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 theMahawanso[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]
1:Mahawanso, ch. xxi.2: FORBES'Eleven Years in Ceylon, vol. i. p. 233.
1:Mahawanso, ch. xxi.
2: FORBES'Eleven Years in Ceylon, vol. i. p. 233.
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, werelittle 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.
1:Mahawanso, ch. xxii.,Rajavali, p. 188,Rajaratnacari, p. 36. TheMahawansohas 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?"
1:Mahawanso, ch. xxii.,Rajavali, p. 188,Rajaratnacari, p. 36. TheMahawansohas 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 theMahawansovast numbers of the Yakkhos became converts to Buddhism during the progress of the building[1], which the king did not live to complete.
1:Mahawanso, ch. xxviii. xxix. xxx. xxxi.
1:Mahawanso, ch. xxviii. xxix. xxx. xxxi.
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 theBrazen Palacefrom the fact of its being roofed with plates of that metal. It was elevated on sixteen hundred monolithic columns ofgranite 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.
TheMahawansorelates 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]
1:Mahawanso, ch. xxvii. p. 163.
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 theMahawanso, was provided with rich carpets and couches, and "even the ladle of the rice boiler was of gold."
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 entirebuilding 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."
1:Mahawanso, ch. xxxvi.2:Mahawanso, ch. xxxiii.
1:Mahawanso, ch. xxxvi.
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."
1:Mahawanso, ch. xxxvii.
1:Mahawanso, ch. xxxvii.
RUINS OF THE BRAZEN PALACERUINS OF THE BRAZEN PALACE
RUINS OF THE BRAZEN PALACE
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.
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, asto eat a chillywithout sharing it with the priest, he submitted himself to a penance in expiation of this youthful impiety.[2] His death scene, as described in theMahawanso, contains an enumeration of the deeds of piety by which his reign had been signalised.[3]B.C. 137.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]
1:Mahawanso, ch. xxxii.2:Mahawanso, ch. xxiv, xxv.3:Mahawanso, ch. xxxii.4:Mahawanso, ch. xxxii.5: Another name for the Ruanwellé dagoba, which he had built.
1:Mahawanso, ch. xxxii.
2:Mahawanso, ch. xxiv, xxv.
3:Mahawanso, ch. xxxii.
4:Mahawanso, ch. xxxii.
5: Another name for the Ruanwellé dagoba, which he had built.
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 theMaha-wanseor "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 theSulu-wanseor "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.
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 therare 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]
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.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-nineeldest sons (or nearly one fourth), succeeded to their fathers: andtwenty-ninekings (or more than one fifth), were succeeded by brothers.Fifteenreigned 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 alsoMahawanso, ch. xxiii. p. 201.
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.
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-nineeldest sons (or nearly one fourth), succeeded to their fathers: andtwenty-ninekings (or more than one fifth), were succeeded by brothers.Fifteenreigned 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 alsoMahawanso, ch. xxiii. p. 201.
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 henceB.C. 119.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.
1:Mahawanso, ch. xxxiii. p. 201.
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.
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, asslaves to the priesthood." TheMahawansointimates that the priests themselves protested against this debasement, ch. xxxiv. p. 214.
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, asslaves to the priesthood." TheMahawansointimates that the priests themselves protested against this debasement, ch. xxxiv. p. 214.
B.C. 119.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 themultitudes 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 usurpationB.C. 104.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]
1:Mahawanso, ch. xx. p. 123; xxii. p. 132,135.2:Mahawanso, ch. xxviii. p. 167.3:Mahawanso, ch. xxxii. p. 196-7.4:Mahawanso, ch. xxxii. p. 196 xxxvii. p. 244;Rajaratnacari, p. 39, 41.5:Mahawanso, ch, xxxiii. p. 203. Previous to this date a king of Rohuna, during the usurpation of Elala, B.C. 205, had appropriated lands near Kalany, for the repairs of the dagoba.—Rajaratnacari, p. 37.6: In the reign of Batiya Tissa, B.C. 20.Mahawanso,, ch. xxxiv. p. 212;Rajaratnacari, p. 51.7:Mahawanso, ch. xxxiv. p. 214.
1:Mahawanso, ch. xx. p. 123; xxii. p. 132,135.
2:Mahawanso, ch. xxviii. p. 167.
