Sri Pada in the Pre-colonial days:

The story of Buddhist tradition

Premakumara de SILVA (Ph.D.)

HISTORY: The story of the Sri Pada is found variously elaborated in a range of literary sources in the “pre-colonial” period. However, there are few ‘ancient’ chronicles and a number of commentarial texts that survive today.

They are composed in Pali, the ancient language of knowledge, produced and perceived by monastic Buddhist monks with the subsequent additions under the authority of Kings.

The chronicles and commentaries narrate important events in the foundation and the function of Buddhism in the island and they are often related as the establishment of Buddhism in the island.

These historical chronicles or Vamsas, are known as Dipavamsa, the “the Chronicle of the Island” (early fourth century), Mahavamsa, the “Great Chronicle”, Vamsatthappakasini or Sihalatthakatha, the “early medieval” commentary on Mahavamsa and Buddhaghosa’s commentary on the monastic disciplinary rules, Samantapasadika, the Culavamsa, the “Little Chronicle”, the continuation of the Mahavamsa (the twelfth century).

However, these texts are transformed in Pali poems of the fourth and fifth centuries into nineteenth century Western European historical reference books, edited with numbered paragraphs, footnotes, and been available in English and German translations, for example Dipavamsa (Oldenberg 1879), Mahavamsa (Turnour 1836, Geiger 1908) and Culavamsa (Geiger 1929).

The most important of these is Mahavamsa widely used and referred, as Sri Lanka’s ‘national chronicle’ indeed is the principal literary source for the historical reconstruction of ancient Sri Lanka.

This gives the authoritative narrative account of the introduction of Buddhism to the island. Apart from that it provides detailed accounts on the origin of the Sinhala race, the Sangha and its relation with contemporary kings.

Unlike other Vamsa texts the major descriptive representation of the early political and religious history of Sri Lanka depends on the account provided by the Mahavamsa.

In other words Mahavamsa became the authoritative ‘historical’ text when studying ‘past’ of the Sinhala Buddhist.

The authoritative myth of originating Sri Pada

Both the Dipavamsa and the Mahavamsa, present detailed accounts of the introduction of Buddhism to the island of Lanka by subjugating inhabitants of the island in the Buddha’s three mythical visits to the island.

The Dipavamsa presents the longer version that covers two chapters containing all in 150 verses.

The Mahavamsa devotes only one chapter with 84 verses to present a much concise account of the visits. In the Vamsatthappakasini, a commentary on the Mahavamsa, the account presented therein differs in certain respects from the Mahavamsa version.

For example, Paranavitana has pointed out that Dipavamsa and Buddhagosa’s historical introduction to the Samantapasadika, have no reference to Sri Pada or its guardian deity, Saman, in their account of the Buddha’s visits to island (1957:12).

Although the Dipavamsa has nothing to say about the Buddha’s visit to Sri Pada the Mahavamsa provides compact and straightforward brief account of the Buddha’s visits to Sri Pada (Mv.1.77-78).

And this account has exemplified the popular myth of Sri Pada being a Buddhist sacred site, more generally other [sixteen] sacred sites in the island as well.

There is no one fixed myth of the origin of the Sri Pada. Different versions vary in detail and emphasis although the broad outline remains the same as in the account of the Mahavamsa.

The story tells how the Buddha himself visits three times to the island and established His “authority” over three types of “non-human beings”; yakkahas, nagas and devas.

The first visit was when at the nine month of His Buddhahood, at the full moon day, [He] Himself set forth to the isle of Lanka, to win Lanka for the faith.

For Lanka was known to the Conqueror as a place where his doctrine should [thereafter] shine in glory; and [he knew that] from Lanka, filled with yakkhas, the yakkhas must be drawn forth.

In his first trip he subdue the yakkhas at Mahiyangana in eastern Sri Lanka (Mv. 19-32), which today is a leading pilgrimage centre where people go to worship the collarbone relic of the Buddha and propitiate the powerful deities, Saman and Kataragama, that reside there.

