The God of Adam's Peak Author(s): S. Paranavitana Reviewed work(s): Source: Artibus Asiae. Supplementum, Vol.

18, The God of Adam's Peak (1958), pp. 4-9+1113+15-31+33-35+37-41+43+45-78 Published by: Artibus Asiae Publishers Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/1522591 . Accessed: 26/11/2011 08:31
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S. PARANAVITANA
RETIRED ARCHAEOLOGICAL COMMISSIONER UNIVERSITY OF CEYLON; OF CEYLON PROFESSOR OF ARCHAEOLOGY,

TH GOD OF

E ADAM'S

PEAK

MCMLVIII ARTIBUS ASIAE PUBLISHERS *ASCONA *SWITZERLAND

PRINTED

IN SWITZERLAND

CONTENTS

List of Illustrations..
I

.8
.I

Adam's Peak in History and Literature.. Saman,the God of Adam's Peak, is the same as Yama . SamiddhiSumanaand Mahakila: Aspects of Samanor Yama .

II III IV V VI VII

.22 . .

z8

and Iconographyof SamanCompared The Characteristics with those of Yama 39 Divinities Associated with Saman An Ancient SinhaleseKing as an Embodimentof Yama. Yama and Agastya: GeneralObservations Index . . .
.75
56

. .67

6i

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

Frontispiece: A Painting of Saman by an Indigenous Artist of the early British period, reproducedfrom by Edward Upham, London i829. TheHistoryandDoctrines of Buddhism, Fig. Fig.
i
2

Adam's Peak, General View .13 on a wing-stone now flankingthe flight of Bas-reliefrepresentationof a personageholding a dainda, 3' steps at the main entranceto the Laikitilaka, Polonnaruva.Probably 9th Century . Bas-relief representationof a personage holding a davIa on one of the wingstones flanking the at Polonnaruva. Probably ioth flight of steps at the entrance to Rijavegyl-bhujafiga-mandapa .. 35 century Painting of the god Saman on a Wall of the temple at Kalaniya, i8th century.4. A Drawing of god Saman, reproduced from An Accountof theInteriorof Ceylon, by John Davy,
London
I82I.

Fig. 3

Fig. 4 Fig. 5 Fig. 6 Fig. 7 Fig. 8 Fig. 9 Fig. io Fig. Fig. Fig. Fig.
ii

45

Image of God Samanin the Cave Temple at Dambulla, circai2th century .

.43 46 47

at Polonnaruva, 12th century Bronze figurine of Yama from a Stapa in the Alihana-parivenxa Sandal-wood Image of God Saman,in the Vihira at Palibaddala,possibly 13th century Stucco Image of God Samanat the G6namariylva Temple, late i8th century . .48 . . .

Copper image of Yama, found buried under the feet of the Colossal Buddha image at Avukana, probably 8th century .49 Two-faced figure of Yama, buried under a porch in the Vijayirima at Anurldhapura,9th century. Now in the Colombo Museum .50 Bronze figure of Yama found buried in a porch at the PuliyankulamMonastery,Anuridhapura, . now in Colombo Museum, circa ioth century . Bronze figure of Yama found in a Stfipa in the T6pivava, Polonnaruva, 12th century. Now in the Colombo Museum . . Image of Saman,holding rod, in the Buddhist Temple at GodakEvelain the RatnapuraDistrict. Modern .52 of the Mahiyafigana figure of horsemanfound in a relic-chamber Digaba, circai ith century 58

12

I3

14

Fig. I~ 5Bronze Fig. i6

of the Mahiyaxigania Bronzefigure of horsemanfound in a relic-chamber Digaba, circai ith century 59

PREFACE

he presentmonograph a further constitutes instalment of the resultsof my investigation

into the religion of the ancient Sinhalesepeople, begun with the paper on "Pre-Buddhist of theRoyalAsiatic Society, Branch Religious Beliefs in Ceylon"(Journal of theCeylon Vol. XXXI, in "Mahdyinismin Ceylon"(Ceylon pp. 302-3 27) and continued Journal of Science, Section G. Vol.II, pp. 3 5- 7) "Sigiri, the Abode of a God-king"(Journal of theCeylon Branch of theRoyal Asiatic Society, Centenary Volume, pp. i29-I 84) and "The God Upulvan" (Memoirs of theArchaeological Survey of Ceylon,Vol. VI, pp. I9- 59). Should any devotees of the God of Adam's Peak be perturbedat his being identifiedwith Yama, let me remindthem that this deity, the King of Righteousness (Dharma-raja), is "good I may, indeed, considermyself as having rendereda servicefor the to the good" (Siva!iivdndm). causeof religion if this monographwould resultin the slightestadditionto the numberof those, professingBuddhismin Ceylon, who do not feel alarmedat the mention of this deity'sname. I am grateful to the Hon'ble JayaweeraKuruppu, the Ministerfor Local Governmentand CulturalAffairs,Mr. D. C. R. Gunawardane, PermanentSecretaryof that Ministryand Mr. N. Q. Dias, Director of the Department of CulturalAffairs,for generous assistancetowards the cost of publishing this work. Mr. W. S. Karunaratna has helped me by furnishing me with informationabout, and photographsof, the images at Paldbaddala and Godakdvala. The information with regard to the image of Saman at Gonamiriydva, I owe to Mr. J. A. Uduvara. I am indebted to the InformationOfficerfor the photographutilised for Fig. i. The rest of the illustrations, apart from those reproduced from the works of Upham and Davy, are from photographstaken by the ArchaeologicalDepartment.
S. PARANAVITANA

