■Research Note■
Vernacular
Buddhism:
Neglected
Sources
in the Study
of Sri Lankan
Theravada1)
●
Mahinda Deegalle
"We are concerned not with solving problems
, but with clarifying feelings."
Clifford Geertz (1973: 81)
Concentrating on the Pali canon and Sri Lankan Pali chronicles-the Dipavamsa and the Mahlivanisa-scholars have overlooked and completely ignored Sinhala medieval literary mate-rials.2) Existing academic literature demonstrates that many have depended heavily on the Pali canon and its commentaries as the sole authentic documents portraying Theravada Buddhism and Buddhist life in Sri Lanka. Almost all publications published in the last several decades3) have ignored Sinhala literary materials and their role in shaping Sri Lankan Buddhist life. In this paper, my purpose is to examine the way scholars have utilized or ignored medieval Sinhala literature in the portrayal of Sri Lankan
Mahinda Deegalle, Research Collaborator, Faculty of Letters, Kyoto University Main Articles:
"The Moral Significance of Buddhist Nirvana: The Early Buddhist Model of Perfec -tion." In Hoffman, F. J. and D. Mahinda (eds.), Pali Buddhism. London: Curzon Press, 1996, pp. 105-116. "Buddhist Preaching (Bana) in Sri Lanka: Sinhala Religious Rhetoric in the Popularization of Theravada," Sri Lanka Journal of Buddhist Studies,
70 Journal of the Japanese Association for South Asian Studies, 9, 1997
Theravada. I see two related problems: on the one hand, while
highlighting the importance of Pali literature, scholars have
ig-nored the value of studying medieval Sinhala texts; on the other
hand, they have underestimated the social role of Sinhala texts in
shaping Buddhist life. In order to discuss these two related prob-lems, I will use Dharmasena Thera's Jewels of the Doctrine: Stories of the Saddharma Ratneivaliya (1991) as an example of a medieval Sinhala text which has had enormous influence on Sinhala
Bud-dhist practice and the conduct of daily life. Examining modern
ethnographic and historical writings, I will demonstrate the way
modern scholars have used Sinhala medieval literary materials and
to what extent they are successful in portraying Theravada
Bud-dhism. I will argue that the majority of Sinhala Buddhists shaped their lives and learned Buddhism not by reading the scriptures of the Pali canon in Pali, but by listening to discourses which edu-cated Buddhist monks and lay people gave quoting stories from medieval Sinhala literary works such as the Saddharmaratnavaliya
(Dharmasena Thera 1985-1986), the Butsarana (Vidyacakravarti
1968), the Ameivatura (Gurulugiithi 1972), the Saddharmii -
lankaraya (Dharmakirti 1971) and the Jataka Pota (Pratiraja 1969).
Even though medieval Sinhala texts have played a crucial social role in shaping Sinhala Buddhist lives, in favoring Pali as the au-thentic tradition, scholars have forgotten and completely ignored
the importance of vernacular texts- medieval Sinhala
litera-ture')- in their portrayals of Sri Lankan Theravada Buddhism.
Tracing Steps: Scholarship on Sri Lankan Theravada
Western scholarship on Sri Lankan Theravada Buddhism is not older than two centuries. The nature of early works and the issues that researchers were interested in can be seen in the works of Edward Upham (1829; 1833), Robert Spence Hardy (1850; 1853; 1866), J. F. Dickson (1884), Reginald Copleston (1892) and T. W. Rhys Davids (1894). It cannot be ignored that most early
research-ers on Sri Lanka were either Christian missionaries or civil ser-vants of the colonial government. In these early writings, one dis-covers that Christian missionaries were energetic to show contra-dictions in Buddhist theories and practices. In terms of research methodology, the entire scholarship of the last two centuries was philological. Though philological studies dominated the field, last two or three decades several influential anthropological works on Sri Lankan Buddhism have been published.
The establishment of the Pali Text Society in London in 1881
was an important turning point not only in Sri Lankan studies but
also in Theravada Buddhist research. Since the birth of the Pali
Text Society, PTS printed editions of the Pali canon have been
authoritative sources for the study of Theravada Buddhism. It is
not an exaggeration that scholars affiliated with the Pali Text
Soci-ety have replaced indigenous voices in Buddhist studies. The
methodological tool of most scholars of the Pali Text Society was
philological. Employing the philological method, scholars such as T. W. Rhys Davids and Hermann Oldenberg opened new grounds in the study of eastern religions. Their far-sighted activities have been very much influential until the modern period. Though Sri Lankan scholars such as Waskaduve Subhati and James de Alwis were helping and supporting European scholarly research in Pali
studies, Europeans were leading the field. In the middle of this
century, several Sri Lankan Buddhist scholars such as 0. H. de Wijesekere (1909-1990), Gunapala Malalasekera (1899-1973), and K. N. Jayatilleke (1920-1970) have taken a leading role in Pali studies with emphasis on the philosophical aspects of Sri Lankan Theravada.
In Sri Lankan studies, the preoccupation with the Pali canon as opposed to medieval Sinhala literature seems to be a direct result of the view created by the pioneers of the Pali Text Society such as T. W. Rhys Davids who looked for a `primitive,' `original,' or
‘ur-'form of Buddhism(see also Hoffman and Deegalle 1996:1一
72 Journal of the Japanese Association for South Asian Studies, 9, 1997
the history of Indian literature there is nothing older than these works, excepting only the Vedic writing" (1882: viii). In his
Bud-dhism, Rhys Davids further maintained that "This Pali Canon
must always remain our most reliable authority" (1894: 10-11). In
a later publication, Rhys Davids slightly modified his view of an
original canon:
There is no such thing as a Pali Buddhism, much less a San-skrit Buddhism •c It is in the Sutta-nipiita and the Samyutta-nikaya that we have the oldest form of the [Mara] legend. The Mahaparinibbana-sutta account is later, and the account in the Sanskrit books, as a whole, later still. But these last have, in many details, preserved reminiscences of a form of the tradition even older than that of the Pali books, and are invaluable for a right understanding of the whole question (Rhys Davids 1896: 379-81).
On the one hand, Pali scholars' obsession with pure teachings and authentic canon has led to controversies with scholars who worked on non-Pali based Buddhist traditions, for example, Sanskrit based Mahayana Buddhism; on the other hand, excessive emphasis on Pali has led to a systematic ignoring of the value of indigenous medieval Sinhala literary materials in portraying Theravada Bud-dhist life in Sri Lanka.
Robert Knox's (1640-1720) ethnographic account of Sinhala
beliefs, customs and rituals is the earliest native or European evi-dence which can be used with certainty to know the nature of Buddhism in late medieval Sri Lanka. During his stay as a prisoner
in the Kandyan kingdom, he recorded in his travel documents
what he learned about the Sri Lankan people. His writings dealt with folk-religion, Buddhism and the Sri Lankan people.