However, the main shrine at Mahiyangana is dedicated to Saman, the prince of devas, Mahasumana, the territorial god of the Sumanakuta (Sri Pada), who had attained to the fruit of entering into sovan (the first step in the path to Nirvana) after listening to the first preaching of the Buddha in the island.

The Sumana craved to Master (Buddha) something to worship. The Master passing his hand over his head bestowed on him a handful of hairs.

Sumana had laid the hairs upon a heap of many-coloured gems, seven cubits round, piled up at the place where the Master had sat, covered them over with a thupa of sapphire (kind of gem) and worshipped them (Mv. I. 33-36).

During his second visit (Mv. I. 44-70) he subdue and convert the nagas or snake beings that dwelled in the northern tip of the island known as nagadipa, which was also a centre of Buddhist pilgrimage until recently. His third visit eight years after His enlightenment, was to Kelaniya, near Colombo.

The Buddha [Master], set forth surrounded by five hundred bikkhus, on the second day of the beautiful month of Vesak (May), went to the Kalyani country, the habitation of Maniakkhika, the snake king of Kelaniya.

The naga-king, with his following, served food to the Conqueror [Buddha] and his followers. The Teacher [Buddha] preached the doctrine there, He rose, and went to the Sumanakuta (Mv. I. 71-78) where he left traces of his footprint plain to see on Sumanakuta (Sri Pada or Adam’s Peak), the foremost place of Buddhist pilgrimage.

He rested while in a cave under the Sumanakuta, Divaguha. From there He went to Digavapi on the east coast, and to various places in Anuradhapura, which later became the first Capital of the Sinhala king, returned thence to Jetavana (Mv. I. 79-83) (in India).

All these places consecrated by the Buddha have been, and still are, great centres of Buddhist pilgrimage.

According to Obeyesekere the significance of the myth narrated in the Mahavamsa is clear: the island has been consecrated by the Buddha Himself and “malevolent” forces have been banished or subjugated or converted into Buddhism (1995: 224).

Like Obeyesekere most of the other scholars take Mahavamsa narration of the “Establishment” of Buddhism by the Buddha Himself in the island is to provide Buddhists to a historical claiming of their Buddhist identity and the “authority” over the sacred sites (land) and the non-Buddhists of the island.

Of course that interpretation has debated and well accepted among various schools of Sri Lankan studies.

But what is important for me of Mahavamsa narrative is for surely that Sri Pada was in the human thought in the 5th century AD (R.A.L.H. Gunawardena says that evidently this shrine (Sri Pada) was known and revered even at the time when the Mahavamsa was written (1979:233).

But perhaps most important of Sri Pada for the [author of Mahavamsa] chroniclers as a place where “miraculous things” occurs and not as a place where ordinary people engage.

However, there are neither inscriptions nor archaeological records prior to the 5th centaury A.D that refer to Sri Pada.

In fact, epigraphical evidence pertaining to Sri Pada was constructed fully six centuries after the Mahavamsa was composed. That was the era where absence of human occupation of Sri Pada has come to end.

Though the Vamsas contain no reference to Sri Pada after its first mythological mention up to the 11th century, there are some historical evidence in the Buddhist writing outside Sri Lanka prior to that. Example:

Fifth century to Seventh century travel writing of Sri Lanka by Chinese monks, Fa-hien, Hieun Tsiang and Vajrabodhi and the Sixth century Tamil Buddhist poem, Manimekala give some reference to worship of Sri Pada but the geographical locations that sources are referring has full of ambiguity (see: Paranavitana 1958: 16-17 and J.M. Seneviratne, “Some notes on the Chinese references to Ceylon” JRAS Vol 29).

However, the monk Mahanama, the writer of the 5th century A.D. Mahavamsa gave two minor instances relating to Sri Pada. The first one is Vijaya’s [mythical farther of the Sinhala Community] two children from Kuveni fled the area after her death: “Fleeing with speed they went from thence to the Sumanakuta” (Mv.vii 67).

