Bambaragala, Theldeniya, Sri Lanka.
The birth place of the Buddha.
Hiriwadunna, Habarana, Sri Lanka..
The place of enlightenment of the Buddha.
Isinbessagala, Madawachchiya, Sri Lanka.
The place of the first sermon of the Buddha.
Budugala, Balangoda, Sri Lanka.
The place of Parinibbana (passing away) of the Buddha.
කොරකළම්බක නම් වූයේ කවරෙක්ද?
කොරකළම්බක නම් වූ බ්රාහ්මණයෙකු චේතිය රජ දවස විසූ බව පූජාවලියෙහි දැක්වේ. මෙහිදී දක්නට ලැබෙන විශේෂ කරුණ වන්නේ කෝරකලම්බක බමුණෙකු වශයෙන් හඳුන්වා දී ඔහුගේ බෑයා ඉසිවරයෙකු වශයෙන් දැක්වීමයි. හෙළ යුගයේ ලේඛනවලට අනුව බමුණා සහ ඉසිවරයා එක ගොඩට වැටී නැත. බමුණාට වඩා උසස් චින්තන ශක්තියකින් යුක්ත උදාර පුද්ගලයා ඉසිවරයා යනුවෙන් පැහැදිලි වන සුවරූපයේ සංකේත මගින් පෙන්වා දී තිබේ.
Who was named as Korakalambaka (කොරකළම්බක)?
A Brahmin called Korakalambaka[i] had lived in the reign of King Chethiya[ii], Poojawaliya reports. These two had studied under one master. The explanation given in Poojawaliya about this incident is as follows. "…. when the people in the kingdom heard the decision of the king to offer the position of chief counselor for Korakalambaka, the Brahmin, who followed studies with him, whilst making a falsehood to degrade his brother, the counselor called Kapila and presenting Korakalambaka as an elder one than Kapila himself, the people in the kingdom gathered and said 'let us wait and see whether the colour of the a lie is white or else it is black or else it is red or else it is blue', then as a result of this falsehood made against Kapila, the great sage, the king was taken to hell across the ground" (Poojawaliya, Page 111).
Indian influence and also the roots of ancient Heladeepa[iii] can be seen in mentioned description. The most significant incident is that Korakalambaka had been introduced as a Branhamin, but his brother had been introduced as a Sage. In the inscriptions which date back to the ancient Hela period, the Brahamin and the Sage haven't been placed in the similar positions. The Brahmin had been introduced in his own Bahamian name. The Sage had been introduced with the respective symbols which would portrait him as a noble person who is greater in knowledge and wisdom than the Brahmin.
The name called Korakalambaka had been changed gradually across the times. It can be determined that it had changed in to Kolambahalaka[iv](කොලම්බහාලක). This term can be found even in Mahavamsa Teeka[v]. It is explained as Kolambagamaka[vi] (කොලම්බගාමක) as well. Not only that, this same book reports about a place called Kolambalaka[vii](කොලම්බාලක). That explanation is given as follows. "… and also a monk called Dhathawedaka[viii] (දාඨාවේධක) who lived in Pirivena, the monastic college, called Kolombahalaka (කොලොම්බහාලක)…". This description directs us to think that the educational institutions of the sages had been transformed in to Pirivenas.
The historical evidences prove the fact that a name of a particular person with the effect evolvement, later, had been popular as a name of a particular place. This name had been used as a name of a place. In order to identify its origin we can seek the support of Mr. C. W. Nicholas. His explanation is as follows.
"Soorathissa[ix] built the Kolambahalaka (කෝලම්බහාලක) Vihara[x] near Raheraka (රහේරක) by the early stage of 2nd century B.C. The armies of Chola[xi] soldiers which were commanded by Bhalluka landed at Mahathiththa[xii] (Manthai)[xiii] in 161 B.C. and marched towards Kolambahalaka. As the next battle was occurred inside the city, Kolambahalaka must have been situated at a location which is closer to Anuradhapura City. In 103 B.C., Wattagamini[xiv] Abhaya was defeated in the battle in Kolambalaka (කෝලම්බාලක). This place was known as Kalaombalaka (කලොම්බාලක) and was situated towards the northern direction, and also closer to, of the ground where, later, Abhayagiriya Vihara was built" (Historical Topography of Ancient and Medieval Ceylon, Chapter 19, Page 185).