Describ-ing his experiences as a captive for nearly twenty years in the
Kandyan kingdom under the reign of Rajasinha II (1635-1687), Knox wrote An Historical Relation of the Island of Ceylon (Knox
Buddhism and its practices in the Kandyan kingdom, though
inad-equate in some respects, is very useful in corroborating the
exis-tence and growth of Buddhist rituals such as preaching in Sri
Lanka. Knox's account is often quoted in ethnographic writings as
an authority on matters relating to seventeenth century. Although
his understanding of Buddhism was minimal, scholars have widely
used his unprejudiced descriptions of Buddhist practices as
re-sources in constructing the image of Sri Lankan society and
reli-gious life.
Since World War II, ethnographic studies of Sri Lankan
Bud-dhism have become more and more prominent. In the last several
decades, both Sri Lankan and Western anthropologists have made
a significant contribution to the study of Sri Lankan Buddhism.
Their anthropological works not only examined the Sinhala village
(Leach 1960; Obeyesekere 1963; Ryan 1958; Yalman 1967) but
also analyzed Buddhism in daily practice (Gombrich 1971;
Southwold 1983), life of Buddhist monks (Carrithers 1983;
Yalman 1962), Buddhist rituals (Seneviratne 1978), Buddhist
re-vival (Bechert 1966; Bond 1988; Malalgoda 1976), Bodhisattva cult
(Holt 1991), religious syncretism (Bechert 1978a) and Buddhist
involvement in violence (Tambiah 1992).
Modern anthropological writings are quite advantageous. Such
studies have given not only alternative sources for the early
de-scriptions based on Pali but also have made available ethnographic
data on intricate relationships in Sinhala society which Pali texts
themselves as sources could not reveal. For example, the caste
system that prevails in modern Sri Lanka cannot be explained
through Pali texts. Its origin and adoption in Sri Lanka lie in
Hindu influences. Anthropological writings have brought some
hidden aspects of Sinhala culture into the forefront.
One obvious weakness of Pali scholarship and anthropological
studies, however, is that they have neglected and forgotten Sinhala
literature which represents an intermediate period between
74 Journal of the Japanese Association for South Asian Studies, 9, 1997
Though scholars are apparently aware of the existence of medie-val Sinhala texts, studies carried out on the basis of the vernacular texts seem to be rather limited. However, there are a few studies
which have expanded scholars' understanding of Sinhala
Bud-dhism. First, Robert Spence Hardy (1803-1868) who spent over
twenty years as a Wesleyan missionary in Sri Lanka, wrote A
Manual of Buddhism: In Its Modern Development (1853). In
writ-ing this book, Hardy used 465 manuscripts, 150 of them in
Sinhala. These included many palm-leaf manuscripts of Sinhala
prose texts. Throughout Hardy's book, he quoted extensively from
Sinhala sources such as the Pfijavaliya, Jatakapota,
Saddharmalahkaraya, Saddharmaratnakaraya, and Amavatura. It
took over a century for the second important contribution
regard-ing Sinhala prose and verse texts to appear. In 1970, with the help
of several scholars, C.H.B. Reynolds introduced a few chapters
from twenty-two literary works of diverse genres ranging from the fifth century to the end of the Kandyan kingdom in 1815 in his An Anthology of Sinhala Literature up to 1815 (1970). This gives a flavor of Sinhala literature and an idea of the theme and content of
Buddhist writers. Until this publication, not even sections of
Sinhala banapot were available in English translations. The most
recent path-breaking contribution is Ranjini Obeyesekere's Jewels
of the Doctrine, in which she has translated fifteen stories out of the
345 chapters of the thirteenth century Saddharmaratnavaliya
(Dharmasena Thera 1991). Though this study is very important
and valuable because of the absence of similar English works on
vernacular texts, considering the largeness of the
Saddharma-ratnavaliya which contains 1236 pages (Dharmasena Thera 1971),
it still remains as a minor contribution to the study of Sinhala
texts. Two other important contributions are C. E.
Godakum-bura's Sinhala Literature (1955) and M. B. Ariyapala's Society
in Medieval Ceylon: The State of Society in Ceylon as depicted
in the Saddharma-ratnavaliya and other Literature of the Thirteenth
they are still very minor resources that are available to an English reader.
Say it in 'Sinhala'
It is crucial to view Sinhala banapot as Buddhist texts and to take them seriously as resources to know Theravada Buddhism in Sri
Lanka from the thirteenth century onward. Though Sinhala
banapot are extremely important resources in understanding the
development of Theravada from the thirteenth century to the
present, so far these texts have not been 'seen' and 'studied' as
Bud-dhist texts that enhance our understanding of late medieval Sri
Lankan Theravada Buddhism. In previous studies, Sinhala banapot have been used as resources for the study of Sri Lankan culture, but their value as resources for learning about Buddhism has not been recognized. This paper directs attention to Sinhala banapot by emphasizing that it should be considered as 'Buddhist' rather than merely as Sinhala texts useful for the study of Sinhala language or culture (Deegalle 1995). Some recent studies on Sinhala prose texts seem to focus on the linguistic aspects to the extent of under-mining their value as resources for the study of Buddhism in Sri
Lanka (Wijemanne 1984). Such studies seem to see their value for
the study of Sinhala language rather than for the study of Bud-dhism.
In the past, when Sri Lankan scholars wanted to understand Buddhism in Sri Lanka, they have turned to the Pali canon, but not to the Sinhala banakatha literature. Sinhala banapot are ver-nacular literary artifacts which show the development of Bud-dhism in Sri Lanka.5) They inform us about continuities and changes in Theravada teachings and practices. Their association with the bana tradition in particular can provide important insights in understanding the continuity and development of Theravada in Sri Lanka. This change of focus and emphasis will illuminate our discussion in the following pages.
76 Journal of the Japanese Association for South Asian Studies, 9, 1997
From the thirteenth through the fifteenth centuries CE, the lit-erary productions of Sinhala authors are rather astonishing. In this
religious renewal, both lay and monastic writers participated in
composing texts that were Buddhist in orientation. Within a little
over a century, six important Sinhala banapot were produced for
the use of Sinhala speaking Buddhists:6) (1) Gurulugomi's
Amavatura (The Flood of Nectar, c. 1187-1225),7) (2)
Vidyacakravarti's Butsarana (Refuge in the Buddha, c.
1200-1293), (3) Dahamsarana (Refuge in the Dhamma) and (4)
Sangasarana (Refuge in the Sangha), (5) Dharmasena Thera's
Saddharmaratnavaliya (The Garland of Jewels of the Good
Doc-trine, c. 1220-1293) and (6) Mayarapda Buddhaputra Thera's
Mayaliya (The Garland of Offerings, c. 1266). In addition, in the
fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, two other religious classics of
the banapot genre were produced-Devaraksita Jayabahu
Dharmakirti Thera's Saddharmalankaraya (The Ornament of the
Good Doctrine, c. 1398-1410) and Dhammadinnacarya
Vimala-kirti Thera's Saddharmaratnakaraya (The Mine of Jewels of the
Good Doctrine, c. 1417).8) Considering particular features of this literary genre, these vernacular religious texts are identified by Sri Lankan scholars using an indigenous category called `banakathie
literature. Since none of these Sinhala banapot are available in
complete English translations, most of them are unknown even to specialists in Theravada Buddhism. However, from time to time, parts of these texts have been published and have informed the
understanding of a few Western scholars of Theravada Buddhism.
