Hinduism and Buddhism, An Historical Sketch Volume III Part 3

[Footnote 26: Son according to the Sinhalese sources but according to Hsan Chuang and others, younger brother. In favour of the latter it may be said that the younger brothers of kings often became monks in order to avoid political complications.]

[Footnote 27: The modern Mahintale.]

[Footnote 28: The Mahvam?sa implies that he had already some acquaintance with Buddhism. It represents him as knowing that monks do not eat in the afternoon and as suggesting that it would be better to ordain the layman Bhandu.]

[Footnote 29: The chronicles give with some slight divergences the names of the texts on which his preaching was based. It is doubtless meant that he recited the Sutta with a running exposition.]

[Footnote 30: Mahvam?. xx. 17.]

[Footnote 31: Many other places claimed to possess this relic.]

[Footnote 32: Of course the antiquity of the Sinhalese Bo-tree is a different question from the ident.i.ty of the parent tree with the tree under which the Buddha sat.]

[Footnote 33: Mahvam?. XVIII.; Dpavam?. XV. and XVI.]

[Footnote 34: But he says nothing about Mahinda or Sanghamitt and does not support the Mahvam?sa in details.]

[Footnote 35: Dut?t?ha, meaning bad, angry or violent, apparently refers to the ferocity shown in his struggle with the Tamils.]

[Footnote 36: Dpavam?sa XIX. 1. Mahvam?sa XXVII. 1-48. See Fergusson, _Hist. Ind. Architecture_, 1910, pp. 238, 246. I find it hard to picture such a building raised on pillars. Perhaps it was something like the Sat-mahal-prasda at Pollanarua.]

[Footnote 37: Parker, _Ancient Ceylon_, p. 282. The restoration of the Ruwanweli Dagoba was undertaken by Buddhists in 1873.]

[Footnote 38: Mahvam?sa XXVIII.-x.x.xI. Dut?t?hagman?i died before it was finished.]

[Footnote 39: Mahvam?sa XXIX. 37. Yonangarlasanda. The town is also mentioned as situated on an Island in the Indus: Mil. Pan. III.

7. 4.]

[Footnote 40: According to the common reckoning B.C. 88-76: according to Geiger B.C. 29-17. It seems probable that in the early dates of Sinhalese history there is an error of about 62 years. See Geiger, _Trans. Mahvam?sa_, pp. x.x.x ff. and Fleet, _J.R.A.S._ 1909, pp.

323-356.]

[Footnote 41: For the site see Parker's _Ancient Ceylon_, pp. 299 ff.

The Mahvam?sa (x.x.xIII. 79 and X. 98-100) says it was built on the site of an ancient Jain establishment and Kern thinks that this tradition hints at circ.u.mstances which account for the heretical and contentious spirit of the Abhaya monks.]

[Footnote 42: Mahv. x.x.xIII. 100-104. See too the T?k quote by Turnour in his introduction, p. liii.]

[Footnote 43: A work on ecclesiastical history written about 1395. Ed.

and Trans. Colombo Record Office.]

[Footnote 44: The probable error in Sinhalese dates mentioned in a previous note continues till the twelfth century A.D. though gradually decreasing. For the early centuries of the Christian era it is probable that the accepted dates should be put half a century later]

[Footnote 45: Mahvam?sa x.x.xVI. 41. Vetulyavdam madditv. According to the Nikya Sang, he burnt their Pit?aka.]

[Footnote 46: On Kath-vat. XVIII. 1 and 2. Printed in the _Journal of the Pali Text Soc._ for 1889.]

[Footnote 47: Watters, II. 234. Cf. _Hsan Chuang's life_, chap. IV.]

[Footnote 48: Mahvam?. x.x.xVI. iii. ff. Got?hbhaya's date was probably 302-315 and Mahsena's 325-352. The common chronology makes Got?hbhaya reign from 244 to 257 and Mahsena from 269 to 296 A.D.]

[Footnote 49: Quoted by Turnour, Introd. p. liii. The Mahvam?. V.

