SOURCES OF SINGHALESE HISTORY.--THE MAHAWANSO AND OTHER NATIVE ANNALS.
It was long affirmed by Europeans that the Singhalese annals, like those
of the Hindus, were devoid of interest or value as historical material;
that, as religious disquisitions, they were the ravings of fanaticism,
and that myths and romances had been reduced to the semblance of
national chronicles. Such was the opinion of the Portuguese writers DE
BARROS and DE COUTO; and VALENTYN, who, about the year 1725, published
his great work on the Dutch possessions in India, states his conviction
that no reliance can be placed on such of the Singhalese books as
profess to record the ancient condition of the country. These he held to
be even of less authority than the traditions of the same events which
had descended from father to son. On the information of learned
Singhalese, drawn apparently from the _Rajavali_, he inserted an account
of the native sovereigns, from the earliest times to the arrival of the
Portuguese; but, wearied by the monotonous inanity of the story, he
omitted every reign between the fifth and fifteenth centuries of the
Christian era.[1]
[Footnote 1: VALENTYN, _Oud en Nieuw Oost-Indien, &c., Landbeschryving
van t' Eyland Ceylon_, ch iv. p. 60.]
A writer, who, under the signature of PHILALETHES, published, in 1816,
_A History of Ceylon from the earliest period_, adopted the dictum of
Valentyn, and contented himself with still further condensing the
"account," which the latter had given "of the ancient Emperors and
Kings" of the island. Dr. DAVY compiled that portion of his excellent
narrative which has reference to the early history of Kandy, chiefly
from the recitals of the most intelligent natives, borrowed, as in the
case of the informants of Valentyn, from the perusal of the popular
legends; and he and every other author unacquainted with the native
language, who wrote on Ceylon previous to 1833, assumed without inquiry
the nonexistence of historic data.[1]
[Footnote 1: DAVY's _Ceylon_, ch. x. p. 293. See also PERCIVAL'S
_Ceylon_, p. 4.]
It was not till about the year 1826 that the discovery was made and
communicated to Europe, that whilst the history of India was only to be
conjectured from myths and elaborated from the dates on copper grants,
or fading inscriptions on rocks and columns[1], Ceylon was in possession
of continuous written chronicles, rich in authentic facts, and not only
presenting a connected history of the island itself, but also yielding
valuable materials for elucidating that of India. At the moment when
Prinsep was deciphering the mysterious Buddhist inscriptions, which are
scattered over Hindustan and Western India, and when Csoma de Körös was
unrolling the Buddhist records of Thibet, and Hodgson those of Nepaul, a
fellow labourer of kindred genius was successfully exploring the Pali
manuscripts of Ceylon, and developing results not less remarkable nor
less conducive to the illustration of the early history of Southern
Asia. Mr. Turnour, a civil officer of the Ceylon service[2], was then
administering the government of the district of Saffragam, and being
resident at Ratnapoora near the foot of Adam's Peak, he was enabled to
pursue his studies under the guidance of Gallé, a learned priest,
through whose instrumentality he obtained from the Wihara, at
Mulgiri-galla, near Tangalle (a temple founded about 130 years before
the Christian era), some rare and important manuscripts, the perusal of
which gave an impulse and direction to the investigations which occupied
the rest of his life.
[Footnote 1: REINAUD, _Mémoire sur l' Inde_, p. 3.]
[Footnote 2: GEORGE TURNOUR was the eldest son of the Hon. George
Turnour, son of the first Earl of Winterton; his mother being Emilie,
niece to the Cardinal Due de Beausset. He was born in Ceylon in 1799 and
having been educated in England under the guardianship of the Right Hon.
Sir Thomas Maitland, then governor of the island, he entered the Civil
Service in 1818, in which he rose to the highest rank. He was
distinguished equally by his abilities and his modest display of them.
Interpreting in its largest sense the duty enjoined on him, as a public
officer, of acquiring a knowledge of the native languages, he extended
his studies, from the vernacular and written Singhalese to Pali, the
great root and original of both, known only to the Buddhist priesthood,
and imperfectly and even rarely amongst them. No dictionaries then
existed to assist in defining the meaning of Pali terms which no teacher
could be found capable of rendering into English, so that Mr. Turnour
was entirely dependent on his knowledge of Singhalese as a medium for
translating them. To an ordinary mind such obstructions would have
proved insurmountable, aggravated as they were by discouragements
arising from the assumed barrenness of the field, and the absence of all
sympathy with his pursuits, on the part of those around him, who
reserved their applause and encouragement till success had rendered him
indifferent to either. To this apathy of the government officers, Major
Forbes, who was then the resident at Matelle, formed an honourable
exception; and his narrative of _Eleven Years in Ceylon_ shows with what
ardour and success he shared the tastes and cultivated the studies to
which he had been directed by the genius and example of Turnour. So
zealous and unobtrusive were the pursuits of the latter, that even his
immediate connexions and relatives were unaware of the value and extent
of his acquirements till apprised of their importance and profundity by
the acclamation with which his discoveries and translations from the
Pali were received by the savans of Europe. Major Forbes, in a private
letter, which I have been permitted to see, speaking of the difficulty
of doing justice to the literary character of Turnour, and the ability,
energy, and perseverance which he exhibited in his historical
investigations, says, "his _Epitome of the History of Ceylon_ was from
the first _correct;_ I saw it seven years before it was published, and
it scarcely required an alteration afterwards." Whilst engaged in his
translation of the _Mahawanso_, TURNOUR, amongst other able papers on
_Buddist History_ and _Indian Chronology_ in the _Journal of the Bengal
Asiatic Society_, v. 521, vi. 299, 790, 1049, contributed a series of
essays _on the Pali-Buddhistical Annals_, which were published in 1836,
1837, 1838.--_Journ. Asiatic Soc. Bengal_, vi. 501, 714, vii. 686, 789,
919. At various times he published in the same journal an account of the
_Tooth Relic of Ceylon, Ib._ vi. 856, and notes on the inscriptions on
the columns of Delhi, Allahabad, and Betiah, &c. &c.; and frequent
notices of Ceylon coins and inscriptions. He had likewise planned
another undertaking of signal importance, the translation into English
of a Pali version of the Buddhist scriptures, an ancient copy of which
he had discovered, unencumbered by the ignorant commentaries of later
writers, and the fables with which they have defaced the plain and
simple doctrines of the early faith. He announced his intention in the
_Introduction to the Mahawanso_ to expedite the publication, as "the
least tardy means of effecting a comparison of the Pali with the
Sanskrit version" (p. cx.). His correspondence with Prinsep, which I
have been permitted by his family to inspect, abounds with the evidence
of inchoate inquiries in which their congenial spirits had a common
interest, but which were abruptly ended by the premature decease of
both. Turnour, with shattered health, returned to Europe in 1842, and
died at Naples on the 10th of April in the following year, The first
volume of his translation of the _Mahawanso_, which contains
thirty-eight chapters out of the hundred which form the original work,
was published at Colombo in 1837; and apprehensive that scepticism might
assail the authenticity of a discovery so important, he accompanied his
English version with a reprint of the original Pali in Roman characters
with diacritical points.
He did not live to conclude the task he had so nobly begun; he died
while engaged on the second volume of his translation, and only a few
chapters, executed with his characteristic accuracy, remain in
manuscript in the possession of his surviving relatives. It diminishes,
though in a slight degree, our regret for the interruption of his
literary labours to know that the section of the _Mahawanso_ which he
left unfinished is inferior both in authority and value to the earlier
portion of the work, and that being composed at a period when literature
was at its lowest ebb in Ceylon, it differs little if at all from other
chronicles written during the decline of the native dynasty.]
It is necessary to premise, that the most renowned of the Singhalese
books is the _Mahawanso_, a metrical chronicle, containing a dynastic
history of the island for twenty-three centuries from B.C. 543 to A.D.
1758. But being written in Pali verse its existence in modern times was
only known to the priests, and owing to the obscurity of its diction it
had ceased to be studied by even the learned amongst them.
To relieve the obscurity of their writings, and supply the omissions,
occasioned by the fetters of rhythm and the necessity of permutations
and elisions, required to accommodate their phraseology to the
obligations of verse; the Pali authors of antiquity were accustomed to
accompany their metrical compositions with a _tika_ or running
commentary, which contained a literal version of the mystical text, and
supplied illustrations of its more abstruse passages. Such a _tika_ on
the _Mahawanso_ was generally known to have been written; but so utter
was the neglect into which both it and the original text had been
permitted to fall, that Turnour till 1826 had never met with an
individual who had critically read the one, or more than casually heard
of the existence of the other.[1] At length, amongst the books which,
were procured for him by the high, priest of Saffragam, was one which
proved to be this neglected commentary on the mystic and otherwise
unintelligible _Mahawanso_; and by the assistance of this precious
document he undertook, with confidence, a translation into English of
the long lost chronicle, and thus vindicated the claim of Ceylon to the
possession of an authentic and unrivalled record of its national
history.
[Footnote 1: TURNOUR's _Mahawanso_, introduction, vol. i. p. ii.]
The title "Mahawanso," which means literally the "_Genealogy of the
Great_," properly belongs only to the first section of the work,
extending from B.C. 543 to A.D. 301,[1] and containing the history of
the early kings, from Wijayo to Maha Sen, with whom the Singhalese
consider the "Great Dynasty" to end. The author of this portion was
Mahanamo, uncle of the king Dhatu Sena, in whose reign it was compiled,
between the years A.D. 459 and 477, from annals in the vernacular
language then existing at Anarajapoora.[2]
[Footnote 1: Although the _Mahawanso_ must be regarded as containing the
earliest _historical_ notices of Ceylon, the island, under its Sanskrit
name of Lanka, occupies a prominent place in the mythical poems of the
Hindus, and its conquest by Rama is the theme of the _Ramayana_, one of
the oldest epics in existence. In the _Raja-Tarangini_ also, an
historical chronicle which may be regarded as the _Mahawanso_ of
Kashmir, very early accounts of Ceylon are contained, and the historian
records that the King Megavahana, who, according to the chronology of
Troyer, reigned A.D. 24, made an expedition to Ceylon for the purpose of
extending Buddhism, and visited Adam's Peak, where he had an interview
with the native sovereign.--_Raja-Tarangini_, Book iii. sl. 71-79. _Ib._
vol. ii. p. 364.]
[Footnote 2: _Mahawanso_, ch. i. The Arabian travellers in Ceylon
mention the official historiographers employed by order of the kings.
See Vol. I Pt. III. ch. viii. p. 387, note.]
The sovereigns who succeeded Maha Sen are distinguished as the
"Sulu-wanse," the "lower race," and the story of their line occupies the
continuation of this extraordinary chronicle, the second portion of
which was written by order of the illustrious king Prakrama Bahu, about
the year A.D. 1266, and the narrative was carried on, under subsequent
sovereigns, down to the year A.D. 1758, the latest chapters having been
compiled by command of the King of Kandy, Kirti-Sri, partly from
Singhalese works brought back to the island from Siam (whither they had
been carried at former periods by priests dispatched upon missions), and
partly from native histories, which had escaped the general destruction
of such records in the reign of Raja Singha I., an apostate from
Buddhism, who, about the year A.D. 1590, during the period when the
Portuguese were in occupation of the low country, exterminated the
priests of Buddha, and transferred the care of the shrine on Adam's Peak
to Hindu Fakirs.
But the _Mahawanso_, although the most authentic, and probably the most
ancient, is by no means the only existing Singhalese chronicle. Between
the 14th and 18th centuries several historians recorded passing events;
and as these corroborate and supplement the narrative of the greater
work, they present an uninterrupted Historical Record of the highest
authenticity, comprising the events of nearly twenty-four centuries.[1]
[Footnote 1: In 1833 Upham published, under the title of _The Sacred and
Historical Books of Ceylon_, translations of what professed to be
authentic copies of the _Mahawanso_, the _Rajaratnacari_, and
_Rajavali_; prepared for the use of Sir Alexander Johnston when
Chief-Justice of the island. But Turnour, in the introduction to his
masterly translation of the _Mahawanso_; has shown that Sir Alexander
had been imposed upon, and that the alleged transcripts supplied to him
are imperfect as regards the original text and unfaithful as
translations. Of the _Mahawanso_ in particular, Mr. Turnour says, in a
private letter which I have seen, that the early part of Upham's volume
"is not a translation but a compendium of several works, and the
subsequent portions a mutilated abridgment." The _Rajavali_, which is
the most valuable of these volumes, was translated for Sir Alexander
Johnston by Mr. Dionysius Lambertus Pereira, who was then
Interpreter-Moodliar to the Cutchery at Matura. These English versions,
though discredited as independent authorities, are not without value in
so far as they afford corroborative support to the genuine text of the
_Mahawanso_, and on this account I have occasionally cited them.]
From the data furnished by these, and from corroborative sources,[1]
Turnour, in addition to many elaborate contributions drawn from the
recesses of Pali learning in elucidation of the chronology of India, was
enabled to prepare an _Epitome of the History of Ceylon,_ in which he
has exhibited the succession and genealogy of one hundred and sixty-five
kings, who filled the throne during 2341 years, extending from the
invasion of the island from Bengal, by Wijayo, in the year B.C. 543 to
its conquest by the British in 1798. In this work, after infinite
labour, he has succeeded in condensing the events of each reign,
commemorating the founders of the chief cities, and noting the erection
of the great temples and Buddhist monuments, and the construction of
some of those gigantic reservoirs and works for irrigation, which,
though in ruins, arrest the traveller in astonishment at their
stupendous dimensions. He thus effectually demonstrated the
misconceptions of those who previously believed the literature of Ceylon
to be destitute of historic materials.[2]
[Footnote 1: Besides the _Mahawanso, Rajaratnacari_, and _Rajavali_, the
other native chronicles relied on by Turnour in compiling his epitome
were the _Pujavali_, composed in the thirteenth century, the
_Neekaasangraha_, written A.D. 1347, and the _Account of the Embassy to
Siam_ in the reign of Raja Singha II., A.D. 1739-47, by WILBAAGEDERE
MUDIANSE.]
