THE MAHAVAMSA

bawa May 28th, 2008

WHEN the lord of chariots had appointed to watch over the Bodhi-tree eighteen persons^[1] from royal families and eight from families of ministers, and moreover eight persons from brahman families and eight from families of traders and persons from the cowherds likewise, and from the hyena and sparrowhawk-clans,^[2] (from each one man), and also from the weavers and potters and from all the handicrafts, from the nagas and the yakkhas; when then the most exalted prince had given them eight vessels of gold and eight of silver,^[3] and had brought the great Bodhi-tree* to a ship on the Ganges, and likewise the theri Samghamitta with eleven bhikkhunis, and when he had caused those among whom Arittha was first to embark on that same ship, he fared forth from the city, and passing over the Viñjhä-mountains the prince arrived, in just one week, at Tamalitti.^[4] Continue Reading »

1. 1-In devakula the word deva is evidently to be taken in the sense of ‘king’, and merely as a synonym of khattiya. Kula means here, as below in 30 and 31, the individual belonging to a class or craft. [^]
2. 2-Taraccha (=Skt. taraksa) ‘hyena’, and kulinga (Skt. kulinga), the name of a bird of prey, the ‘fork-tailed shrike’, seem here to designate certain clans or crafts. Perhaps the names have a totemistic origin. FRAZER, Totemism, p. 3 foll. [^]
3. 3-To water the tree during the journey. [^]
4. 4-The king travels by land over the Vindhya range to the mouth of the Ganges. Here he again meets the ship carrying the Bodhi-tree and its escort. On Tamalittl, see note to 11. 38. [^]

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bawa May 28th, 2008

THE monarch remembered the word spoken by the thera, that he should send for the great Bodhi-tree and the theri, and when, on a certain day during the rain-season, he was sitting in his own city with the thera and had taken counsel with his ministers he entrusted his own nephew, his minister named Arittha, with this business. Continue Reading »

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bawa May 28th, 2008

WHEN the great thera of lofty wisdom, after spending the rain-season (thus), had held the pavarana-ceremony,^[1] on the full-moon day of the month Kattika,^[2] he spoke thus to the king: ‘Long is the time, O lord of men, since we have seen the Sambuddha. We lived a life without a master. There is nothing here for us to worship.’ And to the question: ‘Yet hast thou not told me, sir, that the Sambuddha is passed into nibbana?’ he answered: ‘If we behold the relics we behold the Conqueror.’ ‘My intention to build a thupa is known to you. I will build the thupa, and do you discover the relics.’ The thera replied to the king: ‘Take counsel with Sumana’; and the king said to the samanera: ‘Whence shall we have the relics?’ ‘O lord of men, when thou hast commanded the adorning of the city and the road and hast taken the uposathavows upon thyself^[3] together with thy company, go thou, in the evening, mounted on thy state-elephant, bearing the white parasol and attended by musicians,^[4] to the Mahanaga-park. There, O king, wilt thou receive relics of him who knew how to destroy the elements of existence,’^[5] so said the sämanera Sumana to the (king), glad of heart. Continue Reading »

1. 1-Pavaretva. On the pavarana-ceremony at the conclusion of vassa see Mahavagga IV. Vin. Pit., ed. OLDENBERG, i, p. 157 foll. ; S.B.E. xiii, p. 325 foll. [^]
2. 2-See note to 1. 12. [^]
3. 3-Uposathi is a synonym of uposathika. The uposatha-vows as kept by laymen consist in ‘fasting and abstinence from sensual pleasures’ (see CHILDERS, s.v. uposatho). [^]
4. 4-The Tika explains talavacarasamhito by sabbehi talavacarehi sahito bherimudingadituriyahatthapurisehi parivarito. [^]
5. 5-A play on the word dhatu, meaning ‘element’ (see KERN, Manual, p. 51, n. 2), and dhatu ‘relic’. [^]

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