13, expressly states that the Dhammaruci and Sgaliya sects originated in Ceylon.]

[Footnote 50: _I.e._ as I understand, the two divisions of the Sutta Vibhanga.]

[Footnote 51: It was written up to date at various periods. The chapters which take up the history after the death of Mahsena are said to be the work of Dhammakitti, who lived about 1250.]

[Footnote 52: He was a contemporary of the Gupta King Samudragupta who reigned approximately 330-375 A.D. See S. Lvi in _J.A._ 1900, pp. 316 ff, 401 ff. This synchronism is a striking confirmation of Fleet and Geiger's chronology.]

[Footnote 53: _E.g._ the tomb of Rmnuja at Srrangam.]

[Footnote 54: For a somewhat similar reason the veneration of relics is prevalent among Moslims. Islam indeed provides an object of wors.h.i.+p but its ceremonies are so austere and monotonous that any devotional practices which are not forbidden as idolatrous are welcome to the devout.]

[Footnote 55: Dig. Nik. XVI. v. 27.]

[Footnote 56: Plutarch mentions a story that the relics of King Menander were similarly divided into eight portions but the story may be merely a replica of the obsequies of the Buddha.]

[Footnote 57: IV. 3, 24. The first text is from Mahparinibbna Sutta, V. 24. The second has not been identified.]

[Footnote 58: _Journal des Savants_, Oct. 1906.]

[Footnote 59: See Norman, "Buddhist legends of Asoka and his times,"

in _J.A.S._ Beng. 1910.]

[Footnote 60: Just as the Tooth was considered to be the palladium of Sinhalese kings.]

[Footnote 61: Record of Buddhist kingdoms. Legge, pp. 34, 35. Fa-Hsien speaks of the country not the town of Peshawar (Purshapura).]

[Footnote 62: _Ibid._ p. 109. Fa-Hsien does not indicate that at this time there was a rival bowl in Ceylon but represents the preacher as saying it was then in Gandhara.]

[Footnote 63: Watters, I. pp. 202, 203. But the life of Hsan Chuang says Benares not Persia.]

[Footnote 64: Marco Polo trans. Yule, II. pp. 320, 330.]

[Footnote 65: For the history of the tooth see _Mahvam?sa_, p. 241, in Turnour's edition: the Dathavam?sa in Pali written by Dhammakitti in 1211 A.D.: and the Sinhalese poems Daladapujavali and Dhatuvansaya.

See also Da Cunha, _Memoir on the History of the Tooth Relic of Ceylon_, 1875, and Yule's notes on Marco Polo, II. pp. 328-330.]

[Footnote 66: _I.e._ about 361 or 310, according to which chronology is adopted, but neither Fa-Hsien or Hsan Chuang says anything about its arrival from India and this part of the story might be dismissed as a legend. But seeing how extraordinary were the adventures of the tooth in historical times, it would be unreasonable to deny that it may have been smuggled out of India for safety.]

[Footnote 67: Various accounts are given of the disposal of these teeth, but more than enough relics were preserved in various shrines to account for all. Hsan Chuang saw or heard of sacred teeth in Balkh, Nagar, Kashmir, Kanauj and Ceylon. Another tooth is said to be kept near Foo-chow.]

[Footnote 68: Plausibly supposed to be Puri. The ceremonies still observed in the temple of Jagannath are suspected of being based on Buddhist rites. Dantapura of the Klingas is however mentioned in some verses quoted in Dgha Nikya XIX. 36. This looks as if the name might be pre-Buddhist.]

[Footnote 69: They are called Ranmali and Danta in the Rjvaliya.]

[Footnote 70: There is a striking similarity between this rite and the ceremonies observed at Puri, where the images of Jaganntha and his relatives are conveyed every summer with great pomp to a country residence where they remain during some weeks.]

[Footnote 71: See Tennent's _Ceylon_, vol. II. pp. 29, 30 and 199 ff.

and the Portuguese authorities quoted.]