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usual amnesty of the sympathetic-magical kind, 109 and a grand popular festival take place, 110 but there is also - after ten days of childbed impurity, the purification ritual on the 11th day, 111 and the naming festival - a family banquet and an exchange of gifts, possibly of potlatching nature. 112
Returning now to Buddhism, we hear of the Bodhisatta descending from heaven into the womb of his 40-50 year old mother accompanied by a radiant brightness in the universe. 113 As to the descent, Buddhaghosa says, "Though knowing 'I shall fall from the world of the gods' yet he was not conscious of the process itself. He was aware of having been reborn, but could not remember entering a new body." Other monks, however, did not share this opinion, which also involves the moment of death - as is the case with the Jains.114 Relevant Theravāda and Jain data when collected systematically may be taken into account in our thanatology, along with the discussion on possession going on here in Heidelberg at present, in which only East Asian material, especially from Amida Buddhism, and case studies from India have been evaluated so far. 115
The Pali canon does not elaborate on the manner of descent, but since Buddhaghosa there is in Tusita a pleasure grove (Nanda/na-vana) where the being to be reincarnated is seen off by the gods with the words: "Have a good course !"116 The text emphasizes, that all the worlds of the gods have such a grove, but it does not deal with its significance .117 Gods "die" in that they shrink and become sad only to dematerialize eventually. Does the reincarnand retire into this wood in order to save the other gods an unpleasant sight ? Why, then, is it called Nanda-vana? Or can it be a state of preparation, perhaps like the Anūpiya mango grove, where the Bodhisatta spent a week enjoying the happiness of his pabbajjā before entering Rājagaha ? It can, however, just as well be a mechanical adoption from Hinduism of a divine, esp. Indra's, garden (PWB).
and XII (Vardhamāna). 109 Kappa $100. 110 Kappa $102. 111 Cf. Jolly 1901 843. 112 Āyar 2,15,11 and, in greater detail, in Kappa $103-105. Similarly in Divy 282 (see
Schlingloff 1962: 20). 113 Windisch 1908: 111; Eliade 1965: 33. 114 Sumangala-vilāsini 430,15 sqq. (not Ja I 50) and cf. Vism 548. 115 See M. Schröter, Nahtodeserlebnisse - eine wissenschaftliche Deutung (working
title). 116 Sv 430,12 su-gatim gaccha! 117 Cf. Kirfel 1920: 230 sq.