The Anuradhapura Kingdom - XIV

The Anuradhapura Kingdom - XIV

Contiued with part thirteen   here to go previous one

A Buddhist Civilisation

Buddhism1 was, to use modern parlance, the 'established' religion of the Anuradhapura kingdom. The conversion of Devanampiya Tissa was the momentous event from which this link between state and religion emerged, and thereafter over the centuries, it became formalized or institutionalized, with Buddhism and royal authority supporting each other and drawing strength from their association. Of the formal obligations of the ruler to the established religion, three were of special importance. First of all, there was the provision, by the state and its citizens, of the wherewithal for the maintenance of the sangha. Secondly, there was the use of part of the country’s agricultural surplus for the construction of religious edifices and monuments, with the architectural and sculptural embellishments associated with these a theme reviewed in detail in the second part of this chapter. And thirdly there was the king's duty to protect the established religion. This obligation taxed the ruler's resources of statesman ship to the full because of the need to steer a wary course between the defense of Buddhism and an entanglement in the doctrinal disputes of the day and in the prolonged struggle between the orthodox Theravada school and its persistent Mahayanist rivals. Closely linked with the obligation to defend the established religion was the onerous responsibility, which devolved on the ruler of the day, of overseeing if not initiating a purification of the sangha when increasing wealth and luxury inevitably led to corruption and indiscipline among bhikkhus. However, monarchical intervention to cleanse the sangha proved to be rarer in the period covered by this chapter than thereafter.

According to the vinaya rules which governed the lives of the sangha, its members were expected to live on the charity of the people but The most comprehensive work on Buddhism in Sri Lanka in the Anuradhapura period is the Rev. Walpola Rahula's History of Buddhism in Ceylon (2nd edn, Colombo, 1966). I have relied on it greatly in this chapter, as well as on S. Paranavitana's chapters on Buddhism in UCHC{\). See also E. W. Adikaram, Early History of Buddhism in Ceylon (Colombo, 1946), and S. Paranavitana, Sinhalayo (Colombo, 1967). with the rapid increase in the number of bhikkhus this became increasingly precarious and unrealistic as a source of sustenance. Thus from the beginning monasteries became dependent on the state for their maintenance, and pious kings regarded it a sacred duty to divert part of the resources and revenues at their command for the maintenance of the sangha. As a result, monasteries came to own vast temporalities and in the course of time, they became the biggest land-holders in the kingdom. The social and economic implications of the emergence of monastic landlordism have been discussed in earlier chapters. Suffice it to say, at this point, that the wealth they controlled afforded the sangha a lasting and sustained protection of their own interests and existence, quite apart from increasing their authority over the community at large.

We turn next to a review of the king's role as protector of the established religion. This theme can only be analyzed in terms of and against the background of the sectarian squabbles within the sangha which erupted in these centuries. Inevitably this discussion will take us beyond the narrow confines of the study of the ruler's role as protector of the established religion into the wider theme of the evolution of Buddhist doctrine and practices in the Anuradhapura kingdom. The teachings of the Theravada school were marked by a remarkable blend of clarity, simplicity, and compassion. There was an emphasis on the uniqueness of the Buddha, the enlightened one, who showed the way to salvation; and a stress on individual effort as the means to this end: one reached salvation by one's own efforts. A bhikkhu, for instance, would attain nirvana by a single-minded dedication to the demands of his chosen vocation as a disciple of the Buddha, and the ideal set for him was the status of an arahant, one who achieves nirvana and is not reborn thereafter.