[Footnote 2: By the help of TURNOUR'S translation of the _Mahawanso_ and
the versions of the _Rajaratnacari_ and _Rajavali,_ published by Upham,
two authors have since expanded the _Epitome_ of the former into
something like a connected narrative, and those who wish to pursue the
investigation of the early story of the island, will find facilities in
the _History of Ceylon,_ published by KNIGHTON in 1845, and in the first
volume of _Ceylon and its Dependencies,_ by PRIDHAM, London, 1849. To
facilitate reference I have appended a _Chronological List of Singhalese
Sovereigns,_ compiled from the historical epitome of Turnour. See Note
B. at the end of this chapter.]
Besides evidence of a less definite character, there is one remarkable
coincidence which affords grounds for confidence in the faithfulness of
the purely historic portion of the Singhalese chronicles; due allowance
being made for that exaggeration of style which is apparently
inseparable from oriental recital. The circumstance alluded to is the
mention in the _Mahawanso_ of the Chandragupta[1], so often alluded to
by the Sanskrit writers, who, as Sir William Jones was the first to
discover, is identical with Sandracottus or Sandracoptus, the King of
the Prasii, to whose court, on the banks of the Ganges, Megasthenes was
accredited as an ambassador from Seleucus Nicator, about 323 years
before Christ. Along with a multitude of facts relating to Ceylon, the
_Mahawanso_ contains a chronologically connected history of Buddhism in
India from B.C. 590 to B.C. 307, a period signalized in classical story
by the Indian expedition of Alexander the Great, and by the Embassy of
Megasthenes to Palibothra,--events which in their results form the great
link connecting the histories of the West and East, but which have been
omitted or perverted in the scanty and perplexed annals of the Hindus,
because they tended to the exaltation of Buddhism, a religion loathed by
the Brahmans.
[Footnote 1: The era and identity of Sandracottus and Chandragupta have
been accurately traced in MAX MÜLLER'S _History of Sanskrit Literature_,
p. 298, &c.]
The Prasii, or people of Megadha, occupy a prominent place in the
history of Ceylon, inasmuch as Gotama Buddha, the great founder of the
faith of its people, was a prince of that country, and Mahindo, who
finally established the Buddhist religion amongst them, was the
great-grandson of Chandagutto, a prince whose name thus recorded in the
_Mahawanso_[1] (notwithstanding a chronological discrepancy of about
sixty years), may with little difficulty be identified with the
"Chandragupta" of the Hindu Purána, and the "Sandracottus" of
Megasthenes.
[Footnote 1: Mahawanso, ch. v. p. 21. See also WILSON'S _Notes to the
Vishnu Purána_, p. 468.]
This is one out of the many coincidences which demonstrate the
authenticity of the ancient annals of Ceylon; and from sources so
venerable, and materials so abundant, I propose to select a few of the
leading events, sufficient to illustrate the origin, and explain the
influence of institutions and customs which exist at the present day in
Ceylon, and which, from time immemorial, have characterised the
inhabitants of the island.
NOTE (A.)
ANCIENT MAP OF CEYLON.
So far as I am aware, no map has ever been produced, exhibiting the
comparative geography of Ceylon, and placing its modern names in
juxtaposition with their Sanskrit and Pali.
[Illustration:
LANGKÂ OR TÂMBRAPARNI.
_(CEYLON)_
_according to_
The Sanscrit Pali & Singhalese Authorities.
* * * * *
NB The modern Names are given in Italics.
By
Sir J. Emerson Tennet]
NOTE (B.)
NATIVE SOVEREIGNS OF CEYLON.
N.B. The names of subordinate or cotemporary Princes are printed in
_Italics_.
Names and Relationship of each
succeeding Sovereign. Capital. Accession
B.C
1. Wejaya, founder of the Wejayan dynasty Tamananeuera 543
2. Upatissa 1st, minister--regent Upatissaneuera 505
3. Panduwása, paternal nephew of Wejaya ditto 504
_Ráma_ _Rámagona_
_Rohuna_ _Rohuna_
_Diggaina_ _Diggámadulla_
_Urawelli_ _Mahawelligama_
_Anurádha_ _Anurádhapoora_
_Wijitta_ _Wijittapoora_
[these six are brothers-in-law]
4. Abhaya, son of Paduwása, dethroned Upatissaneuera 474
Interregnum 454
5. Pandukábhaya, maternal
grandson of Panduwása Anurádhapoora 437
6. Mutasiwa, paternal grandson ditto 367
7. Devenipiatissa, second son ditto 307
_Mahanága, brother_ _Mágama_
_Yatálatissa, son_ _Kellania_
_Gotábhaya, son_ _Mágama_
_Kellani-tissa, not specified_ _Kellania_
_Káwan-tissa, son of Gotábhaya_ _Mágama_
8. Uttiya, fourth son of Mutasiwa Anurádhapoora 267
9. Mahasiwa, fifth do. ditto 257
10. Suratissa, sixth do. put to death ditto 247
11. Séna and Guttika, foreign
usurpers--put to death ditto 237
12. Aséla, ninth son of Mutasiwa--deposed ditto 215
13. Elála, foreign usurper--killed in battle ditto 205
14. Dutugaimunu, son of _Káwantissa_ ditto 161
15. Saidaitissa, brother ditto 137
16. Tuhl or Thullathanaka,
younger son--deposed ditto 119
17. Laiminitissa 1st or
Lajjitissa, elder brother ditto 119
18. Kalunna or Khallátanága,
brother--put to death ditto 109
19. Walagambáhu 1st or
Wattagamini, brother--deposed ditto 104
20. [Five foreign usurpers--successively
deposed and put to death]
Pulahattha ditto 103
Báyiha ditto 100
Panayamárá ditto 98
Peliyamárá ditto 91
Dáthiya ditto 90
21. Walagambáhu 1st, reconquered
the kingdom ditto 88
22. Mahadailitissa or Mahachula, son ditto 76
23. Chora Nága, son--put to death ditto 62
24. Kudá Tissa, son--poisoned by his wife ditto 50
25. Anulá, widow ditto 47
26. Makalantissa or Kallakanni Tissa, second
son of Kudátissa ditto 41
27. Bátiyatissa 1st or Bátikábhaya, son ditto 19
Names and Relationship of Capital. Accession.
each succeeding Sovereign.
A.D.
28. Maha Dailiya Mána or Dáthika, brother Anurádhapoora 9
29. Addagaimunu or Amanda Gámini, son--put
to death ditto 21
30. Kinibirridaila or Kanijáni Tissa, brother ditto 30
31. Kudá Abhá or Chulábhaya, son ditto 33
32. Singhawallí or Síwalli, sister--put to
death ditto 34
Interregnum 35
33. Elluná or Ha Nága, maternal nephew of
Addagaimunu ditto 38
34. Sanda Muhuna or Chanda Mukha Siwa, son ditto 44
35. Yasa Silo or Yatálakatissa, brother--put
to death ditto 52
36. Subha, usurper--put to death ditto 60
37. Wahapp or Wasahba, descendant of
Laiminitissa ditto 66
38. Waknais or Wanka Násica, son ditto 110
39. Gajábáhu 1st or Gámini, son ditto 113
40. Mahalumáná or Mallaka Nága, maternal
cousin ditto 125
41. Bátiya Tissa 2nd or Bhátika Tissa, son ditto 131
42. Chula Tissa or Kanittbatissa, brother ditto 155
43. Kuhuna or Chudda Nága, son--murdered ditto 173
44. Kudanáma or Kuda Nága, nephew--deposed ditto 183
45. Kuda Siriná or Siri Nága 1st,
brother-in-law ditto 184
46. Waiwahairatissa or Wairatissa, son--murdered ditto 209
47. Abhá Sen or Abhá Tissa, brother ditto 231
48. Siri Nága 2nd, son ditto 239
49. Weja Indu or Wejaya 2nd, son--put to death ditto 241
50. Sangatissa 1st, descendant of
Laiminitissa--poisoned ditto 242
51. Dahama Sirisanga Bo or Sirisanga Bodhi
1st, do do.--deposed ditto 245
52. Golu Abhá, Gothábhaya or Megha warna
Abhay, do. do. ditto 248
53. Makalan Detu Tissa 1st, son ditto 261
54. Maha Sen, brother ditto 275
55. Kitsiri Maiwan 1st or Kirtisri Megha
warna, son ditto 302
56. Detu Tissa 2nd, brother ditto 330
57. Bujas or Budha Dása, son ditto 339
58. Upatissa 2nd, son ditto 368
59. Maha Náma, brother ditto 410
60. Senghot or Sotthi Sena, son--poisoned ditto 432
61. Laimini Tissa 2nd or Chatagáhaka,
descendant of Laiminitissa ditto 432
62. Mitta Sena or Karalsora, not
specified--put to death ditto 433
63. Pándu 24.9. Foreign usurpers ditto 434
Párinda Kuda 24.9. Foreign usurpers ditto 439
Khudda Párinda 24.9. Foreign usurpers ditto 455
Dátthiya 24.9. Foreign usurpers ditto 455
Pitthiya 24.9. Foreign usurpers ditto 458
64. Dásenkelleya or Dhátu Séna, descendant of
the original royal family--put to death ditto 459
65. Sígiri Kasumbu or Kásyapa 1st,
son--committed suicide Sigiri Galla Neuera 477
Names and Relationship of each succeeding
Sovereign. Capital. Accession.
A.D.
66. Mugallána 1st, brother Anurádhapoora 495
67. Kumára Dás or Kumára Dhátu Séna,
son-immolated himself ditto 513
68. Kirti Séna, son-murdered ditto 522
69. Maidi Síwu or Síwaka, maternal uncle-murdered ditto 531
70. Laimini Upátissa 3rd, brother-in-law ditto 531
71. Ambaherra Salamaiwan or Silákála, son-in-law ditto 534
72. Dápulu 1st or Dátthápa Bhodhi, second
son--committed suicide ditto 547
73. Dalamagalan or Mugallána 2nd, elder brother ditto 547
74. Kuda Kitsiri Maiwan 1st or Kirtisri
Meg-hawarna, son-put to death ditto 567
75. Senewi or Maha Nága, descendant of the
Okáka branch ditto 586
76. Aggrabodhi 1st or Akbo, maternal nephew ditto 589
77. Aggrabodhi 2nd or Sula Akbo, son-in-law ditto 623
78. Sanghatissa, brother-decapitated ditto 633
79. Buna Mugalan or Laimini Bunáya,
usurper-put to death ditto 633
80. Abhasiggáhaka or Asiggáhaka, maternal
grandson ditto 639
81. Siri Sangabo 2nd, son-deposed ditto 648
82. Kaluna Detutissa or Laimina Katuriya,
descendant of Laiminitissa-committed Dewuneura
suicide or Dondera 648
Siri Sangabo 2nd, restored, and again
deposed Anurádhapoora 649
83. Dalupiatissa 1st or Dhatthopatissa, Laimini
branch-killed in battle ditto 665
84. Paisulu Kasumbu or Kásyapa 2nd, brother
of Sirisangabo ditto 677
85. Dapulu 2nd, Okáka branch-deposed ditto 686
86. Dalupiatissa 2nd or Hattha-Datthopatissa,
son of Dalupiatissa 1st ditto 693
87. Paisulu Siri Sanga Bo 3rd or Aggrabodhi,
brother ditto 702
88. Walpitti Wasidata or Dantanáma, Okáka branch ditto 718
89. Hununaru Riandalu or Hatthadátha, original
royal family-decapitated ditto 720
90. Máhalaipánu or Mánawamma, do. do. ditto 720
91. Kásiyappa 3rd o Kasumbu, son ditto 726
92. Aggrabodhi 3rd or Akbo, nephew Pollonnarrua 729
93. Aggrabodhi 4th or Kudá Akbo, son ditto 769
94. Mahindu 1st or Salamaiwan, original royal
family ditto 775
95. Dappula 2nd, son ditto 795
96. Mahindu 2nd or Dharmika-Sîlámaiga, son ditto 800
97. Aggrabodhi 5th or Akbo, brother ditto 804
98. Dappula 3rd or Kudá Dappula, son ditto 815
99. Aggrabodhi 6th, cousin ditto 831
100. Mitwella Sen or Silámaiga, son ditto 838
101. Kásiyappa 4th or Máganyin Séna or Mihindu,
grandson ditto 858
102. Udaya 1st, brother ditto 891
Names and Relationship of Capital. Accession.
each succeeding Sovereign.
A.D.
