Political changes, in which however he took no part, occurred in the last years of the Buddha’s life.  In Magadha Ajatasattu had come to the throne.  If, as the Vinaya represents, he at first supported the schism of Devadatta, he subsequently became a patron of the Buddha.  He was an ambitious prince and fortified Pataligama (afterwards Pataliputra) against the Vajjian confederation, which he destroyed a few years after the Buddha’s death.  This confederation was an alliance of small oligarchies like the Licchavis and Videhans.  It would appear that this form of constitution was on the wane in northern India and that the monarchical states were annexing the decaying commonwealths.  In Kosala, Vidudabha conquered Kapilavatthu a year or two before the Buddha’s death, and is said to have perpetrated a great massacre of the Sakya clan[371].  Possibly in consequence of these events the Buddha avoided Kosala and the former Sakya territory.  At any rate the record of his last days opens at Rajagaha, the capital of Magadha.

This record is contained in the Mahaparinibbana Sutta, the longest of the suttas and evidently a compilation.  The style is provokingly uneven.  It often promises to give a simple and natural narrative but such passages are interrupted by more recent and less relevant matter.  No general estimate of its historical value can be given but each incident must be apprized separately.  Nearly all the events and discourses recorded in it are found elsewhere in the canon in the same words[372] and it contains explanatory matter of a suspiciously apologetic nature.  Also the supernatural element is freely introduced.  But together with all this it contains plain pathetic pictures of an old man’s fatigue and sufferings which would not have been inserted by a later hand, had they not been found ready in tradition.  And though events and sermonettes are strung together in a way which is not artistic, there is nothing improbable in the idea that the Buddha when he felt his end approaching should have admonished his disciples about all that he thought most important.

The story opens at Rajagaha about six months before the Buddha’s death.  The King sends his minister to ask whether he will be successful in attacking the Vajjians.  The Buddha replies that as long as they act in concord, behave honourably, and respect the Faith, so long may they be expected not to decline but prosper.  The compiler may perhaps have felt this narrative to be an appropriate parallel to the Buddha’s advice to his disciples to live in peace and order.  He summoned and addressed the brethren living in Rajagaha and visited various spots in the neighbourhood.  In these last utterances one phrase occurs with special frequency, “Great is the fruit, great the advantage of meditation accompanied by upright conduct:  great is the advantage of intelligence accompanied by meditation.  The mind which has such intelligence is freed from intoxications, from the desires of the senses, from love of life, from delusion and from ignorance.”