of Ceylon,Peradeniya, I 5th July, I95 7 University

I. ADAM'S

PEAK IN HISTORY

AND

LITERATURE

mountain Amongthe numerous peakswhich rise from the centralmassifof the Islandof
Ceylon, the most famous,though not the highest, is Adam'sPeak (Fig. i),' known among the Sinhaleseas Siripdda (the Illustrious Footprint) or Samanala-kanda (the Peak of the god Saman). The upper part of this mountain, rising like a pinnacle from the surroundingpeaks, is seen from many points in the plains, and from the sea. The steep sides of the mountainare difficultto climb; but when one arrivesat the summit,with the help of chainsand steps cut on rocks, one is confronted with a scene of undescribablegrandeur,particularlyif the climb is accomplishedso as to be at the summit at sunrise.zGeographically, Adam's Peak is important as the main watershedof Ceylon,four of the principalrivers of the Island,including the Mahathe longest, having their source from this mountain,and falling to the sea on the v31i Ganiga, eastern, western and south-easterncoasts. The districts to the south and east of Adam's Peak yield precious stones -emeralds, rubies, sapphires,etc. - for which the Islandhas been famous, and which have earnedfor it its ancient name of Ratnadvipa. It is, however, not so much on account of its naturalgrandeurthat the mountainhas been visited and written about throughout the centuriesby the inhabitantsof the Island as well as by foreigners.It is due to the reasonthat an indentationon its summithas been veneratedas the Footprint of the Buddhaby the Buddhists,of Adam by the Muslims,and of Siva by the Hindus. Tens of thousands of the votaries of these three world religions perform the difficult ascent every year. To the Buddhists of Ceylon, the mountain is of further significancein that it is believed to be the abode of a god named Samanin Sinhaleseand Sumanain Pali -one of the four deities3who have taken upon themselvesthe task of protecting the Island and the religion of the Buddhaprofessed by the majorityof its population. The traditions on account of which the Sinhalese Buddhists venerate this mountain are the well-known Pali chronicleof Ceylon. brieflynarratedin the first chapterof the Mahdvathsa, It is said that the Buddha,foreseeingthat his doctrinewould take firm root in Lanika, consecratAdam's Peak is 734I ft. above sea-level. The highest mountain in the Island, Pidurutaligala, rises 8282 ft. above sealevel. Numerous are the accounts of Adam's Peak written in modern times by travellers and geographers. William Skeen has collected the legendary, traditional and historical notices that were available to him in Adam'! Peak, (W. L. H. Skeen & Co., Colombo, 1870). The well-known work, Ceylon by Sir James Emerson Tennent, Fourth Edition (London, Longman, Green, Longman and Roberts, i86o) is an indispensable work of reference. H. W. Cave, in his Book of Ceylon (Cassel and Company, Ltd., London, i91a), pp. 451 -46i, has given a very readable descriptive account, and Ceylon,by Friedrich M. Trautz, pp. ia-i z, has a succinct account; among his illustrations being a striking photograph of the shadow cast by the mountain at sunrise. The other three are Upulvan (Varuna) Skanda and Vibhiaana.
II

ed the Island by paying no less than three visits to it, even though it had not yet become an abode of men. The first of these visits, according to sacred tradition, was undertakenby the Master, eight months after the Enlightenment, in order to rid the Island of the malevolent Yaksas who then infested it. Having, by miraculousmeans, made the Yaksas, who had asDigiba, to quit Lafikd, the Buddhapreached sembled at the site of the modem Mahiyafigana the doctrineto a great concourseof celestialbeings who had come to honour him. A prominent of the figure among the Devas who greeted the Buddha on this occasion was Mahdsumana Sumanakita mountain, i. e. Adam's Peak. This god Sumanaattainedto the first fruit in the and begged of the Master for an object of worship. The path of salvation (sotdpatt:phala) Buddhagave the god a lock of hair from his head, which Sumanaenshrinedin a stapaat Mahiyaixgana.4 Later, on the third visit which the Buddhapaid to this Island at the invitation of the Niga king Maniakkhika,in the eighth year after the Enlightenment, he, after receiving the near Colombo), rose and "left the trace of his foothomage of the Ndgas at Kalydin(Ka1aniya In this connection, it is noteworthy that the earlierchronicle Disteps on the Sumanakiita".s have no reference pava*sa, and Buddhagosa'shistorical introduction to the Samantapdsddikd, in the their of Buddha's visits or the account Sumanakita to Ceylon. to god Sumana, After this legendary account, the chronicles do not record any benefaction to the sacred mountainby a Sinhaleseking for the period of about a millenniumand half from the beginning of authentichistory. No inscriptionreferringto the worship of the Footprint on Adam's Peak earlierthan the eleventh centuryhas been discoveredon the mountainor in its vicinity, or, as a matter of fact, anywhere else in the Island.It is in the reign of VijayabihuI (Io5 5-I I IO) that we have the earliesthistoricalevidence in the chroniclesand in inscriptionsfor the cult of the Footprint on Adam's Peak. It is recordedof this monarchthat he, having seen the difficulties dediundergone by pilgrims on their way to worship the Buddha'sFootprint on Samantakilta, he their needs.6 for Similarly, granted villages on cated a village named Gilimalayato provide two other routes to the Peak for the same purpose, recording the donation in stone inscripfound at Gilimale7 tions, and constructed rest-houses on the way. Inscriptions of Vijayabdhu on the northernroute, on the route to the peak from the south and west, and at AMbagamuva8 confirm the statementin the chronicle. The Amrbagamuva inscription states that not only the Buddhaof the presentdispensation,but the.three previous Buddhasof this kalpaalso hallowed the peak by leaving their Footprints thereon. We also learn from this record that the king himself ascended the Peak and worshipped the Footprint. According to the Mahdbodhirvmasa,s on which the three however, it was the sacred hill of Mihintal to the east of Anurddhapura previous Buddhasleft their Footprints. Niggarka Malla,who ascendedthe Sinhalesethrone in I I 87 A. D., is stated in the chronicle to have gone on pilgrimageto the Peak accompaniedby the four-foldarmy,and worshippedthe Footprint with great devotion.lo As evidence of this monarch'svisit to the sacred mountain,
4 Mabjva)kXa, chapter I, VV. 21-43.