The oldest medieval Sinhala prose text9) is Gurulugomi's
Amavatura, the Flood of Nectar (1187-1225)-written in the
Polonnaruwa period (1058-1234). The opening paragraph of this
text helps us to understand why it was produced. At the beginning,
layman Gurulugiimi10) mentions that he wrote the Amavatura in
his own language (i.e. Sinhala) for uneducated ordinary people
(noviyat hudijanayan sandaha siyabasin) who did not know Pali
other medieval Sinhala writers was to teach the life of the Buddha
to ordinary people. GurulugOmrs theme in the Amavatura was the
Buddha's ability as a trainer of human beings
(purisadamma-sarathi). In writing the Amavatura, GurulugOnfi extracted stories
from the Päli canon and its commentaries. In some places, he
seems to have also used stories even from a Mahayana
Buddha-stotra text called Padaparikajastava (Sannasgala 1964: 213).
Following the model of the Amavatura, in the Dambhadeni
Pe-riod (1220-1293), layman Vidyacakravarti (1968:12) and
Buddhaputrall) wrote Butsarana-Refuge in the Buddha
(1200-1293)-and Pujavaliya-the Garland of Offerings (c.
1266)-respectively, to elaborate on the life of the Buddha. While the
Butsarana elaborated the nine-fold virtues of the Buddha
(navaguna)12) mentioned in the Buddhanussati meditation of the
Visuddhimagga, the Piijavaliya takes only the first virtue "arahani" (worthiness for offerings) as its theme.
Among these medieval Sinhala texts, the Pfij avaliya-the
Gar-land of Offerings-is specially significant for our purposes since it
specifically hints about its possible audience. Buddhaputra, who
considered his Pfijavaliya as an indigenous commentary (Sinhala)
on saddhamma,") mentions eight groups who will benefit from
reading it (Buddhaputra Thera 1965: 17-19; Deegalle 1996:
32-34). They are: (1) kings who can learn the virtues of the Buddha which would help them to work for both one's and other's welfare,
(2) queens, (3) deputy kings and ministers, (4) mahasthaviras, (5)
meditative monks who are illiterate14) but pursuing a moral life and
practicing insight meditation (vidariana), (6) pandits who are
elo-quent in preaching, (7) the literate ordinary public, and (8) pious men and women in remote provinces who have no opportunity to
see virtuous people, or to listen to dhamma. Buddhaputra further
states that these pious men and women can obtain a written text like the Puijavaliya and can know the virtues of the Buddha when they listen to a reading given in their own language. By listening they may know the pure virtues of the Buddha and can be free
78 Journal of the Japanese Association for South Asian Studies, 9, 1997
from both this world and other worlds. From the last
group-pious men and women in remote provinces-mentioned in the
Pidavaliya, it seems that one important objective of composing
vernacular texts was to narrate the teachings of the Buddha even to illiterates .15)
One of the most influential among the medieval Sinhala texts is
Dharmasena Thera's Saddharmaratnavaliya. Even though this
thirteenth century work is considered as a translation of the fifth
century Pali work, the Dhammapadatthakatha, it is not a mere
translation. In other words, the Saddharmaratnavallya is not a
word for word close textual translation but a freer adaptation with attractive illustrative similes. Since it was a creative piece rather
than being a close imitation of the Pali text, in Ranjini
Obeyesekere's words, for the Sinhala reader, it was "essentially a
Sinhala Buddhist work, rooted in the culture, the world view and
the texture of Sinhala society" (Dharmasena Thera 1991: xi). It
becomes 'essentially a Sinhala Buddhist work' in two ways: (1) its attitude towards Pali literature and language and (2) its detailed and attractive descriptions of monastic practices and Sinhala life. First, let us consider Dharmasena Thera's attitude towards Pali
literature and language. Dharmasena Thera's methodology
to-wards Pali original is an important feature which makes it a suc-cess. To show how Dharmasena Thera adapted Pali sources in his work, Ranjini Obeyesekere quotes the Saddharmaratnavallya:
We have abandoned the Pali method and taken only the
themes in composing this work. It may have faults and
stylis-tic shortcomings, but (you the reader should) ignore them. Be
like the swans who separate milk from water even though the milk and water be mixed together, or like those who acquire learning and skills even from a teacher of low caste, because it is only the acquisition of knowledge and not the teacher's sta-tus with which they are concerned. So, consider only its use-fulness, and those who have their Eye of Wisdom clouded in a hazy film of Delusion and lost in the great forest of misdeeds
do not see the road leading to the city of nirvana, apply the
healing salve of the Saddharmaratnavaliya to remove the film
of Delusion that binds the Eye of Wisdom, and go happily and with clear Vision along the highway of Right Action to the city
of nirvana (Dharmasena Thera 1991: 3).16)
Secondly, there is the Saddharmaratnavaliya's detailed and at-tractive descriptions of monastic practices. Adding more convinc-ing and attractive narratives, the Saddharmaratnavaliya often ex-pands the Dhammapadatthakatha; because of these creative at-tempts, the result is that the Saddharmaratnavaliya has become three times larger than the original Pali work-the Dhamma-padatthakatha.17)
To see the way the Saddharmaratnavaliya's narrative style dif-fers from the Dhammapadatthakatha, let's compare the Saddhar-maratnavaliya's 'thick' description of the rain-retreat (vassa) in the story of Monk Cakkhupala with that of its predecessor, the Dhammapadatthakatha. Using a very limited and short descrip-tion, the Dhammapadatthakatha attempted to convey soteriologi-cal dimensions of an important Buddhist religious practice •\ rain-retreat (vassa) as follows: "The monks, thinking to themselves, `Through these families we shall effect escape from the round of existences,' gave their consent" (Burlingame 1921: 150). Unlike this limited description of the Dhammapadatthakatha, the Saddharmaratnavaliya provides a nice narrative content to the vassa. According to the Saddharmaratnavaliya version of the story of Monk Cakkhupala, the monks think of using the vassa for the well-being of themselves and that of the laity; they think that they can guide the laity to the realization of worldly blessings and spiri-tual attainments (lovi lovutura sapat); for the monks themselves, the vassa is a proper occasion to attain nirvana (nivan paraterata przminem); thus, vassa becomes beneficial for both the laity and the
monks. When the laity invited the monks to spend the vassa in their village, the Saddharmaratnavaliya adds that those monks said to each other:
80 Journal of the Japanese Association for South Asian Studies, 9, 1997
These lay devotees have invited us so we should stay. Let us
turn the channels of their ears to the ambrosial river of the
True Doctrine and direct its waters to moisten the fields of
their minds. The seeds of faith can then be sown there and a
harvest of worldly blessings as well as Spiritual Attainments
can be reaped. The four kinds of offerings they make will be
the sails on the boat of our Insight. The Psychic States will be its mast. Guided by the rudder of Knowledge of the Path,
we shall thus cross the sea of samsara, which normally takes
endless years to cross. Thus, in the short space of three
months, the duration of this rainy season, we shall arrive at the
shore of nirvana (Dharmasena Thera 1991: 16). (emphasis
added)
In the Dhammapadatthakatha version, there were no imageries; it
was just a flat description; Buddhist practices and ideas were
pre-sented in an abstract and dry format. However, the
Saddhar-maratnavaliya version was quite different. It presented religious
practices through creative imageries facilitating the understanding
of peasant Buddhists. In creating an imagery, the
Saddhar-maratnavaliya uses words and phrases such as ears (kan), minds
(sit), faith (sadaha), ambrosial river (ama ganga), waters (diya),
moisten (tema), fields (kumburu), sown, reaped (bijuvata vaputa), harvest, boat (ruval ati), mast (kumbak ati), sails (nay nag), sea of samsara (sasara namati muhudin), cross (e tera va), and shore of
nirvana (nivan paraterata) (Dharmasena Thera 1991: 39). In this
case, on the one hand, there is the imagery of water and a field in relation to the minds of lay people; on the other hand, there is the imagery of crossing the ocean of samsara using a boat.
