{"id":107397,"date":"2020-10-08T17:07:05","date_gmt":"2020-10-09T00:07:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=107397"},"modified":"2020-10-11T17:40:50","modified_gmt":"2020-10-12T00:40:50","slug":"the-sinhala-buddhist-civilization-of-sri-lanka-pt-1b","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2020\/10\/08\/the-sinhala-buddhist-civilization-of-sri-lanka-pt-1b\/","title":{"rendered":"THE SINHALA BUDDHIST CIVILIZATION OF SRI LANKA PT 1B"},"content":{"rendered":"

KAMALIKA PIERIS<\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n

The Buddhist doctrine was\nformalized   in the three Councils held\nafter the death of the Buddha. The first Council was held at Rajgir under King\nAjatasattu (492 to 460 BC) three months after the death of the Buddha.  A major part of the Sutta and Vinaya pitaka\nwere decided at this Council. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Second council was at Vaisali, under\nKing Kalasoka (395 \u2013 367 BC)  \nhundred years after death of Buddha, This council met to discuss disputes\nregarding Vinaya rules. By this time,\nnew schools of Buddhism had developed.  \nThese breakaway groups were present at this Council. Their first set of\ndisagreements was on how to interpret the Vinaya rules.  Then they went on to doctrinal differences.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Third Council was Pataliputra,\nunder Dharmasoka (268 \u2013 232 BC). This was a very Important Council. The\nTheravada canon which we have today was decided at this Council. At this Council too, there were differences\nof opinion between the various Buddhist schools.  The Sarvastivada and Mahasanghika schools\nattending this Council later helped to develop Mahayana. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

There are three major Buddhist\ncanons, Pali Tripitaka, Tibetan Tripitaka and the Mahayana texts. Each Buddhist\ncanon is a series of distinct texts. \nPali Tripitaka consists of Vinaya, Sutta and Abhidamma Pitaka. Several\nsections of the Sutta Pitaka are of high literary value. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Pali canon was the best\npreserved, most complete and nearest to the original, said Guruge. The Buddhist\ntexts of the other schools, found in fragments, quotations and translations\nconfirm this. The Vinaya texts of the\nSarvastivada School preserved in Chinese and Tibetan translations confirm the\nantiquity of the Vinaya pitaka. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The rigidity of the Theravada school,\nthe sheltered existence it enjoyed under royal patronage in  India and Sri Lanka, the writing down of it\nin Sri Lanka   and the unbroken tradition\nof learning maintained in monasteries in Sri Lanka, Burma, Thailand, and  Cambodia had \nhelped  Theravada to keep the\nBuddha word in its purity, said Guruge. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

 The Pali canon    also provides information on the Buddha. The\noldest version of the life of the Buddha, possibly, is found in the Mahavagga\n.This is one of the most readable parts of the Canon, too.  Digha nikaya provides information which can\nbe used to reconstruct the life of the Buddha, also the contemporary political\nsocial and religious history of India. \nCullavagga speaks of the First and Second Councils. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Buddhism branched into different\nschools of Buddhism. But the fundamental doctrines of these different Buddhist\nschools were similar. They remained faithful to the original teachings. The core of all these canons is identical.  Even the divergences reveal development from a\ncommon base. Buddhist texts scattered\nall over Asia, preserved over time, show common elements. This similarity helps\nto establish the antiquity and reliability of the contents, observed Guruge. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Sarvastivada and Mahasanghika schools\nwhich had attended the Third Council  \nwere the breakaway groups which later developed into Mahayana. By first century Mahasanghika school had its\ncenters in Mathura, India and Afghanistan. The\nSarvastivadins were active in Kashmir. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kushan emperor Kanishka I (120-144) favoured Sarvastivada\nschool. The Kushan Empire included Northern India and\nAfghanistan. Kushan\ngave royal patronage to Sarvastivada\n.There were\nmany adherents and this was a period of spectacular progress. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Initially, Mahayana and Theravada\nseem to have run parallel to each other in India. Four philosophical schools of\nBuddhism   arose in India in the 7th<\/sup>\ncentury AD. They were Vaibhasika and Sautrantika schools   (Theravada) and the Madhyamika and Yogacara\nschools (Mahayana).  These four\nphilosophical schools represented an age of great intellectual activity among\nthe Buddhist of India, said Guruge. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Madhyamika school was funded by\nNagarjuna.  its centre was Nalanda. Through\nNalanda, Madhyamika school exerted enormous influence in Mahayana.  Nagarjuna\u2019s chief disciple was Aryadeva. Aryadeva\nsucceeded Nagarjuna as head of the Madhyamika school of thought and also became\nthe head of Nalanda University. Aryadeva was from Sri Lanka<\/strong> . These\nMadhyamikas were prolific writers  . Both\nNagarjuna and Aryadeva wrote reams, said Guruge. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The leader of the Yogachara school\nwas Dharmapala. He was succeeded by \nSilabadhra.  Hiuen Tsang studied under Silabadhra at\nNalanda. He  translated many Yogacara\ntexts to Chinese.  There was also\nChandragomin, who knew philosophy, medicine, architecture, grammar, and wrote\non them.  He had  lived for short periods in Sri Lanka and Tibet. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Silabadhra was followed by\nDharmakirti , also a disciple of Dharmapala. Dharmakirthi\u2019s\ncontribution to science of logic was \nhighly regarded and the Yogachara school \nmade a         great impact on\nBuddhist logic, said Guruge. The\ncontribution made by the two Mahayana schools to the development of logic in\nIndia was enormous. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mahayana did not develop  through violent dissensions, disagreements or\nconflicts as in the case of Christianity. It\nwas gradual. It started with an\noverlap.  In the Kushan empire, both\nTheravada and Mahayana were accepted .<\/p>\n\n\n\n

