Miracle at gates of Savatthi; Sermon to Mother in Tavatimsa; Miracle to Devas after it (after Abhidhamma); Interrogation of Elders on return from Tavatimsa; Delivery of the Mahasamaya Sutta; Delivery of the Rahulovada Sutta; Delivery of the Mahamayala Sutta; Attack by Dhammasála at the instigation of Devadatta; Discourse to Alavaka; Discourse to Angulimála ; Discourse to Apalála; Discourse to Páráyana Brahmans.

The journey to the Tavatimsa heaven accounts for four of these, seven are discourses, and one belongs to the Vinaya (Culla Vagga) account of Devadatta.

From this point the tradition of the Parinibb. Sutta is strictly followed.

The Determination to decease in three months; Cunda's Offering; the Gift of Pukkusa; the Drinking of the Kakuttha Water; the Parinibbana; Lamentation of Devas; Homage of Maha Kassapa; Self-ignition of Pyre; Division of relics by Dona.

This list of sculptures represent almost exactly the biography contained in the Pitakas, as we have displayed it in Chapter iv. All the scenes may be derived from the first book of the Maha Vagga, and from the Parinibb. Sutta, except such as describe the delivery of various Suttas, and one important group, that of the scenes connected with the visit to the Tavatimsa heaven.

It is evident that this passage, if it can be relied on, shows that Dutthagamini possessed substantially our present Pitakas. Can it be relied on? In other words, is this list of sculptures drawn by the chronicler from what he saw on the Ruwanweli Dagaba, or from his books? Does the list date from 160 B.C., or 400 A.D.?

It is possible, in spite of the earlier Tamil invaders, who are not said to have defaced the dagaba as later ones did, and in spite of the new works which Vattagamini (Mahavansa, xxiv.) added, that all or nearly all of Dutthagámini's work existed when Mahanama wrote. On the other hand, it is certain that much of the chronicler's account of Dutthagámini's construction of the dagaba is mere romance, or improbable tradition. From the supernatural bricklayers, the slowest of whom could build in a day as much as a hundred carts could bring, to the eighty-four thousand priests who were present at the dedication, the whole story is embellished with the exaggerations of fancy. But that would not necessarily discredit either the central facts, or even details in the description of that which was within the chronicler's own knowledge. When, however, we come

to the relic-case, composed of six slabs of alabaster, each eighty cubits long and broad, by eight inches thick, which according to the chronicler was, and, if he is right, is now inside the dagaba, we find that he cannot have been seriously attempting to picture to himself what he described. He cannot have seen it. He is describing an imaginary dagaba, not the real one. For apart from the absurdity of the slabs of alabaster of the proportion of sheets of cardboard, the Ruwanweli Dagaba, as Mahanama saw it, would scarcely hold such a box. It is said, however (Mahavansa, xxxiv), that king Vattagamini was mysteriously conducted into this wonderful relic-box, in which he had heard beatified beings chanting.

Our chronicler, it is certain, consulted rather his imagination than his eyes in this part of the description.

I dare not, therefore, draw from the thirtieth chapter of the Mahavansa any confirmation of the opinion that our Pitaka was known to Dutthagámini, or that Mahinda taught it in Ceylon.

Ου

PART III

BUDDHISM IN CEYLON

CHAPTER XXII

MAHINDA AND THE CONVERSION OF CEYLON

UR history is now to cross from India to Ceylon, and to trace the fortunes of Buddhism in the island, after its establishment there by Mahinda in the third century. But first we may not entirely pass over the account which is given-though of course fictitious, and I believe late-of the preparations made for this in Buddha's own time. The historians of Ceylon, whether the authors of the primitive monastery archives, or the original compilers of the Dipavansa and Mahavansa, or their later continuators, desired not unnaturally to represent the Buddha as having visited their island. They have not for that purpose either contradicted or interpolated the sacred text. They have found, within the statements of the Tipitaka, opportunities recorded, which the Buddha used (as they say, and as the sacred text does not deny) for visits to Lanka.

The Maha Vagga records among the marvels which preceded the conversion of Kassapa the Jatila, that the Buddha, aware of Kassapa's jealousy of his

influence, made a point of withdrawing on the day of Kassapa's festival. He obtained his meal that day from Uttarakuru, and withdrew to eat it to the mystic lake Anotatta in the Himalaya. This was of course completed before midday. The Vinaya says that he rested by the lake in the heat of the day; but it does not mention how he spent the latter part of the afternoon. He returned, we read, before night. The gap is supplied by the Mahavansa. 'On that very afternoon, being the ninth month of his Buddhahood, at the full moon of the constellation "Phussa" unattended (he) "visited Lanka" for the purpose of sanctifying Lanka.'1

The purpose of this visit was to clear the island of the yakkhas (demons; wood, forest, or savage beings), who were not likely to make good followers of the Buddha. Taking advantage of one of their assemblies, when they were gathered together in a beautiful garden in the centre of the island, the Buddha appeared unexpectedly in the air above them; terrified them by storms and rain, and cold and darkness, till they offered to him the whole island. He dispelled their terrors and seated himself on the earth among them, but soon caused flames to extend in every direction from the carpet on which he sat, till the yakkhas were driven to the shores. He then caused a delightful island called Giri, quite as attractive as Lanka, and prepared in every way for their reception, to approach alongside: the yakkhas stepped on to it,

1 The tradition, as given in this place (Mahávansa), as to the events that followed immediately on the attainment of Buddhahood follows, with one slight difference, that in the Vinaya. See p. 37 supra.

and it returned to its former place in the ocean. Thus, without difficulty or discontent, the undesirable population was disposed of.

The island of Lanka was now occupied by local deities in inconceivable numbers, and these were soon converted. The chief of the local deities or devas, Sumana of Sumanakúta (Adam's Peak, now, but then Sumana's Peak), begged for something worthy of worship, and the Buddha gave him a handful of his pure blue (hyacinthine?) locks, which the deva enshrined in an emerald casket. After the Nirvana of the Buddha-as the Mahavansa tells us, with less regard for the Mahaparinibbána Sutta the thorax-bone was brought from the pyre by an elder named Sarabhu, and deposited in the same dagaba1 of emerald, which was enclosed in a larger one of marble. Later kings enlarged this further; and this is the history of the celebrated Mahiyangana Dagaba.2

To bring the Buddha to Lanka during the early months of his Buddhahood, for which the Vinaya record is so detailed, was a feat of some ingenuity. None was shown in saying that in the fifth year, while staying in Jetavana, he paid a second visit.

1 This word, from 'dá, dhátu' 'relic,' and 'gaba, garbhaya' 'womb, receptacle,' is generally used of large buildings, but may be strictly used, as here, of a small casket, now called 'Karanduwa.' The shape is the same in small and great.

2 At Alut Nuwara, in eastern Bintenne, the low ground on the east of the central mountains. This place, on the banks of the Mahaveliganga, is now a very obscure spot. It is, however, as nearly as possible the 'centre' of the island. As late as the middle of the eighteenth century the Kandian king is said to have visited and admired it (Maha Vagga, 99); and it was visited by Siamese pilgrims (ib. c. 100.)