[INDOLOGY] The Buddha's body in a vat of oil

Fri Nov 23 19:29:54 UTC 2018

Additional references to this practice are to be found in the Rāmāyaṇa and its commentaries. In addition to the to the previously noted case of Daśaratha, there is the episode from the Uttarakāṇḍa in which Rāma instructs Lakṣmaṇa to have the body of the dead brahman child placed in a droṇa of oil  including fragrances and aromatic oils specifically so that it would not undergo decomposition of disintegration while Rāma  searches his kingdom for the person whose offense he has been told is the cause of this untimely (and remediable)  death.  (VR 7.66.2–4.)

Also unnoticed, and perhaps bearing on the exact sense of the term droṇa in this context is the Uttarakāṇḍa’s cautionary  tale of King Nimi as narrated at the critical edition’s APP. I, No. 8 lines 192–193.   (a passage which Dr. Sutherland Goldman and I  have restored to the text of our translation as VR 7. 5–5*.11). According to the legend, when Nimi was cursed to become disembodied, his court brahmins, servants and subjects  preserved (rakṣanti sma) his body and worshiped it with fragrances and garlands, again evidently as a means of preventing its decay. The text does not specify how the body is preserved but three commentators on the passage, Mādhava Yogīndra, Govindarāja, and Nāgeśa, understand that the body was placed in some sort of vessel of oil (tailakaṭāhādāv iti śeṣaḥ) perhaps suggesting that they, at least,  read droṇa in the other passages to refer to a vat rather than a specific measure. 

P.V Kane discusses this practice briefly on pp. 233–234 of  Vol. 4 of his History of Dharmaśāstra, citing the Rāmāyaṇa example of Daśaratha as well as a few others from the Viṣṇūpurāṇa (the Nimi story) and the sūtra literature. 

Happy Holidays to all

Bob
Dr. R. P.  Goldman
Catherine and William L. Magistretti Distinguished Professor in South and Southeast Asian Studies
Department of South and Southeast Asian Studies MC # 2540
The University of California at Berkeley
Berkeley, CA 94720-2540
Tel: 510-642-4089
Fax: 510-642-2409

> On Nov 23, 2018, at 10:14 AM, Dominik Wujastyk via INDOLOGY <indology at list.indology.info> wrote:
> 
> "teli-dona" in Sanskrit would be "taila-droṇam".  This expression occurs twice in the Carakasaṃhitā.  In both cases it should be understood not in the sense of "a barrel of oil," but rather "ten litres of oil."  A droṇa is a unit of measure (see Roots of Ayurveda "Śarṅgadhara on weights measures and definitions."  A droṇa is not exactly ten litres, but roughly so.
> 
> When the Carakasaṃhitā gives its longevity instructions at Ca.ci.4.7, the patient is to be put in a barrel and the word is droṇa: snehabhāvitāyām ārdrapalāśadroṇyāṃ sapidhānāyāṃ digvāsāḥ śayīta "he should lie naked in a palāśa-wood barrel that has been steeped with oil, covered with a lid."  (Roots, "Rejuvenation through Soma" in the Suśruta chapter).
> 
> My conclusion is that although there are oiled barrels in classical Ayurveda, a teli-dona isn't a barrel of oil, but rather an amount of oil.
> 
> Best,
> Dominik
> 
> 
> --
> Professor Dominik Wujastyk <http://ualberta.academia.edu/DominikWujastyk>,
> Singhmar Chair in Classical Indian Society and Polity,
> Department of History and Classics <http://historyandclassics.ualberta.ca/>,
> University of Alberta, Canada.
> South Asia at the U of A: sas.ualberta.ca <http://sas.ualberta.ca/>
> 
> 
> 
> On Fri, 23 Nov 2018 at 03:31, alakendu das via INDOLOGY <indology at list.indology.info <mailto:indology at list.indology.info>> wrote:
> Dr.Karp,
> I apologise for being a little late in citing a probable reference vis-a-vis your query.I could access my library
> only yesterday evening,where I came across the book"The Vedantic Buddhism of Buddha"by J.G.Gennings(Oxford University Press ,1948).Pg 427 of the book g
> brings out the fact,that after Buddha's Mahaparinirvana,HIS body was first wrapped in unsoiled garment and cotton,and then laid on an oil-trough to form the pyre.This has reference in the Khudda Nikaya of the Sutta pitaka.The word Teli-Dona implies oil-trough.
> Alakendu Das.
> Sent from RediffmailNG on Android
> 
> 
> 
> 
> From: Artur Karp via INDOLOGY <indology at list.indology.info <mailto:indology at list.indology.info>>
> Sent: Tue, 20 Nov 2018 21:47:59 GMT+0530
> To: indology <indology at list.indology.info <mailto:indology at list.indology.info>>
> Subject: [INDOLOGY] The Buddha's body in a vat of oil
> 
> pali tela-doni, sanskrit taila-droni. 
> 
> Was the body placed in cold - or hot oil?
> 
> Any mention of the oil's temperature in the accessible sources?
> 
> Artur Karp (ret)
> Chair of South Asian Studies, 
> University of Warsaw
> Poland
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