103. Udaya 2nd, son Pollonnarrua 926
104. Kásiyappa 5th, nephew and son-in-law ditto 937
105. Kásiyappa 6th, son-in-law ditto 954
106. Dappula 4th, son ditto 964
107, Dappula 5th, not specified ditto 964
108. Udaya 3rd, brother ditto 974
109. Séna 2nd, not specified ditto 977
110. Udaya 4th, do. do. ditto 986
111. Séna 3rd, do. do. ditto 994
112. Mihindu 3rd, do. do ditto 997
113. Sèna 4th, son--minor ditto 1013
114. Mihindu 4th, brother--carried captive to Anurádhapoora 1023
India during the Sollean conquest
Interregnum Sollean viceroyalty Pollonnarrua 1059
_Maha Lai or Maha_ } {
_Lála Kirti_ } { _Rohuna_
_Wikrama Pándi_ } _Subordinate_ { _Kalutotta_
_Jagat Pándi or Jagati_ } _native kings_ {
_Pála_ } _during the_ { _Rohuna_
_Prákrama Pándi or_ } _Sollean_ {
_Prákhrama Báhu_ } _vice-royalty._ { _ditto_
_Lokaiswara_ } { _Kácharagama_
115. Wejayabáhu 1st or Sirisangabo 4th,
grandson of Mihindu 4th Pollonnarrua 1071
116. Jayabáhu 1st, brother ditto 1126
117. Wikramabáhu 1st } ditto }
_ _Mánábarana_ } A disputed _Rohuna_ }
118. Gajábáhu 2nd } succession Pollonnarrua } 1127
_Siriwallaba or_} }
_Kitsiri Maiwan_} _Rohuna_ }
119. Prákrama Báhu 1st, son of Mánábárana Pollonuarrua 1153
120. Wejayabáhu 2nd, nephew--murdered ditto 1186
121. Mihindu 5th or Kitsen Kisdas,
usurper--put to death ditto 1187
122. Kirti Nissanga, a prince of Kálinga ditto 1187
Wírabáhu, son--put to death ditto 1196
123. Wikramabáhu 2nd, brother of Kirti
Nissanga--put to death ditto 1196
124. Chondakanga, nephew--deposed ditto 1196
125. Lálawátí, widow of Prákramabáhu--deposed ditto 1197
126. Sáhasamallawa, Okáka branch--deposed ditto 1200
127. Kalyánawati, sister of Kirti Nissanga ditto 1202
128. Dharmásóka, not specified--a minor ditto 1208
129. Nayaanga or Nikanga, minister--put to death ditto 1209
Lílawatí, restored, and again deposed ditto 1209
130. Lokaiswera 1st, usurper--deposed ditto 1210
Lílawatí, again restored,
and deposed a third time ditto 1211
131. Pandi Prákrama Báhu 2nd, usurper--deposed ditto 1211
132. Mágha, foreign usurper ditto 1214
133. Wejayabáhu 3rd,
descendant of Sirisangabo 1st Dambadenia 1235
134. Kalikála Sahitya Sargwajnya or Pandita
Prakrama Báhu 3rd, son ditto 1266
135. Bosat Wejaya Báhu 4th, son Pollonnarrua 1301
Names and Relationship
of each succeeding Sovereign. Capital. Accession.
A.D.
_Bhuwaneka Báhu_ _Yapahu or
Subbapabatto_
136. Bhuwaneka Báhu 1st, brother ditto 1303
137. Prákrama Báhu 3rd, son of Bosat
Wejayabáhu Pollonnarrua 1314
138. Bhuwaneka Báhu 2nd, son of Bhuwaneka Kurunaigalla or 1319
Báhu Hastisailapoora
139. Pandita Prákrama Báhu 4th, not specified ditto
140. Wanny Bhuwaneka Báhu 3rd, do. ditto
141. Wejaya Báhu 5th, do. ditto
142. Bhuwaneka Báhu 4th, do. Gampola or
Gangásiripoora 1347
143. Prákrama Báhu 5th, do. ditto 1361
144. Wikram Báhu 3rd, cousin Partly at Kandy or
Sengadagalla Neuera 1371
145. Bhuwaneka Báhu 5th, not specified Gampola or
Gangásiripoora 1378
146. Wejaya Báhu 5th, or Wíra Báhu, do ditto 1398
147. Sri Prákrama Bahu 6th, do. Kotta or
Jayawardanapoora 1410
148. Jayabáhu 2nd, maternal grandson--put
to death ditto 1462
149. Bhuwaneka Báhu 6th, not specified ditto 1464
150. Pandita Prákrama Báhu 7th, adopted son ditto 1471
151. Wíra Prákrama Báhu 8th, brother of
Bhuwaneka Báhu 6th ditto 1485
152. Dharma Prákrama Báhu 9th, son ditto 1505
153. Wejaya Báhu 7th, brother--murdered ditto 1527
_Jayawíra Bandára_ _Gampola_
154. Bhuwaneka Báhu 7th, son Kotta 1534
_Máyádunnai_ _Setawacca_
_Raygam Bandára_ _Raygam_
_Jayawíra Bandára_ _Kandy_
155. Don Juan Dharmapála Kotta 1542
_A Malabar_ _Yapahu_
_Portuguese_ _Colombo_
_Wídiye Rája_ _Pailainda Neuera_
_Rája Singha_ _Aiwissáwelle_
_Idirimáné Suriya_ _Seven Korles_
_Wikrama Báhu descendant of_
Sirisangabo 1st _Kandy_
156. Rája Singha 1st, son of _Máyádunnai_ Setawacca 1581
_Jaya Suriya_ _Setawacca_
_Wídiye Rája's queen_ _ditto_
157. Wimala Dharma, original royal family Khandy 1592
158. Senáraana or Senarat, brother ditto 1604
159. Rája-singha 2nd, son ditto 1637
_Kumára-singa, brother_ _Ouvah_
_Wejaya Pála, brother_ _Matelle_
160. Wimala Dharma Suriya 2nd, son of
Rájasingha Khandy 1687
161. Sriwíra Prákrama Narendrasingha or
Kundasála ditto 1707
162. Sriwejaya Rája Singha or Hanguranketta,
brother-in-law ditto 1739
163. Kirtisri Rája Singha, brother-in-law ditto 1747
164. Rajádhi Rája Singha, brother ditto 1781
165. Sri Wikrema Rája Singha, son of the late
king's wife's sister, deposed by the
English in 1815, and died in captivity
in 1832 ditto 1798
NOTE.--The Singhalese vowels _a_, _e_, _i_, _o_, _u_ are to be
pronounced as in French or Italian.
CHAP. II.
THE ABORIGINAL INHABITANTS OF CEYLON.
Divested of the insipid details which overlay them, the annals of Ceylon
present comparatively few stirring incidents, and still fewer events of
historic importance to repay the toil of their perusal. They profess to
record no occurrence anterior to the advent of the last Buddha, the
great founder of the national faith, who was born on the borders of
Nepaul in the _seventh_ century before Christ.
In the theoretic doctrines of Buddhism "_Buddhas_"[1] are beings who
appear after intervals of inconceivable extent; they undergo
transmigrations extending over vast spaces of time, accumulating in each
stage of existence an increased degree of merit, till, in their last
incarnation as men, they attain to a degree of purity so immaculate as
to entitle them to the final exaltation of "Buddha-hood," a state
approaching to incarnate divinity, in which they are endowed with wisdom
so supreme as to be competent to teach mankind the path to ultimate
bliss.
[Footnote 1: A sketch of the Buddhist religion may be seen in Sir J.
EMERSON TENNENT'S _History of Christianity in Ceylon_, ch. v. London,
1850. But the most profound and learned dissertations on Buddhism as it
exists in Ceylon, will be found in the works of the Rev. R. SPENCE
HARDY, _Eastern Monachism_, Lond. 1850, and _A Manual of Buddhism_,
Lond. 1853.]
Their precepts, preserved orally or committed to writing, are cherished
as _bana_ or the "_word_;" their doctrines are incorporated in the
system of _dharma_ or "_truth_;" and, at their death, instead of
entering on a new form of being, either corporeal or spiritual, they are
absorbed into _Nirwana_, that state of blissful unconsciousness akin to
annihilation which is regarded by Buddhists as the consummation of
eternal felicity.
Gotama, who is represented as the last of the series of Buddhas[1],
promulgated a religious system in India which has exercised a wider
influence over the Eastern world than the doctrines of any other
uninspired teacher in any age or country.[2] He was born B.C. 624 at
Kapila-Vastu (a city which has no place in the geography of the Hindus,
but which appears to have been on the borders of Nepaul); he attained
his superior Buddha-hood B.C. 588, under a bo-tree[3] in the forest of
Urawela, the site of the present Buddha Gaya in Bahar; and, at the age
of eighty, he died at Kusinara, a doubtful locality, which it has been
sought to identify with the widely separated positions of Delhi, Assam,
and Cochin China.[4]
[Footnote 1: There were twenty-four Buddhas previous to the advent of
Gotama, who is the fourth in the present Kalpa or chronological period.
His system of doctrine is to endure for 5000 years, when it will be
superseded by the appearance and preaching of his
successor.--_Rajaratnacari_, ch. i. p. 42.]
[Footnote 2: HARDY'S _Eastern Monachism_, ch. i. p. 1. There is evidence
of the widely-spread worship of Buddha in the remotely separated
individuals with whom it has been sought at various times to identify
him. "Thus it has been attempted to show that Buddha was the same as
Thoth of the Egyptians, and Turm of the Etruscans, that he was Mercury,
Zoroaster, Pythagoras, the Woden of the Scandinavians, the Manes of the
Manichæans, the prophet Daniel, and even the divine author of
Christianity." (PROFESSOR WILSON, _Journ. Asiat. Soc._, vol. xvi. p.
233.) Another curious illustration of the prevalence of his doctrines
may be discovered in the endless variations of his name in the numerous
countries over which his influence has extended: Buddha, Budda, Bud,
Bot, Baoth, Buto, Budsdo, Bdho, Pout, Pote, Fo, Fod, Fohi, Fuh, Pet,
Pta, Poot, Phthi, Phut, Pht, &c.--POCOCKE'S _India in Greece_, appendix,
397. HARDY'S _Buddhism_, ch. vii. p. 355. HARDY in his _Eastern
Monachism_ says, "There is no country in either Europe or Asia, _except
those that are Buddhist_, in which the same religion is now professed
that was there existent at the time of the Redeemer's death," ch. xxii.
p. 327.]
[Footnote 3: The Pippul, _Ficus religiosa_.]
[Footnote 4: Professor H.H. WILSON has identified Kusinara or Kusinagara
with _Kusia_ in Gorakhpur, _Journ. Roy. Asiat. Soc._, vol xvi. p. 246.]
In the course of his ministrations Gotarna is said to have thrice landed
in Ceylon. Prior to his first coming amongst them, the inhabitants of
the island appear to have been living in the simplest and most primitive
manner, supported on the almost spontaneous products of the soil. Gotama
in person undertook their conversion, and alighted on the first occasion
at Bintenne, where there exists to the present day the remains of a
monument erected two thousand years ago[1] to commemorate his arrival.
His second visit was to Nagadipo in the north of the island, at a place
whose position yet remains to be determined; and the "sacred foot-print"
on Adam's Peak is still worshipped by his devotees as the miraculous
evidence of his third and last farewell.
[Footnote 1: By Dutugaimunu, B.C. 164. For an account of the present
condition of this Dagoba at Bintenne, see Vol. II. Pt. IX. ch. ii.]
To the question as to what particular race the inhabitants of Ceylon at
that time belonged, and whence or at what period the island was
originally peopled, the Buddhist chronicles furnish no reply. And no
memorials of the aborigines themselves, no monuments or inscriptions,
now remain to afford ground for speculation. Conjectures have been
hazarded, based on no sufficient data, that the Malayan type, which
extends from Polynesia to Madagascar, and from Chin-India to Taheite,
may still be traced in the configuration, and in some of the immemorial
customs, of the people of Ceylon.[1]
[Footnote 1: Amongst the incidents ingeniously pressed into the support
of this conjecture is the use by the natives of Ceylon of those _double
canoes_ and _boats with outriggers_, which are never used on the Arabian
side of India, but which are peculiar to the Malayan race in almost
every country to which they have migrated; Madagascar and the Comoro
islands, Sooloo, Luzon, the Society Islands, and Tonga. PRITCHARD'S
_Races of Man_, ch. iv. p. 17. For a sketch of this peculiar canoe, see
Vol. II. Pt. VII. ch. i.
There is a dim tradition that the first settlers in Ceylon arrived from
the coasts of China. It is stated in the introduction to RIBEYRO'S
_History of Ceylon_, but rejected by VALENTYN, ch, iv. p. 61.
The legend prefixed to RIBEYRO is as follows. "Si nous en croyons les
historiens Portugais, les Chinois out été les premiers qui ont habité
cette isle, et cela arriva de cette manière. Ces peuples étoient les
maîtres du commerce de tout l'orient; quelques unes de leurs vaisseaux
furent portéz sur les basses qui sont près du lieu, que depuis on
appelle Chilao par corruption au lieu de Cinilao. Les équipages se
sauvèrent à terre, et trouvant le pais bon et fertile ils s'y
établirent: bientôt après ils s'allièrent avec les Malabares, et les
Malabares y envoyoient ceux qu'ils exiloient et qu'ils nominoient
_Galas_. Ces exiles s'étant confondus avec les Chinois, de deux noms
n'en out fait qu'un, et se sont appellés _Chin-galas_ et ensuite
Chingalais."--RIBEYRO, _Hist. de Ceylan_, pref. du trad.
It is only necessary to observe in reference to this hypothesis that it
is at variance with the structure of the Singhalese alphabet, in which
_n_ and _g_ form but one letter. DE BARROS and DE COUTO likewise adhere
to the theory of a mixed race, originating in the settlement of Chinese
in the south of Ceylon, but they refer the event to a period subsequent
to the seizure of the Singhalese king and his deportation to China in
the fifteenth century. DE BARROS, Dec. iii. ch. i.; DE COUTO, Dec. v.
ch. 5.]
But the greater probability is, that a branch of the same stock which
originally colonised the Dekkan extended its migrations to Ceylon. All
the records and traditions of the peninsula point to a time when its
nations were not Hindu; and in numerous localities[1], in the forests
and mountains of the peninsula, there are still to be found the remnants
of tribes who undoubtedly represent the aboriginal race.
[Footnote 1: LASSEN, _Indische Alterthumskunde_, vol. i. p. 199, 362.]