3:Mahawanso, ch. xxxii. p. 196-7.
4:Mahawanso, ch. xxxii. p. 196 xxxvii. p. 244;Rajaratnacari, p. 39, 41.
5:Mahawanso, ch, xxxiii. p. 203. Previous to this date a king of Rohuna, during the usurpation of Elala, B.C. 205, had appropriated lands near Kalany, for the repairs of the dagoba.—Rajaratnacari, p. 37.
6: In the reign of Batiya Tissa, B.C. 20.Mahawanso,, ch. xxxiv. p. 212;Rajaratnacari, p. 51.
7:Mahawanso, ch. xxxiv. p. 214.
B.C. 104.The corporate character of the recipients served to neutralise the obligations by which they were severally bound; the vow of poverty, though compulsory on an individual priest, ceased to be binding on the community of which he was a member; and whilst, on his own behalf, he was constrained to abjure the possession of property, even to the extent of one superfluous cloth, the wihara to which he was attached, in addition to its ecclesiastical buildings, and its offerings in gems and gold, was held competent to become the proprietor of broad and fertile lands.[1] These were so bountifullybestowed by royal piety, by private munificence, and by mortuary gifts, that ere many centuries had elapsed the temples of Ceylon absorbed a large proportion of the landed property of the kingdom, and their possessions were not only exempted from taxation, but accompanied by a right to the compulsory labour of the temple tenants.[2]
1: HARDY'SEastern Monachism, ch. viii. p. 68.2: TheRajaratnacarimentions an instance, A.D. 62, of eight thousand rice fields bestowed in one grant; and similar munificence is recorded in numerous instances prior, to A.D. 204.—Rajaratnacari, p. 57, 59, 64, 74, 113, &c.Mahawanso, ch. xxxv. p. 223, 224; ch. xxxvi. p. 233.
1: HARDY'SEastern Monachism, ch. viii. p. 68.
2: TheRajaratnacarimentions an instance, A.D. 62, of eight thousand rice fields bestowed in one grant; and similar munificence is recorded in numerous instances prior, to A.D. 204.—Rajaratnacari, p. 57, 59, 64, 74, 113, &c.Mahawanso, ch. xxxv. p. 223, 224; ch. xxxvi. p. 233.
As the estates so made over to religious uses lay for the most part in waste districts, the quantity of land which was thus brought under cultivation necessarily involved large extensions of the means of irrigation. To supply these, reservoirs were formed on such a scale as to justify the term "consecrated lakes," by which they are described in the Singhalese annals.[1]
1:Rajaratnacari, ch. ii. p. 37;Rajavali, p. 237.
1:Rajaratnacari, ch. ii. p. 37;Rajavali, p. 237.
Where the circumstances of the ground permitted, their formation was effected by drawing an embankment across the embouchure of a valley so as to arrest and retain the waters by which it was traversed, and so vast were the dimensions of some of these gigantic tanks that many yet in existence still cover an area of from fifteen to twenty miles in circumference. The ruins of that at Kalaweva, to the north-west of Dambool, show that its original circuit could not have been less than forty miles, its retaining bund being upwards of twelve miles long. The spill-water of stone, which remains to the present time, is "perhaps one of the most stupendous monuments of misapplied human labour in the island."[1]
1: TURNOUR,Mahawanso, p. 12. The tank of Kalaweva was formed by Dhatu Sena, A.D. 459.—Mahawanso, ch. xxxviii. p. 257.
1: TURNOUR,Mahawanso, p. 12. The tank of Kalaweva was formed by Dhatu Sena, A.D. 459.—Mahawanso, ch. xxxviii. p. 257.
