-six crores of arahants attended the ceremony. As the king, after passing three times round the cetiya, ascended it on the east side, and was about to descend into the Relic Chamber, bearing on his head the Casket of Relics, the casket opened and the Relics rose out of it, and taking on the form of the Buddha, performed the Twin Miracle, as at the foot of the Gaṇḍamba. When the Relics were placed on the couch prepared for them they assumed, as the king had desired, the form of the Buddha as he lay on his death-bed. For a whole week the celebrations lasted, and during this period the king offered to the Relics the dominion of Ceylon, and Indagutta decreed that the people of Ceylon, wherever they might be, should be able immediately to visit the Thūpa should they desire to do so. At the end of the seven days, the two sāmaṇeras, Uttara and Sumana, closed the Chamber with the medavaṇṇapāsāṇā set apart for the purpose, while arahants pronounced that flowers offered in the Relic Chamber should not wither, nor scents dry up; the lamps should not be extinguished nor anything whatever perish.³ The treasures enshrined in the Mahā Thūpa were worth twenty crores, the rest cost one thousand crores.⁴