The early inhabitants of India before their comparative civilisation
under the influence of the Aryan invaders, like the aborigines of Ceylon
before the arrival of their Bengal conquerors, are described as
mountaineers and foresters who were "rakshas" or demon worshippers; a
religion, the traces of which are to be found to the present day amongst
the hill tribes in the Concan and Canara, as well as in Guzerat and
Cutch. In addition to other evidences of the community of origin of
these continental tribes and the first inhabitants of Ceylon, there is a
manifest identity, not alone in their popular superstitions at a very
early period, but in the structure of the national dialects, which are
still prevalent both in Ceylon and Southern India. Singhalese, as it is
spoken at the present day, and, still more strikingly, as it exists as a
written language in the literature of the island, presents unequivocal
proofs of an affinity with the group of languages still in use in the
Dekkan; Tamil, Telingu, and Malayalim. But with these its identification
is dependent on analogy rather than on structure, and all existing
evidence goes to show that the period at which a vernacular dialect
could have been common to the two countries must have been extremely
remote.[1]
[Footnote 1: The _Mahawanso_ (ch. xiv.) attests that at the period of
Wijayo's conquest of Ceylon, B.C. 543, the language of the natives was
different from that spoken by himself and his companions, which, as they
came from Bengal, was in all probability Pali. Several centuries
afterwards, A.D. 339, the dialect of the two races was still different;
and some of the sacred writings were obliged to be translated from Pali
into the Sihala language.--_Mahawanso_, ch. xxxvii. xxxviii. p. 247. At
a still later period, A.D. 410; a learned priest from Magadha translated
the Attah-Katha from Singhalese into Pali.--_Ib_. p. 253. See also DE
ALWIS, _Sidath-Sangara_, p. 19.]
Though not based directly on either Sanskrit or Pali, Singhalese at
various times has been greatly enriched from both sources, and
especially from the former; and it is corroborative of the inference
that the admixture was comparatively recent; and chiefly due to
association with domiciliated strangers, that the further we go back in
point of time the proportion of amalgamation diminishes, and the dialect
is found to be purer and less alloyed. Singhalese seems to bear towards
Sanskrit and Pali a relation similar to that which the English of the
present day bears to the combination of Latin, Anglo-Saxon, and Norman
French, which serves to form the basis of the language. As in our own
tongue the words applicable to objects connected with rural life are
Anglo-Saxon, whilst those indicative of domestic refinement belong to
the French, and those pertaining to religion and science are borrowed
from Latin[1]; so, in the language of Ceylon, the terms applicable to
the national religion are taken from Pali, those of science and art from
Sanskrit, whilst to pure Singhalese belong whatever expressions were
required to denote the ordinary wants of mankind before society had
attained organisation.[2]
[Footnote 1: See TRENCH on the _Study of Words_.]
[Footnote 2: See DE ALWIS, _Sidath-Sangara_, p. xlviii.]
[Sidenote: B.C. 543.]
Whatever momentary success may have attended the preaching of Buddha, no
traces of his pious labours long survived him in Ceylon. The mass of its
inhabitants were still aliens to his religion, when, on the day of his
decease, B.C. 543, Wijayo[1], the discarded son of one of the petty
sovereigns in the valley of the Ganges[2] effected a landing with a
handful of followers in the vicinity of the modern Putlam.[3] Here he
married the daughter of one of the native chiefs, and having speedily
made himself master of the island by her influence, he established his
capital at Tamana Neuera[4], and founded a dynasty, which, for nearly
eight centuries, retained supreme authority in Ceylon.
[Footnote 1: Sometimes spelled _Wejaya_. TURNOUR has demonstrated that
the alleged concurrence of the death of Buddha and the landing of Wijayo
is a device of the sacred annalists, in order to give a pious interest
to the latter event, which took place about sixty years later.--Introd
_Mahawanso_, p. liii.]
[Footnote 2: To facilitate reference to the ancient divisions of India,
a small map is subjoined, chiefly taken from Lassen's _Indische
Alterthumskunde_.
[Illustration: MAP OF ANCIENT INDIA.]]
[Footnote 3: BURNOUF conjectures that the point from which Wijayo set
sail for Ceylon was the Godavery, where the name of Bandar-maha-lanka
(the Port of the Great Lanka), still commemorates the event.--_Journ.
Asiat._ vol. xviii. p. 134. DE COUTO, recording the Singhalese tradition
as collected by the Portuguese, he landed at Preaturé (Pereatorre),
between Trincomalie and Jaffna-patam, and that the first city founded by
him was Mantotte.--_Decade_ v. l. 1. c. 5.]
[Footnote 4: See a note at the end of this chapter, on the landing of
Wijayo in Ceylon, as described in the _Mahawanso_.]
[Sidenote: B.C. 543.]
The people whom he mastered with so much facility are described in the
sacred books as _Yakkhos_ or "demons,"[1] and _Nagas_[2], or "snakes;"
designations which the Buddhist historians are supposed to have employed
in order to mark their contempt for the uncivilised aborigines[3], in
the same manner that the aborigines in the Dekkan were denominated
goblins and demons by the Hindus[4], from the fact that, like the
Yakkhos of Ceylon, they too were demon worshippers. The Nagas, another
section of the same superstition, worshipped the cobra de capello as an
emblem of the destroying power. These appear to have chiefly inhabited
the northern and western coasts of Ceylon, and the Yakkhos the
interior[5]; and, notwithstanding their alleged barbarism, both had
organised some form of government, however rude.[6] The Yakkhos had a
capital which they called Lankapura, and the Nagas a king, the
possession of whose "throne of gems"[7] was disputed by the rival
sovereign of a neighbouring kingdom. So numerous were the followers of
this gloomy idolatry of that time in Ceylon, that they gave the name of
Nagadipo[8], _the_ _Island of Serpents_, to the portion of the country
which they held, in the same manner that Rhodes and Cyprus severally
acquired the ancient designation of _Ophiusa_, from the fact of their
being the residence of the Ophites, who introduced serpent-worship into
Greece.[9]
[Footnote 1: _Mahawanso_, ch. vii.; FA HIAN, _Fo[)e]-kou[)e]-ki_, ch.
xxxvii.]
[Footnote 2: _Rajavali_, p. 169.]
[Footnote 3: REINAUD, Introd. to _Abouldfeda_, vol. i. sec. iii. p.
ccxvi. See also CLOUGH'S _Singhalese Dictionary_, vol. ii. p. 2.]
[Footnote 4: MOUNTSTUART ELPHINSTONE'S, _History of India_, b. iv. ch.
xi. p. 216.]
[Footnote 5: The first descent of Gotama Buddha in Ceylon was amongst
the Yakkhos at Bintenne; in his second visit he converted the "_Naga_
King of Kalany," near Colombo, _Mahawanso_, ch. i. p. 5.]
[Footnote 6: FABER, _Origin of Idolatry_, b. ii ch. vii. p. 440.]
[Footnote 7: _Mahawanso_, ch. i.]
[Footnote 8: TURNOUR was unable to determine the position on the modern
map of the ancient territory of Nagadipo.--Introd. p. xxxiv. CASIE
CHITTY, in a paper in the _Journal of the Ceylon Asiatic Society_, 1848,
p. 71, endeavours to identify it with Jaffna, The _Rajaratnacari_ places
it at the present Kalany, on the river of that name near Colombo (vol.
ii. p. 22). The _Mahawanso_ in many passages alludes to the existence of
Naga kingdoms on the continent of India, showing that at that time
serpent-worship had not been entirely extinguished by Brahmanism in the
Dekkan, and affording an additional ground for conjecture that the first
inhabitants of Ceylon were a colony from the opposite coast of Calinga.]
[Footnote 9: BRYANT'S _Analysis of Mythology_, chapter on Ophiolatria,
vol. i p. 480, "Euboea means _Oub-aia_, and signifies the serpent
island." (_Ib_.)
But STRABO affords us a still more striking illustration of the
_Mahawanso_, in calling the serpent worshippers of Ceylon "Serpents,"
since he states that in Phrygia and on the Hellespont the people who
were styled [Greek: ophiogeneis], or the Serpent races, actually
retained a physical affinity with the snakes with whom they were
popularly identified, [Greek: "entautha mytheuousi tous Ophiogeneis
syngenneian tina echein pros tous oseis."]--STRABO, lib. xiii. c. 588.
PLINY alludes to the same fable (lib. vii.). And OVID, from the incident
of Cadmus' having sown the dragon's teeth (that is, implanted
Ophiolatria in Greece), calls the Athenians _Serpentigenæ_.]
But whatever were the peculiarities of religion which distinguished the
aborigines from their conquerors, the attention of Wijayo was not
diverted from his projects of colonisation by any anxiety to make
converts to his own religious belief. The earliest cares of himself and
his followers were directed to implant civilisation, and two centuries
were permitted to elapse before the first effort was made to supersede
the popular worship by the inculcation of a more intellectual faith.
* * * * *
NOTE.
DESCRIPTION IN THE MAHAWANSO OF THE LANDING OF WIJAYO.
The landing of Wijayo in Ceylon is related in the 7th chapter of the
_Mahawanso_, and Mr. TURNOUR has noticed the strong similarity between
this story and Homer's account of the landing of Ulysses in the island
of Circe. The resemblance is so striking that it is difficult to
conceive that the Singhalese historian of the 5th century was entirely
ignorant of the works of the Father of Poetry. Wijayo and his followers,
having made good their landing, are met by a "devo" (a divine spirit),
who blesses them and ties a sacred thread as a charm on the arm of each.
One of the band presently discovers the princess in the person of a
devotee, seated near a tank, and she being a magician (Yakkhini)
imprisons him and eventually the rest of his companions in a cave. The
_Mahawanso_ then proceeds: "all these persons not returning, Wijayo,
becoming alarmed, equipping himself with the five weapons of war,
proceeded after them, and examined the delightful pond: he could
perceive no footsteps but those leading down into it, and there he saw
the princess. It occurred to him his retinue must surely have been
seized by her, and he exclaimed, 'Pray, why dost not thou produce my
attendants?' 'Prince,' she replied, 'from attendants what pleasure canst
thou derive? drink and bathe ere thou departest.' Seizing her by the
hair with his left hand, whilst with his right he raised his sword, he
exclaimed, 'Slave, deliver my followers or die.' The Yakkhini terrified,
implored for her life; 'Spare me, prince, and on thee will I bestow
sovereignty, my love, and my service.' In order that he might not again
be involved in difficulty he forced her to swear[1], and when he again
demanded the liberation of his attendants she brought them forth, and
declaring 'these men must be famishing,' she distributed to them rice
and other articles procured from the wrecked ships of mariners, who had
fallen a prey to her. A feast follows, and Wijayo and the princess
retire to pass the night in an apartment which she causes to spring up
at the foot of a tree, curtained as with a wall and fragrant with
incense." It is impossible not to be struck with a curious resemblance
between this description and that in the 10th book of the Odyssey, where
Eurylochus, after landing, returns to Ulysses to recount the fate of his
companions, who, having wandered towards the palace of Circe, had been
imprisoned after undergoing transformation into swine. Ulysses hastens
to their relief, and having been provided by Mercury with antidotes,
which enabled him to resist the poisons of the sorceress, whom he
discovers in her retreat, the story proceeds:--
[Greek:
Ôs phat egô d aor oxu eryssamenos para mêrou
Kirkêepêixa hôste ktameuai meneainôn. k. t. l.]
[Footnote 1: [Greek:
Ei mê moi tlaiês ge, thea, megan horkon homossai
Mêti moi autps pêma kakon bouleusemen allo.]--_Odys_. x. l. 343.]
"She spake, I, drawing from beside my thigh
The faulchion keen, with death denouncing looks,
Rush'd on her,--she, with a shrill scream of fear,
Ran under my raised arm, seized fast my knees,
And in winged accents plaintive thus began:--
'Who, whence thy city, and thy birth declare,--
Amazed I see thee with that potion drenched,
Yet unenchanted: never man before
Once passed it through his lips and lived the same.
* * * * Sheath again
Thy sword, and let us on my bed recline,
Mutual embrace, that we may trust henceforth
Each other without jealousy or fear.'
The goddess spake, to whom I thus replied:
'Oh Circe, canst thou bid me meek become,
And gentle, who beneath thy roof detain'st
My fellow-voyagers. * * *
No, trust me, never will I share thy bed,
Till first, oh goddess, thou consent to swear
That dread, all-binding oath, that other harm
Against myself, thou wilt imagine none.'
I spake, she, swearing as I bade, renounced
All evil purpose, and her solemn oath
Concluded, I ascended next her bed."[1]
[Footnote 1: COWPER's _Odyssey_, B. x, p. 392.]
The story of Wijayo's interview with Kuweni is told in nearly the same
terms as it appeared in the _Mahawanso_ in the _Rajavali_, p. 172.
Another classical coincidence is curious: we are strongly reminded of
Homer's description of the Syrens by the following passage, relative to
the female _Rakshasis_, or demons, by whom Ceylon was originally
inhabited, which is given in the memoirs of HIOUEN-THSANG, the Chinese
traveller in the 7th century, as extracted by him from the Buddhist
Chronicles. "Elles épiaient constamment les marchands qui abordaient
dans l'isle, et se changeant en femmes d'une grande beauté elles
venaient au-devant d'eux avec des fleurs odorantes et au son des
instruments de musique, leur adressaient des paroles bienveillantes et
les attiraient dans la ville de fer. Alors elles leur offraient un
joyeux festin et se livraient au plaisir avec eux: puis elles les
enfermaient dans un prison de fer et les mangeaient l'un après
l'autre."[1]
[Footnote 1: HIOUEN-THSANG, _Mém. des Péler. Boudd_. 1. xi. p. 131.]
CHAP. III
THE CONQUEST OF CEYLON BY WIJAYO, B.C. 543, AND THE ESTABLISHMENT OF
BUDDHISM, B.C. 307.
