Mahinda at Mihintale

Mahinda at Mihintale

This is the time of the year when the coming of Buddhism to Sri Lanka is commemorated by the Sri Lankan Buddhists in a spirit of celebration and devotion. The story that has come down to us about the arrival in the island of Emperor Asoka of India’s missionaries led by Arhant Mahinda Thera with the message of Buddhism is an essential theme in all the usual ritual performances and religious observances of this period.

The traditional account of the official introduction of Buddhism as contained in 13th and 14th chapters of the Mahawamsa to Sri Lanka could be interpreted as an artistic blending of historical fact and poetic symbolism. This imaginative representation of (probably) the single most momentous event of Sri Lanka’s cultural history does not in the least diminish its historical authenticity or its timeless significance; on the contrary, it serves to impress on the Sinhalese Buddhist national psyche a potent memory of the august beginnings of their faith.

{The Mahawamsa as a whole, with the two chapters thereof that concern the subject of my essay, is based on the assumption that Prince Vijaya is the progenitor of the Sinhalese race, and his landing in Tambapanni is represented as an event blessed by Buddha himself; the advent of Buddhism in the island is appropriately seen as marking another big step towards the islanders emerging out of native primitivism. Such a belief (that in fact it was Vijaya who founded the Sinhalese race) is no harm if it is borne out by historical evidence. Even if that is not the case, the monumental worth of the the Mahawamsa or the Great Chronicle for us as a people will not be diminished.

The evidence of a pre-Vijayan civilization which predates our traditionally conceived history by at least 300 years recently unearthed in the inner city precincts of Anuradhapura in excavations by a team of archaeologists under the direction of Dr Shiran Deraniyagala (former Director General and present Advisor to the Department of Archaeology) might suggest that the island civilization had a more ancient, and a more truly indigenous genesis than usually posited.}

Thera Mahinda and his six companions (the Theras Itthiya, Utthiya, Sambala, Bhaddasala, the novice bhikku Sumana, and the lay disciple Bhanduka), according to the story, transported themselves through the air by their miraculous powers from Vedisagiri in India to Missaka mountain at Mihintale in Lanka on a Poson Full Moon Poya day some 2300 years ago. The devas smoothed their passage; and the earth shook at the prodigious event. Having alighted on Mount Missaka the missionaries seated themselves there.

On that occasion, King Tissa of Lanka, in the wake of a water festival in the city, was engaged, with his numerous retainers, in his customary sport of hunting in the forest at Mihintale. In order to lead the king to the place where Arhant Mahinda was sitting with his companions the deva of the mountain assumed the form of an elk-stag grazing nearby. The king who had outstripped his retinue spotted the lone elk-stag, but unwilling to shoot it as he considered it ‘unseemly’ to kill an unheeding animal, made a sound by snapping his bow-string. The elk started running up the mountain with the king in hot pursuit. They both reached the top of the mountain. When the king reached where the thera was seated, the deva disappeared. Arhant Mahinda called out to the king “Come hither, Tissa!”. Astonished to hear himself addressed thus (for no one in Lanka would call him by name because he was king), the king laid down his bow and arrows, and turned towards the stranger sitting on the rock. The king saw only Thera Mahinda because the latter had made his six companions invisible, fearing that the sight of an unexpected crowd on that occasion would frighten the monarch. When the king’s retinue caught up with him, the thera made his companions visible.

To the king’s query as to who they were Mahinda Thera responded:

“Oh Great King!
We are the disciples of the King of Truth
Come from Jambudipa
Out of compassion for you!”

The monk wished to find out if the king was intelligent enough to comprehend the Buddha Dhamma that he was going to expound. So he asked the king a few questions, which the King promptly answered.

Oh King, what’s this tree?
Reverend Sir, it’s a mango tree.
Are there any other mango trees beside this one?
Yes, Sir, there are many more.
Are there any other trees beside this one and those other mango
trees?
Yes, Sir, there are many other trees, but they aren’t mango trees.
Are there any other trees than those mango trees, and those other
trees which are not mango trees?
Yes, Sir, there is this mango tree.

Pleased with these answers the Thera declared, “You are very intelligent!” Then Thera Mahinda went on to ask the king some more questions.

