B.C. portion derived by him as the cultivator's share," to bestow an offering on a "thero."1 504. From the necessity of providing food for their followers, the earliest attention of the Bengal conquerors was directed to the introduction and extension of agriculture. A passage in the Mahawanso would seem to imply, that previous to the landing of Wijayo, rice was imported for consumption2, and upwards of two centuries later the same authority specifies "one hundred and sixty loads of hill-paddi," among the presents which were sent to the island from Bengal. In a low and level country like the north of Ceylon, where the chief subsistence of the people is rice, a grain which can only be successfully cultivated under water, the first requisites of society are reservoirs and canals. The Buddhist historians extol the father of Wijayo for his judgment and skill "in forming villages in situations favourable for irrigation ;"4 his own attention was fully engrossed with the cares attendant on the consolidation of his newly acquired power; but the earliest public work undertaken by his successor Panduwaasa, B.C. 504, was a tank, which he caused to be B. C. formed in the vicinity of his new capital Anarajapoora, 504. the Anurogrammum of Ptolemy, originally a village founded by one of the followers of Wijayo. 1 The king was Mahachoola, 77 | istence of systematic tillage anterior B.C. Mahawanso, ch. xxxiv. 2 Kuweni distributed to the companions of Wijayo, "rice and other articles, procured from the wrecked ships of mariners." (Mahawanso, ch. vii. p. 49.) A tank is mentioned as then existing near the residence of Kuweni; but it was only to be used as a bath. (lb. c. vii. p. 48.) The Rajaratnacari also mentions that, in the fabulous age of the second Buddha, of the present Kalpa, there was a famine in Ceylon, which dried up the cisterns and fountains of the island. But there is no evidence of the ex to the reign of Wijayo. 3 Mahawanso, ch. xi. p. 70. Paddi is rice before it has been freed from the husk. 4 Mahawanso, ch. vi. p. 46. 5 The first tank recorded in Ceylon is the Abayaweva, made by Panduwaasa, B. c. 505 (Mahawanso, ch. ix. p. 57). The second was the Jayaweva, formed by Pandukaabhaya, B. c. 437. (Ib. ch. x. p. 65.) The third, the Gamini tank, made by the same king at the same place, Anarajapoora.—Ib. ch. x. p. 66. The continual recurrence of records of similar constructions amongst the civil exploits of nearly every succeeding sovereign, together with the prodigious number formed, attests at once the unimproved condition of Ceylon, prior to the arrival of the Bengal invaders; and the indolence or ignorance of the original inhabitants, as contrasted with the energy and skill of their first conquerors. B.C. 307. 307. Upwards of two hundred years were spent in these B.C. initiatory measures for the organisation of the new state. Colonists from the continent of India were encouraged by the facilities held out to settlers, and carriage roads were formed in the vicinity of the towns.1 Village communities were duly organised, gardens were planted, flowers and fruit-bearing trees introduced2, and the production of food secured by the construction of canals3, and public works for irrigation. Moreover, the kings and petty princes attested the interest which they felt in the promotion of agriculture, by giving personal attention to the formation of tanks and to the labours of cultivation.1 Although the bulk of the settlers had come from countries where Buddhism was the dominant faith, no measures appear to have been taken during this very long interval to encourage its extension throughout Ceylon. In the meantime, the effects of Gotama's early visits had been obliterated, and the sacred trees which he planted, were dead. Wijayo was, in all 1 Mahawanso, ch. xiv. xv. xvi. 2 Mahawanso, ch. xi. p. 60 (367 B. C.), ch. xxxiv. p. 211 (B. c. 20), ch. xxxv. p. 215 (A. D. 20). Rajaratnacari, ch. ii. p. 29. Rajavali, p. 185. 227. 3 Mahawanso, ch. xxxiv. p. 210 (B. c.42), ch. xxxv. p. 221,222 (A. D. 275), ch. xxxvii. p. 238. Rajaratnacari, ch. ii. p. 49, and Rajavali, p. 223, &c. 4 Mahawanso, ch. x. p. 61, xxii. p. 130, xxiv. p. 149. Rajavali, p. 185, 186. The Buddhist kings of Burmah, at the present day, in imitation of the ancient sovereigns of Ceylon, rest their highest claims to renown on the number of works for irrigation which they have either formed or repaired. See Yule's Narrative of the British mission to Ava in 1855, p. 106. 