[Sidenote: B.C. 543.]
The sacred historians of Ceylon affect to believe in the assertion of
some mysterious connection between the landing of Wijayo, and the
conversion of Ceylon to Buddhism, one hundred and fifty years
afterwards; and imply that the first event was but a pre-ordained
precursor of the second.[1] The Singhalese narrative, however, admits
that Wijayo was but a "lawless adventurer," who being expelled from his
own country, was refused a settlement on the coast of India before he
attempted Ceylon, which had previously attracted the attention of other
adventurers. This story is in no way inconsistent with that told by the
Chinese Buddhists, who visited the island in the fifth and seventh
centuries. FA HIAN states, that even before the advent of Buddha, Ceylon
was the resort of merchants, who repaired there to exchange their
commodities for gems, which the "demons" and "serpents," who never
appeared in person, deposited on the shore, with a specified value
attached to each, and in lieu of them the strangers substituted certain
indicated articles, and took their departure.[2]
[Footnote 1: _Mahawanso_, ch. vii.]
[Footnote 2: FA HIAN, _Fo[)e]-Kou[)e]-ki_, ch. xxxviii. See a notice of
this story of FA HIAN, as it applies to the still existing habits of the
Veddahs, Vol. I. Pt III. ch. vii.]
[Sidenote: B.C. 543.]
HIOUEN-THSANG, at a later period, disposes of the fables of Wijayo's
descent from a lion[1], and of his divine mission to Ceylon, by
intimating, that, according to certain authorities, he was the son of a
merchant (meaning a sea-faring trader), who, having appeased the enmity
of the Yakkhos, succeeded by his discretion in eventually making himself
their king.[2]
[Footnote 1: The legend of Wijayo's descent from a lion, probably
originated from his father being the son of an outlaw named "Singha."]
[Footnote 2: "Suivant certains auteurs, Sengkia-lo (Wijayo) serait le
nom du fils d'un marchand, qui, par sa prudence, ayant échappé à la
fureur homicide des Lo-tsa" (demons) "réussit ensuite à se faire
Roi."--HIOUEN THSANG, _Voyages &c_. l. iv. p. 198.]
Whatever may have been his first intentions, his subsequent policy was
rather that of an agriculturist than an apostle. Finding the country
rich and fertile, he invited merchants to bring their families, and take
possession of it.[1] He dispersed his followers to form settlements over
the island, and having given to his kingdom his patrimonial name of
Sihala[2], he addressed himself to render his dominions "habitable for
men."[3] He treated the subjugated race of Yakkhos with a despotic
disdain, referable less to pride of caste than to contempt for the rude
habits of the native tribes. He repudiated the Yakkho princess whom he
had married, because her unequal rank rendered her unfit to remain the
consort of a king[4]; and though she had borne him children, he drove
her out before his second marriage with the daughter of an Indian
sovereign, on the ground that the latter would be too timid to bear the
presence of a being so inferior.[5]
[Footnote 1: HIOUEN THSANG, ch iv.]
[Footnote 2: Whence Singhala (and Singhalese) Silan, Seylan, and
Ceylon.]
[Footnote 3: _Mahawanso_, ch. vii p. 49. _Rajaratnacari_, ch. i.]
[Footnote 4: _Mahawanso_, ch. vii. p. 51.]
[Footnote 5: Ibid., p. 52.]
[Sidenote: B.C. 504.]
Leaving no issue to inherit the throne, he was succeeded by his
nephew[1], who selected a relation of Gotama Buddha for his queen; and
her brothers having dispersed themselves over the island, increased the
number of petty kingdoms, which they were permitted to form in various
districts[2], a policy which was freely encouraged by all the early
kings, and which, though it served to accelerate colonisation and to
extend the knowledge of agriculture, led in after years to dissensions,
civil war, and disaster. It was at this period that Ceylon was resolved
into the three geographical divisions, which, down to a very late
period, are habitually referred to by the native historians. All to the
north of the Mahawelli-ganga was comprised in the denomination _Pihiti_,
or the Raja-ratta, from its containing the ancient capital and the
residence of royalty; south of this was _Rohano_ or _Rahuna_, bounded on
the east and south by the sea, and by the Mahawelli-ganga and
Kalu-ganga, on the north and west; a portion of this division near
Tangalle still retains the name of Roona.[3] The third was the
_Maya-ratta_, which lay between the mountains, the two great rivers and
the sea, having the Dedera-oya to the north, and the Kalu-ganga as its
southern limit.
[Footnote 1: B.C. 504.]
[Footnote 2: _Mahawanso_, ch. vii. p. 51, ix. p. 57; _Rajavali_, part i.
p. 177, 186; and TURNOUR'S _Epitome_, p. 12, 14.]
[Footnote 3: The district of Rohuna included the mountain zone of
Ceylon, and hence probably its name, _rohuno_ meaning the "act or
instrument of ascending, as steps or a ladder." Adam's Peak was in the
Maya division; but Edrisi, who wrote in the twelfth century, says, that
it was then called "El Rahoun."--_Géographie, &c_. viii, JAUBERT'S
_Transl_. vol. ii. p. 71. _Rahu_ is an ordinary name for it amongst
Mahometan writers, and in the _Raja Tarangini_, it is called "Rohanam,"
b. iii. 56, 72.]
[Sidenote: B.C. 504.]
The patriarchal village system, which from time immemorial has been one
of the characteristics of the Dekkan, and which still prevails
throughout Ceylon in a modified form, was one of the first institutions
organised by the successors of Wijayo. "They fixed the boundaries of
every village throughout Lanka;"[1] they "caused the whole island to be
divided into fields and gardens;"[2] and so uniformly were the rites of
these rural municipalities respected in after times, that one of the
Singhalese monarchs, on learning that merit attached to alms given from
the fruit of the donor's own exertions, undertook to sow a field of
rice, and "from the portion derived by him as the cultivator's share,"
to bestow an offering on a "thero."[3]
[Footnote 1: It was established by Pandukabhaya, A.D. 437.--_Mahawanso_,
ch. x. p. 67, _Rajaratnacari_, ch. i.]
[Footnote 2: _Rajaratnacari_, ch. ii., _Rajavali_, b. i. p. 185.]
[Footnote 3: The king was Mahachula, 77 B.C.--_Mahawanso_, ch. xxxiv.]
From the necessity of providing food for their followers, the earliest
attention of the Bengal conquerors was directed to the introduction and
extension of agriculture. A passage in the _Mahawanso_ would seem to
imply, that previous to the landing of Wijayo, rice was imported for
consumption[1], and upwards of two centuries later the same authority
specifies "one hundred and sixty loads of hill-paddi,"[2] among the
presents which were sent to the island from Bengal.
[Footnote 1: Kuweni distributed to the companions of Wijayo; "rice and
other articles, _procured from the wrecked ships of mariners_."
(_Mahawanso_, ch. vii. p. 49.) A tank is mentioned as then existing near
the residence of Kuweni; but it was only to be used as a bath. (Ib. c.
vii. p. 48.) The _Rajaratnacari_ also mentions that, in the fabulous age
of the second Buddha, of the present Kalpa, there was a famine in
Ceylon, which dried up the cisterns and fountains of the inland. But
there is no evidence of the existence of systematic tillage anterior to
the reign of Wijayo.]
[Footnote 2: _Mahawanso_, ch. xi. p. 70. _Paddi_ is rice before it has
been freed from the husk.]
[Sidenote: B.C. 504.]
In a low and level country like the north of Ceylon, where the chief
subsistence of the people is rice, a grain which can only be
successfully cultivated under water, the first requisites of society are
reservoirs and canals. The Buddhist historians extol the father of
Wijayo for his judgment and skill "in forming villages in situations
favourable for irrigation;"[1] his own attention was fully engrossed
with the cares attendant on the consolidation of his newly acquired
power; but the earliest public work undertaken by his successor
Panduwasa, B.C. 504, was a tank, which he caused to be formed in the
vicinity of his new capital Anarajapoora, the _Anurogrammum_ of Ptolemy,
originally a village founded by one of the followers of Wijayo.[2]
[Footnote 1: _Mahawanso_, ch. vi. p. 46.]
[Footnote 2: The first tank recorded in Ceylon is the Abayaweva, made by
Panduwasa, B.C. 505 (_Mahawanso_, ch. ix. p. 57). The second was the
Jayaweva, formed by Pandukabhaya, B.C. 437. (Ib. ch. x. p. 65.) The
_third_, the Gamini tank, made by the same king at the same place,
Anarajapoora.--Ib. ch. x. p. 66.]
[Sidenote: B.C. 307.]
The continual recurrence of records of similar constructions amongst the
civil exploits of nearly every succeeding sovereign, together with the
prodigious number formed, alike attests the unimproved condition of
Ceylon, prior to the arrival of the Bengal invaders, and the indolence
or ignorance of the original inhabitants, as contrasted with the energy
and skill of their first conquerors.
[Sidenote: B.C. 307.]
Upwards of two hundred years were spent in initiatory measures for the
organisation of the new state. Colonists from the continent of India
were encouraged by the facilities held out to settlers, and carriage
roads were formed in the vicinity of the towns.[1] Village communities
were duly organised, gardens were planted, flowers and fruit-bearing
trees introduced,[2] and the production of food secured by the
construction of canals,[3] and public works for irrigation. Moreover,
the kings and petty princes attested the interest which they felt in the
promotion of agriculture, by giving personal attention to the formation
of tanks and to the labours of cultivation.[4]
[Footnote 1: _Mahawanso_, ch. xiv. xv. xvi.]
[Footnote 2: _Mahawanso_, ch. xi. p. 60 (367 B.C.), ch. xxxiv. p. 211
(B.C. 20), ch. xxxv. p. 215 (A.D. 20). _Rajaratnacari_, ch. ii. p. 29.
_Rajavali_, p. 185, 227.]
[Footnote 3: _Mahawanso_, ch. xxxiv. p. 210 (B.C. 42), ch. xxxv. p. 221,
222 (A.D. 275), ch. xxxvii. p. 238. _Rajaratnacari_, ch. ii. p. 49, and
_Rajavali_, p. 223, &c.]
[Footnote 4: _Mahawanso_, ch. x. p. 61, xxii. p. 130, xxiv. p. 149.
_Rajavali_, p. 185, 186. The Buddhist kings of Burmah, at the present
day, in imitation of the ancient sovereigns of Ceylon, rest their
highest claims to renown on the number of works for irrigation which
they have either formed or repaired. See _Yule's Narrative of the
British mission, to Ava in 1855_, p. 106.]
[Sidenote: B.C. 307.]
Meantime, the effects of Gotama's early visits had been obliterated, and
the sacred trees which he planted were dead; and although the bulk of
the settlers had come from countries where Buddhism was the dominant
faith, no measures appear to have been taken by the immigrants to revive
or extend it throughout Ceylon. Wijayo was, in all probability, a
Brahman, but so indifferent to his own faith, that his first alliance in
Ceylon was with a demon worshipper.[1] His immediate successors were so
eager to encourage immigration, that they treated all religions with a
perfect equality of royal favour. Yakkho temples were not only
respected, but "annual demon offerings were provided" for them; halls
were built for the worshippers of Brahma, and residences were provided
at the public cost, for "five hundred persons of various foreign
religious faiths;"[2] but no mention is made in the _Mahawanso_ of a
single edifice having been then raised for the worshippers of Buddha,
whether resident in the island, or arriving amongst the colonists from
India.
[Footnote 1: According to the _Mahawanso_, Vishnu, in order to protect
Wijayo and his followers from the sorceries of the Yakkhos, met them on
their landing in Ceylon, and "_tied threads on their arms_," ch. vii.;
and at a later period, when the king Panduwasa, B.C. 504, was afflicted
with temporary insanity, as a punishment in his person of the crime of
perjury, committed by his predecessor Wijayo, _Iswara_ was supplicated
to interpose, and by his mediation the king was restored to his right
mind.--_Rajavali_, p. 181.]
[Footnote 2: _Mahawanso_, ch. x. p. 67; ch, xxxiii, p. 203.]
It was not till the year B.C. 307, in the reign of Tissa, that the
preacher Mahindo ventured to visit Ceylon, under the auspices of the
king, whom he succeeded in inducing to abstain from Brahmanical rites,
and to profess faith in the doctrines of Buddha. From the prominent part
thus taken by Tissa in establishing the national faith of Ceylon, the
sacred writers honour his name with the prefix of _Déwánan-pia_, or
"beloved of the saints."
[Sidenote: B.C. 307.]
The _Mahawanso_ exhausts the vocabulary of ecstacy in describing the
advent of Mahindo, a prince of Magadha, and a lineal descendant of
Chandragutto. It records the visions by which he was divinely directed
to "depart on his mission for the conversion of Lanka;" it describes his
aërial flight, and his descent on Ambatthalo, the loftiest peak of
Mihintala, the mountain which, rising suddenly from the plain, overlooks
the sacred city of Anarajapoora. The story proceeds to explain, how the
king, who was hunting the elk, was miraculously allured by the fleeing
game to approach the spot where Mahindo was seated[1]; and how the
latter forthwith propounded the Divine doctrine "to the ruler of the
land; who, at the conclusion of his discourse, together with his forty
thousand followers, obtained the salvation of the faith."[2]
[Footnote 1: The story, as related in the _Mahawanso_, bears a
resemblance to the legend of St. Hubert and the stag, in the forest of
Ardennes, and to that of St. Eustace, who, when hunting, was led by a
deer of singular beauty towards a rock, where it displayed to him the
crucifix upon its forehead; whence an appeal was addressed which
effected his conversion. "The king Dewananpiyatissa departed for an elk
hunt, taking with him a retinue; and in the course of the pursuit of the
game on foot, he came to the Missa mountain. A certain devo, assuming
the form of an elk, stationed himself there, grazing; the sovereign
descried him, and saying 'it is not fair to shoot him standing,' sounded
his bowstring, on which the elk fled to the mountain. The king gave
chase to the flying animal, and, on reaching the spot where the priests
were, the thero Mahindo came within sight of the monarch; but the
metamorphosed deer vanished."--_Mahawanso_, c. xiv.]