 When Hiuen Tsang went to India in 7 AD, he\nfound  54,500 monks  who were both Mahayana and Hinayana. There\nwas also another 32000 who were  Mahayana\nand 96,000 Hinayana.  in Sri Lanka too,\nthe original intention, in my view, was \nto start with an  overlap. That is\nwhy Jetavana was placed inside the Mahavihara.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The concept of Buddha hood  differed in Mahayana. Mahayana gave Buddha\nsupernatural powers and miracles. There  was a pantheon of Buddhas and bodhisattvas,\nincluding the    five  Dhyani Buddhas. Bodhisattvas ranked almost as\ngods. The most  popular  bodhisatvas were Avalokitesvara, Manjusri,\nVajrapani,  and Samantabadra. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Worship of  stupas, \nBuddha statues , Buddha relics and the  \nBo tree  had begun long\nbefore   Mahayana. Buddha himself approved the building  of chaityas to enshrine relics.  But   it is Mahayana that  gave supremacy to these external forms of\nworship. Ceremonies such as taking images and \nrelics in procession  became  elaborate and popular. This was very different\nto the simple practices of the early \nBuddhists who placed greater emphasis on Dana, Sila and Bhavana. But\neventually, these Mahayana practices \nwere  accepted into the\npuritanical  Theravada as well. There is a great deal of Mahayana in the\nTheravada practices in Sri Lanka .<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mahayana  used Sanskrit as the medium of communication.\nThere was a substantial Buddhist Sanskrit literature, such as Lalitavistara  and\nmany Mahayana writers such as Asvaghosa, (2 cent AD).  But most \nSanskrit     Mahayana texts are\nin  fragments today. Most of the\ninformation is  taken from Chinese and\nTibetan translations. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mahayana  training differed from Theravada.  Mahayana  \nincluded a wide variety of non-Buddhist subjects  such as medicine, astronomy, mathematics.\nMonks were trained  to be disputants. Dialectics\nand logic  were emphasized.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mahayana  set  up\nlarge institutions, where scholars from various parts of India as well as\nneighboring countries could attend. The most prominent were Nalanda in  Bihar and Valabhi in Gujarat. Chinese monks\nstudied there  and recorded their\nimpressions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Chinese monk Hiuen Tsang (\n602-664)studied for five years at Nalanda. His account showed that Nalanda was\na fully fledged University with various faculties, admission and examination\nprocedure, libraries and lecture halls. \nChinese monk I-Tsing (635-713) studied at Vallabhi for five years. Vallabhi\nprovided training in secular subjects . The course was 2-3 duration. The names\nof exceptional  graduates were engraved\non gates. The government recruited  Vallabhi graduates for employment.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

There was also Vikramasila  and Odantapuri, both in  present day Bihar and both established in the\n8th<\/sup>  century . Odantapuri was\nconsidered second  only to Nalanda. In\nVikramasila, admission was gained \nthrough participating in a debate. The degree awarded  was that of Pandita. these institutions were destroyed\nby the Muslim rulers arriving in India \nin the 12 century.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mahayana doctrine was firmly\nestablished  in China and Tibet.  There\nwas a direct route from Gandhara to China. Mahayana went along this route to\nChina.  In 5th<\/sup> century AD, Kumarajiva translated\nMahayana  texts to Chinese. Chinese and Tibetan translations  are found even \nwhen the original Sanskrit versions of Mahayana doctrine  have disappeared. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The third school of Buddhism which\nrose to importance was that of Tantra or Vajrayana Buddhism. This   arose in 8th<\/sup> century  AD in Bihar and Bengal.  Tantric Buddhism included sex , mysticism,\nand magical cults. It had prayer wheels, recitations like \u2018Om padme hum\u2019  and\nthe Mandala  illustration.  The central figure was the Buddha Vairocana. Vajrayana\nBuddhism  became entrenched in Nepal,\nTibet , Mongolia and other Himalayan kingdoms. \n( continued)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

KAMALIKA PIERIS The Buddhist doctrine was formalized   in the three Councils held after the death of the Buddha. The first Council was held at Rajgir under King Ajatasattu (492 to 460 BC) three months after the death of the Buddha.  A major part of the Sutta and Vinaya pitaka were decided at this Council. Second […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[104],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-107397","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-kamalika-pieris"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/107397","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=107397"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/107397\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=107397"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=107397"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=107397"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}