s Mabdvankxa,chap. I, V. 77. Ibid., chap. 6o, vv. 64-67. 7 Ceylon Journal of Science, Sec. G., Vol. II, pp. I 85 and I 96. 8 Epigraphia Zeylanica, vol. II., pp. zoz-zi8. 9 P. T. S. Edition, p. 117. 10 Mahdvamka , chap. 8o. v. 24.
6

12

Fig. I

Adam's Peak: General View

'3

he has left a long inscription engraved on the rock wall in the cave known as Bhagavilena, about a hundredfeet below its summit, as one ascendsit from the northernroute. By the side of this record, which states that Niggathka Malla re-grantedthe village of Amwbagamuva, originally donated by Vijayabdhu is there an outline drawing of a man, obviously meant to be a I, representation of the king, with a short record by its side, stating "this is the mannerin which King Niggatika Malla stood worshipping the footprint"." The increasingimportancewhich was being attachedto the cult of the Footprint on the Samantakiita (as the Peak is often called in Pali) by the SinhaleseBuddhistsin the eleventh and twelfth centurieswas no doubt the reason that, during this period, a Pali poem of 8oz stanzas, named the Sarnantakitavanand, was composed by a learned thera named Vedeha.12 The major part of this poem, however, is devoted to a recital of the careerof the Buddha,as given in the traditionalsources, and an account of the three visits of the Buddhato this Island.The description of the mountain itself follows conventional lines; the poem, therefore, is of little independantvalue to the student of history or religion. ParikramabihuII (I 225-I269) also went on pilgrimageto this sacredmountain, attended by the four-fold army, and, having worshipped the Footprint with great devotion, dedicated to it the revenues of the country to a distance of ten gdutoas (about twenty miles) from the mountain, which was populous and produced precious stones, and offered the royal ornaments also."3 In the same reign, the minister named Devapatirija, at the behest of the king, improved the road leading to the sacredMountainby constructingbridges across a number of streams,built rest-housesalong the road, installedan image of the god (Saman)on the terrace at the summit,built a pavilion on the summitwhich was enclosedby a wall, installediron chains on iron posts to make the ascent easy,and conductedgreat festivitiesin celebratingthe worship of the Footprint.14 Vijayabdhu, the son of Parikramabihu II, also undertook the pilgrimageto the Footprint before that princeascendedthe thrones as the third of that name.Viravikkama or Vikramabihu,who ruled the Highlandsof Ceylonwith Kandy as the capitalin the latterhalf of the fifteenth century, is recorded to have gone to the sacredmountain in one day, conducted elaborate festivitiesand madevaluableofferings to the Footprint.16 I (158I-I593), Rajasithha who renouncedthe Buddhistreligion of his ancestorsand embracedSaivism,grantedthe revenues from the Peak to the priests of the religion of which he becamea convert.17 Vimaladharma StiryaII (i687- 1707) is recordedto have gone to the Mountainon foot, and conducted great festivities after having raised a silver umbrella over the Footprint.x8His son and successor Narendrasirhha (1707-1730) undertookthe pilgrimage to the Peaktwice duringhis reign.19
CeylonJournal of Science, Sec. G. Vol. II, pp. zo and 21. Prof. Wilhelm Geiger (Pali Literatureand Language, p. 43) and Prof. G. P. Malalasekera (Pali Literatureof Ceylon, pp. 222-226) attribute the author of the Samantakdtavatntani to the thirteenth century. For the earlier date here given, see my paper, "Negapatam and Theravida Buddhism in South India" in the Journalof theGreater IndiaSociey, Vol. XI,
pp. I7-253

13 MabhvajSa,
'4

chap.85, vv. ii8-I2I.

Ibid., chap. 86, VV. 20-33. Is Ibid., chap. 88, v. 48. 16 Ibid.,chap.9z, vv. I7-I8. 17 Ibid., chap. 93, V. I2. is Ibid., chap. 97, vv. i6-i8.

19 Ibid.,chap.97, v.

31.

I5

Sri VijayaRijasitiha, the Nlyakkar prince who became king of Kandy in I739, continued the and his successor,Kirti Sri Rijasitfiha(I 747-1780), in whose reign worship of the Footprintzo therewas great revival of Buddhism,restoredto the Buddhiststhe incomes from villages which formerly appertainedto the Footprint, but had been given to Saivites by RijasitfhaI.2J A copper-platecharter,donating the village of Kuttdpitiya to Adam'sPeak by Kirti Sri Rijasiriha, is still in existence. mountain was held in the highest veneration by the The Footprint on the Samantakflta one of the leaders of a mission of Cambodian Buddhists of FurtherIndia. Medhafikara-thera, and Thai bbikkhus who received ordinationat Kalyini in Ceylon in 1425 and, on their return to their lands, establishedfraternitiesknown as the Sihala-safigha, set up in a shrine at Sukhodaya a representation of the Buddha'sfoot which, accordingto the inscriptionengravedon the stone, "exactlyresembledthe monument of the Precious Foot which was manifestedon the summit of the Sumanakflta, the jewelled crown of the Island of Lafiki".z The members of the religious mission which was despatchedto Ceylon by King Dhammacetiof Pegu to introduce the SinhaleseSafngha into that country,and arrivedin this islandin the reign of Bhuvanekabdhu VI (1469-1476), also went on a pilgrimageto the SacredMountain.23 Though the chroniclesof Ceyloncontainno reference to Adam'sPeak afterits firstlegendary mention up to the eleventh century,there is evidence in Buddhistwritings outside Ceylon that the Footprint on that mountain was held in high venerationby the faithful. The Tamil poem which is generallyattributedto about the sixth century,in CantoXI, refersto the Manuimekalai, Footprint of the Buddha on the high peak of Samantakflta in the Island of Ratnadvipa,i. e. Ceylon. CantoXXVIII narrates the story of spiritualbeings worshippingSamanoliin the Island of Lafikd.24"Samanoli" is the Sinhalese"Samanola", equivalentto "Sumanakilta" in Pali; the name "Samantakfita" will be dealt with in the sequel. Fa-hien, who spent two years at Anuradhapura in the beginning of the fifth century, has recordedthat the Buddha,when he visited Ceylon, by his spiritualpower, planted one foot to the north of the city of Anuradhapura, and one on the top of a mountain,the distancebetween the two being fifteenyoqanas.2s The mountainreferredso must have been Adam's Peak, though it is not mentionedby name. The laterCinesepilgrim, Hieun Tsiang, who himself did not come to Ceylon, but gathered informationabout the island when he visited South India in the first half of the seventh century,does not mention the Footprint of the Buddhaat Adam'sPeak, but he refersto Mount Lankak in the south-eastof the Island where the Buddhadeliveredthe LafikavataraSiltraz6.The inscription of Mahiniman at Bodh-Gayi (Fleet, Itzscriptions of theEarly GUptaKings,pp. 274-278) has recorded that the early members of the school to which he belonged had their abode in the holy country at the foot of Mount Lafika.That Mount Lanika was anothernamefor Adam'sPeakis clearfrom the account,preserved in Chinese,ofVairabodhi's visit to Ceylon in the last decade of the seventh century.Vajrabodhi,after having remainedat
20