[Footnote 2: _Mahawanso_, ch. xiv. p. 80.]
Then follows the approach of Mahindo to the capital; the conversion of
the queen and her attendants, and the reception of Buddhism by the
nation, under the preaching of its great Apostle, who "thus became the
luminary which shed the light of religion over the land." He and his
sister Sanghamitta thenceforth devoted their lives to the organisation
of Buddhist communities throughout Ceylon, and died in the odour of
sanctity, in the reign of King Uttiya, B.C. 267.
[Sidenote: B.C. 289.]
But the grand achievement which consummated the establishment of the
national faith, was the arrival from Magadha of a branch of the sacred
Bo-tree. Every ancient race has had its sacred tree; the Chaldeans, the
Hebrews[1], the Greeks, the Romans and the Druids, had each their
groves, their elms and their oaks, under which to worship. Like them,
the Brahmans have their _Kalpa tree_ in Paradise, and the Banyan in the
vicinity of their temples; and the Buddhists, in conformity with
immemorial practice, selected as their sacred tree the Pippul, which is
closely allied to the Banyan, yet sufficiently distinguished from it, to
serve as the emblem of a new and peculiar worship.[2] It was whilst
reclining under the shade of this tree in Uruwela, that Gotama received
Buddhahood; hence its adoption as an object of reverence by his
followers, and in all probability its adoration preceded the use of
images and temples in Ceylon.[3]
[Footnote 1: "They sacrifice upon the tops of mountains, and burn
incense under oaks, and poplars, and elms, because the shadow thereof is
good."--_Hosea_, iv. 13.]
[Footnote 2: The Bo-tree (_Ficus religiosa_) is the "pippul" of India.
It differs from the Banyan (_F. indica_), by sending down no roots from
its branches. Its heart-shaped leaves, with long attenuated points, are
attached to the stem by so slender a stalk, that they appear in the
profoundest calm to be ever in motion, and thus, like the leaves of the
aspen, which, from the tradition that the cross was made of that wood,
the Syrians believe to tremble in recollection of the events of the
crucifixion, those of the Bo-tree are supposed by the Buddhists to
exhibit a tremulous veneration, associated with the sacred scene of
which they were the witnesses.]
[Footnote 3: Previous Buddhas had each his Bo-tree or Buddha-tree. The
pippul had been before assumed by the first recorded Buddha; others had
the iron-tree, the champac, the nipa, &c.--_Mahawanso_, TURNOUR'S
Introd. p. xxxii.]
[Sidenote: B.C. 289.]
In order that his kingdom might possess a sacred tree of the supremest
sanctity, king Tissa solicited a branch of the identical tree under
which Gotama reclined, from Asoca, who then reigned in Magadha. The
difficulty of severing a portion without the sacrilegious offence of
"lopping it with any weapon," was overcome by the miracle of the branch
detaching itself spontaneously, and descending with its roots into the
fragrant earth prepared for it in a golden vase, in which it was
transported by sea to Ceylon[1], and planted by king Tissa in the spot
at Anarajapoora, where, after the lapse of more than 2000 years, it
still continues to flourish and to receive the profound veneration of
all Buddhist nations.[2]
[Footnote 1: The ceremonial of the mysterious severance of the sacred
branch "amid the din of music, the clamours of men, the howling of the
elements, the roar of animals, the screams of birds, the yells of
demons, and the crash of earthquakes," is minutely described in an
elaborate passage of the _Mahawanso_. And its landing in Ceylon, the
retinue of its attendants, the homage paid to it, its progress to the
capital, its arrival at the Northern-gate "at the hour when shadows are
most extended," its reception by princes "adorned with the insignia of
royalty," and its final deposition in the earth, under the auspices of
Mahindo and his sister Sanghamitta, form one of the most striking
episodes in that very singular book.--_Mahawanso_, ch. xviii. xix.]
[Footnote 2: The planting of the Bo-tree took place in the eighteenth
year of the reign of King Devenipiatissa, B.C. 288; it is consequently
at the present time 2147 years old.]
[Illustration: THE BO TREE AT ANARAJAPOORA]
CHAP. IV.
THE EARLY BUDDHIST MONUMENTS.
[Sidenote: B.C. 289.]
Almost simultaneously with the establishment of the Buddhist religion
was commenced the erection of those stupendous ecclesiastical
structures, the number and magnitude of whose remains form a remarkable
characteristic in the present aspect of the country.
The architectural history of continental India dates from the third
century before Christ; not a single building or sculptured stone having
as yet been discovered there, of an age anterior to the reign of
Asoca[1], who was the first of his dynasty to abandon the religion of
Brahma for that of Buddha. In like manner the earliest existing
monuments of Ceylon belong to the same period; they owe their
construction to Devenipiatissa, and the historical annals of the island
record with pious gratitude the series of dagobas, wiharas, and temples
erected by him and his successors.
[Footnote 1: FERGUSON, _Handbook of Architecture_, b. i. c. i. p. 5.]
Of these the most remarkable are the Dagobas, piles of brickwork of
dimensions so extraordinary that they suggest comparison with the
pyramids of Memphis[1], the barrow of Halyattys[2], or the mounds in the
valleys of the Tigris and Euphrates.
[Footnote 1: So vast did the dagobas appear to the Singhalese that the
author of the _Mahawanso_, in describing the construction of that called
the _Ruanwelle_ at Anarajapoora, states that each of the lower courses
contained ten kotis (a koti being equal to 100 lacs) or 10,000,000
bricks.--_Mahawanso_, ch. xxx, p. 179.]
[Footnote 2: "The ancient edifices of Chi-Chen in Central America bear a
striking resemblance to the topes of India. The shape of one of the
domes, its apparent size, the small tower on the summit, the trees
growing on the sides, the appearance of masonry here and there, the
shape of the ornaments, and the small doorway at the base, are so
exactly similar to what I had seen at Anarajapoora that when my eyes
first fell on the engravings of these remarkable ruins I supposed that
they were presented in illustration of the dagobas of Ceylon."--HARDY's
_Eastern Monachism_, c. xix. p. 222.]
[Sidenote: B.C. 289.]
A dagoba (from _datu_, a relic, and _gabbhan_, a shrine[1]) is a
monument raised to preserve one of the relics of Gotama, which were
collected after the cremation of his body at Kusinara, and it is
candidly admitted in the _Mahawanso_ that the intention in erecting them
was to provide "objects to which offerings could be made."[2]
[Footnote 1: _Deha_, "the body," and _gopa_, "what preserves;" because
they enshrine hair, teeth, nails, &c. of Buddha.--WILSON'S _Asiat. Res._
vol. xvii. p. 605.]
[Footnote 2: _Mahawanso_, ch. xvii. p. 104.]
[Illustration: A SMALL DAGOBA AT KANDY]
[Sidenote: B.C. 289.]
Ceylon contains but one class of these structures, and boasts no tall
monolithic pillars like the _lats_ of Delhi and Allahabad, and no
regularly built columns similar to the _minars_ of Cabul; but the
fragments of the bones of Gotama, and locks of his hair, are enclosed in
enormous masses of hemispherical masonry, modifications of which may be
traced in every Buddhist country of Asia, in the topes of Affghanistan
and the Punjaub, in the pagodas of Pegu, and in the Boro-Buddor of Java.
Those of Ceylon consist of a bell-shaped dome of brick-work surmounted
by a terminal or _tee_ (generally in the form of a cube supporting a
pointed spire), and resting on a square platform approached by flights
of stone steps. Those, the ruins of which have been explored in modern
times, have been found to be almost solid, enclosing a hollow vessel of
metal or stone which had once contained the relic, but of which the
ornament alone and a few gems or discoloured pearls set in gold, are
usually all that is now discoverable.
Their outline exhibits but little of ingenuity or of art, and their
construction is only remarkable for the vast amount of labour which must
necessarily have been expended upon them. But, independently of this,
the first dagoba erected at Anarajapoora, the Thuparamaya, which exists
to the present day, "as nearly as may be in the same form in which it
was originally designed, is possessed of a peculiar interest from the
fact that it is in all probability the oldest architectural monument now
extant in India."[1] It was raised by King Tissa, at the close of the
third century before Christ, over the collar-bone of Buddha, which
Mahindo had procured for the king.[2] In dimensions this monument is
inferior to those built at a later period by the successors of Tissa,
some of which are scarcely exceeded in diameter and altitude by the dome
of St. Peter's[3]; but in elegance of outline it immeasurably surpassed
all the other dagobas, and the beauty of its design is still perceptible
in its ruins after the lapse of two thousand years.
[Footnote 1: FERGUSON'S _Handbook of Architecture_, b. i. c. iii. p.
43.]
[Footnote 2: _Mahawanso_, ch. xvii. _The Rajavali_ calls it the
jaw-bone, p. 184.]
[Footnote 3: The Abhayagiri dagoba at Anarajapoora, built B.C. 89, was
originally 180 cubits high, which, taking the Ceylon cubit at 2 feet 3
inches, would be equal to 405 feet. The dome was hemispherical, and
described with a radius of 180 feet, giving a circumference of 1130
feet. The summit of this stupendous work was therefore fifty feet higher
than St. Paul's, and fifty feet lower than St. Peter's.]
The king, in addition to this, built a number of others in various parts
of Ceylon[1], and his name has been perpetuated as the founder of
temples, for the rites of the new religion, and of Wiharas or
monasteries for the residence of its priesthood. The former were of the
simplest design, for an atheistical system, which substitutes meditation
for worship, dispenses with splendour in its edifices and pomp in its
ceremonial.
[Footnote 1: TURNOUR'S _Epitome_, p. 15.]
[Sidenote: B.C. 289.]
The images of Grotama, which in time became objects of veneration, were
but a late innovation[1], and a doubt even been expressed whether the
religion of Buddha in its primitive constitution, rejecting as it does
the doctrine of a mediatorial priesthood, contemplated the existence of
any organised ministry.
[Footnote 1: The precise date of their introduction is unknown, but the
first mention of a statue occurs in an inscription on the rock at
Mihintala, bearing date A.D. 246, and referring to the house constructed
over a figure of Buddha.]
Caves, or insulated apartments in imitation of their gloom and
retirement, were in all probability the first resort of devotees in
Ceylon, and hence amongst the deeds of King Tissa, the most conspicuous
and munificent were the construction of rock temples, on Mihintala, and
of apartments for the priests in all parts of his dominions.[1]
[Footnote 1: TURNOUR's _Epitome_, p. 15.]
The directions of Gotama as to the residence of his votaries are
characterised by the severest simplicity, and the term "pansala,"
literally "a dwelling of leaves,"[1] by which the house of a priest is
described to the present day, serves to illustrate the original
intention that persons dedicated to his service should cultivate
solitude and meditation by withdrawing into the forest, but within such
a convenient distance as would not estrange them from the villagers, on
whose bounty and alms they were to be dependent for subsistence.
[Footnote 1: It is questionable whether the Sarmanai, mentioned by
Megasthenes, were Buddhists or Brahmans; but the account which he gives
of the class of them whom he styles the Hylobii, would seem to identify
them with the Sramanas of Buddhism, "passing their lives in the woods,
[Greek: zôntes en tais ulais], living on fruits and seeds, and clothed
with the bark of trees."--MEGASTHENES' _Indica_, &c., Fragm. xlii.]
[Sidenote: B.C. 289.]
In one of the rock inscriptions deciphered by Prinsep, King Asoca, in
addressing himself to his Buddhist subjects, distinguishes them as
"ascetics and _house-holders_." In the sacred books a laic is called a
"graha pali," meaning "the ruler of a house;" and in contra-distinction
Fa Hian, the Chinese Buddhist, speaks of the priests of Ceylon under the
designation of "the house-less," to mark their abandonment of social
enjoyments.[1] Anticipating the probable necessity of their eventually
resorting to houses for accommodation, Buddha directed that, if built
for an individual, the internal measurement of a cell should be twelve
spans in length by seven in breadth[2]; and, if restricted to such
dimensions, the assertions of the Singhalese chronicles become
intelligible as to the prodigious number of such dwellings said to have
been raised by the early kings.[3]
[Footnote 1: "Les hommes hors de leur maisons."--FA HIAN, _Fo[)e]
Kou[)e] Ki_, ch. xxxix. This is the equivalent of the Singhalese term
for the same class, _agariyan-pubbajito_, used in the Pittakas.]
[Footnote 2: HARDY'S _Eastern Monachism_, ch. xiii. p. 122.]
[Footnote 3: The _Rajaratnacari_ says that Devenipiatissa caused
_eighty-four thousand_ temples to be built during his reign, p. 35.]
But the multitudes who were thus attracted to a life of indolent
devotion became in a short time so excessive that recourse was had to
other devices for combining economy with accommodation, and groups of
such cells were gradually formed into wiharas and monasteries, the
inmates of which have uniformly preserved their organisation and order.
Still the edifices thus constructed have never exhibited any tendency to
depart from the primitive simplicity so strongly enjoined by their
founder; and, down to the present time, the homes of the Buddhist
priesthood are modest and humble structures generally reared of mud and
thatch, with no pretension to external beauty and no attempt at internal
decoration.
[Sidenote: B.C. 289.]
