The true identity of the Purvarama Monastery in Sri Lanka
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.
යක්ඛ වන්චිත වස්තුව
'...ඉහත සඳහන් විස්තර කතනය තුලින් කියවෙන අර්ථයන් ගැන
මනාව විමර්ශනය කොට ගාමිණී අබය හෙවත් දුටුගැමුණු මහරජතුමාගේ සටන ගැන ද විග්රහකර
සිතා බලන්න. එවිට දුටුගැමුණු මහරජතුමා කෙබඳු පුද්ගලයෙකු දැයි හඳුනා ගැනීමට
අපහසුවක් නොවනු ඇත. එ අනුව දස මහා යෝධයන් හා ජයකොන්තය පැහැදිලි පැහැදිලි කරගෙන
නිවරැදි ධර්මතාව කුමක්දැයි වටහා ගන්න.'
In the time of Load Buddha, who was the ruler in the eastern region in Lanka?
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| The Cave Indashaala |
The information about the people who lived in Lanka in Load Buddha's time has been set aside in the chronicles. The act of discussing this matter is forbidden. And also some people are not interested in discussing this matter in public. But, most of them do believe that these incidents have a relationship with the two clans called Yakkha and Naga. The Buddhist scholars living in Sri Lanka may not be interested in considering them as human beings.
Mr. C. W. Nicholas claims a great position as a scholar who showed a special interests in disclosing facts related to ancient Lanka. This great effort made by him is portrayed in his great book titled 'Historical Topography of Ancient and Medieval Ceylon'. Amongst the other great information disclosed by this book, there is one special statement and it is as follows.
'The King Pachina means the king for the eastern region. A king bearing this name cannot be found in the historical chronicles' (Page 129). This statement is in great importance as it is considered as something dates back to the period of B.C. In fact, the value of this statement is a great wealth and for that a special investigation has to be executed. Then, who is this king in the east? It is necessary to look in to this matter.
First, we need to keep our close eyes on the inscription presented by Mr. Nicholas to understand this particular matter. This inscription has been presented in Lanka Shilaalekhana Sangrahaya[i] under the inscriptions of Ambulambe[ii] (Inscriptions of Ceylon[iii], Page 64).
831. Pachina rajaha putha thishayaha lene agatha anagatha chathudisha shagasha dine
(The cave of the prince Tissa, the son of King Pachina,[iv] was given for Sangha who came from all four directions)
832. Pachina rajaha putha thisha ayaha bariya upashika rakiya lene Agatha anagatha chathudisha shagasha
(The cave of Upasika[v] Raki, the wife of prince Tissa who is the son of King Pachina, was given for Sangha who came from all four directions).
(Sinhala Shilalekhana Sangrahaya, Page 142)
Ambulamabe, where these inscriptions are found, was called Ambasandaa in the ancient times. In the time of Buddha, there had been a village of Brahamans called Ambasandaa, Sakkapannya Suthra discloses. This is disclosed in the said Suthra as follows.
"Evan me suthan ekan samayan bhagawa magadhesu viharathi, pachinatho rajagahassa ambasandaa naama brahakmanagaamo, thassuththaratho vediyake pabbathe indasaalaguhaayan thena kho pana samayena sakkassa dewaanammindassa ussukkan udapaadi baghawaththa dassnaaya." (Diganikaya, Sakkapanya Suthra).
The palace of Pachina, Bahaman village called Ambasandaa, the rock called Vediya and Indasala cave are stated in the back ground story of this Suthra. Above mentioned both inscriptions explain the fact that King Pachina and the village called Ambasanda had been situated in Lanka. And let us look in to the two other inscriptions which help to identify the locations of the rock called Vediya and the cave called Indasala. Two inscriptions found in Bambaragala can be taken as examples for this matter.
814. Pachina rajaha nagayaha jayha bamana kojayhara jhithaya upashika dathaya lene
817. indashala guha shagasha
These inscriptions confirm that The Enlightened One had preached the Sakkapanna Suthra at the Indasala cave located at Rajamaha Vihara in Bambaragala, Theldeniya in Kandy.
Now, its time to investigate the nature of the king in the eastern region of whom no any disclose is found chronicles. For that, it is necessary to examine the Atanatiya Suttha found in the Pirith Potha[vi] and it present some information to identify this king in the eastern region.
" Itho sa pajjimaa disaa
ithi nan aachikkhathee jano
yan disan abhipaalethi
mahaa raajaa yasassiso
viroopakkho ithi namaso "
The king for the Naga clan who reigned the east is called Viroopakkha, it explains. This has been well confirmed by 'Pachina rajaha nagayaha' which is found in the inscription.
