World of Philosophy

Author(s): Christopher Key Chapple, Intaj Malek, Dilip Charan, Sunanda Shastri, Prashant Dave
Publisher: Shanti Prakashan

Page 908

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to be committed at the various places of pilgrimage in the Ramayana," and Mahabharata.41 In the Rāmāyaṇa itself, it is said that Rāma, along with hundreds of his subjects drowned in the water of Sarayu.42
Self immolation by fire, or water or by falling headlong from a cliff (bhrgupatana) at Amarakantaka is highly extoled. It is said that, he who throws himself down from the peak of Amarakanṭaka, never returns to mundane world (samsara) 43 These methods of self-immolation are considered as means of salvation. Mahāprästhāna is another kind of self-immolation approved by ancient authorities as a means of release from the miseries of the world. Mahabharata states that one who has realised the transitoriness of life should end it in the Himalaya.44 It is further said that if a man, knowing the Vedanta and understanding the ephemeral nature of life, abandons life in the holy Himalaya by fasting he would reach the world of Brahman.'45 According to Mahabharata the Pāṇḍava brethren and their wife Draupadi followed this path of Mahaprasthāna.46
We get many instances of self-imm loation from ancient literature and epigraphic records, in the Mrcchakatika (.Gupta period, 5th century A.D) it is said that, king Śūdraka entered fire.47 kālidāsa in his Raghuvamsa (5th century. A.D.) tells us that king Aja, in his old age, resorted to fasting (prayopaveśana) and drowned himself at the confluence of the holy rivers-the Ganga and the Sarayu.48 Kumaragupta (554 A.D), the later Gupta Emperor, is also said to have entered fire of a dried cowdung cakes.49 This kind of death is regarded as most meritorious in the Purānas,50
In the mediaeval age, the position was more or less the same as in ancient times. From Ain-e-Akbari we learn that death by starving, entering self-lit fire, burrying one self in snow, and death by drowning in sacred rivers, and cutting one's throat at Prayaga, were prevalent and considered as meritorious by Hindus in the mediaeval period as in the ancient times.51 In addition to these, dying under the wheels of Jagannatha's car at puri and throwing oneself down from certain rocks or tree at Prayaga, etc., were also practised in mediaeval age, 52 From the Khairh plates53 of mediaeval period we learn that, Yaśahkarandadeva obtained salvation together with his five hundred wives at the famous banyan tree of Prayaga in 1040 A.D. Jayapala, a king of Kabul and Lahore, is also said to have entered fire in 1001 A.D.54 Kadambadeva of Vedi (1042 A.D,) had ended his life in the waters.55 Calukya king Someśvara Anavamalla drowned himself in the Tungabhadra river in 1068 A.D.56 Many such instances are found in mediaeval inscriptions.57 The statement found in Rājatarangini (llth century A.D.), that there were certain officers, appointed by the king to supervise prayopaveśaṇā indicates that, death by fasting was practised on a large scale in mediaeval period.58
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