Why are these added descriptions more important than the
original narrative of the Dhammapadatthakatha? They are
impor-tant because they provide ample opportunities for listeners to
relevance for Buddhist life. These elaborate descriptions, thus, do two things: they educate the laity about monastic practices and prepare the laity to do similar practices in Sinhala Buddhist vil-lages.
Dharmasena Thera's Saddharmaratnavaliya was not just an
imitation of the Pali text-the Dhammapadatthakatha . It
in-cluded additional stories, expanded descriptions, new metaphors,
and elaborate imageries not found in the Dhammapadatthakathii .
The Saddharmaratnavaliya version of the story of Monk
Mahakala is worth examining. When the dead body of a pretty young woman was given to Monk Mahakala to use as an object of meditation,18) he asks Kali to burn that body:
The parts of the body that the flames licked, whitened like the white markings on cattle. The legs burned and began to hang down. The arms burned and curled up. The skin of the
fore-head was scorched. The monk sat contemplating it all.
"How beautiful was this form when I first saw it. Now, it is very different. Such is the nature of existence," he thought. He made this the object of his meditation and developed Insight.
He thus made a dam of Contemplation across the river of
Desire that swells and roars down into the sea of samsara. He
channeled the ocean of samsara filled with the waters of
De-filements into the giant mouth of the whirlpool of
Knowl-edge, which is the Path to Enlightenment. Thus, he emptied
the ocean of samsara and crossed over to the land of nirvana
and there enjoyed the tax wealth of the country of
Enlighten-ment (Dharmasena Thera 1991: 131). (emphasis added)
As in the previous case, in this case, too, the imagery is related to water and the ocean. In the text, there are phrases such as "a dam of Contemplation," "across the river of Desire that swells and roars down into the sea of samsara (sasara maha nil:Ida to handa vadana trsna namati ganga avura)," "the ocean of samsara filled with the
82 Journal of the Japanese Association for South Asian Studies, 9, 1997
muhuda)," "the whirlpool of Knowledge (arhat marga nana namati
vadaba mukhayata vadda)," "emptied the ocean of samsara and
crossed over to the land of nirvana (sasara muhuda nati kota sasara namati maha muhudin e tera va tibii nivan rata)" and "enjoyed the
tax wealth of the country of Enlightenment (arhat phala samapatti
namati rata badda lat seka)" (Dharmasena Thera 1971: 125).
Nirvana is also seen as a place (`land,' `country,' also the idea of `tax') which has some sort of physical existence . This treatment of nirvana as a city, a land, a country, is very innovative compared to the descriptions of the Pali canon.19) This detailed narration has a purpose. On the one hand, it teaches lay devotees the nature of monastic practices such as meditation (bhavana). In this case, it is
an illustration of the practice of mindfulness on the human body
(kayanupassana). In the Buddha's time, the monastics often used
dead bodies as objects of meditation. On certain occasions, even
the Buddha used the dead bodies of pretty women, for example, the dead body of the well-known courtesan Sirima, as heuristic devices in order to illustrate both the futile nature and
imperma-nency of the human body (Dharmasena Thera 1971: 731-736). On
the other hand, the story of Monk Mahakala presents how one can attain nirvana through the practice of meditating on a dead body.
These creative additions to the narrative provide for readers as well as for listeners both a cultural context for each particular
nar-rative and a 'thick description' (a concept which I borrow from
Clifford Geertz) as opposed to a 'thin description' (Geertz 1973:
6-10) of the Dhammapadatthakatha in explicating particular
Bud-dhist monastic practices as the practice of insight (vipassana) medi-tation.
How Vernacular Are They?: Differences in Pali and Sinhala
in Village Buddhism
In discussing the relationship between Pali and Sinhala
litera-ture, Richard F. Gombrich maintained that Sinhala literary
Of course the traditions under discussion do not necessarily or even probably derive directly from the Pali texts. In most cases the Pali texts have been mediated through the great Sinhala classics, prose accounts of the Buddha's life such as
the Butsarana, the Pudavaliya, the Saddharmalankaraya and
the Saddharmaratnavaliya, and through the folk literature
de-riving from them. But these Sinhala works closely follow the
Pali texts discussed above (Gombrich 1971: 1-3).
Gombrich's remark reflects that he was aware of the influence of medieval Sinhala materials on Buddhist village life but he neither highlighted nor examined them in his study. He avoid not only the examination of the value of these texts for Sinhala Buddhist life, but he also did not see their indigenous, contextualized situation, or their creativity and diversity. Kitsiri Malalgoda criticizes Gombrich's approach to Sinhala Buddhism and maintains:
His study of the Canon, on the whole, appears original and adequate; but the same is not true unfortunately of his exami-nation of the historical sources for the 1,500 years about which he so boldly generalizes. The ideas of the Pali Canon, further-more, have in fact been mediated largely through Sinhala works written during those 1,500 years; Gombrich, while con-ceding this, avoids the necessity of having to examine them •\ asserting quite cavalierly: "But these Sinhala works closely fol-low the Pali texts." There is no evidence in the book of his having read any of the major Sinhala works, let alone of having compared the substantial body of Sinhala literature bearing on this subject with their corresponding Pali texts (Malalgoda
1972: 158).
Even though Gombrich's Precept and Practice makes a significant
contribution to the study of sociology of Theravada Buddhism
(Reynolds 1973: 161-162), it is still inadequate in its treatment of
84 Journal of the Japanese Association for South Asian Studies, 9, 1997
Sinhala literature in maintaining that they closely follow the Pali texts.
