History and Doctrines of the Ajivikas: A Vanished Indian Religion c12.s5.1

c12.s5.1

When Gosāla realized that his end was near he gave orders to his disciples for the preparation of a sumptuous funeral. They were to bathe his body in scented water, anoint it with sandal paste, array it in a rich robe, and bedeck it in all his ornaments. They were then to mount it on a bier drawn by a thousand men, and to proceed through the streets of Sāvatthi, proclaiming that the *jina* Gosāla Maṅkhaliputta, the last *tīrthaṅkara* of the twenty-four *tīrthaṅkaras* of this *Avasarpiṇī* had passed away. After this his body was to be cremated.³