21
22

23 24 25 26

Ibid., chap. 98, v. 84. Mahivaksa, chap. Io0, V. 221. Fournerau, Le Siam Ancien(Paris, i895), vol. I, pp. 242-254, and Plates LXViii and LXXIX. IndianAntiquary,Vol. XXII (1893), P. 44. See S. KrishnaswamiAiyangar, Mayimekalaiinits HistoricalSetting(London, Luzac & Co, I928), pp. 137-138 and 2oo. Samuel Beal, BuddhistRecordsof the WesternWorld,(Boston, i885), Vol. I, p. Ixxii. Ibid., vol. II, p. 25 1.

i6

the Abhayagiri Vihira for six months, startedtowardsthe south-eastto ascendthe Lafnki-parvata. He arrivedin the kingdom of Rohanaand explainedthe doctrinesof the Mah-yanato the ruler of that principality."When at last, he reachedthe foot of the mountain,he found the country wild, inhabited by wild beasts and extraordinarily rich in precious stones. After long waiting, he was able to climb to the summit and contemplatethe impressionof Buddha'sfoot. From the summit,he saw on the north-westthe kingdomof Ceylon,and on all othersidesthe ocean".27 Adam's Peak is easily recognisablein this description. It thereforefollows that, in the seventh century,Mahdyana Buddhistsof India and Chinabelieved that a discoursewas deliveredby the Buddhato Rdvanaon Adam's Peak. In the Lahikdvatdra-sitra, the scene of this discourseis deIt will be shown in the sequel scribedas the summitof the Mountainin the oceanat Lafikdpura.28 of Kalhana.It is that Adam's Peak is referredto in similar phraseology in the Ra/atarangin had Adam's Peak in his mind when therefore possible that the author of the Lahkdvatdra-sfitra he describedthe miraculousscene in which the Buddhais madeto deliver a lectureon profound philosophical problems to the mythical Lord of the Rdksasas.In Ceylon tradition, however, or -parvata; Rdvanahas nothing to do with Adam's Peak is nowhere referredto as Lafikd-giri that mountain. On the other hand, there is, over fifty miles to the north of Adam's Peak, a in Sanskrit. mountainof much smallerheight called "Lakgala"equivalentto "Lafikd-giri" Coming to later times, we learn from Marco Polo that the fame of Adam's Peak as a place of religious importancewas known in China in the thirteenth century, and that Kublai Khan sent a mission to this Island to securefor himself some of the holy objectswhich were preserved there.2 A Chineseinscriptiondiscoveredat Galle gives a long list of the valuableofferingssent in 141o by the first Ming Emperor, Yung-lo, through the envoys Ching-ho and Wang Ching Lien to "the shrine of the Buddhist temple on the mountain of Ceylon", by which most probably is meant Lafikd-parvata (Adam's Peak).30 In Sanskritwritings, Adam's Peak is referredto as Rohana.This name is not appliedto the mountainin any Sinhaleseor Pali work; "Rohana",however, is the name of the ancientprincipality in South Ceylon, on the northern border of which Adan's Peak is situated. Kalhana's chronicle of the kings of Kashmir,the Ra-atarangini, gives a fabulous account of an expedition to Lanikaby the mythical Meghavdhanawho was received with honour by Vibhilsana,the Adam's Peak is referredto in the following words: Rdksasa king. In the course of this narrative, "He, a mine of precious virtues (gutza-ratndkara) then ascendedwith his forces that diadem of the ocean (ratndkara) Mount Rohana, which contains mines of manifoldprecious gems (ndnd31 ratndkara) ". Here, it will be noted, Rohanais called the diademof the ocean just as Rdvana's abode in the Lahikdvatdra is referredto as samudra-malaya. Kalhana,therefore,appearsto have taken Ceylon to be the same as the Lankdof the Rdmayapa, and Adam's Peak to be a mountain in Lanika, as Hieun Tsiang and Vajrabodhihave done. a North Indian poet and dramatistof the ninth century, agreeing with VardRajagekhara, hamihiraand other Sanskritwriters, refers to Ceylon as Sithhala,and takes it to be an island different from Vdlmiki's Lanika.In his drama,the Bdlardmayaza, Rdjasekhara has referredto
27 28 29 30 3'

J. R. A. S., Ceylon Branch,vol. XXIV., p. 88. Laeikdpura-samudra-malaya-fikhare. edited by Bunyiu Nanjio (Kyoto, 1913), p. I. Lahkkatdra-sutra TheBook of Ser MarcoPolo, edited by Colonel Sir Henry Yule, London, i926, Vol. II, pp. 3 i6-320. vol. III, pp. 3373 38. Epigraphia Zeylanica, Kalhana's Rdjatarangini, translatedby Sir Aurel Stein, Westminster, I900, vol. I., p. 78. I7