To illustrate the literary creativity of vernacular literature, I will use an imagery from the story of Monk Mahakdia. The
Saddhar-maratniivaliya contains many imageries with interesting
observa-tions of animal behaviour; it often uses imageries with animals to elucidate abstruse doctrines and religious practices. An excellent example is the 'chicken' imagery employed to describe the life of a
mediative monk named Mahakala. At least in Theravada
Bud-dhism, this usage of 'chicken' (more accurately `roosters')20) to por-tray the life of a Buddhist monk is novel and creative. I have not come across so far any similar usage in Buddhist texts either in Sinhala, Pali or Sanskrit. To my knowledge, the chicken or rooster does not have any positive image in the Buddhist tradition. As can be seen in the following passage, a rooster is a lustful animal; as a
symbol, in Buddhism it represents three poisons. Rather than
symbolizing a noble life, a rooster often represents the extension of sainsiira and life that is enjoyed by worldly people. Look what
happens to a religiously neglected and down-played animal
sym-bolism when it finds its proper place in Dharmasena Thera's
hands.
From that point on, as chickens forage for food all day and only curl up at dusk, at the end of the day, the monk Mahakbla
swept the yard early, collected water, bathe& cleaned and
cooled his body, worshipped at the Bo tree, paid his respects to the senior monks, sat, walked, and spent the night in medita-tion.As chickens at daybreak step down from their roost, so in the
morning, he dressed, completed his worship, and until it was time to set out to beg for food, went to a place free of crowds
and again engaged in meditation. When it was time to go
beg-ging, he gathered enough food just to survive. Again, as
every-thing, and only then eat what they find, he, too, in order to be free of any obligation to the giver, ate with the awareness that the food was not intended for pleasure but for sustenance. As
chickens cannot see at night even though they have eyes, so
he felt no attraction for objects that were attractive and suf-fered no sense of deprivation with regard to them. Though he had eyes he was as if blind. Similarly, pleasing sounds that fell on his ears did not attract him, nor did he feel displeasure at jarring noises. Though he had ears he was as if deaf. He did
not feel the difference between sweet scents and stinking smells that affect the nose, or the bitter taste that registers on the tongue, or the comforts or discomforts that register on the body, or good and bad sensations of the mind. He was like a person without a nose, tongue, body, or mind. As chickens, even if shooed away, invariably return to their former roosting place, so while sewing his robes, or engaging in new activities, or performing rituals or other obligating practices, he did not
abandon his meditation, but lived continuously heedful and
aware (Dharmasena Thera 1985-1986: 90; 1991: 130).21)
(em-phasis added)
In this chicken imagery, Dharmasena Thera uses the behavior of
roosters to portray the behavior and the practices of a meditative monk. The monk's behavior in the imagery is similar to the prac-tices of a Theravada monk and his daily activities are in accordance
with monastic discipline (Dhirasekera 1981; Holt 1981;
Wija-yaratna 1990). The monk cleans the temple, worships the Bo (P. Bodhi) tree, pays respect to senior monks and meditates; he takes food mindfully and controls his five senses; and while engaging in daily activities such as cleaning, he does not forget meditation.
This imagery conveys a salient feature: it portrays awareness as the most crucial Buddhist practice; however, it does not do so by
undermining the importance of rites and rituals. On the contrary,
rela-86 Journal of the Japanese Association for South Asian Studies, 9, 1997
tionship that exists between ritual practices such as worshipping
the Bo tree and engaging in meditational activities (sivuru gettam
karatat , nava karma-ntayak karat at , vat pilivet kar at at kar ana bhava-nabhiyogava ma at nohilra no pama va vasana seka) (Dharmasena Thera 1971: 124). This medieval writer attempts to teach and
con-vey the understanding that ritualistic practices go hand in hand
with meditative practices - the reason being that ritualistic
prac-tices deepen awareness.
In characterizing the life of the Buddha, medieval Sinhala writ-ers inevitably had to draw themes from the Pali canon and its commentaries. While borrowing themes from the Pali canon, they emphasized and highlighted specific aspects of the Buddha's life.
For example, Buddhaputra Thera's Pfijavaliya focused on the
worthiness of offerings (araham). They emphasized certain specific aspects of the Buddha's life because they were addressing an audi-ence who lived fifteen or more centuries after the Buddha's demise. Further, their goal was to encourage people to emulate the virtues of the Buddha.22)
Vernacular texts such as the Saddharmaratnavaliya while
bor-rowing stories from the Pali canon situated them in the Sri Lankan
cultural context. Perhaps these methodological changes were due
to the needs of thirteenth century Sri Lanka which were different from those of Indian society in the Buddha's time. When address-ing the needs of their time, the medieval writers did not produce
word for word translations of the Pali originals. Instead, they
adapted, contextualized and localized those original Pali stories in
order to fit them to Buddhist culture in medieval Sri Lanka. Be-cause of this, when one reads these Buddhist classical texts, one sees not the social life of Indians but the society and life-styles of Sri Lankan Buddhists in the Middle Ages:
The corpus of stories in these literary works is a part of the
cultural heritage perpetuated over a long period of time.
they have lived among the Sinhala for thousands of years . . . they have absorbed a great deal from the socio-cultural milieu of our country [Sri Lanka]. The skeletal story has acquired
flesh and blood from local culture, and has been transformed
in something indigenous. This transformation is best evident
in the stories of the Saddharmaratnavaliya. Thus the Indian
story has come to absorb the cultural aspirations of the
Sinhala. The stories reprsent the quality of Sinhala life over
many centuries and covering many generations.
Conse-quently, in one sense these could be viewed as representative of the social order of the Sinhala in a bygone era
(Wija-yawardhana 1979: 74).
Using imageries such as 'chicken' which are familiar to peasant Buddhists who live in an agrarian society, Sinhala writers demon-strated literary creativity. Most imageries that they used were from events and experiences which were very much familiar to village Buddhists. Novel uses gave a new life and spirit to those stories; the elaboration of the main characters with humor and
under-standing caught the attention.
Although Sinhala Buddhists have fostered and preserved the Pali texts throughout centuries even during severe hardships and invasions,") they have always had high respect for Sinhala classics, too. Their Buddhism is enriched not only by the Pali texts but also by medieval Sinhala literature.
How Did We Learn To Be Buddhists?: Social Role of Medie-val Sinhala Literature
It is important to examine the social role of medieval Sinhala
literature. By social role, I mean how these texts have functioned in shaping the morals of Sinhala Buddhists. One can examine their social role in two historical situations: either in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries (the time during which most medieval Sinhala texts were composed) or in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries
88 Journal of the Japanese Association for South Asian Studies, 9, 1997
(the time in which one finds clear literary accounts that they were widely used in Sri Lankan villages).24)
According to G. D. Wijayawardhana, "[t]hrough the ages,
members of the Buddhist Safigha were the custodians" of Sinhala literature and they "widely used" these texts "in the practice of their religious life" and in spreading the teachings of the Buddha in
Buddhist communities (Wijayawardhana 1979 : 67). Since
"Bud-dhists held these texts in high esteem to the point of veneration" (p.67), the texts were preserved and Buddhist monks took good
care of them with faithfulness. Besides Buddhist monks, there
were Buddhist laymen who preserved the tradition with utmost
care. Hugh Nevill (1848-1897), for example, described
Kora-sagalle Kapuruhami Vedarala of Maminiya. Korale as follows:
The Vedarala or doctor is an ex-priest, and a most industrious copyist; during his religious life he had collected a large store of books, which he most liberally placed at my service, for this Catalogue, allowing me to keep any books that I wished, if new to my library. I mention this to illustrate the intelligent interest the Sinhalese have always taken in their literature, and the class of man by whom it has been preserved. (Somadasa 1987-1995 : 125, vol. 2).
