When King Ambattha [2] came in to the throne, Okkaka Sakyan Dynasty was known as Ambattha Dynasty, the book called Poojawaliya[3] reports. The belief that Okkaya Dynasty had its roots in India was mainly influenced by the forged information, statements and inscriptions which were created by The British in their attempt of proving that birth of Buddha was occurred in India. Sri Lankan Buddhists too were cheated by these wrong and misleading information and they started to take them as true and genuine. As a consequence of this, Sri Lankan Buddhists always do their level best to pass on the identity of Sakyan Dynasty, which is a heritage of Heladeepa,[4] to India. The incident of revealing the true historical information of the land where Buddha was born had directed these groups towards the hatred, but not for the peace in mind.
As it is necessary to know this peculiar
fact which is revealed in Poojawaliya, let me present it here
.
"අම්බට්ඨ
නම් ඔක්කාක රජු කළාවූ ප්රීතී උදානය ගෙන එතැන් පටන් ඔක්කාය වංශය නම් පෙරළී අම්බට්ඨ
ශාක්ය වංශයයි මෙනමින් ප්රසිද්ධ විය " (පූජාවලිය, 117 වන පිටුව).
"… following the utterance made
by King Ambattha of the Okkaya Dynasty, from then, the name of the Okkaya
Dynasty was changed in to Ambattha Sakyan Dynasty and thereafter, it was well
known in that name" (Poojawaliya, Page 117).
As it was mentioned in advance,
the term 'Ambattha' cannot be taken, in any manner, as something belongs to the
Indian heritage or a part of the Indian heritage. Anyone having the knowledge
of the Hela language would understand that it is an ancient Hela term in Lanka.
If someone says 'no' to this, whoever it is, it is absolutely something
mentioned against the land of Buddha and nothing else.
What do we really have to do? We
should go ahead with a proper analysis on the usage of this term called Ambattha
in the sphere of the history and also on the facts which were, actually, the reasons
for that usage. Driving the energies for unnecessary arguments and negative
criticism would obviously be the method chosen by the ones with an intolerable heart.
There is a statement about a cave
called Ambatthakola[5] in
the book called Wansatthappakasini[6].
The idea given by it, in a nutshell, is as follows.
"Silver was fetched by the
cave called Ambatthakola and other things were fetched by the respective places"(
Wansatthappakasini, Page 409). This incident is reported in the time of the
reign of the Grate King Dutugamunu. It is then confirmed that this term
Ambattha had been used in that period from the ancient times. The only alteration
to be seen is the addition called 'kola' in to its end. Based on the statement which
was made on silver, this place can be identified as Ridiviharaya[7]
found in the present day. It is evident that
this Ridiviharaya has its roots up to a very long period in the history which goes
up to the time of Kakusada Buddha[8]
(Inscription of Ceylon, 890,891).
According to Wansatthappakasini,
this place had been identified as a mining place for silver. Thus, it had been
mentioned as an area of the cave called Ambatthakola (Wansatthappakasini, Page
407). This book further says that King Maha Choolathissa had worked in a manufacturing
place of jaggery which was situated near the base of the mountain called Sonnagira[9]
in the kingdom of Ambatthakola Malaya Rata (Wansatthappakasini, Page 501).
However, considering this particular incident itself, where a king had joined with
a work of this nature, throws more lights to the guess that this group had
connections with the Ambattha Sakyan Dynasty. Taking this identical incident,
Mr. C.W. Nicholas had mentioned that the king had worked in a manufacturing place
of sugar. (Historical Topography of Ancient and Medieval Ceylon, Page 126).
Moggallana I[10]
had assembled his troops to a Vihara called Kutthari[11]
in Ambatthakola, Mahavamsa[12]
reports (Mahavamsa,20 Chapter 39). The names of the villages which date back to
the ancient times had been used up to the ruling time of The British. But,
above mentioned incident itself is a solid example to explain the gradual loss
of the Sri Lankan Buddhist heritage along with the change of the ruling system
in power. What we have lost in this hidden incident is that there had been the
kingdom of the Okkaya Dynasty in this area and Ridiviharaya had been considered
as the center of this kingdom.
[1]
Okkaka Sakyan is pronounced as Okkaaka\Okkāka Saakya \Sākya.
[2]
Ambattha is pronounced as Am-bat-t-ha.
[3]
Poojawaliya is pronounced as Poo-jaa-wa-liya.
[4]
Heladeepa - the island of people called Helayo.i.e. Sri Lankans.
[5] Ambatthakola
is pronounced as Am-bat-tha-koola.
[6] Wansatthappakasini
is pronounced as Wan-sat-thap-pa-kaa-sinie.
[7] Ridiviharaya
is pronounced as Ridie-vi-haa-ra-ya. Ridi - Silver.Viharaya - the monastery.
[8]
The Buddhas prior to present Buddha who is Gauthama Buddha.
[9] Sonnagira
is pronounced as Son-na-gira.
[10] Moggallana
is pronounced as Mog-gal-laa-na.
[11] Kutthari
is pronounced as Kut-tha-ri.