307. B.C. probability, a Brahman', but so indifferent to his own faith, that his first alliance in Ceylon was with a demon worshipper. His immediate successors were so eager to encourage immigration, that they treated all religions with a perfect equality of royal favour. Yakko temples were respected, "annual demon offerings were provided" for them; halls were built for the worshippers of Brahma, and residences were provided at the public cost, for "five hundred persons of various foreign religious faiths;"" but no mention is made in the Mahawanso, of a single edifice having been then raised for the worshippers of Buddha, whether resident in the island, or arriving amongst the colonists from India. It was not till the year 307 B.C., in the reign of Tisso, that the preacher Mahindo ventured to visit Ceylon, under the auspices of the king, whom he succeeded in inducing to abstain from Brahminical rites, and to profess faith in the doctrines of Buddha. From the prominent part thus taken by Tissa in establishing the national faith of Ceylon, the sacred writers honour his name with the prefix of Déwánan-pia, or "beloved of the saints." The Mahawanso exhausts the vocabulary of ecstasy in describing the advent of Mahindo, a prince of Maghada, and a lineal descendant of Chandragutto. It records the visions by which he was divinely directed to "depart on his mission for the conversion of Lanka;" it describes his aërial flight, and his descent on Ambatthalo, the loftiest peak of Mihintala, the mountain which, rising suddenly from the plain, overlooks 1 According to the Mahawanso, Vishnu, in order to protect Wijayo and his followers from the sorceries of the Yakkos, met them on their landing in Ceylon, and "tied threads on their arms," ch. vii.; and at a later period, when the king Panduwaasa, B.C. 504, was afflicted with temporary insanity, as a punishment in his person of the crime of perjury, committed by his predecessor Wijayo, Iswara was supplicated to interpose, and by his mediation the king was restored to his right mind.-Rajavali, p. 181. 2 Mahawanso, ch. x p. 67, ch. xxxiii. p. 203. 307. the sacred city of Anarajapoora. The story proceeds to B.C. explain, how the king, who was hunting the elk, was miraculously allured by the fleeing game to approach the spot where Mahindo was seated'; and how the latter forthwith propounded the Divine doctrine "to the ruler of the land; who, at the conclusion of his discourse, together with his forty thousand followers, obtained the salvation of the faith."2 Then follows the approach of Mahindo to the capital; the conversion of the queen and her attendants, and the reception of Buddhism by the nation, under the preaching of its great Apostle, who "thus became the luminary which shed the light of religion over the land." He and his sister Sanghamitta thenceforth devoted their lives to the organisation of Buddhist communities throughout Ceylon, and died in the odour of sanctity, in the reign of King Utiya, B. C. 267. But the grand achievement which consummated the B.C. establishment of the national faith, was the arrival 289. from Maghada of a branch of the sacred Bo-tree. Every ancient race has had its sacred tree; the Chaldeans, the Hebrews, the Greeks, the Romans and the Druids, had each their groves, their elms and their oaks, under which to worship. Like them, the Brahmans have their Kalpa tree in Paradise, and the Banyan in the vicinity of their The story, as related in the Mahawanso, bears a resemblance to the legend of St. Hubert and the stag, in the forest of Ardennes, and to that of St. Eustace, who, when hunting, was led by a deer of singular beauty towards a rock, where it displayed to him the crucifix upon its forehead; whence an appeal was addressed which effected his conversion. "The king Dewananpiyatipo departed for an elk hunt, taking with him a retinue; and in the course of the pursuit of the game on foot, he came to the Missa mountain. A certain devo assuming the form of an elk, stationed himself there, grazing; the sovereign descried him, and say- 2 Mahawanso, ch. xiv. p. 80. They sacrifice upon the tops of mountains, and burn incense under oaks, and poplars, and elms, because the shadow thereof is good."-Hosea, iv. 13. 289. B.C. temples; and the Buddhists, in conformity with immemorial practice, selected as their sacred tree the Pippul, which is closely allied to the Banyan, yet sufficiently distinguished from it, to serve as the emblem of a new and peculiar worship. It was whilst reclining under the shade of this tree in Uruwela, that Gotama received Buddhahood; hence its adoption as an object of reverence by his followers, and in all probability its adoration preceded the use of images and temples in Ceylon.2 In order that his kingdom might possess a sacred tree of the supremest sanctity, 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 Ceylon3, and planted by king Tissa in the spot at 1 The Bo-tree (Ficus religiosa) is the "pippul" of India. It differs from the Banyan (F. indica), by sending down no roots from its branches. Its heart-shaped leaves, with long attenuated points, are attached to the stem by so slender a stalk, that they appear in the profoundest calm to be ever in motion, and thus, like the leaves of the aspen, which, from the tradition that the cross was made of that wood, the Syrians believe to tremble in recollection of the events of the crucifixion, those of the Bo-tree are supposed by the Buddhists to exhibit a tremulous veneration, associated with the sacred scene of which they were the witnesses. Previous Buddhas had each his Bo-tree or Buddha-tree. The pippul had been before assumed by the first recorded Buddha; others had the iron-tree, the champac, the nipa, &c. | Mahawanso, TURNOUR'S Introd. p. xxxii. 3 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 passage 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 Northerngate "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. |