Ceylon in more than one place and, wherever the referenceis more than incidental, Rohana mountain is brought in as one of the most noteworthy featuresof the Island. In Act 3 of that drama,Rdjagekhara, by means of a poetic anachronism,has paid a compliment to the king of 3 the lord of the Siriihalas, Ceylon of his day by making the Anurddhapura to be premonarch, sent at Sita'ssvayarkvara, as one of the suitors. The female door-keeper(pratbdri),in her eulogy of the Sinhalesemonarch,states, among other things, that the ocean and the Rohanamountain are his two treasuries.3J SIta'sconfidanterefersto the Sinhalesemonarchas "the SupremeLord of the Mountain of Jewels, Rohana".34 The referenceto Sirhhala and Rohanain the tenth act of the Bdlara-myayza is more interesting. In this act, Rdmna, after the slaying of Rdvana,proceeds to Ayodhyd in the aerialchariot Puspaka, accompaniedby SUta, Laksmana,VibhIsana,Sugriva and others. After ascending to the sky from Lafikaand admiring the view of the world from that position, the chariotis turned in anotherdirection,when SItH exclaims:"Whatnow is this landwhich is like unto an unbroken expanse of rainbows?"VibhIsanaexplains: "See in front of you the territoryof the Sirhhalas, which has the Ocean as the moat, which is adorned,as it were, with a beautifulcrest by means a Mountain of which the ground is formed of precious stones, where the water of the Rohan. of the Ocean, passing through the womb of oysters, is transformedto the condition of charming jewels which are adornmentson the limbs of damselshaving the complexion of the shoots of the dirvdgrass. And more. People who produce the nectar of (sweet) speech, the Rohana Mountain which produces gems and the Ocean which produces pearls-these three are not then interposes: - "The SItU found together anywhereelse but in the Island of the Sirhhalas". holy sage Agastya resideshere, it is said".ThereuponRdmaexplainsto his beloved: - "This is the hermitage of the holy sage on the table-landof the Lord of Gems (Rohanra). Moreover, thatAgastya the hermitage of Dharma is in front(of you)".35 The statements hadan abodeon Adam's Peak and the referenceto a hermitageof Dharma are of great significance,and will be in dealt with furtherwhen we discuss the identity of the God of that Mountain. Rdjagekhara, the prologue to the Bdlardmadaya, compareshimself to the Rohana Mountain in being a mine of gem-like virtues.36 The Anargha-rdghava, a Sanskrit drama based on the Rdmayana, written by Murdriwho flourishednot later that the second half of the ninth century, also refersto a shrine of Agastya
32

This is the only reference to Anuradhapurain Sanskrit literature. The printed edition of the Bdlardmdyaena (Benares,
I869),

has "Anurodhapura".

33 34 35

36

Yasydmbudhih sa Bhagavdn sa ca RohaeuddriP kosiv-imau. Bdlardmdyaena, Act. III, v. 41. Rohana-mdinikka-girino paramesaro. kadarounaesuddeso / StIt / Akha~nd handala-koanda-mandala-padiravo / Pafyasyagre mandalam Vibhisanah Shthaldnim. jaladhi-parikha* Rohanendcalena Citrottamsam manimayabhuvd caturam Durvdkdndacchavisu mandanamyad vadhundm* Gdiresvambho bhavati gamitamratnatdm Juktigarbhaih Kim ca / ca Rohanah mani-sutif janaf ca vik-sudhd-sfifir NdnyatraSirkhala-dvfpdn ca sagarab muktid-sfifi Stit / Iha kila Bhaavam Agatthi-mahest nivasati Rdmah/ Ida* hi Bhagavato Ratnidhipater adhityakdydm dframa-pada* Dharmiframa-padar punaragre. Bdlardmdyana, Act. XII, v. 48 ff. Varnyamvdguna-ratna-Rohana-gireh kim
Ibid., Act. I, v. x8.

i8

connected with the RohanaMountainin the Island of Ceylon. But, while Rdjagekhara refersto on the mountain, Murdriinforms the abode of Agastya as located on a table-land(adhityakd) at the foot of the Rohana us that the shrine of this celebratedSage was on low-land (upatyakd) Peak. In the last Act (the Seventh) of this play, Rdma,with Sitd,Laksmana,Sugrivaand Vibhisana, appearon the stage as returninghome to Ayodhydin the aerialchariot,Puspaka.After having ascended as high as the world of the Moon, the aerialchariot descends down to continue the journey keeping the Earth in sight. Pointing southwards,RdmaaddressesSitHas follows: "There appearsto view the Sithhala Island,37a blue lotus arising from the Ocean, which is beauteous with the filament of the Mountain of Precious Stones." SitHadds: "Where roams noble Agastya, who (in complexion) is like unto a flower of the kdia grass (Saccharum sponRdmarepliessmilingly: "Yes, Maithili,yes, the second shrineon the low-land of the tareum).38 Rohana Mountainhere, indeed, is that of the Sage who is the consort of Lopdmudra".39 The rest of Rdma's speech describes, in two elaboratestanzas, the feat performed by Agastya in drinking the waters of the Ocean, and the sunset over Ceylon which is referredto as "the gem-set throne, called the SithhalaIsland,of the UniversalEmperornamed Sfigafra(the Erotic and do not concern us here. Sentiment)",4o The words "second shrine on the low-land of the Rohana Mountain", etc. put into the mouth of Rdma by the poet suggests that there was another, and more important, shrine at the place. The referenceto a hermitage(adrama-pada) of Dharma(Yama) in the corresponding scene in Rdjagekhara's would justify us in inferringthat Murdrialso knew of the BdIaramayapa existence,in his day, of a shrine dedicatedto that deity on or near Adam's Peak in Ceylon. The words describing Agastya put into the mouth of Sitd appear to have a suggested meaning (dhvani).Agastya is called kdia-kusuma-sarikdiah "he who is comparableto the kdia flower". Kdafa is personifiedas an attendantof Yama,o'and Agastya is one of the priests of Yama. The fact that Rima's rejoinder is introduced with the stage direction, smitvd,"having smiled", would indicate that Rdma understood the allusion in the words of Sitd, and that his words which follow are so framedas to suggest the existenceof anothershrinewhich is not expressly mentioned.The commentatoralso informs us that there is an allusion in the words put into the mouth of Sita; accordingto him, however, the suggested meaningis that anotherwhite goose also roams about, feeding itself at Adam's Peak.42 Geese are not found in the locality of this
37

Sim*hala-dvipam ambhodhi-sambhitam idamutpalam udiksyate Madnikydcala-kifjalka-ramanuyam

Anarghardghava, NirnayaSagarPress,Bombay,1937,
38

p. 36I.