B.C. 104.The number of these stupendous works, which were formed by the early sovereigns of Ceylon, almost exceeds credibility. Kings are named in the native annals,each of whom made from fifteen to thirty[1], together with canals and all the appurtenances for irrigation. Originally these vast undertakings were completed "for the benefit of the country," and "out of compassion for living creatures;"[2] but so early as the first century of the Christian era, the custom became prevalent of forming tanks with the pious intention of conferring the lands which they enriched on the church. Wide districts, rendered fertile by the interception of a river and the formation of suitable canals, were appropriated to the maintenance of the local priesthood[3]; a tank and the thousands of acres which it fertilised were sometimes assigned for the perpetual repairs of a dagoba[4], and the revenues of whole villages and their surrounding rice fields were devoted to the support of a single wihara.[5]
1:Rajaratnacari, p. 41, 45, 54, 55; King Saidaitissa B.C. 137, made "eighteen lakes" (Rajavali, p. 233). King Wasabha, who ascended the throne A.D. 62, "caused sixteen large lakes to be enclosed" (Rajaratnacari, p. 57). Detu Tissa, A.D. 253, excavated six (Rajavali, p. 237), and King Maha Sen, A.D. 275, seventeen (Mahawanso, ch, xxxviii. p. 236).2:Mahawanso, ch, xxxvii. p. 242.3:Mahawanso, ch. xxxiv. p. 210; xxxv. p. 221; xxxviii. p. 237,Rajaratnacari, ch. ii. p. 57, 59, 64, 69, 74.4:Mahawanso, ch. xxxv. p. 215, 218, 223; ch. xxxvii. p. 234;Rajaratnacari, ch. ii. p. 51. TURNOUR'SEpitome, p. 21.5:Mahawanso, ch. xxxv. p. 218, 221;Rajaratnacari, ch. ii. p. 51;Rajaviai, p. 241.
1:Rajaratnacari, p. 41, 45, 54, 55; King Saidaitissa B.C. 137, made "eighteen lakes" (Rajavali, p. 233). King Wasabha, who ascended the throne A.D. 62, "caused sixteen large lakes to be enclosed" (Rajaratnacari, p. 57). Detu Tissa, A.D. 253, excavated six (Rajavali, p. 237), and King Maha Sen, A.D. 275, seventeen (Mahawanso, ch, xxxviii. p. 236).
2:Mahawanso, ch, xxxvii. p. 242.
3:Mahawanso, ch. xxxiv. p. 210; xxxv. p. 221; xxxviii. p. 237,Rajaratnacari, ch. ii. p. 57, 59, 64, 69, 74.
4:Mahawanso, ch. xxxv. p. 215, 218, 223; ch. xxxvii. p. 234;Rajaratnacari, ch. ii. p. 51. TURNOUR'SEpitome, p. 21.
5:Mahawanso, ch. xxxv. p. 218, 221;Rajaratnacari, ch. ii. p. 51;Rajaviai, p. 241.
So lavish were these endowments, that one king, who signalised his reign by such extravagances as laying a carpet seven miles in length, "in order that pilgrims might proceed with unsoiled feet all the way from the Kadambo river (the Malwatté oya) to the mountain Chetiyo (Mihintala)," awarded a priest who had presented him with a draught of water during the construction of a wihara, "land within the circumference of half a yoyana (eight miles) for the maintenance of the temple."[1]
1:Mahawanso, ch. xxxiv, p. 3.
1:Mahawanso, ch. xxxiv, p. 3.
B.C. 104.It was in this manner that the beautiful tank at Mineri, one of the most lovely of these artificial lakes, was enclosed by Maha Sen, A.D. 275; and, together with the 80,000 amonams of ground which it waters, wasconferred on the Jeytawana Wihara which the king had just erected at Anarajapoora.[1]
1:Rajaratnacari, ch. ii. p. 69.
1:Rajaratnacari, ch. ii. p. 69.
To identify the crown still more closely with the interests of agriculture, some of the kings superintended public works for irrigating the lands of the temples[1]; and one more enthusiastic than the rest toiled in the rice fields to enhance the merit of conferring their produce on the priesthood.[2]
1: TURNOUR'SEpitome, p. 33.2:Mahawanso, ch. xxxiv. The Buddhist kings of Burmah are still accustomed to boast, almost in the terms of theMahawanso, of the distinction which they have earned, by the multitudes of tanks they have constructed or restored. See YULE'SNarrative of the Mission to Ava in 1855, p. 106.
1: TURNOUR'SEpitome, p. 33.
2:Mahawanso, ch. xxxiv. The Buddhist kings of Burmah are still accustomed to boast, almost in the terms of theMahawanso, of the distinction which they have earned, by the multitudes of tanks they have constructed or restored. See YULE'SNarrative of the Mission to Ava in 1855, p. 106.