The second instance is at the time of King Dutugammunu (B.C 161-137): “The thera Malayamahadeva, who received the sour millet-gruel, had given thereof to nine hundred bhikkhus on the Sumanakuta-mountain he ate of it himself)” (Mv.xxxii 49-50).

Before elaborating this point further let me demonstrate how the compact and straight forward “authoritative” narrative of the originating Buddhist Sri Pada in Mahavamsa [appeared in the ‘official’ Pali chronicle of Mahavamsa] has been differently reconstructed, differently cast, differently flavoured and differently imploded in different forms of scholarly literary productions in the different periods of Sri Lanka’s religious history.

The Buddhist myth of Sri Pada in the medieval literary productions

The first notable post-canonical Pali literary production which gives a more elaborated version of the mythical origin of Sri Pada was written in the poetic form by a Buddhist monk in the thirteenth century,’ namely, Samantakutavanna, ‘The Praise of Mount Samanta’ nearly nine hundred years after the first mythical story appeared in the Mahavamsa and just under two centuries after the first human occupation of the pilgrimage site.

This poetic text provides full flagged of descriptions: life of the Buddha (7-469) and His visit to the island (470- 717), visit to Sri Pada and the imprint of the Buddha’s left foot (718- 790) and visit to other [future sacred] sites such as Dighavapi, Anuradhapura and return to Jetavana (791-795) in eight hundred and two Pali poems.

The story of the Buddha’s visit to Sri Pada and the imprint of his left foot is narrated more elaborately in seventy two poems in this post-canonical Pali text which has well summarised by the Godakumbura as follows:

“Hearing upon the Master’s [Buddha] visit to Kelaniya. Sumana goes there and invites the Master to his abode so that he may make it holy by the dust of his feet. Sumana praises his home to the Buddha, and now gives the descriptions of the Sumana-giri, the Rock of Sumana, Samantakutavnnana, from which the poem takes its name (vv 722-46).

The master and the [five hundred] disciples accompany Sumana through the air to Samantagiri (v 747). Verses 748-59 recount the wonders, which took place on the way to Samantagiri.

On his arrival on the Rock, Sumana praises the Buddha’s feet (vv.766-76), and begs him to adorn his Rock with the mark of his foot in the same way that he had set its imprint on the bank of the River Nammada [Narmadha] at the meeting of the river with the ocean and on the mountain Saccakabaddha (vv.777-78).

At the invitation of Sumana the Buddha makes a mark with his left foot on the summit of the Rock (v.779). It was on the full-moon day of the month of Vesakha in the eighth year after the Sambodhi [attain Nirvanna] that the Master set his left foot-print here (v.780) (In Mahavamsa account “Divaguha” is not mentioned) Then follows a short account of the wonders that accompanied the setting of the foot-print (vv 781-82). The Buddha spends a day in the Divaguha , a cave in a grotto on the flank of that rock (vv. 783-84).

There is also an account of the permanent wonders that are found in that region [surrounding of the mountain region] (vv. 785-90). The Buddha then sets off through the air to Rohana (v.791), and he sanctifies the spot where the Dighvapicetiya was later built (v.792).

Then he goes to Anuradhapura, to the spot where the Bodhi tree was to be planted, the ground where the Mahacetiya [pagoda of Ruwanwali] was to be built, the place where the jaw-bone was to be enshrined (v.793), to the ground of the Seacetiya [Mirisavati] and return to Jetavana [India]. The final stanza (v. 796) is an admonition to the listeners to worship the foot-print” (1958: xviii-xix).

The translation of the poem is this:

In the afternoon of the day of the full moon in the month of Vesakha, in the eighth autumn after His Awakening, the Sage (Buddha) made a sign of remembrance with His foot while the world of men and gods along with the samanas (disciples) were paying homage to Him (Hazlewood 1986:94).

Interestingly, the similar event was differently cast in the Sinhala language Pujavaliya (The Garland of Offerings), composed in the same century by a Buddhist monk, Mayurapada.