To supply to the ascetics the means of seclusion and exercise, the early
kings commenced the erection of ambulance-halls; and gardens were set
apart for the use of the great temple communities. The _Mahawanso_
describes, with all the pomp of Oriental diction, the ceremony observed
by King Tissa on the occasion of setting apart a portion of ground as a
site for the first wihara at his capital; the monarch in person,
attended by standard bearers and guards with golden staves, having come
to mark out the boundary with a plough drawn by elephants.[1] A second
monastery was erected by him on the summit of Mihintala[2]; a third was
attached to the dagoba of the Thuparamaya, and others were rapidly
founded in every quarter of the island.[3]
[Footnote 1: _Mahawanso_, ch. xv. p. 99.]
[Footnote 2: _Mahawanso_, ch. xx. p. 123.]
[Footnote 3: Five hundred were built by one king alone, the third in
succession from Devenipiatissa, B.C. 246 (_Mahawanso_, ch. xxi, p. 127).
About the same period the petty chiefs of Rohuna and Mahagam were
equally zealous in their devout labours, the one having erected
sixty-four wiharas in the east of the island, and the other sixty-eight
in the south.--_Mahawanso_, ch. xxiv. p. 145, 148.]
It was in all probability owing to the growth of these institutions, and
the establishment of colleges in connection with them, that halls were
eventually appropriated for the reception of statues; and that
apartments so consecrated were devoted to the ceremonies and worship of
Buddha. Hence, at a very early period, the dwellings of the priests were
identified with the chaityas and sacred edifices, and the name of the
Wihara came to designate indifferently both the temple and the
monastery.
But the hall which contains the figures of Buddha, and which constitutes
the "temple" proper, is always detached from the domestic buildings, and
is frequently placed on an eminence from which the view is commanding.
The interior is painted in the style of Egyptian chambers, and is filled
with figures and illustrations of the legends of Gotama, whose statue,
with hand uplifted in the attitude of admonition, or reclining in repose
emblematic of the blissful state of Nirwana, is placed in the dimmest
recess of the edifice. Here lamps cast a feeble light, and the air is
heavy with the perfume of flowers, which are daily renewed by fresh
offerings from the worshippers at the shrines.
[Sidenote: B.C. 289.]
In no other system of idolatry, ancient or modern, have the rites been
administered by such a multitude of priests as assist in the passionless
ceremonial of Buddhism. Fa Hian, in the fourth century, was assured by
the people of Ceylon that at that period the priests numbered between
fifty and sixty thousand, of whom two thousand were attached to one
wihara at Anarajapoora, and three thousand to another.[1]
[Footnote 1: FA HIAN, _Fo[)e] Kou[)e] Ki_, ch. xxxviii. p. 336, 350. At
the present day the number in the whole island does not probably exceed
2500 (HARDY'S _Eastern Monachism_, p. 57, 309). But this is far below
the proportion of the Buddhist priesthood in other countries; in Siam
nearly every adult male becomes a priest for a certain portion of his
life; a similar practice prevails in Ava; and in Burmah so common is it
to assume the yellow robe, that the popular expedient for effecting
divorce is for the parties to make a profession of the priesthood, the
ceremonial of which is sufficient to dissolve the marriage vow, and
after an interval of a few months, they can throw off the yellow robe
and are then at liberty to marry again.]
As the vow which devotes the priests of Buddha to religion binds them at
the same time to a life of poverty and mendicancy, the extension of the
faith entailed in great part on the crown the duty of supporting the
vast crowds who withdrew themselves from industry to embrace devotion
and indigence. They were provided with food by the royal bounty, and
hence the historical books make perpetual reference to the priests
"going to the king's house to eat,"[1] when the monarch himself set the
example to his subjects of "serving them with rice broth, cakes, and
dressed rice."[2] Rice in all its varieties is the diet described in the
_Mahawanso_ as being provided for the priesthood by the munificence of
the kings; "rice prepared with sugar and honey, rice with clarified
butter, and rice in its ordinary form."[3] In addition to the enjoyment
of a life of idleness, another powerful incentive conspired to swell the
numbers of these devotees. The followers and successors of Wijayo
preserved intact the institution of caste, which they had brought with
them from the valley of the Ganges; and, although caste was not
abolished by the teachers of Buddhism, who retained and respected it as
a social institution, it was practically annulled and absorbed in the
religious character;--all who embraced the ascetic life being
simultaneously absolved from all conventional disabilities, and received
as members of the sacred community with all its exalted prerogatives.[4]
[Footnote 1: _Rajavali_, p. 198. Hiouen Thsang, the Chinese pilgrim,
describing Anarajapoora in the seventh century, says: "A côté du palais
du roi; on a construit une vaste cuisine où l'on prépare chaque jour des
aliments pour dix-huit mille religieux. A l'heure de repas, les
religieux viennent, un pot à la main, pour recevoir leur nourriture.
Après l'avoir obtenue ils s'en retournent chacun dans leur
chambre."--HIOUEN THSANG, _Transl._ M. JULIEN, lib. xi. tom. ii. p.
143.]
[Footnote 2: _Mahawanso_, ch. xiv. p. 82.]
[Footnote 3: _Mahawanso_, ch. xxxii.; _Rajaratnacari_, ch. i. p. 37, ch.
ii. p. 56, 60, 62.]
[Footnote 4: Professor Wilson, _Journ. Roy. Asiat. Soc._ vol. xvi. p.
249.]
Along with food, clothing consisting of three garments to complete the
sacerdotal robes, as enjoined by the Buddhist ritual[1], was distributed
at certain seasons; and in later times a practice obtained of providing
robes for the priests by "causing the cotton to be picked from the tree
at sunrise, cleaned, spun, woven, dyed yellow, and made into garments
and presented before sunset."[2] The condition of the priesthood was
thus reduced to a state of absolute dependency on alms, and at the
earliest period of their history the vow of poverty, by which their
order is bound, would seem to have been righteously observed.
[Footnote 1: To avoid the vanity of dress or the temptation to acquire
property, no Buddhist priest is allowed to have more than one set of
robes, consisting of three pieces, and if an extra one be bestowed on
him it must be surrendered to the chapter of his wihara within ten days.
The dimensions must not exceed a specified length, and when obtained new
the cloth must be disfigured with mud or otherwise before he puts it on.
A magnificent robe having been given to Gotama, his attendant Ananda, in
order to destroy its intrinsic value, cut it into thirty pieces and
sewed them together in four divisions, so that the robe resembled the
patches of a rice-field divided by embankments. And in conformity with
this precedent the robes of every priest are similarly dissected and
reunited.--Hardy's _Eastern Monachism_, c. xii. p. 117; _Rajaratnacari_,
ch. ii. pp. 60, 66.]
[Footnote 2: _Rajaratnacari_, pp. 104, 109, 112. The custom which is
still observed in Ceylon, of weaving robes between sunrise and sunset is
called _Catina dhwana_ (_Rajavali_, p. 261). The work is performed
chiefly by women, and the practice is identical with that mentioned by
Herodotus, as observed by the priests of Egypt, who celebrated a
festival in honour of the return of Rhampsinitus, after playing at dice
with Ceres in Ilades, by investing one of their body with a cloak made
in a single day, [Greek: pharos autêmeron exyphênantes], _Euterpe_,
cxxii. Gray, in his ode of _The Fatal Sisters_, has embodied the
Scandinavian myth in which the twelve weird sisters, the _Valkiriur_,
weave "the crimson web of war" between the rising and setting of the
sun.]
CHAP V.
SINGHALESE CHIVALRY.--ELALA AND DUTUGAIMUNU.
[Sidenote: B.C. 289.]
[Sidenote: B.C. 266.]
For nearly a century after the accession of Devenipiatissa, the religion
and the social development of Ceylon thus exhibited an equally steady
advancement. The cousins of the king, three of whom ascended the throne
in succession, seem to have vied with each other in works of piety and
utility. Wiharas were built in all parts of the island, both north and
south of the Maha-welli-ganga. Dagobas were raised in various places,
and cultivation was urged forward by the formation of tanks and canals.
But, during this period, from the fact of the Bengal immigrants being
employed in more congenial or more profitable occupations (possibly also
from the numbers who were annually devoting themselves to the service of
the temples), and from the ascertained inaptitude of the native
Singhalese to bear arms, a practice was commenced of retaining foreign
mercenaries, which, even at that early period, was productive of
animosity and bloodshed, and in process of time led to the overthrow of
the Wijayan dynasty and the gradual decay of the Sinhala sovereignty.
[Sidenote: B.C. 266.]
[Sidenote: B.C. 237.]
[Sidenote: B.C. 205.]
The genius of the Gangetic race, which had taken possession of Ceylon,
was essentially adapted to agricultural pursuits--in which, to the
present day, their superiority is apparent over the less energetic
tribes of the Dekkan. Busied with such employments, the early colonists
had no leisure for military service; besides, whilst Devenipiatissa and
his successors were earnestly engaged in the formation of religious
communities, and the erection of sacred edifices in the northern portion
of the island, various princes of the same family occupied themselves in
forming settlements in the south and west; and hence, whilst their
people were zealously devoted to the service and furtherance of
religion, the sovereign at Anarajapoora was compelled, through a
combination of causes, to take into his pay a body of Malabars[1] for
the protection both of the coast and the interior. Of the foreigners
thus confided in, "two youths, powerful in their cavalry and navy, named
Sena and Gottika,"[2] proved unfaithful to their trust, and after
causing the death of the king Suratissa (B.C. 237), retained the supreme
power for upwards of twenty years, till overthrown in their turn and put
to death by the adherents of the legitimate line.[3] Ten years, however,
had barely elapsed when the attempt to establish a Tamil sovereign was
renewed by Elala, "a Malabar of the illustrious Uju tribe, who invaded
the island from the Chola[4] country, killed the reigning king Asela,
and ruled the kingdom for forty years, administering justice impartially
to friends and foes."
[Footnote 1: The term "Malabar" is used throughout the following pages
in the comprehensive sense in which it is applied in the Singhalese
chronicles to the continental invaders of Ceylon; but it must be
observed that the adventurers in these expeditions, who are styled in
the _Mahawanso, "damilos"_ or Tamils, came not only from the
south-western tract of the Dekkan, known in modern geography as
"Malabar," but also from all parts of the peninsula, as far north as
Cuttack and Orissa.]
[Footnote 2: _Mahawanso_, ch. xxi. p. 127.]
[Footnote 3: _Mahawanso_, xxi.; _Rajaratnacari_, ch. ii.]
[Footnote 4: Chola, or Solee, was the ancient name of Tanjore, and the
country traversed by the river Caveri.]
[Sidenote: B.C. 161.]
Such is the encomium which the _Mahawanso_ passes on an infidel usurper,
because Elala offered his protection to the priesthood; but the orthodox
annalist closes his notice of his reign by the moral reflection that
"even he who was an heretic, and doomed by his creed to perdition,
obtained an exalted extent of supernatural power from having eschewed
impiety and injustice."[1]
[Footnote 1: _Mahawanso_, xxi. p. 129. The other historical books, the
_Rajavali_, and _Rajaratnacari_, give a totally different character of
Elala, and represent him as the desecrator of monuments and the
overthrower of temples. The traditional estimation which has followed
his memory is the best attestation of the superior accuracy of the
_Mahawanso_.]
[Sidenote: B.C. 161.]
But it was not the priests alone who were captivated by the generosity
of Elala. In the final struggle for the throne, in which the Malabars
were worsted by the gallantry of Dutugaimunu, a prince of the excluded
family, the deeds of bravery displayed by him were the admiration of his
enemies. The contest between the rival chiefs is the solitary tale of
Ceylon chivalry, in which Elala is the Saladin and Dutugaimunu the
Coeur-de-lion. So genuine was the admiration of Elala's bravery that his
rival erected a monument in his honour, on the spot where he fell; its
ruins remain to the present day, and the Singhalese still regard it with
respect and veneration. "On reaching the quarter of the city in which it
stands," says the _Mahawanso_[1], "it has been the custom for the
monarchs of Lanka to silence their music, whatsoever cession they may be
heading;" and so uniformly was the homage continued down to the most
recent period, that so lately as 1818, on the suppression of an
attempted rebellion, when the defeated aspirant to the throne was making
his escape by Anarajapoora, he alighted from his litter, on approaching
the quarter in which the monument was known to exist, "and although
weary and almost incapable of exertion, not knowing the precise spot, he
continued on foot till assured that he had passed far beyond the ancient
memorial."[2]
[Footnote 1: _Mahawanso_, ch. xxi.]
[Footnote 2: FORBES' _Eleven Years in Ceylon_, vol. i. p. 233.]
[Sidenote: B.C. 161.]
Dutugaimunu, in the epics of Buddhism, enjoys a renown, second only to
that of King Tissa, as the champion of the faith. On the recovery of his
kingdom he addressed himself with energy to remove the effects produced
in the northern portions of the island by forty years of neglect and
inaction under the sway of Elala. During that monarch's protracted
usurpation the minor sovereignties, which had been formed in various
parts of the island prior to his seizure of the crown, were little
impeded in their social progress by the forty-four years' residence of
the Malabars at Anarajapoora. Although the petty kings of Rohuna and
Maya submitted to pay tribute to Elala, his personal rule did not extend
south of the Mahawelli-ganga[1], and whilst the strangers in the north
of the island were plundering the temples of Buddha, the feudal chiefs
in the south and west were emulating the munificence of Tissa in the
number of wiharas which they constructed.
[Footnote 1: _Mahawanso_, ch. xxii., _Rajavali_, p. 188,
_Rajaratnacari_, p. 36. The _Mahawanso_ has a story of Dutugaimunu, when
a boy, illustrative of his early impatience to rid the island of the
Malabars. His father seeing him lying on his bed, with his hands and
feet gathered up, inquired, "My boy, why not stretch thyself at length
on thy bed?" "Confined by the Damilos," he replied, "beyond the river on
the one side, and by the unyielding ocean on the other, how can I lie
with outstretched limbs?"]