39

40 4

42

SId / Jahim kdsa-kusuma-safkauso carai ( Yatrakdfa-kusuma-saikalso Agattha-hamso carati)Anargharaghava, 'gastya-hams'as' op. Cit., p. 36I. "The word hamsha in this passage has been taken as meaning pre-eminent or noble". The passage can be translatedas "where roams the geese of Agastya with the colour of kasa flowers. But I am not aware of white swans being associated with Agastya. Rimab / (smitvd) Am Maithili dam.Ihaiva Rohana-girer upatyakaydadviiiyamiyaianat munerLopdmudrd-vallabhasya. op. cii., p. 362. Lopamudra is the wife of Agastva. Anarghardghava, .rmgdra-sdrvabhaumasya raina-sim*hsane Simbala-dvipa-nimni. Anarghardghava, op. cit., p. 363. TasyamSimfapa-pdldfds iaahd_Kda-Kufddaya4 UpdsateDharmarajam muiriiimanto nirdmaydh II, 8, 29. MahdbhAdraia, Anyo'pi IsveohatiuascaratikhAddatii dbvanih. op. Ci4., p. 36I. Anarghardghava,
'9

mountain;hence the meaning suggested by the commentatoris not appropriate. Whetherthese inferencescan be drawnfrom the words in the passagequoted or not, the Bdlaramaya-ap and the Anarghardghava, taken together, affordevidence to the belief which prevailedamong the learned men of North India in the ninth century that Adam's Peak was associatedwith the cults of Yama (Dharma)and Agastya. It is as a source of precious stones that the mountainis mainlyconceived in the Rajiataratigini as well as in the Bdlardmayapa. Three verses eulogising the Rohana Mountain in this respect are found in Sanskritanthologies. We quote these verses here in translation,ignoring the indirect allusions contained therein by means of double entendre. A verse of a poet named Prahldana is as follows: - "O RohanaMountainI which among the mountains will balance in the scale with thee, the fragments of the rocks of whom are adornmentsof kings".43 The composition of an anonymouspoet reads: "Is not the Ocean the abode of gems? Is not the earth steadfast?Is not the broad heaven the bearerof the footsteps of the virtuous?What indeed is not high I But, 0 Rohana,the foreheadornamentof mountains, for the reason of accepting to thyself with forbearancethe confident blows with hatchets of armiesof supplicants,thou art worthy of being worshipped by the three worlds".44 The statement that the sky also bearsthe footprints of great and virtuous men no doubt containsan allusion to the footprint on the Rohana mountain, but the stanzacontains nothing to indicate its otherwiseunknown, author'sbelief as to whose footprint it was. A poet named Sithhappaiyya, has written the following in the form of a farewelldialogue between the RohanaMountainand some of its gems going to the wide world: "We go" "Blessingto thee". "O Rohanamountain, do not, even in a dream, trouble thy mind with the thought that these, separatedfrom me in their existence,will somehow manageto maintainthemselves.BrotherI we are thy gems; if we become known by thy name, for that reason, who are the eroticallyminded lords of men that will not bear us on their diadems?"4S The earliest Arab writer who refers to the Footprint on this sacred Mountain as that of Adam, the first parent of the human race according to Judaism, Christianityand Islam, was Soleyman, the account of whose voyages was written in A. D. 85I. Soleyman refers to the of Rijasekhara mountain by the name of "Al-Rohoun", in which we can recognise "Rohania" who flourishedabout the same time. As the Sinhalesedid not refer to Adam's Peak by that name, it is clear that the early Arab travellersadopted the name by which the mountain was referredto by the people of North India. According to Ibn Batuta who visited Ceylon about
43

44

4S

Rohanicala iailesu kas iuldti kalayet lava Yasya paanya-khandni mandana,* medini-bbrtdm. Suktimuktdvali, Baroda, 1938, p. I22; Subbisita-raIna-bhin1dgdra, Nirnayasagar Press, Bombay, I91I, p. 225. Ratndndm na kim dlayojalanidhih kim na srhira medini Kim na vyoma mahat padam sukrtindm kim*ndma naivonnatamh Habho Rohana kin luydcaka-camu-nibfaika-/aikdhatiKpinti-svikaranenagotra-filaka irailokya-vandyobhavdn Suktimukavali, op. cit., p. I22; Subhdsia-rafna-bhbjndgdra, NirnayasagarPress, Bombay, I9II, p. 225. Ydmas le fubbam asru Rohanagire ma/ah sr/hiti-pragyut 'pi maivamh krhahd Vart/isyanta ime katha* ka/ham iti srvapne Bhrdfas le manayo vayaz*yadi bhavannama-prasiddhas ta/ab Ke frzgdra-parjyavj n~rpa/ayo maulau na dhdsyantinab Sfikiimuktivali, p. 99; Subb sitaratna-bbhnJ4dgara, p. 225.
20