It is clear from the texts themselves (for example, the
Puja-valiya) that they were tools for preaching. Most Sinhalese became
acquainted with Sinhala works through direct reading by
them-selves or through the "religious discourses one listens to at the
temple or on religious occasions" (Wijayawardhana 1979 : 68).
When village Buddhist monks preach they elaborate their themes through material drawn from Sinhala texts (p.68).
Sinhala banapot were written from the thirteenth through
fifteenth centuries. The vast collection of palm-leaf manuscripts that are found in Sri Lankan temple libraries,") the Colombo Mu-seum (De Silva 1938) and the British Library (Somadasa
various communities in Sri Lanka. The process of copying and
recopying of manuscripts by various hands shows the extent to
which they were popular among people as resources for the study
of Buddhism; quantitatively speaking, the increase in the number
of manuscripts is indeed good evidence for their popularity and
usage. However, the nature of the ritual usage of these texts was barely known until the nineteenth century. The reason was be-cause until the modern period no one was interested in recording the ritual usages of the texts in Buddhist life. However, there is a way to estimate the popularity of these texts using another source.
It is temple paintings (Gatellier 1991 ; Holt 1996 ; Narada 1987). In painting stories such as Vessantara (Cone and Gombrich 1977) in Buddhist temple shrine rooms, the artists seem to have been influ-enced by narrations in the Sinhala banapot.
Though M. B. Ariyapala's Society in Medieval Ceylon: The
State of Society in Ceylon as described in the Saddharmaratna-valiya and other literature of the Thirteenth Century (1956) is useful in knowing various aspects of medieval Sinhala society, it is not at all helpful in knowing anything about specific religious practices which involved recitation of these texts; in other words, it does not
provide any information about how and for what purposes these
massive literary works were used either by Buddhist monastics or
the laity in their day-to-day lives.
In Sri Lankan Buddhist homes, it has been a custom to read stories from Sinhala classics, often in the evening after sunset. 26)
Ranjini Obeyesekere records such an event in her introduction to
Dharmasena Thera's Jewels of the Doctrine : Stories of the
Sad-dharma Ratnavaliya:
My own first encounter with the Saddharmaratnavaliya (The
Jewel Garland of the True Doctrine) was as a child. Growing up in Sri Lanka, in the city of Colombo, we spent [school
vacations] in our grandfather's house in the small village of
90 Journal of the Japanese Association for South Asian Studies, 9, 1997
evening, after the first lamp was lit, my grandfather would sit at the dining table, relaxed after his day's work, take out a fat leather bound book and read aloud. At that twilight hour, when it was too dark to do anything more exciting . . . we would listen to his sonorous voice reading from the
Saddhar-maratnavaliya or the Jataka tales. We didn't always
under-stand all that he read. Some of my younger cousins often fell
asleep at the table. Others, bored, would disappear after a
while . . . But a few of us older ones stayed and listened. We were his faithful. Sometimes we would interrupt with a ques-tion. His answers were always short and simple, and seemed then to be eminently sensible. He rarely stopped to explain at any length. For the most part he just read on and we
lis-tened... Many of the stories grew very familiar with time. We
heard them told and retold in many different contexts; in the temples, when the elders observed the eight precepts on full moon nights, as illustrations in the sermons of monks, and in schools where they were often assigned in the literature classes
(Dharmasena Thera 1991 : ix-x).
From Ranjini's account as well as my own experience, I want to state that these texts have played a crucial social role in Sinhala society. They have often functioned as important books on Bud-dhism both at home and temple alike; in Sri Lankan society, their
role has been pedagogical. Rather than teaching fundamental
doc-trines of Buddhism such as anicca (impermanence) in abstract
form to young children as it is done today in Sri Lankan public schools, Sri Lankan Buddhist used to narrate a story which elabo-rates Buddhist teachings from one of the collections of stories such
as the Saddharmaratnavaliya and the Jataka Pota; by listening to
such recitations of stories, village Buddhist learned morals and
shaped their lives.
Because of this social function of medieval Sinhala texts, the
the translation of the Saddharmaratnavaliya are not alien to many Sri Lankan Buddhists even today. If one asks villagers of remote Sri Lanka, how they learned to be Buddhists, they might answer like Ranjini Obeyesekere:
Looking back on my childhood, I realize we were never given religious instruction as such, either in school or at home. We
participated in Buddhist rituals and ceremonies, mostly with
the extended kin group, went to temple on full moon days (that, too, mainly during vacations), and listened to many, many Buddhist stories. That was how we learned to be
Bud-dhists (Dharmasena Thera 1991: x).
Since the time when these medieval Sinhala texts were written, perhaps the stories of these texts might have inculcated morals among Sri Lankan Buddhists. By and large, Buddhist preachers used Sinhala narratives in explaining Pali verses as well as Bud-dhist notions. Whereas Pali texts were obscure and remote to both
literate and illiterate village Buddhists, Sinhala classics taught
them good behavior and morals needed for their family and social life.
The stories of the Saddharmaratnavaliya and the Jataka tales
have, I think, always performed this function, ever since they were translated into Sinhala. They have been central to the dissemination of Buddhist values and doctrines, and for this very reason were preserved and cherished, copied and recop-ied by monks, and passed on from generation to generation
(Dharmasena Thera 1991: x).
Many Buddhists would share Ranjini Obeyesekere' s experience
which she explains in detail in her introduction to the
Saddhar-maratnavaliya. As she noted, for several centuries, the majority of
Sinhala Buddhists used to read and/or listen to medieval Sinhala texts as a custom. Even though this practice is gradually disappear-ing now, it still prevails in many Sri Lankan village homes and
92 Journal of the Japanese Association for South Asian Studies, 9,1997
temples. Though Sinhala texts have performed an important social
role in disseminating Buddhist teachings among Buddhist
villag-ers, most studies on Sri Lankan Buddhism have neglected their
impact.