These broad possessions, the church, under all vicissitudes and revolutions, has succeeded in retaining to the present day. Their territories, it is true, have been diminished in extent by national decay; the destruction of works for irrigation has converted into wilderness and jungle plains once teeming with fertility; and the mild policy of the British government, by abolishingraja-kariya[1], has emancipated the peasantry, who are no longer the serfs either of the temples or the chiefs. But in every district of the island the priests are in the enjoyment of the most fertile lands, over which the crown exercises no right of taxation; and such is the extent of their possessions that, although their precise limits have not been ascertained by the local government, they have been conjectured with probability to be equal to one-third of the cultivated land of the island.
1: Compulsory labour.
1: Compulsory labour.
B.C. 104.One peculiarity in the Buddhist ceremonial served at all times to give a singular impulse to the progress of horticulture. Flowers and garlands are introduced in its religious rites to the utmost excess. The atmosphere of the wiharas and temples is rendered oppressive with the perfume of champac and jessamine, and the shrine of the deity, the pedestals of his image, and the steps leading to the temple are strewn thickly with blossomsof the nagaha and the lotus. At an earlier period the profusion in which these beautiful emblems were employed in sacred decorations appears almost incredible; theMahawansorelates that the Ruanwellé dagoba, which was 270 feet in height, was on one occasion "festooned with garlands from pedestal to pinnacle till it resembled one uniform bouquet;" and at another time, it and the lofty dagoba at Mihintala were buried under heaps of jessamine from the ground to the summit.[1] Fa Hian, in describing his visit to Anarajapoora in the fourth century, dwells with admiration and wonder on the perfumes and flowers lavished on their worship by the Singhalese[2]; and the native historians constantly allude as familiar incidents to the profusion in which they were employed on ordinary occasions, and to the formation by successive kings of innumerable gardens for the floral requirements of the temples. The capital was surrounded on all sides[3] by flower gardens, and these were multiplied so extensively that, according to theRajaratnacari, one was to be found within a distance of four leagues in any part of Ceylon.[4] Amongst the regulations of the temple built at Dambedinia, in the thirteenth century, was "every day an offering of 100,000 flowers, and each day a different flower."[5]
1:Mahawanso, ch. xxxiv.;Rajaratnacari, p. 52, 53.2: FA HIAN.Foè Kouè Ki, ch. xxxviii. p. 335.3:Rajavali, p. 227;Mahawanso, ch. xi. p. 67.4:Rajaratnacari, p. 29, 49. Amongst the officers attached to the great establishments of the priests in Mihintala, A.D. 246, there are enumerated in an inscription engraven on a rock there, a secretary, a treasurer, a physician, a surgeon, a painter, twelve cooks, twelve thatchers, ten carpenters, six carters, andtwo florists.5:Rajaratnacari, p. 103. The same book states that another king, in the fifteenth century, "offered no less than 6,480,320 sweet smelling flowers" at the shrine of the Tooth.—Ib., p. 136.
1:Mahawanso, ch. xxxiv.;Rajaratnacari, p. 52, 53.
2: FA HIAN.Foè Kouè Ki, ch. xxxviii. p. 335.
3:Rajavali, p. 227;Mahawanso, ch. xi. p. 67.
4:Rajaratnacari, p. 29, 49. Amongst the officers attached to the great establishments of the priests in Mihintala, A.D. 246, there are enumerated in an inscription engraven on a rock there, a secretary, a treasurer, a physician, a surgeon, a painter, twelve cooks, twelve thatchers, ten carpenters, six carters, andtwo florists.
5:Rajaratnacari, p. 103. The same book states that another king, in the fifteenth century, "offered no less than 6,480,320 sweet smelling flowers" at the shrine of the Tooth.—Ib., p. 136.
