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xliv
THE BOOK OF THE GREAT DECEASE.
This ceremony is called Mataka Dânaya (Gift for the Dead), and the previous feast is called Mataka Bhatta (Feast in honour of the Dead): the two combined taking the place of an ancient rite observed in pagan, pre-Buddhistic, times, and then also called Mataka Bhatta, in which offerings were made to the Petas; that is, to the manes, or departed ghosts, of ancestors and near relations. Such offerings are of course forbidden to Buddhists, and it is a very instructive instance of a survival in belief, of the effect of the natural reluctance to make much change in the mode of paying the customary funeral respect to deceased friends, that the kind of food supposed to be most appreciated by the dead should still be used in the Buddhist funeral rites.
Another part of the ceremony, that part where one end of a roll of cloth is placed on the coffin while the other end is held by all the assembled Unnânsês 2, is a fragment of ritualistic symbolism which deserves attention. The members of the Buddhist Order of Mendicants were enjoined to avoid all personal decoration of any kind; and to attire themselves in cloths of no value, such as might be gathered from a dust heap (Pamsu-kúla), or even from a cemetery. This was a principle to be followed, not a literal rule to be observed; and therefore from the first presents of strips of plain white cotton cloth, first torn in pieces to deprive them of any commercial value, then pieced together again and dyed a dull orange colour to call to mind the colour of old worn out linen, were the material from which the mendicants' clothing was actually made. But the duty of contempt for dress (called Pamsu-kûlikanga, from the dust heap) was never lost sight of, and advantage was taken of the gifts given by the faithful at funerals to impress this duty upon the minds of the assembled Bhikkhus.
Nothing is known of any religious ceremony having been performed by the early Buddhists in India, whether the person deceased was a layman, or even a member of the
1 Compare the Mataka-Bhatta-Gâtaka (No. 18), translated in 'Buddhist Birth Stories,' vol. i. pp. 226 and following. 2 See p. xlii.
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| SR No. | 007674 |
| Book Title | Dhammapada |
| Original Sutra Author | N/A |
| Author | Max Muller |
| Publisher | Oxford |
| Publication Year | 1881 |
| Total Pages | 2540 |
| Language | English |
| Classification | Book_English |
| File Size | 45 MB |