Dialogues About Death in Milindapañha and Carakasaṃhitā

Abstract

This paper deals with the debates over kālamṛtyu (“timely death” or human death at the end of the life span) and akālamṛtyu (“untimely death” or premature death that occurs when the life span still remains). In cultural areas like ancient India, where the karman doctrine or the law of karman is firmly rooted, such “timely death” and “untimely death” have seemed to be the catalysts for the philosophical and ethical debates. Assuming that a person’s life itself would be affected by the person’s past karmans, each life span and death of individual persons would have been predetermined by their past karmans, and consequently, any efforts for preserving or prolonging life span in this world would have no meaning. If it were so, in the first place, does the karman doctrine leave room for “untimely death”? This paper discusses how Buddhist literature, especially the Questions of King Milinda (Milindapañha), and the Āyurvedic literature approach the above issues.