Oh, King, do you have any relatives?
Yes, Reverend Sir, I have many.
Are there those who are not your king?
Yes, Sir, there are many who are not my kin.
Is there anyone apart from your relatives, and those who are none of
your kin?
Yes, Sir, myself!

Arhant Mahinda was satisfied that the king was capable of grasping the profound teachings of the Buddha, and he preached to him the Culahatthipadopama Sutta (the lesser discourse on the simile of the elephant’s footprint). At the end of the discourse the king embraced Buddhism, thus becoming the first Sinhala Buddhist king of Lanka.

Later Thera Mahinda got Sumana Samanera (his sister Sangamittha’s son) to announce the time of preaching to be heard by his miraculous powers over all Tambapanni, over the whole of Lanka. Sumana Samanera made the announcement according these instructions. The king hearing the loud voice asked his people whether someone was in distress! (The Mahawamsa author is not averse to an occasional touch of humour in spite of the gravity of his subject.)

King Tissa invited the missionaries to his capital Anuradhapura. He, mindful of their comfort, sent a wagon to bring them to the city. But the theras refused to get on the wagon, saying to the driver that they would follow him and asked him to go back. When the driver came back to the city driving his empty vehicle, to his great amazement, he saw the theras already arrived in the east of the city putting on their robes!

Believing that the theras would not accept raised seats, the monarch had the finest carpets spread on the ground. Then the king himself took the alms bowl from the great thera Mahinda’s hand and led him to the city. Later, however, the theras ‘took their seat on chairs covered with stuffs’.

The king erected a lovely pavilion for the women of the royal household who, having heard from him about the great virtues of Thera Mahinda wished to see and hear the thera. The pavilion was “covered with white stuffs and with flowers and beautifully adorned”. The women, including the royal consort, embraced the new faith after listening to the thera’s preaching.

For the general public who clamoured to meet the missionaries, the king had the elephant’s hall cleansed, and adorned with canopies, and so forth. After listening to Thera Mahinda, they entered the new faith.

Thus began the great cultural revolution of the island.

The traditional story about the coming of Buddhism to Sri Lanka is thus couched in rich supernatural details such as the aerial transportation of the missionaries, the Devas’ guarding their passage through the air, and earthquakes orchestrating the event. It is not that this mythical element falsifies the central historical happening that it embellishes. The Buddhist mission referred to did take place just as surely as the islanders led by the monarch readily accepted the new religion.

In this description the supernatural stands side by side with the natural. The natural backdrop against which the monumental drama of the missionary meeting the king is being enacted is a product of the rich creative imagination of the generations that passed the story down orally to the historian bhikku Mahanama, who recorded it in the Mahawamsa some seven centuries after the event. The mountain, the forest, and the elk pursued by the king are some of the significant elements of this incomparable scene. The poetic blending of the supernatural and the natural here is a richly evocative symbolic representation of a deeply insightful conception of an epoch-making event in the history of the island civilization.

One may interpret the dramatic scene thus: The monks in resplendent yellow robes shining on the mount signify the light of wisdom that Buddhism brought; the forest represents the relatively benighted state of the islanders in which violence, demonstrated by the country’s ruler himself pursuing one of the most innocent of the denizens of the jungle the elk, was a way of life; the king dropping his bow and arrows symbolizes his abandonment of savage practices; the catechism that Mahinda Thera subjects Tissa to dramatically establishes an effective channel of communication between the agent of cultural modernization and its beneficiary. The detail that the king confronted the bhikku by himself is also significant. The artistic imagination that composed this story by incorporating the facts relating to an actual historical mission made the king advance ahead of his retainers in order to make it certain that the message of Buddhism was first delivered to no less a person than the monarch of the island himself.

The traditional story of Arhant Mahinda’s mission is thus not only a record of a historical event, but also a poetic reconstruction of a supreme moment of our island’s history for the inspiration of those of us who cherish it. After all, the Mahawamsa is not only a book of history. It is a poem in Pali, the sacred language of Buddhism, which was composed for “the serene joy and emotion of the pious” as the author claims at the very beginning, and keeps repeating at the end of each chapter.

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