For the first time, this text tells us that the Buddha imprinted His foot also in the riverbank of Kelaniya by the invitation of the snack king Maniakkita, then ruler of the area.

The 33rd chapter of the text is devoted to the narration of the event that Buddha’s mythical visit to Sri Pada Mountain as the response to the subservient request of god Saman for the implanting the footprint in his residential mountain.

The author of the Pujavaliya claimed that Sri Pada was not only sanctified by Gautama Buddha, but also by the three other previous Buddhas as well.

Moreover, he tells how Buddha had implanted his footprint at Sri Pada but also at three other different places beyond Sri Lanka: the Narmada river bank [in the city of Savat] in India, the Mount of Sachchabaddha... and the beach in the country of Yonaka.... (lit. Muslim).

These events were elaborated into colourful, unreal and grandiose events in the text. There is no doubt the author of the Pujavaliya derived the main story - and the style of the presentation - from the Pali poem of Samantakutavanna, and further elaborated it by adding imaginary elements around the authoritative mythical narrative of the origin of Sri Pada.

However, the story of the Pujavaliya marked the textualisation of the story of the Buddha’s visit to Sri Pada in the vernacular language and thereby groups of both literate and non-literate persons were enabled to read or listen to recitals of such stories about Buddha’s presence on their island.

Some scholars have pointed out that localisation of Buddhist historiography is consistent with broader literary trends emphasising Sinhala language and audiences, beginning in the twelfth century onwards.

In addition to this literary shift, in his earlier work Hallisey shows that works written between the eighth and thirteenth centuries visibly promoted lay and monastic expressions of devotion (1988).

Hallisey’s point can be further elaborated through the story of the origin of Buddhist Sri Pada, and appears in the sixteenth century literary work, known as Rajaratnakara. The author of this text is unknown - though probably a monk - but it gives a fascinating account of the Buddha’s visit to Sri Pada with a highly devotional tone.

In this version Sri Pada mountain is described as a ‘woman’ who urges Buddha to visit her place and imprint his beautiful foot on her body (see Upham 1833).

The feminisation of Sri Pada as a site of worship shows the emerging devotional aspect of the Sri Pada pilgrimage in this historical period, and such forms of devotional expression are in other vernacular literary productions that are directly connected to Sri Pada.

For example, Saman Sirita, or ‘The Song of Praise to God Saman’, was published in the 16th century, and describes an occasion when the God Saman asked Buddha to imprint his footprint on the mountain and in making this request, describes the extreme charm and grandeur of the area surrounding the peak.

According to P.E.P Deraniyagala (1961) Saman Sirita or as he puts it ‘Hymn to the Presiding Deity of Mount Saman’ consist of two sections that comprise 290 verses of which the first contains 72.

The first part of the Praise describes as in the Samantakutavanna the Buddha’s visit to Mahiyangana and to Kelaniya, how in the latter occasion the God Saman begs him to leave his footprint on the Sri Pada and making this request describes the grandeur of the surrounding area of the peak.

And in the second part of the Praise describes the Buddha impressing his footprint on the mountain peak and his visit to Anuradhapuara.

This example shows that devotional literary productions on Sri Pada from this period were not only directed to Buddha but also to the god Saman, the guardian deity of Sri Pada.

This style of devotional literature has a clear connection with the devotional acts of worship of ordinary pilgrims; for example, devotional songs (tunsarana) sung during the pilgrimage can be seen as a part of the continuation of this tradition.

Likewise, the Buddhists’ origin myth of Sri Pada was so absolutely taken as real history by post-canonical literary scholars that they attempted to reify myth as history in their literary production.

This historicised origin myth of Sri Pada has become a popular narrative of Sinhala Buddhists, as it genuinely occurred at Sri Pada. In fact, today this narrative is retold in teaching, preaching and the printing medium with different flavours and colours, as well as being depicted in temple murals.

Such narrativisation has produced authoritative claim as Sri Pada being a Buddhist place of worship.

(The writer is a senior lecturer/postgraduate coordinator of the Department of Sociology, University of Colombo.)