the year I 340, it was the Imam Abu-Abdl-Allahwho first taught the way to Serendib,and thus to the Footprint on Adam's Peak. This holy man, whose tomb Ibn Batutais said to have visited in Shiras, died in A. H. 33i, i. e. 942. A. D. The footstep of Adam is referredto in a Gnostic work of the fourth century,but this does not localise it in Ceylon.46 Ibn Batuta,in his well-known book of travel,47 has given an account of the pilgrimagethat he undertook to the Peak. As evidence of the pilgrimages undertakenby those of the Muslim faith to this holy mountain, there is a short fragmentaryrecord in Arabic characters, by the side of the drawing representingNigamikaMallaworshippingthe Footprint, in the cave known as Bhagavilena,to which referencehas alreadybeen made. What is still legible of the record,which is in characters of the i zth or i 3th century,has been translatedas "Muhammad, may God bless him (the father of Man.. ).48 Ma Huan, a ChineseMuslim of the fifteenthcentury, refersin the account of his travels to a lofty mountainin this island reachingto the skies, on the top of which there is the impress of a man's foot.49 According to Ma Huan, this is the impress of the foot of the ancestorof mankind,a holy man called A-tan, otherwise Pan-kou. To my knowledge, thereis no work of any antiquitywhich refersto the Footprinton Adam's Peak as that of God Siva. The Purdazam referredto in Skeen's Adam'sPeak (p. 295) as giving an account of Sivanoli-pidam, is obviously a work of recent origin. Though this purdrna is claimed to have been written in Sanskrit,the names quoted from it are in Tamil form, and no actual extractfrom the work has been given so as to enable one to judge its age. The available evidence does not show that there was any Saivite worship of the footprint on Adam's Peak before Rijasirhha I who, during the last decade of the sixteenth century, handed over the control of that shrine to Saiva priests. The word "Sivan-oli" appears to have been based on the of name the mountain as given in the Ma,7imekalai -"Samanoli" -and not a genuine, independent development. Ibn Batuta states that Arya Cakravarti,the king of Jaffna,sent with him fouryogiswho were in the habit of visiting the foot-markevery year; with these also went four Brihmanasand ten of the king's companions.soIt is clearfrom this that Hindus were in the habit of going on pilgrimageto Adam's Peak in the fourteenthcentury; but it does not necessarilyfollow that the object of worship on the summit of the mountainwas associatedwith the god Siva. The name "Svargdrohanam" (Ascent to Heaven), by which Tamils of the Hindu faith refer to this mountains, is reminiscent of the name "Rohana",by which Adam's Peak is referred to in literature. It is thereforeprobable that, in the fourteenth century, the Hindus veneratedAdam's Peak as the abode of Agastya and Dharma,as Mount Rohanawas believed to have been by Rijagekhara in the ninth century. MediaevalEuropeantravellers,Marco Polo and Marignoli,refer to Adam's Peak as one of the marvelsof this Islandand give quaintaccountsof it,s2naturally laying more emphasison the Muslim traditionsthan on those of the Buddhists. Portuguese historians, Joao Ribeiros3and
46

This account is summarisedfrom Tennent's Ceylon, vol. I, pp. 584-585 and vol. II, pp. 134-I 36. Ibn Batuta: Travels in Asia andAfrica, translatedand selected by H. A. R. Gibb, London, I 929, pp. 25 8-26o. 48 Ceylon Journalof Science, SectionG, vol. II, p. 2 I. 49 J. R. A.S., Ceylon Branch,vol. XXIV, p. i oi. so Ibn Batuta, op. cii., p. 255. si Skeen, Adam's Peak, op. cii., p. 35. S2 TheBook of Ser MarcoPolo, translatedand edited by Sir Henry Yule, vol. II, pp. 3X6-322. 53 TheHistoricTragedy of theIslandof Ceilaoof CaptainJoao Ribeiro, translatedby Sir Paul Peiris, Third Edition, pp. 80-82.
47 2I

Ferna6 de Queyroz54 have given accountsof Adam's Peak. As the Portugueseheld the districts at the foot of the Peak to the south for a considerablenumberof years,it is not impossiblethat some of them did actuallyclimb the mountain. Donald Ferguson, however, has expressedhis opinion that the first European to describe Adam's Peak from personal observation was the German,Daniel Pathey,who climbedthe mountainin i684 and has included a brief account of it in his book.SsPathey served as a soldier in the Dutch East India Companyin Ceylon, but the Dutch, during the greater part of their rule of the maritimeprovinces, applied the name Adamsbergto a hill in the SouthernProvince which, in altitude,in no way compareswith the realAdam's Peak. Less than two months after the cession of the Kandyan Kingdom to the British in i8I5, LieutenantMalcolmascendedAdam's Peak and, to the astonishmentof the pilgrims assembled on the summitto pay their devotion to the Footprint,fired three volleys as a reminderto them that a British armedparty had reachedthe summit.56 Most books written about Ceylon during the earlierperiod of Britishrule over the Island contain a descriptionof the Peak,or an account of a visit paid to it.S7The fascinationof this Mountainto those who admirethe grandeurand sublimity of Nature continues to be as great as ever, and pilgrims of three differentfaiths, counting millions of adherents,continue to ascend the mountain, year after year, during the seasonthat is most suitablefor the purpose.The conquestsof modern sciencehave been pressed into service to make the Peak more impressive to the pilgrim, for the way to the summit has been lit by electricityfrom power harnessedat a spot not very far from the base of the mountain, in gratitudeto the god, it is said, for his partin the removalof the obstacleswhich delayed the completion of the engineeringworks that supply power not only to light the Peak but also the City of Colombo.