B.C. 104.Another advantage conferred by Buddhism on the country was the planting of fruit trees and esculent vegetables for the gratuitous use of travellers in all the frequented parts of the island. The historical evidences of this are singularly corroborative of the genuineness of theBuddhist edicts engraved on various rocks and monuments in India, the deciphering of which was the grand achievement of Prinsep and his learned coadjutors. On the pillars of Delhi, Allahabad, and other places, and on the rocks of Girnar and Dhauli, there exist a number of Pali inscriptions purporting to be edicts of Asoca (the Dharmasoca of theMahawanso), King of Magadha, in the third century before the Christian era, who, on his conversion to the religion of Buddha, commissioned Mahindo, his son, to undertake its establishment in Ceylon. In these edicts, which were promulgated in the vernacular dialect, the king endeavoured to impress both upon his subjects and allies, as well as those who, although aliens, were yet "united in the law" of Buddha, the divine precepts of their great teacher; prominent amongst which are the prohibition against taking animal life[1], and the injunction that, "everywhere wholesome vegetables, roots, and fruit trees shall be cultivated, and that on the roads wells shall be dug and trees planted for the enjoyment of men and animals." In apparent conformity with these edicts, one of the kings of Ceylon, Addagaimunu, A.D. 20, is stated in theMahawansoto have "caused to be planted throughout the island every description of fruit-bearing creepers, and interdicted the destruction of animal life,"[2] and similar acts of pious benevolence, performed by command of various other sovereigns, are adverted to on numerous occasions.
1: It is curious that one of these edicts of Asoca, who was contemporary with Devenipiatissa, is addressed to "all the conquered territories of the raja, even unto the ends of the earth; as in Chola, in Pida, in Keralaputra,and in Tambapanni(or Ceylon)." This license of speech, reminding one of the grandiloquent epistles "from the Flaminian Gate," was no doubt assumed in virtue of the recent establishment of Buddhism, or, as it is called in theMahawanso"the religion of the Vanquisher," and Asoca, as its propagator, thus claims to address the converts as his "subjects."2:Mahawanso, ch. xxxv. p. 215. The king Upatissa, A.D. 368, in the midst of a solemn ceremonial, "observing ants, and other insects drowning in an inundation, halted, and having swept them towards the with the feathers of a peacock's tail, and enabled them to save a themselves, he continued the procession."—Mahawanso, ch. xxxvii p. 249;Rajaratnacari, p. 49, 52;Rajavali, p. 228.
1: It is curious that one of these edicts of Asoca, who was contemporary with Devenipiatissa, is addressed to "all the conquered territories of the raja, even unto the ends of the earth; as in Chola, in Pida, in Keralaputra,and in Tambapanni(or Ceylon)." This license of speech, reminding one of the grandiloquent epistles "from the Flaminian Gate," was no doubt assumed in virtue of the recent establishment of Buddhism, or, as it is called in theMahawanso"the religion of the Vanquisher," and Asoca, as its propagator, thus claims to address the converts as his "subjects."
2:Mahawanso, ch. xxxv. p. 215. The king Upatissa, A.D. 368, in the midst of a solemn ceremonial, "observing ants, and other insects drowning in an inundation, halted, and having swept them towards the with the feathers of a peacock's tail, and enabled them to save a themselves, he continued the procession."—Mahawanso, ch. xxxvii p. 249;Rajaratnacari, p. 49, 52;Rajavali, p. 228.
B.C. 104.It has already been shown, that devotion and policy combined to accelerate the progress of social improvement in Ceylon, and that before the close of the third century of the Christian era, the island to the north of the Kandyan mountains contained numerous cities and villages, adorned with temples and dagobas, and seated in the midst of highly cultivated fields. The face of the country exhibited broad expanses of rice land, irrigated by artificial lakes, and canals of proportionate magnitude, by which the waters from the rivers, which would otherwise have flowed idly to the sea, were diverted inland in all directions to fertilise the rice fields of the interior.[1]
1:Mahawanso, ch. xxxv. xxxvii.
1:Mahawanso, ch. xxxv. xxxvii.
In the formation of these prodigious tanks, the labour chiefly employed was that of the aboriginal inhabitants, the Yakkhos and Nagas, directed by the science and skill of the conquerors. Their contributions of this kind, though in the instance of the Buddhist converts they may have been to some extent voluntary, were, in general, the result of compulsion.[1] Like the Israelites under the Egyptians, the aborigines were compelled to make bricks[2] for the stupendous dagobas erected by their masters[3]; and eight hundred years after the subjugation of the island, theRajavalidescribes vast reservoirs and appliances for irrigation, as being constructed by the forced labour of the
B.C. 104.Yakkhos[4] under the superintendence of Brahman engineers.[5] This, to some extent, accounts for the prodigious amount of labour bestowed on these structures; labour which the whole revenue of the kingdom would not have sufficed to purchase, had it not been otherwise procurable.
