Part 70 (1/2)

But the hall which contains the figures of Buddha, and which const.i.tutes the ”temple” proper, is always detached from the domestic buildings, and is frequently placed on an eminence from which the view is commanding.

The interior is painted in the style of Egyptian chambers, and is filled with figures and ill.u.s.trations of the legends of Gotama, whose statue, with hand uplifted in the att.i.tude of admonition, or reclining in repose emblematic of the blissful state of Nirwana, is placed in the dimmest recess of the edifice. Here lamps cast a feeble light, and the air is heavy with the perfume of flowers, which are daily renewed by fresh offerings from the wors.h.i.+ppers at the shrines.

[Sidenote: B.C. 289.]

In no other system of idolatry, ancient or modern, have the rites been administered by such a mult.i.tude of priests as a.s.sist in the pa.s.sionless ceremonial of Buddhism. Fa Hian, in the fourth century, was a.s.sured by the people of Ceylon that at that period the priests numbered between fifty and sixty thousand, of whom two thousand were attached to one wihara at Anaraj.a.poora, and three thousand to another.[1]

[Footnote 1: FA HIAN, _Fo[)e] Kou[)e] Ki_, ch. x.x.xviii. p. 336, 350. At the present day the number in the whole island does not probably exceed 2500 (HARDY'S _Eastern Monachism_, p. 57, 309). But this is far below the proportion of the Buddhist priesthood in other countries; in Siam nearly every adult male becomes a priest for a certain portion of his life; a similar practice prevails in Ava; and in Burmah so common is it to a.s.sume the yellow robe, that the popular expedient for effecting divorce is for the parties to make a profession of the priesthood, the ceremonial of which is sufficient to dissolve the marriage vow, and after an interval of a few months, they can throw off the yellow robe and are then at liberty to marry again.]

As the vow which devotes the priests of Buddha to religion binds them at the same time to a life of poverty and mendicancy, the extension of the faith entailed in great part on the crown the duty of supporting the vast crowds who withdrew themselves from industry to embrace devotion and indigence. They were provided with food by the royal bounty, and hence the historical books make perpetual reference to the priests ”going to the king's house to eat,”[1] when the monarch himself set the example to his subjects of ”serving them with rice broth, cakes, and dressed rice.”[2] Rice in all its varieties is the diet described in the _Mahawanso_ as being provided for the priesthood by the munificence of the kings; ”rice prepared with sugar and honey, rice with clarified b.u.t.ter, and rice in its ordinary form.”[3] In addition to the enjoyment of a life of idleness, another powerful incentive conspired to swell the numbers of these devotees. The followers and successors of Wijayo preserved intact the inst.i.tution of caste, which they had brought with them from the valley of the Ganges; and, although caste was not abolished by the teachers of Buddhism, who retained and respected it as a social inst.i.tution, it was practically annulled and absorbed in the religious character;--all who embraced the ascetic life being simultaneously absolved from all conventional disabilities, and received as members of the sacred community with all its exalted prerogatives.[4]

[Footnote 1: _Rajavali_, p. 198. Hiouen Thsang, the Chinese pilgrim, describing Anaraj.a.poora in the seventh century, says: ”A cote du palais du roi; on a construit une vaste cuisine ou l'on prepare chaque jour des aliments pour dix-huit mille religieux. A l'heure de repas, les religieux viennent, un pot a la main, pour recevoir leur nourriture.

Apres l'avoir obtenue ils s'en retournent chacun dans leur chambre.”--HIOUEN THSANG, _Transl._ M. JULIEN, lib. xi. tom. ii. p.

143.]

[Footnote 2: _Mahawanso_, ch. xiv. p. 82.]

[Footnote 3: _Mahawanso_, ch. x.x.xii.; _Rajaratnacari_, ch. i. p. 37, ch.

ii. p. 56, 60, 62.]

[Footnote 4: Professor Wilson, _Journ. Roy. Asiat. Soc._ vol. xvi. p.

249.]

Along with food, clothing consisting of three garments to complete the sacerdotal robes, as enjoined by the Buddhist ritual[1], was distributed at certain seasons; and in later times a practice obtained of providing robes for the priests by ”causing the cotton to be picked from the tree at sunrise, cleaned, spun, woven, dyed yellow, and made into garments and presented before sunset.”[2] The condition of the priesthood was thus reduced to a state of absolute dependency on alms, and at the earliest period of their history the vow of poverty, by which their order is bound, would seem to have been righteously observed.

[Footnote 1: To avoid the vanity of dress or the temptation to acquire property, no Buddhist priest is allowed to have more than one set of robes, consisting of three pieces, and if an extra one be bestowed on him it must be surrendered to the chapter of his wihara within ten days.

The dimensions must not exceed a specified length, and when obtained new the cloth must be disfigured with mud or otherwise before he puts it on.

A magnificent robe having been given to Gotama, his attendant Ananda, in order to destroy its intrinsic value, cut it into thirty pieces and sewed them together in four divisions, so that the robe resembled the patches of a rice-field divided by embankments. And in conformity with this precedent the robes of every priest are similarly dissected and reunited.--Hardy's _Eastern Monachism_, c. xii. p. 117; _Rajaratnacari_, ch. ii. pp. 60, 66.]

[Footnote 2: _Rajaratnacari_, pp. 104, 109, 112. The custom which is still observed in Ceylon, of weaving robes between sunrise and sunset is called _Catina dhwana_ (_Rajavali_, p. 261). The work is performed chiefly by women, and the practice is identical with that mentioned by Herodotus, as observed by the priests of Egypt, who celebrated a festival in honour of the return of Rhampsinitus, after playing at dice with Ceres in Ilades, by investing one of their body with a cloak made in a single day, [Greek: pharos autemeron exyphenantes], _Euterpe_, cxxii. Gray, in his ode of _The Fatal Sisters_, has embodied the Scandinavian myth in which the twelve weird sisters, the _Valkiriur_, weave ”the crimson web of war” between the rising and setting of the sun.]

CHAP V.

SINGHALESE CHIVALRY.--ELALA AND DUTUGAIMUNU.

[Sidenote: B.C. 289.]

[Sidenote: B.C. 266.]

For nearly a century after the accession of Devenipiatissa, the religion and the social development of Ceylon thus exhibited an equally steady advancement. The cousins of the king, three of whom ascended the throne in succession, seem to have vied with each other in works of piety and utility. Wiharas were built in all parts of the island, both north and south of the Maha-welli-ganga. Dagobas were raised in various places, and cultivation was urged forward by the formation of tanks and ca.n.a.ls.

But, during this period, from the fact of the Bengal immigrants being employed in more congenial or more profitable occupations (possibly also from the numbers who were annually devoting themselves to the service of the temples), and from the ascertained inapt.i.tude of the native Singhalese to bear arms, a practice was commenced of retaining foreign mercenaries, which, even at that early period, was productive of animosity and bloodshed, and in process of time led to the overthrow of the Wijayan dynasty and the gradual decay of the Sinhala sovereignty.

[Sidenote: B.C. 266.]

[Sidenote: B.C. 237.]