Most scholars have not only denied the importance of Sinhala
materials but have also overemphasized the value and the role of
the Pali canon in Sinhala Buddhist life. Discrepancies and
diver-gences between Pali Buddhist doctrines and Sinhala Buddhist
practices have been noted by stating that "clear differences exist between original Buddhism and the forms of Buddhistic religion which we observe today" (Bechert 1978b: 191). However strong their concern for changes and diversities, inadequate attention was paid to either how Sinhala Buddhists learned Buddhism, or what
scriptures Buddhists read in order to learn Buddhism. In fact,
many Sri Lankans, especially village peasants, in the past learned to be Buddhists by listening to various Buddhist stories read from
such classical texts as the Saddharmaratnavaiya, the Pujavaliya
and the Jataka Pota. Even today, in the days of religious
obser-vance such as the full-moon-Nya-days, they often listen to their
favorite Buddhist stories in Sinhala again and again.27) Medieval Sinhala texts have played a significant social role in shaping social behavior of Theravada Buddhists; when their stories appear in the form of popular narratives in traditional recitation and listening practices, they have shaped Buddhist lives, taught Buddhist values,
contexualized Buddhist stories, appropriated Buddhism to the
problems of village Buddhist life, integrated communities, and
taught morals to uneducated people. Even though Sinhala litera-ture had a tremendous influence in shaping Buddhist lives, in
por-traying Theravada Buddhism in Sri Lanka, both Sri Lankan and
Western scholars have completely ignored the impact which medie-val Sinhala Buddhist texts had on Sri Lankan Buddhist life. Notes
1) This study of Sri Lankan vernacular texts would not have been possible without the guidance of Professors Sheldon Pollock and Frank E. Reynolds of The
Univer-sity of Chicago. I appreciate very much their vision and guidance when I was struggling as a doctoral student.
2) With reference to the availability of Pali chronicles and the Pali canon for Japanese scholarship on Theravada, Masataka Suzuki comments: "Sri Lankan Studies in Japan started from an interest in early Buddhism, and investigations on Pali scrip-tures of Theravada Buddhism were gradually accumulated by scholars of Bud-dhism. Dipavamsa and Mahavarnsa, both of which are ancient chronicles of this island written by Buddhist monks, were translated into Japanese in 1940" (Suzuki 1994: 113). Also see (Ota and Ikeda 1981-82: 13-25).
3) See the next section for exceptions.
4) With reference to medieval Sinhala literary materials, I alternatively use phrases such as `Sinhala Banapot," Sinhala prose texts,' `Sinhala classics,' and 'medieval Sinhala literature.' For a more detailed explanation of these identifications, in par-ticular, Sinhala Banapot, see my doctoral dissertation (Deegalle 1995).
5) For example, the introductory paragraph of the Butsarana illustrates certain devel-opments in Theravada ideology. A negative concept such as `keima' (desire) has been employed positively to encourage late medieval Buddhists for active participa-tion in religious practices (Deegalle 1997).
6) The selection of eight banapot among Sinhala texts is based on an examination of genre, language, and the nature of particular texts•\whether they are direct trans-lations, commentaries, or glossaries. Sinhala Jataka Pota (c. 1303-1333) is obvi-ously an important and influential banapot. Because of its importance for Sri Lankan Buddhist religious practices, it has been discussed in several places. Yet, it has been excluded from this list of banapot since it was a direct translation of Jatakat-thakatha. For similar reasons, chronicles such as Sinhala Thiipavamlaya (c. 1293-1303), Sinhala Bodhivangaya (c. 1303-1333), Daladei Sirita (c. 1325), and Dharmapradipikava (c. 1187-1225) have been excluded from this examination. 7) Note that Godakumbura gives a rather unprobable date to the Amdvatura as an
eleventh century text (1976: 15).
8) A word on dating Sinhala banapot is due. There is no adequate chronological table for dating Sinhala texts. In dating Sinhala classics, I have heavily relied on Pu‚Žci Bandara Sannasgala's Sirphala Sahitya Vangaya (1964). I have also used dates given in C.H.B. Reynolds, An Anthology of Sinhala Literature up to 1815(1970). Sannasgata uses the chronological table of Sri Lankan kings given in the volume 3 of the Epigraphia Zeylanica (Wickremasinghe 1912-1984:4-46). Some dates given in the volume 3 of the Epigraphia Zeylanica [Mahasena (275-301 CE) through Mahinda V (982-1029 CE)], Senarat Paranavitana has revised in the volume 5 of the Epigraphia Zeylanica (Wickremasinghe 1912-1984: 109-111). In addition, Uni-versity of Ceylon, History of Ceylon (1960: 843-47) also provides a chronological table from Vijaya to Parakramabahu VIII (1477-1489 CE). However, since Ulrich von Schroeder' s Buddhist Sculptures of Sri Lanka (1990: 698-701) is the most complete and revised dating system for Sri Lankan kings available today, I have used that chronological table throughout this paper.
9) Medieval Sinhala literature is rich with both prose and verse texts. The scribblings in an ancient script on the Mirror Wall of the rock fortress Sigiriya, which was
94 Journal of the Japanese Association for South Asian Studies ,9,1997
built by King Kassapa I (477-485 BCE), contain the earliest recorded examples of Sinhala poetry. See Senarat Paranavitana, Sigiri Graffiti (1956). However, since this paper focuses on Sinhala prose texts, verse literature has been excluded from this study.
10) Gurulugomi' s Amavatura shows that as a layman Gurulugomi has taken a leading role in innovating a new intellectual practice of teaching the dhamma in the ver-nacular•\Sinhala•\as opposed to Pali. He is also believed to be the author of another exegetical work•\the Dharmapradipikava. See the introduction of the DharmaPradiPikava (Gurulugomi 1968: x).
11) Buddhaputra was a Buddhist monk and the principal of Mayarapada monastic school (Buddhaputra Thera 1965: 1; Reynolds 1970: 168). He also authored two medicinal texts•\the Yogarnavaya and the Prayogaratnavaliya (1965: 8). 12)(1)Ａrahaｍ (worthy),(2)Sammasambuddho (perfectly enlightened),(3)
Vijjacaranasampanno (endowed with knowledge and conduct),(4) Sugato (well-gone) ,(5) Lokavidu (knower of the world), (6)Anuttaro pｕrisadammasarathi-(su-preme trainer of persons to be tamed), (7) Sattha devamanussanam (teacher of gods and men), (8)Buddho (enlightened), and (9) Bhagava (exalted). For commentarial interpretations of the nine-fold virtues of the Buddha see Endo(1996).
13) Here Buddhaputra Thera mentions that saddharma is in Magadhi language (Magadhibhasa). According to him, it is still in brief format (sarnksepayen), and hidden (siingav-itibii). His purpose seems to be to reveal the hidden treasures and to elaborate on hidden dhamma. However, here a question arises as to whether Pali and Magadhi are the same or different. In Sri Lankan Theravada, the two words Magadhi and Pali seem to be used with the meaning that it is the language in which the Buddha preached his discourses. In the Western academy, however, scholars such as Heinz Bechert have attempted to deal with the issue of Buddha's language and to determine whether Pali was the language which the Buddha really spoke; so far no sufficient answer is offered (Bechert 1980; Gomez 1987).