Eager to conciliate his subjects by a similar display of regard for
religion, Dutugaimunu signalised his victory and restoration by
commencing the erection of the Ruanwellé dagoba, the most stupendous as
well as the most venerated of those at Anarajapoora, as it enclosed a
more imposing assemblage of relics than were ever enshrined in any other
in Ceylon.
The mass of the population was liable to render compulsory labour to the
crown; but wisely reflecting that it was not only derogatory to the
sacredness of the object, but impolitic to exact any avoidable
sacrifices from a people so recently suffering from internal warfare,
Dutugaimunu came to the resolution of employing hired workmen only, and
according to the _Mahawanso_ vast numbers of the Yakkhos became converts
to Buddhism during the progress of the building[1], which the king did
not live to complete.
[Footnote 1: _Mahawanso_, ch. xxviii. xxix. xxx. xxxi.]
[Sidenote: B.C. 161.]
But the most remarkable of the edifices which he erected at the capital
was the Maha-Lowa-paya, a monastery which obtained the name of the
_Brazen Palace_ from the fact of its being roofed with plates of that
metal. It was elevated on sixteen hundred monolithic columns of granite
twelve feet high, and arranged in lines of forty, so as to cover an area
of upwards of two hundred and twenty feet square. On these rested the
building nine stories in height, which, in addition to a thousand
dormitories for priests, contained halls and other apartments for their
exercise and accommodation.
The _Mahawanso_ relates with peculiar unction the munificence of
Dutugaimunu in remunerating those employed upon this edifice; he
deposited clothing for that purpose as well as "vessels filled with
sugar, buffalo butter and honey;" he announced that on this occasion it
was not fitting to exact unpaid labour, and, "placing high value on the
work to be performed, he paid the workmen with money."[1]
[Footnote 1: _Mahawanso_, ch. xxvii. p. 163.]
The structure, when completed, far exceeded in splendour anything
recorded in the sacred books. All its apartments were embellished with
"beads, resplendent like gems;" the great hall was supported by golden
pillars resting on lions and other animals, and the walls were
ornamented with festoons of pearls and of flowers formed of jewels; in
the centre was an ivory throne, with an emblem on one side of a golden
sun, and on the other of the moon in silver, and above all glittered the
imperial "chatta," the white canopy of dominion. The palace, says the
_Mahawanso_, was provided with rich carpets and couches, and "even the
ladle of the rice boiler was of gold."
[Sidenote: B.C. 161.]
The vicissitudes and transformations of the Brazen Palace are subjects
of frequent mention in the history of the sacred city. As originally
planned by Dutugaimunu, it did not endure through the reign of his
successor Saidaitissa, at whose expense it was reconstructed, B.C. 140,
but the number of stories was lowered to seven.[1] More than two
centuries later, A.D. 182, these were again reduced to five[2], and the
entire building must have been taken down in A.D. 240, as the king who
was then reigning caused "the pillars of the Lowa Pasado to be arranged
in a different form."
[Footnote 1: _Mahawanso_, ch. xxxvi.]
[Footnote 2: _Mahawanso_, ch. xxxiii.]
The edifice erected on its site was pulled to the ground by the apostate
Maha Sen, A.D. 301[1]; but penitently reconstructed by him on his
recantation of his errors. Its last recorded restoration took place in
the reign of Prakrama-bahu, towards the close of the twelfth century,
when "the king rebuilt the Lowa-Maha-paya, and raised up the 1600
pillars of rock."
[Footnote 1: _Mahawanso_, ch. xxxvii.]
[Illustration: RUINS OF THE BRAZEN PALACE]
[Sidenote: B.C. 161.]
Thus exposed to spoliation by its splendour, and obnoxious to infidel
invaders from the religious uses to which it was dedicated, it was
subjected to violence on every commotion, whether civil or external,
which disturbed the repose of the capital; and at the present day, no
traces of it remain except the indestructible monoliths on which it
stood. A "world of stone columns," to use the quaint expression of Knox,
still marks the site of the Brazen Palace of Dutugaimunu, and attests
the accuracy of the chronicles which describe its former magnificence.
[Sidenote: B.C. 137.]
The character of Dutugaimunu is succinctly expressed in his dying
avowal, that he had lived "a slave to the priesthood."[1] Before
partaking of food, it was his practice to present a portion for their
use; and recollecting in maturer age, that on one occasion, when a
child, he had so far forgotten this invariable rule, as _to eat a
chilly_ without sharing it with the priest, he submitted himself to a
penance in expiation of this youthful impiety.[2] His death scene, as
described in the _Mahawanso_, contains an enumeration of the deeds of
piety by which his reign had been signalised.[3] Extended on his couch
in front of the great dagoba which he had erected, he thus addressed one
of his military companions who had embraced the priesthood: "In times
past, supported by my ten warriors, I engaged in battles; now,
single-handed, I commence my last conflict, with death; and it is not
permitted to me to overcome my antagonist." "Ruler of men," replied the
thero, "without subduing the dominion of sin, the power of death is
invincible; but call to recollection thy acts of piety performed, and
from these you will derive consolation." The secretary then "read from
the register of deeds of piety," that "one hundred wiharas, less one,
had been constructed by the Maharaja, that he had built two great
dagobas and the Brazen Palace at Anarajapoora; that in famines he had
given his jewels to support the pious; that on three several occasions
he had clothed the whole priesthood throughout the island, giving three
garments to each; that five times he had conferred the sovereignty of
the land for the space of seven days on the National Church; that he had
founded hospitals for the infirm, and distributed rice to the indigent;
bestowed lamps on innumerable temples, and maintained preachers, in the
various wiharas, in all parts of his dominions. 'All these acts,' said
the dying king, 'done in my days of prosperity, afford no comfort to my
mind; but two offerings which I made when in affliction and in
adversity, disregardful of my own fate, are those which alone administer
solace to me now.[4] After this, the pre-eminently wise Maharaja
expired, stretched on his bed, in the act of gazing on the Mahatupo."[5]
[Footnote 1: _Mahawanso_, ch. xxxii.]
[Footnote 2: _Mahawanso_, ch. xxiv, xxv.]
[Footnote 3: _Mahawanso_, ch. xxxii.]
[Footnote 4: _Mahawanso_, ch. xxxii.]
[Footnote 5: Another name for the Ruanwellé dagoba, which he had built.]
CHAP. VI.
THE INFLUENCE OF BUDDHISM ON CIVILISATION.
[Sidenote: B.C. 137.]
After the reign of Dutugaimunu there is little in the pages of the
native historians to sustain interest in the story of the Singhalese
monarchs. The long line of sovereigns is divided into two distinct
classes; the kings of the _Maha-wanse_ or "superior dynasty" of the
uncontaminated blood of Wijayo, who occupied the throne from his death,
B.C. 505, to that of Maha Sen, A.D. 302;--and the _Sulu-wanse_ or
"inferior race," whose descent was less pure, but who, amidst invasions,
revolutions, and decline, continued, with unsteady hand, to hold the
government clown to the occupation of the island by Europeans in the
beginning of the sixteenth century.
[Sidenote: B.C. 137.]
To the great dynasty, and more especially to its earliest members, the
inhabitants were indebted for the first rudiments of civilisation, for
the arts of agricultural life, for an organised government, and for a
system of national worship. But neither the piety of the kings nor their
munificence sufficed to conciliate the personal attachment of their
subjects, or to strengthen their throne by national attachment such as
would have fortified its occupant against the fatalities incident to
despotism. Of fifty-one sovereigns who formed the pure Wijayan dynasty,
two were deposed by their subjects, and nineteen put to death by their
successors.[1] Excepting the rare instances in which a reign was marked
by some occurrence, such as an invasion and repulse of the Malabars,
there is hardly a sovereign of the "Solar race" whose name is associated
with a higher achievement than the erection of a dagoba or the formation
of a tank, nor one whose story is enlivened by an event more exciting
than the murder through which he mounted the throne or the conspiracy by
which he was driven from it.[2]
[Footnote 1: There is something very striking in the facility with which
aspirants to the throne obtained the instant acquiescence of the people,
so soon as assassination had put them in possession of power. And this
is the more remarkable, where the usurpers were of the lower grade, as
in the instance of Subho, a gate porter, who murdered King Yasa Silo,
A.D. 60, and reigned for six years (_Mahaw._ ch. xxxv. p. 218). A
carpenter, and a carrier of fire-wood, were each accepted in succession
as sovereigns, A.D. 47; whilst the "_great dynasty_" was still in the
plenitude of its popularity. The mystery is perhaps referable to the
dominant necessity of securing tranquillity at any cost, in the state of
society where the means of cultivation were directly dependent on the
village organisation, and famine and desolation would have been the
instant and inevitable consequences of any commotions which interfered
with the conservancy and repair of the tanks and means of irrigation,
and the prompt application of labour to the raising and saving of
produce at the instant when the fall of the rains or the ripening of the
crops demanded its employment with the utmost vigour.]
[Footnote 2: In theory the Singhalese monarchy was elective in the
descendants of the Solar race: in practice, primogeniture had a
preference, and the crown was either hereditary or became the prize of
those who claimed to be of royal lineage. On reviewing the succession of
kings from B.C. 307 to A.D. 1815, _thirty-nine_ eldest sons (or nearly
one fourth), succeeded to their fathers: and _twenty-nine_ kings (or
more than one fifth), were succeeded by brothers. _Fifteen_ reigned for
a period less than one year, and thirty for more than one year, and less
than four. Of the Singhalese kings who died by violence, twenty-two were
murdered by their successors; six were killed by other individuals;
thirteen fell in feuds and war, and four committed suicide; eleven were
dethroned, and their subsequent fate is unknown. Not more than
two-thirds of the Singhalese kings retained sovereign authority to their
decease, or reached the funeral pile without a violent death.--FORBES'
_Eleven Years in Ceylon_, vol. i. ch. iv. p. 80, 97; JOINVILLE,
_Religion and Manners of the People of Ceylon; Asiat. Res._ vol. vii. p.
423. See also _Mahawanso_, ch. xxiii. p. 201.]
[Sidenote: B.C. 119.]
One source of royal contention arose on the death of Dutugaimunu; his
son, having forfeited his birthright by an alliance with a wife of lower
caste, was set aside from the succession; Saidaitissa, a brother of the
deceased king, being raised to the throne in his stead. The priests, on
the death of Saidaitissa, B.C. 119, hastened to proclaim his youngest
son Thullatthanako[1], to the prejudice of his elder brother
Laiminitissa, but the latter established his just claim by the sword,
and hence arose two rival lines, which for centuries afterwards were
prompt on every opportunity to advance adverse pretensions to the
throne, and assert them by force of arms.
[Footnote 1: _Mahawanso_, ch. xxxiii. p. 201.]
In such contests the priesthood brought a preponderant influence to
whatever side they inclined [1]; and thus the royal authority, though
not strictly sacerdotal, became so closely identified with the
hierarchy, and so guided by its will, that each sovereign's attention
was chiefly devoted to forwarding such measures as most conduced to the
exaltation of Buddhism and the maintenance of its monasteries and
temples.
[Footnote 1: It was the dying boast of Dutugaimunu that he had lived "a
slave to the priesthood." The expression was figurative in his case; but
so abject did the subserviency of the kings become, and so rapid was its
growth, that Bhatiya Tissa, who reigned A.D. 8, rendered it literal, and
"dedicated himself, his queen, and two sons, as well as his charger, and
state elephant, as _slaves to the priesthood_." The _Mahawanso_
intimates that the priests themselves protested against this debasement,
ch. xxxiv. p. 214.]
[Sidenote: B.C. 119.]
[Sidenote: B.C. 104.]
A signal effect of this regal policy, and of the growing diffusion of
Buddhism, is to be traced in the impulse which it communicated to the
reclamation of lands and the extension of cultivation. For more than
three hundred years no mention is made in the Singhalese annals of any
mode of maintaining the priesthood other than the royal distribution of
clothing and voluntary offerings of food. They resorted for the "royal
alms" either to the residence of the authorities or to halls specially
built for their accommodation [1], to which they were summoned by "the
shout of refection;" [2] the ordinary priests receiving rice, "those
endowed with the gift of preaching, clarified butter, sugar, and
honey."[3] Hospitals and medicines for their use, and rest houses on
their journeys, were also provided at the public charge.[4] These
expedients were available so long as the numbers of the priesthood were
limited; but such were the multitudes who were tempted to withdraw from
the world and its pursuits, in order to devote themselves to meditation
and the diffusion of Buddhism, that the difficulty became practical of
maintaining them by personal gifts, and the alternative suggested itself
of setting apart lands for their support. This innovation was first
resorted to during an interregnum. The Singhalese king Walagam Bahu,
being expelled from his capital by a Malabar usurpation B.C. 104, was
unable to continue the accustomed regal bounty to the priesthood;
dedicated certain lands while in exile in Rohuna, for the support of a
fraternity "who had sheltered him there."[5] The precedent thus
established, was speedily seized upon and extended; lands were
everywhere set apart for the repair of the sacred edifices[6], and
eventually, about the beginning of the Christian era, the priesthood
acquired such an increase of influence as sufficed to convert their
precarious eleemosynary dependency into a permanent territorial
endowment; and the practice became universal of conveying estates in
mortmain on the construction of a wihara or the dedication of a
temple.[7]
[Footnote 1: _Mahawanso_, ch. xx. p. 123; xxii. p. 132,135.]
[Footnote 2: _Mahawanso_, ch. xxviii. p. 167.]
[Footnote 3: _Mahawanso_, ch. xxxii. p. 196-7.]
[Footnote 4: _Mahawanso_, ch. xxxii. p. 196 xxxvii. p. 244;
_Rajaratnacari_, p. 39, 41.]