1: In some instances the soldiers of the king were employed in forming works of irrigation.2:Mahawanso, ch. xxxviii.3:Ibid., ch. xxvii.4:Rajavali, p. 237, 238. Exceptions to the extortion of forced labour for public works took place under the more pious kings, who made a merit of paying the workmen employed in the erection of dagobas and other religious monuments.—Mahawanso, ch, xxxv.5:Maharwanso, ch. x.
1: In some instances the soldiers of the king were employed in forming works of irrigation.
2:Mahawanso, ch. xxxviii.
3:Ibid., ch. xxvii.
4:Rajavali, p. 237, 238. Exceptions to the extortion of forced labour for public works took place under the more pious kings, who made a merit of paying the workmen employed in the erection of dagobas and other religious monuments.—Mahawanso, ch, xxxv.
5:Maharwanso, ch. x.
Under this system, the fate of the aborigines was that usually consequent on the subjugation of an inferior race by one more highly civilised. The process of their absorption into the dominant race was slow, and for centuries they continued to exist distinct, as a subjugated people. So firmly rooted amongst them was the worship both of demons and serpents, that, notwithstanding the ascendency of Buddhism, many centuries elapsed before it was ostensibly abandoned; from time to time, "demon offerings" were made from the royal treasury[1]; and one of the kings, in his enlarged liberality, ordered that for every ten villages there should be maintained an astrologer and a "devil-dancer," in addition to the doctor and the priest.[2]
1:Mahawanso, ch. x.; TURNOUR'SEpitome. p. 23.2: TURNOUR'SEpitome, p. 27;Rajaratnacari, ch. ii.;Rajavali, p. 241.
1:Mahawanso, ch. x.; TURNOUR'SEpitome. p. 23.
2: TURNOUR'SEpitome, p. 27;Rajaratnacari, ch. ii.;Rajavali, p. 241.
Throughout the Singhalese chronicles, the notices of the aborigines are but casual, and occasionally contemptuous. Sometimes they allude to "slaves of the Yakkho tribe,"[1] and in recording the progress and completion of the tanks and other stupendous works, theMahawansoand theRajaratnacari, in order to indicate the inferiority of the natives to their masters, speak of their conjoint labours as that of "men and snakes,"[2] and "men and demons."[3]
1:Mahawanso, ch. x.2: Ibid., ch. xix, p. 115.3: The King Maha-Sen, anxious for the promotion of agriculture, caused many tanks to be made "by men and devils."—Mahawanso, ch. xxxvii.; UPHAM'STransl.; Rajaratnacari, p. 69;Rajavali, p. 237.
1:Mahawanso, ch. x.
2: Ibid., ch. xix, p. 115.
3: The King Maha-Sen, anxious for the promotion of agriculture, caused many tanks to be made "by men and devils."—Mahawanso, ch. xxxvii.; UPHAM'STransl.; Rajaratnacari, p. 69;Rajavali, p. 237.
B.C. 104.Notwithstanding the degradation of the natives, it was indispensable to "befriend the interests" of a race so numerous and so useful; hence, they were frequently employed in the military expeditions of the Wijayan sovereigns[1], and the earlier kings of that dynasty admitted the rank of the Yakkho chiefs who shared in these enterprises. They assigned a suburb of the capital for their residence[2], and on festive occasions they were seated on thrones of equal eminence with that of the king.[3] But every aspiration towards a recovery of their independence was checked by a device less characteristic of ingenuity in the ascendant race, than of simplicity combined with jealousy in the aborigines. The feeling was encouraged and matured into a conviction which prevailed to the latest period of the Singhalese sovereignty, that no individual of pure Singhalese extraction could be elevated to the supreme power, since no one could prostrate himself before one of his own nation.[4]
1:Mahawanso,ch. x.2:Ibid.,ch. x. p. 67.3:Ibid.,p. 66.4: JOINVILLE'SAsiat. Res,vol. vii. p. 422.
1:Mahawanso,ch. x.
2:Ibid.,ch. x. p. 67.
3:Ibid.,p. 66.
4: JOINVILLE'SAsiat. Res,vol. vii. p. 422.
For successive generations, however, the natives, although treated with partial kindness, were regarded as a separate race. Even the children of Wijayo, by his first wife Kuweni, united themselves with their maternal connexions on the repudiation of their mother by the king, "and retained the attributes of Yakkhos,"[1] and by that designation the natives continued to be distinguished down to the reign of Dutugaimunu.