[i] Korakalambaka is pronounced as Ko-ra-ka-lam-baka.
[ii] King Chethiya is considered the birth point of falsehoods.
[iii] This is how Sri Lanka was known in the ancient times.
[iv] Kolambahalaka is pronounced as Ko-lam-ba,-haa-la-ka.
[v] Teeka is pronounced as Tee-kaa.
[vi] Kolambagamaka is pronounced Ko-lam-ba-gaa-ma-ka.
[vii] Kolambalaka is pronounced as Ko-lam-baa-la-ka.
[ix] Soorathissa is pronounced as Su-ra-this-sa.
[x] Vihara - the monastery.
[xi] Chola is pronounced as C-hō-la.
[xii] Mahathiththa is pronounced as Ma-haa-thi-th-tha.
[xiii] Manthai is pronounced as Maan-thaa-i.
[xiv] Wattagamini is pronounced as Wat-ta-gaa-mi-ni.
Translated by Amal
Meemanage (amalmeemanage@gmail.com)
Okkaka Sakyan Dynasty was a heritage of Sri Lanka
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.
ශ්රී ලංකාවට අහිමි වී ගිය ඔක්කාක ශාක්ය වංශය
"අම්බට්ඨ
නම් ඔක්කාක රජු කළාවූ ප්රීතී උදානය ගෙන එතැන් පටන් ඔක්කාය වංශය නම් පෙරළී අම්බට්ඨ
ශාක්ය වංශයයි මෙනමින් ප්රසිද්ධ විය " (පූජාවලිය, 117 වන පිටුව).
The Sage and the teacher called Kapila was a noble person who lived in ancient Lakdiva
The Sage and the teacher called Kapila was a noble person who
lived in ancient Lakdiva[1]
The king Chethiya[2]
had five sons. Following the instructions of the Sage called Kapila, they built
cities in different places and lived in those cities. One of them, built and
lived in the city called Hasthipura[3],
how it was called in the past, Kurunegala, as it is called in the present day.
This incident is mentioned in Poojawaliya ( Page 111).
In the Buddhist literature, above
mentioned Sage Kapila, has been explained in many occasions. He had been a
teaching Sage who was through in art and science. This Sage was a son of Lanka,
he had lived in Lanka and was a noble person who had advised the Maha Sammatha
Dynasty. Because of this, his name had been taken in to the inscriptions in
Lanka. One such inscription in which his name can be seen is as follows.
803'
wpßh lms, mq; n.fojy p Achariya kapila putha bagadewaha cha
mreul wkqä p ums; f,fK parumaka anudi cha mapitha lene
w.; wk.; Y.Y Agatha anugatha shagasha
The cage build by Bhagadewa, the
son of teacher Kapila and also Pramuka Anudi is (given) for all the Sanga[4]
who are present and not. (Inscriptions of Ceylon, Page 61).
The Parumaka called Anudi also had
joint hands with Bhagadewa. This particular Anudi's father had been stated as
Uththara[5].
In looking in to the names mentioned in these inscriptions, one particular
thing is very clear. And that is that these names of people and castes had been
used in very ancient times. Kapila, Bhagadewa, Anudi and Uththara are the
examples for that. It is not necessary to hold on to the doubt that Anudi, the
person who built the cave with Sage Kapila, was a prominent character in the
Okkkaya Dynasty. The Pramukas can be identified as a group who follow the
instruction of teachings Sage Kapila. Having said all these, it is evident that
these names and incidents are related to the ancient heritage of Sri
Lanka.
[1]
Lakdiva - the island called Lanka.
[2]
Chethiya is pronounced as Che-thi-ya.
[3]
Hasthipura - the city of elephants.
[4] Sanga-
The non-lay disciples of the Buddha.
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