The Anuradhapura Kingdom - XX

The Anuradhapura Kingdom - XX

Contiued with part nineteen   here to go previous one

Literature

Buddhism was, without doubt, the greatest stimulus to literary activity among the ancient Sinhalese. The Theravada Buddhist canon was brought to the island by Mahinda and his companions and handed down orally. These scriptures were in Pali and it was in this language that they were committed to writing for the first time, at Aluvihara near Matale in the first century BC. The preservation of the Theravada canon, which had been lost in India at a comparatively early date, is one of the landmark contributions of the Sinhalese to world literature. Around these scriptures grew a considerable body of writing in Pali and old Sinhalese, consisting of exegetical works, religious texts, and historical accounts. The Mahavihara bhikkhus compiled an extensive exegetical literature in Pali. No doubt its rivals, the Abhayagiri and Jetavana, matched the achievement of the Mahavihara in this field, but nothing of their work has survived. Not that very much of the body of material produced by the Mahavihara has survived either, but these works together formed the basis of the extensive canonical and commentarial literature in Pali, and the chronicles in that language in the fifth century AD and later. The oldest Pali chronicle surviving today is the Dipavamsa which provides an account of the history of the island up to the time of Mahasena, with scattered references to developments in India when these had some bearing on Sri Lanka. The Pali commentaries and canonical literature, a systematic compilation of the fifth century AD by Buddhaghosa, Buddhadatta and Dhammapala, none of them a native of the island, demonstrate greater literary skill. Buddhaghosa, whose most famous work is the Visual- dhimagga, is much the most celebrated of these scholars. His work was intended mainly for Buddhist missionary activity overseas in South East Asia.

One notable feature of Sri Lanka's Pali literature needs special mention: the remarkable tradition of historical writing among the Sinhalese. The earliest historical work is the Dipavamsa, a compilation, very probably, of the fifth century AD. The Mahavamsa, also in Pali verse and covering the same period of history, is a much more sophisticated accomplishment and one which succeeding generations used, quoted with pride as the definitive work on the island's history, and felt compelled to update. Its continuation the Culavarhsa, attributed to Dhammakitti in the thirteenth century surveyed the island's history up to the reign of Parakramabahu I (1153-86). A subsequent extension by another bhikkhu took the story to the fourteenth century, and it was concluded by yet another in the late eighteenth century. These chronicles, notwithstanding their flaws and gaps, provide a remarkably accurate chronological and political framework for the study of the island’s history. But their scope is by no means limited to Sri Lanka, for events and personalities on the Indian subcontinent are often mentioned. These references have provided scholars with data to determine the chronologies of Indian kings and empires as well.

Sinhalese as a distinct language and script developed rapidly under the joint stimuli of Pali and Buddhism. Indeed it would be true to say that the art of writing came to Sri Lanka with Buddhism. By the second century AD Sinhalese was being used for literary purposes, and thereafter a body of religious writing explaining the Pali canon was accumulated, primarily for the purpose of conveying its ideas to those not conversant with Pali. The Sinhalese language was also enriched by translations from Pali. But Pali did not remain for long the only or even the dominant influence on Sinhalese. Sanskrit, the language of the Mahayanist and Hindu scriptures, whi^h was richer in idiom, vocabulary and vitality, left a strong impression on the Sinhalese language in the later centuries of the Anuradhapura era. There was also a considerable Tamil influence on the vocabulary, idiom and grammatical structure of Sinhalese. Very little of the Sinhalese work of this period have survived, and most of it seems stilted, pedantic and lacking in originality and vitality. This is not surprising since much of it was written for scholars, and conformed to rigid literary conventions. The earliest known Sinhalese work was the Siyabaslakara, a work on rhetoric, a Sinhalese version of the well known Sanskrit text on poetics, the Kavyadarsa. Its author was probably Sena IV (954-6).17 There were also exegetical works and glossaries, but none of them had any literary pretensions. Some of the inscriptions of the first and second centuries BC appear in verse. Much more interesting as examples of a lively and sensitive folk poetry are the verses written on the gallery wall at Slgiri by visitors to the place in the eighth and ninth centuries, of which 700 stanzas have been deciphered.18 These verses are a poignant reminder of how rich this vein of folk poetry must have been. Almost all of it is now irretrievably lost.

Nothing of the more formal poetry has survived. Moggallana II, for example, apart from being a great builder of tanks, was a man of letters and is said to have composed a religious poem, of which how¬ever there is now no trace. Just as Pali was the language of Sinhalese Buddhism, Sanskrit was the sacred language of the Brahmans (and Hinduism) and of Mahayanism. With the spread of Mahayanism in Sri Lanka, the more erudite bhikkhus turned to the study of Sanskrit since most of the Mahayanist scriptures were written in that language. Sanskrit studies became more popular in the island with the influence of the Pallavas who were great patrons of that language. Some of the more famous Sanskrit works were known in the island, and Sanskrit theories of poetics and rhetoric were studied. But Sri Lanka’s contribution to Sanskrit literature was both meagre and imitative. The one notable work was that of Kumaradasa (a scion of the Sinhalese royal family but not a king), who composed the Janakiharana in the seventh century AD. Its theme was the Ramayana. There were also a few inscriptions in Sanskrit, and some minor writings in that language. All in all, therefore, the major contribution of the Sinhalese in the period of the Anuradhapura kings was in Pali. Creative writing in that language reached a level of competence far above that in either Sinhalese or Sanskrit.

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