Ceylon; an Account of the Island Physical, Historical, and Topographical with Notices of Its Natural History Part 69

In order that his kingdom might possess a sacred tree of the supremest sanct.i.ty, 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 Anaraj.a.poora, 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 pa.s.sage 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.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: THE BO TREE AT ANARAj.a.pOORA]

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 grat.i.tude 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 Anaraj.a.poora, states that each of the lower courses contained ten kotis (a koti being equal to 100 lacs) or 10,000,000 bricks.--_Mahawanso_, ch. x.x.x, 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 Anaraj.a.poora that when my eyes first fell on the engravings of these remarkable ruins I supposed that they were presented in ill.u.s.tration 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.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: A SMALL DAGOBA AT KANDY]

[Sidenote: B.C. 289.]

Ceylon contains but one cla.s.s 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 ma.s.ses 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 paG.o.das 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 Anaraj.a.poora, 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 alt.i.tude by the dome of St. Peter's[3]; but in elegance of outline it immeasurably surpa.s.sed 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 Anaraj.a.poora, 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 circ.u.mference 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 subst.i.tutes meditation for wors.h.i.+p, 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 const.i.tution, 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 ill.u.s.trate 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 cla.s.s of them whom he styles the Hylobii, would seem to identify them with the Sramanas of Buddhism, "pa.s.sing their lives in the woods, [Greek: zontes 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] Antic.i.p.ating 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 a.s.sertions 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. x.x.xix. This is the equivalent of the Singhalese term for the same cla.s.s, _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 mult.i.tudes 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 inst.i.tutions, 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 wors.h.i.+p 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.