14) Buddhaputra here suggests that even among the Buddhist sangha there were some who could not read (aksardbhydsaya kota gata nohi). Such monastics, according to him, can know the teachings of the Buddha by listening to his book•\the Pujavaliya.
15) Is there any evidence to prove the popularity of Sinhala banapot among Buddhists from the fifteenth through eighteenth centuries? This is an obvious question. Palm-leaf manuscripts of these texts were found in several places. Indigenous physicians, professional craftsmen, astrologers possessed copies of these texts. Moreover, temple libraries had a large collection. The number of manuscripts already found in the hands of above-mentioned groups prove their popularity among Buddhists. Some believe that the Pujavaliya was "very popular among the Sinhalese" Bud-dhists because it was written in "a very easy style" and its copies are often found in manuscript collections (Godakumbura 1980: 166). In another place, Godakumbura stated that the author of the Pujavaliya had "attained to unparalleled popularity in the later centuries" (p.xxx).
16) For a slightly different reading, compare this quotation with the one on p. xii (Dharmasena Thera 1991).
17) Ranjini Obeyesekere's Jewels of the Doctrine: Stories of the Saddharma Ratnavaliya (Dharmasena Thera 1991) includes only fifteen stories. The Saddharmaratnavaliya contains 345 chapters with 1246 printed pages (Dharmasena Thera 1971). The two-volume University of Colombo edition has 863 pages (Dharmasena Thera 1985-1986).
18) At this point, the Saddharmaratnavaliya seems to differ from the opinion of Buddhaghosa's Visuddhimagga which maintains that a male meditator should not use a female body as a meditation object: "However, a female body is not appropri-ate for a man or a male one for a woman; for the object, [namely, the repulsive aspect], does not make its appearance in a body of the opposite sex , which merely becomes a condition for the wrong kind of excitement . . .'Even when decaying a woman invades a man's mind and stays there'." (Buddhaghosa 1956: 191). This seems to be an instance where Sinhala tradition and Pali tradition come into conflict over certain aspects of Buddhist practices.
19) The notion of nirvana as a city is very popular among Sri Lankan Buddhists. The Saddharmaratnavaliya has an elaborate description of the city of nirvana (Dhar-masena Thera 1991: 156) and therein both nirvana and saddharma (sadahamnuvara) are metaphorically referred to a city (1991: 207). See also Hallisey (1992: 38-67). 20) The Saddharmaratnavaliya uses the nominative plural noun `kukulO' (singular
kukula) which Ranjini Obeyesekere translates as 'chicken.' I think that this should be translated as 'roosters' rather than 'chicken.' By translating as 'roosters,' the exact meaning of the imagery can be discerned. For slight changes in meaning of these two English words and their corresponding Sinhala terms see the entries for 'chicken' and 'rooster' inGunapala Malalasekera's English-Sinhalese Dictionary (1978:043,786).
21) While the Saddharmaratnavaliya described the life of meditative monk Mahakala using a twenty-seven-line-long chicken imagery, the Dhammapadatthakatha con-tained only a two-line description: "In accordance with his intention the Elder Mahakala performed his meditations in the burning-ground" (Burlingame 1921:
186).
22) Vidydcakravarti's refrain in the Butsarana "Budun sarana yemi yi Butsarana ya yutu" (Saying that I go for refuge to the Buddha, one should take refuge in the Buddha (Vidyacakravarti 1968: 1)) which is repeated in more than four hundred paragraphs has a clear message; it encourages the public to take refuge in the Buddha and follow his way of life in daily conduct.
23) Sinhalese admiration for Pdli canonical texts can be seen in the events which oc-curred in the first century BCE in Sri Lanka. E. W. Adikaram described vividly the enthusiasm, commitment and devotion of monastics in the preservation of Tipitaka: "It should be remembered that at this time the teachings of the Bud-dha . . . handed down orally from teacher to pupil. Thus there remained always at this time the danger of some parts of the teachings being lost as the result of the death of those who had memorized them . . . Seeing this grave danger, those who knew the books by heart took all precautions not to allow the Texts to fall into oblivion. Sixty bhikkhus who had even gone so far as the coast to cross over to India returned to the Southern Malaya district and lived there eating only roots and
96 Journal of the Japanese Association for South Asian Studies, 9, 1997
leaves. They never failed to recite the Texts lest they should forget them. When they had sufficient strength to sit down they recited the Texts, keeping themselves in that posture, and when they could no longer keep their bodies erect, they laid their heads on mounds of sand and continued their recitations. In this wise they preserved in full for twelve years the Texts as well as the Commentaries" (Adikaram 1946: 76).
24) In the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, Europeans and Sri Lankans mention Sinhala banapot in their descriptions of Sinhala Buddhism. For example, Dickson explains the use of the Saddharmaratnavaliya in Buddhist practices (Dickson 1884). The absence of such accounts in previous centuries (15th-18th centuries) does not undermine the importance of Sinhala banapot. In this intermediate period, nobody bothered to record their impressions of what they saw. In the late nine-teenth century, however, with the introduction of printing presses Buddhists got access to expressing their ideas in paper. On the contrary, the only way that one can measure the popularity of Sinhala banapot in the early period (15th-18th centuries), is by taking into account the number of palm-leaf manuscripts found in monastic libraries and museums.
25) In Lankave Puskola Pot Namavaliya (vol. 1 and 2), K. D. Somadasa (1959-1964) gave a description of Sinhala manuscripts in Buddhist temple libraries. It men-tioned libraries some of which had more than one copy of the same manuscript. The number of temples which contained Sinhala manuscripts were as follows: Amavatura 120, Butsarana 148, Pujavaliya 538, Saddharmaratnakaraya 196, Saddharmaratnavaliya 368, and Saddharmalankdraya 483. Also see the reports of Louis De Zoysa (1875, 1879, 1885).
26) With reference to private uses of Sinhala classics, G. D. Wijayawardhana observes: " ... as far as the educated layman is concerned, one could expect him to keep a few well known books in his household to be read quietly to himself or aloud to his family during leisure hours. This would particularly be so if there be aged members in the household." (Wijayawardhana 1979: 68). K. D. Somadasa states that "[s]ometimes these stories [from Saddharmalankaraya , Pujavaliya, and the Jatakapota] were read aloud by the village elders for the benefit of fellow villagers. Because of the popularity of these stories, many have been copied several times" (Somadasa 1987-1995: ix).
27) Ananda Guruge states: "The preacher utilizes the rich narrative tradition of Bud-dhist literature and becomes a story-teller. In fact, the entire discourse... is a free expression of the preacher's knowledge and thinking... alteration between preach-ing and story-tellpreach-ing. At least one Jataka story figures in the sermon. The Buddhist tales of Sri Lanka taken both from the historical chronicles and the medieval Sinhala classics such as Pujavaliya, Saddharmalaiikaraya and Saddharmaratnakara figure prominently" (Guruge 1979: 64).
Bibliography Adikaram, E. W.
1946. Early History of Buddhism in Ceylon. Migoda: D. S. Puswella. Ariyapala, M. B.
