The Life or Legend of Gaudama, the Buddha of the Burmese (Volume II) — Reading Companion

Buddha’s Final Days and the First Council

The volume begins with Buddha, now seventy-nine, instructing the Rahans and performing miracles such as crossing the Ganges. Key episodes include the conversion of a courtesan, Buddha's painful distemper after his last meal, and his conversation with a Malla prince. The narrative details his death in the Kootheinaron forest, the wonders attending his final couch, and his eulogium of Ananda. After death, stanzas are uttered, and Kathaba arrives to worship the body before cremation. The relics are divided by a Pounha named Dauna, and King Adzatathat pays them extraordinary honours. The section concludes with the first council at Radzagio, where Kathaba selects five hundred elders, Ananda is miraculously qualified to join, and the religious era is established.

Parallels Between Brahminical and Buddhist Orders

Bigandet devotes a substantial article to comparing the Brahminical religious order, as described in the Institutes of Menoo, with the Buddhist order as explained in the Wini. He asserts that both systems share the same objects: disentangling the soul from passions and liberating it from metempsychosis. However, the final ends differ: the perfected Brahmin seeks absorption in infinite being, while the Buddhist aims at total annihilation (Neibban). The moral observances are nearly identical, and both traditions have a body of individuals striving for perfect observance. Bigandet concludes that Buddha found existing elements and improved upon them, rather than inventing new moral precepts.

Structure and Decline of the Buddhist Order

The volume examines the nature and hierarchy of the Buddhist order, including ceremonies for admitting new members and rules governing their lives. Bigandet inquires into the causes of the Talapoins' (Phongyies) religious influence and the motives behind lay veneration. He concludes with a short account of the order's degraded state in Burma, particularly regarding knowledge and information. This analysis is grounded in the Wini and contemporary observations, offering a critical perspective on the institutional decline.

Bigandet's work is valuable for its detailed translation of Burmese Buddhist sources and its comparative approach. Readers should note that the volume combines hagiography with institutional history, and Bigandet's Catholic perspective shapes his analysis. The excerpts do not cover the entire volume, so some sections—such as the full account of the council or later chapters—are not represented here. This edition preserves the original 1912 fourth edition text.

I remember nights spent with Bigandet’s second volume, watching the Buddha’s quiet passage into final stillness, and how monastic forms borrowed from older soil. That old feeling surfaced again with Islam — Text and Context, another book that hums with the idea that faith grows by weaving what was already there. Two strangers, same patient gaze.