Hence, it is evident that the ruler in the east was someone who ruled the east in Buddha's time.
[i] This title can be translated as The collection of inscriptions in Lanka .
[ii] Ambulambe is a village in Sri Lanka.
[iii] Inscriptions of Ceylon is the well recognized book written by Prof. Senarath Paranavithana.
[iv] This is pronounced as Paacheena.
[v] This is pronounced as Upasikaa - the lay female disciple of The Enlightened One.
[vi] The book which is comprised with discloses\suttas.
Translated by Amal
Meemanage (amalmeemanage@gmail.com)
බුදු රදුන් දවස සිටි ලංකාවේ පෙරදිග පාලකයා කවුරුන්ද?
සමංකර යන නාමයේ ලේඛනගත උරුමය ශුමන නම් වෙයි
මහාසම්මත රාජ පරපුරට අයත් රාජ නාමාවලියෙන් කොටසක විස්තරයක් වංසත්ථප්පකාසිනියෙහි දැක්වෙන්නේ මෙසේය. '' මෙකී සුවාසු දහස් එක් රජුන් අතුරෙන් පශ්චිම වූ නිමි නම් රජ තෙමේ බලවත් රජෙක් වී ය. ඔහු පුත් කලාරජනක නම් වී ය. ඔහු පුත් අසෝක නම් වී ය.....
In the inscriptions, 'Samankara' is mentioned as Shumana
This identical genealogy which is
a heritage of Lanka is explained in Poojawaliya[viii]
as well, but with some little changes in to it. That particular explanation in
Poojawaliya goes as follows. '' … hence the identity of Makhadeva Dynasty [ix]
experienced some changes (later), finally,
a king called Ashoka who is the son of Kalara Janaka[x]
came in the throne. His son was Okkaaka ».
From then,the identity of Makhadeva Dynasty was changed and continued as Okkaaka
Dynasty. (Poojawaliya,Page 114). Here, a king called Nimi is not mentioned and
he has been replaced with Makhadeva Dynasty. The king called Kalarajanaka found in Wansaththapakasani
has been identified as Kaalaarajanaka in Poojawaliya. This small change found
in the name is not a serious matter to be worried about. But, according to Wansaththapakasani
the son of Kalarajanaka is King Samankara. According to Poojawaliya he is
Ashoka and this drives to a very complicated situation. Ashoka is the son of
King Samankara, Wansaththapakasani reports. In this case, we can consider Wansaththapakasani
as the most ancient book and also can depend on the information given by it as
it has taken information from Atuwa itself. There is another reason to be considered
the information of Atuwa as true and more historical. That is because, that
information has been proved by the inscriptions as well. The inscription
discovered from Dulwala is a sound example for this task. That inscription is
given below.
810. parumaka shumana putha
ashokaha lene (Inscriptions of Ceylon,62)
It is evident that this Shumana
found in this inscription is Samankara who is found in Atuwa aswell. This name
called Samankara has been mentioned as Shumana across all the inscription. It
is evident by all the inscriptions written for God Saman[xi],
and in all of them, his name has been highlighted as Shumana (Shumana Saman).
This suggests two things, first, Ashoka mentioned in Wansaththapakasani is the
son of Samankara and secondly this dynasty is a part of the heritage Heladeepa or Lanka.
[i]
Mahasammatha is pronounced as Ma-haa-sam-ma-tha.
[ii]
Kalarajanaka is pronounced as Ka-laa-ra-ja-na-ka.
[iii]
Samankara is pronounced as Sa-man-ka-ra.
[iv]
Atuwa, pronounced as A-tu-waa are the commentaries.
[v]
The city called Baranas.
[vi]
Wansaththapakasani is pronounced as Wan-sath-thap-pa-kaa-sa-nie, is an ancient
local text.
[vii]
Silattakastha Mahawamsa is pronounced d as See-lat-tha-ka-thaa Ma-haa-vam-sa.
[viii]
Poojawaliya is pronounced as Poo-jaa-wa-li-ya, is an ancient local text.
[ix]
Makhadeva is pronounced as Ma-khaa-deva.
[x]
Kalara Janaka is pronounced as Kaa-laa-ra Ja-na-ka.
[xi]
Sumana Saman is a local god. In all Buddhist texts, he has been identified as the god who invited
Lord Buddha to place his sacred footprint on the top of Samanala Peak. This God
Saman had been a Parumaka, a regional head, and after his passing away he had
been, and still, worshipped as a god.
Translated by Amal
Meemanage (amalmeemanage@gmail.com)
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