1:Mahawanso,ch. vii.
1:Mahawanso,ch. vii.
B.C. 104.In spite of every attempt at conciliation, the process of amalgamation between the two races was reluctant and slow. The earliest Bengal immigrants sought wives among the Tamils, on the opposite coast of India[1]; and although their descendants intermarried with the natives, the great mass of the population long held aloof from the invaders, and occasionally ventedtheir impatience in rebellion.[2] Hence the progress of civilisation amongst them was but partial and slow, and in the narratives of the early rulers of the island there is ample evidence that the aborigines long retained their habits of shyness and timidity.
1:Ibid.,p. 53.2:Mahawanso, ch, lxxxv.
1:Ibid.,p. 53.
2:Mahawanso, ch, lxxxv.
Notwithstanding the frequent resort of every nation of antiquity to its coasts, the accounts of the first voyagers are almost wholly confined to descriptions of the loveliness of the country, the singular brilliancy of its jewels, the richness of its pearls, the sagacity of its elephants, and the delicacy and abundance of its spices; but the information which they furnish regarding its inhabitants is so uniformly meagre, as to attest the absence of intercourse; and the writers of all nations, Romans, Greeks, Arabians, Chinese and Indians, concur in their allusions to the unsocial and uncivilised customs of the islanders.[1]
1: See an account of these singular peculiarities,Vol. I. P. IV. c. vii.
1: See an account of these singular peculiarities,Vol. I. P. IV. c. vii.
As the Bengal adventurers advanced into the interior of the island, a large section of the natives withdrew into the forests and hunting grounds on the eastern and southern coasts.[1] There, subsisting by the bow[2] and the chase, they adhered, with moody tenacity, to the rude habits of their race; and in the Veddah of the present day, there is still to be recognised a remnant of the untamed aborigines of Ceylon.[3]
1:Hiouen Thsang,the Chinese geographer, who visited India in the seventh century, says that at that time the Yakkhos had retired to the south-east corner of Ceylon;—and here their descendants, the Veddahs, are found at the present day,—Voyages,&c., liv. iv. p. 200.2:Mahawanso,ch. xxiv. p. 145, xxxiii. p. 204.3: DE ALWIS,Sidath Sangara,p. xvii. For an account of the Veddahs and their present condition, see Vol. II. P. ix. ch. iii.
1:Hiouen Thsang,the Chinese geographer, who visited India in the seventh century, says that at that time the Yakkhos had retired to the south-east corner of Ceylon;—and here their descendants, the Veddahs, are found at the present day,—Voyages,&c., liv. iv. p. 200.
2:Mahawanso,ch. xxiv. p. 145, xxxiii. p. 204.
3: DE ALWIS,Sidath Sangara,p. xvii. For an account of the Veddahs and their present condition, see Vol. II. P. ix. ch. iii.
B.C. 104.Even those of the original race who slowly conformed to the religion and habits of their masters, were never entirely emancipated from the ascendency of their ancient superstitions. Traces of the worship of snakes and demons are to the present hour clearly perceptible amongst them; the Buddhists still resort to the incantationsof the "devil dancers" in case of danger and emergency[1]; a Singhalese, rather than put a Cobra de Capello to death, encloses the reptile in a wicker cage, and sets it adrift on the nearest stream; and in the island of Nainativoe, to the south-west of Jaffa, there was till recently a little temple, dedicated to the goddess Naga Tambiran, in which consecrated serpents were tenderly reared by the Pandarams, and daily fed at the expense of the worshippers.[2]
1: For an account of Demon worship as it still exists in Ceylon, see Sir J. EMERSON TENNANT'SHistory of Christianity in Ceylon,ch. v. p. 236.2: CASIE CHITTY'SGazetteer, &c.,p. 169.
1: For an account of Demon worship as it still exists in Ceylon, see Sir J. EMERSON TENNANT'SHistory of Christianity in Ceylon,ch. v. p. 236.
2: CASIE CHITTY'SGazetteer, &c.,p. 169.
