Did Eating Pork Trigger Buddha's Death?

Pali Canon has three main sections: 

1. Vinaya Pitaka

2. Sutta Pitaka

3. Abhidhamma Pitaka

And Sutta Pitaka consists of five collections, among which Digha Nikaya (DN) is the first. This Pali Canon is traditionally considered to have been settled at the first Council at Rajagaha three months after the death of Gotama the Buddha. In Pali it is Siddhattha Gotama, Sutta (discourse) and Nibbana whereas in Sanskrit it is Siddhartha Gautama, Sutra and Nirvana. For this reason I shall use the Pali version instead of Sanskrit!

Mahaparinibbana Sutta: The Great Passing The Buddha's Last Days of the Digha Nikaya records an interesting event. The Buddha was now around 80 years old. And after having stayed at Bhoganagara, Buddha told Ananda that they leave for Pava. At Pava Buddha gave a discourse on Dhamma to Cunda, the smith, who came to seek an audience with the Buddha. Then Cunda invited Buddha and his order of monks for a meal. Cunda went home and had a fine meal prepared with an abundance of ' sukara-maddava'. ( Sukara= pig, Maddava= gentle/soft.) Maurice Walshe, in his translation of the DN to English, uses the phrase "pig's delight" to translate "sukara-maddava'.

Butddha  came the next day with his order of monks to Cunda's house. After being seated for a meal, Buddha said, " Serve the 'pig's delight' that has been prepared to me, and serve the remaining hard and soft food to the order of monks." Buddha and the monks are to eat just once a day; gluttony as it is in other religious/philosophical tradition was not considered proper. And after a moderate meal Buddha told Cunda, " Whatever is left over of the 'pig's delight' you should bury in a pit, because, Cunda, I can see none in the world with its devas, maras, and Brahmas, in this generation with its ascetics and Brahmins, its princes and people who, if they were to eat it, could thoroughly digest it except the Tathagata". ( 'Tathagatha' refers to Buddha himself here.) 

Having eaten the 'pig's delight' Buddha had a "bloody diarrhoea'  and he had severe pain as if he were close to death. Buddha, of course, as an 'enlightened one' was not upset with Cunda for the meal. Rather he taught his disciples that if anyone would serve a meal after which a Tathagatha attains supreme enlightenment or nibbana, that giver's deed would be profitable and fruitful. Sometime later the same Sutta records  Buddha traveling to different towns, but it also records Buddha as repeating " I am tired and want to lie down". One may infer that the 'bloody diarrhoea' had token its toll on Buddha's health, considering that he was in his 80's. However, even before eating of this 'pig's delight' Buddha was well aware that his time was near. Ten pages before the record of his eating of 'pig's delight', Buddha had told Mara, the Evil one, similar to the Serpent of the Bible, that three months from then on he would take the final Nibana. So when the time arrived for Buddha to pass away, whether the 'pig's delight' triggered the death or not, he would have entered his last phase on this earth. 

Besides the above point, the other matter that emerges is whether Buddhist can eat meat/pork or not. Commenting on this point, Maurice Walshe writes that Buddha tells that monks were not to eat meat if they knew or suspect that the animal was killed specially for them. Buddha had in fact rejected  proposal to forbid meat eating as such. Since the monks were living on alms, if they had refused meat they would be embarrassing the household that offered them food or otherwise starved if they refused meat altogether. Eastern Theravada Buddhists have been mostly non-vegetarians! 

NB: Quotations in the post are from The Long Discourses of the Buddha: A Translation of the Digha Nikaya, trans. by Maurice Walshe, (Wisdom Publication; Boston), 1995.