B.C. 104.From the death of Dutugaimunu to the exhaustion of the superior dynasty on the death of Malta-Sen, A.D. 301, there are few demonstrations of pious munificence to signalise the policy of the intervening sovereigns. The king whom, next to Devenipiatissa and Dutugaimunu, the Buddhist historians rejoice to exalt as one of the champions of the faith, was Walagam-bahu I.[1], whose reign, though marked by vicissitudes, was productive of lasting benefit to the national faith. Walagam-bahu ascended the throne B.C. 104., but was almost immediately forced to abdicate by an incursion of the Malabars; who, concerting a simultaneous landing at several parts of the island, combined their movements so successfully that they seized on Anarajapoora, and drove the king into concealment in the mountains near Adam's Peak; and whilst one portion of the invaders returned laden with plunder to the Dekkan, their companions remained behind and held undisputed possession of the northern parts of Ceylon for nearly fifteen years.
1: Called in theMahawanso, "Wata-gamini".
1: Called in theMahawanso, "Wata-gamini".
B.C. 104.In this and the frequent incursions which followed, the Malabar leaders were attracted by the wealth of the country to the north of the Mahawelli-ganga; the southern portion of the island being either too wild and unproductive to present a temptation to conquest, or too steep and inaccessible to afford facilities for invasion. Besides, the highlanders who inhabit the lofty ranges that lie around Adam's Peak; (a district knownas Malaya, "the region of mountains and torrents,")[1] then and at all times exhibited their superiority over the lowlanders in vigour, courage, and endurance. Hence the petty kingdoms of Maya and Rohuna afforded on every occasion a refuge to the royal family when driven from the northern capital, and furnished a force to assist in their return and restoration. Walagam-bahu, after many years' concealment there, was at last enabled to resume the offensive, and succeeded in driving out the infidels, and recovering possession of the sacred city, an event which he commemorated in the usual manner by the erection of dagobas, tanks, and wiharas.
1:Mahawanso, ch. vii.
1:Mahawanso, ch. vii.
THE ALU WIHARA NEAR MATELLE.THE ALU WIHARA NEAR MATELLE.
THE ALU WIHARA NEAR MATELLE.
But the achievement by which most of all he entitled himself to the gratitude of the Singhalese annalists, was the reduction to writing of the doctrines and discourses of Buddha, which had been orally delivered by Mahindo, and previously preserved by tradition alone. These sacred volumes, which may be termed the BuddhistB.C. 89.Scriptures, contain the Pittakataya, and its commentaries the Atthakatha, and were compiled by a company of priests in a cave to the north of Matelle, known as the Aloo-wihara.[1] This, and other caverns in which the king had sought concealment during his adversity, he caused to be converted into rock temples after his restoration to power. Amongst the rest, Dambool, which is the most remarkable of the cave temples of Ceylon from its vastness, its elaborate ornaments, and the romantic beauty of its situation and the scenery surrounding it.
1:Rajaratnacari, ch. i. p. 43. Abouzeyd states that at that time public writers were employed in recording the traditions of the island: "Le Royaume de Serendyb a une loi et des docteurs qui s'assemblent de temps en temps comme se réunissent chez nous les personnes qui recreillent les traditions du prophète, et les Indiens se rendent auprès des docteurs, et écrivent sous leurs dictée, la vie de leurs prophètes et les préceptes de leur loi."—REINAUD,Relation, &c.,tom. i. p. 127.
1:Rajaratnacari, ch. i. p. 43. Abouzeyd states that at that time public writers were employed in recording the traditions of the island: "Le Royaume de Serendyb a une loi et des docteurs qui s'assemblent de temps en temps comme se réunissent chez nous les personnes qui recreillent les traditions du prophète, et les Indiens se rendent auprès des docteurs, et écrivent sous leurs dictée, la vie de leurs prophètes et les préceptes de leur loi."—REINAUD,Relation, &c.,tom. i. p. 127.
B.C. 62.The history of the Buddhist religion in Ceylon is not, however, a tale of uniform prosperity. The first of its domestic enemies was Naga, the grandson of the pious Walagam-bahu, whom the native, historians stigmatise by the prefix of "chora" or the "marauder." His story is thus briefly but emphatically told in theMahawanso: "During the reign of his father Mahachula, Chora Naga wandered through the island leading the life of a robber; returning on the demise of the king he assumed the monarchy; and in the places which had denied him an asylum during hisB.C. 50.marauding career, he impiously destroyed the wiharas.[1] After a reign of twelve years he was poisoned by his queen Anula, and regenerated in the Lokantariko hell."[2]