II. SAMAN,

THE GOD OF ADAM'S

PEAK IS THE SAME AS YAMA

In the numerousreferencesto Adam'sPeak in historicaland literaryworks of diverse origin that we have brieflypassedin review, other than those from Sanskritsources,it is the Footprint on its summit, whether it be veneratedas that of the Buddhaor of Adam, that has been considered as conferring distinction upon the mountain. But the name by which the mountain is referredto in the earliestaccount of it in the Mahdvaisais Sumanakfta,and the Commentary of that chronicle categoricallystates that the name was due to the reason of the Peak being the abode of a Devardja(king of gods) called Sumana.58 This god, as we have seen, figures in the account of the first visit of the Buddha to Ceylon, where the Mahdvaksa itself refers to him as
The Temporal andSpiritualConquest of Ceylonof Father Ferna6 de Queyroz, translated by Father S. G. Perera.Colombo I930, vol. I, pp. 37-42. ss J. R.A. S. Ceylon Branch,vol. XXII, p. 197, et. seq. With regard to Mulgirigala being called Adam's Peak, it is interesting to note that the name of this rock as appearing in a twelfth century inscription is Muhundgiri (Skt. Samudragiri). Adam's Peak, as we have seen, has been identified with Lanka-parvata which is in some places referredto as Samudra-malaya. s6 Skeen, Adam's Peak, pp. 3 37-340. 57 See, for instance, An Accountof the Interior of Ceylon, etc, by John Davy, London, i821, pp. 337-349. 58 Mahavam#sa, chap. I, v. 77 and Va*satthappakdsini, P. T. S. Edition, p. I I4.
54 22

the chief of of the Sumanakiita mountain." The epithet devinda Mahdsumana (= Skt. devendra, gods) is applied to him there, suggesting that he was not an obscure godling of purely local significance.According to the Samantakzita-vannand, it was at the specialinvitation of this god that the Buddhahallowed the mountainby leaving the impressionof his foot thereon.60 We have also referredabove to the statementin the chroniclethatDevapatirdja, in the thirteenth century, installed an image of God Sumanaon the summit of the Peak. A small shrine dedicatedto that deity still exists on the summit, on a somewhat lower level than that of the sacred Footprint. The Sinhalese Buddhist pilgrims to Adam's Peak, while considering the Footprint as the main object of their devotion, extend a measureof adorationto the divinity also. Every one of them makes it a point to request the god to share in the merit that he has earned by climbing the Peak and worshipping the Buddha representedby his Footprint, for accordingto Buddhistbelief, the power of the gods to do good is enhancedby such partakingof the merit earnedby human beings. Less than nine miles in a direct line from the foot of the Peak, and in the vicinity of the at a place called Sabaragamu, there has been, from time immemodern town named Ratnapura, morial, a shrine dedicatedto the god Sumanaor Saman.This shrinewas the recipientof royal bounty in the fifteenthcentury, but, in the next century,it was razedto the ground by the Portuguese who were in occupationof the areafor some decades.After the recoveryof the district 11 (i635-i687), by the Sinhalesekings of Kandy, a new shrineto Samanwas built by Rdjasithha not exactly on the site of the ancient shrine, but where the Portuguese fort stood, which itself was built on the grounds of the ancient Buddhist vihdra. This shrine, the SamanDEvdleof Sabaragamuas it is called, still exists, possessing considerableestates,attractingmany devotees to it, and annually celebratinga festival, called the Perahira,in accordancewith ancient custom and ritual. A shrinededicatedto god Samanalso exists today at Alutnuvaraby the side of the was the first sthpato be built in Mahiyafigana Ddgaba which, according to the Mfahdvatisa, C(eylon,during the very lifetime of the Master, on the initiative of god Saman. Thus, at two of the sixteen most venerated shrines of the SinhaleseBuddhists, Saman is associatedin the worship with the Buddha. There are also, at a numberof less importantreligious centresin the Island, shrinesdedicatedto tliis deity and, in many Buddhisttemples, the image of Samanis to be found together with the other three gods who are consideredto be the guardiansof the Island. In the HatksaSandesa, v. i98, Saman,among other gods, is invoked to shower blessings on the reigningmonarch, Pardkramabdhu VI (1410-1467). Alagiyavanna, towardsthe close of the sixteenth century, wrote the Sinhalesepoem Savul-sandisa in the form of a message sent through a cock to the god Saman at Sabaragamu, requesting the deity to protect and grant victory to the poet's patron, Rdjasithha I. The gods Sumanaand Uppalavanna figure in the stories in which have been embodied the earliest race memories of the Sinhalese. Uppalavannaplays an important part in what were believed to have been the events leading to the Sinhaleseestablishinga home in this Island. Sumanais creditedwith the establishmentof the most ancient sanctuaryof the national faith. Throughout a period of over two thousand years, in spite of the vicissitudes of history, both
59 Mahivapksa,
60

chap. I, v.- 33. Samantakfita-vannani, edited by Bhadanta W. Sri SiddhdrthaDhammdnandaand Bhadanta M. Siri Idnissara Thera,

Colombo, 1910, vv. 7i8ff.

23

these gods have succeeded in maintaininga place in the religious consciousness of the vast majorityof the Sinhalesepeople. It is, therefore,reasonableto assumethat Sumanaand Uppalavannawere among the gods worshipped by the ancient Sinhalesewhen they, some five centuries before the Christianera, came from North India and colonised this Island, and that the have come into being as a consequenceof the legends narratedabout them in the Mahdvarhsa desire to reconcile the worship of these divinities with the tenets of Buddhism, after they adopted that faith in the third centuryB. C. That this is so in the case of Uppalavanna has been demonstratedby me in tracinghis evolution from the Indo-Aryangod Varuna.61 The Sinhalese version of the Jdtaka,written in the fourteenth century,contains reliable evidence to prove that Uppalavanna'scolleague, Sumana,traces his origin from a god held in equal veneration with Varunain North India at the time the original Sinhalesesettled in Ceylon. In the Sinhaleseversion of the Bhiridatta Jataka,we come across the following passage,62 in which the king of gods, Sumana,is included among a list of divinities: Dhrtargstra nam namdivyarajluruvo da, Kuvera divyarajuruvJo da, Varma namdivyarayuruv6o da, Somanam divya namdivya da, Sumana rajjuruvj da, Candra divya-putrayj da, Sfrya divya-putrayj dayaname rajjuruvj the divine king namedVaruna,the siyaludivyarajadaruvi (The divine king named'Dhrtardstra, divine king named Kuvera, the divine king named Soma, the divine king named Sumana,the divinity Candrathe divinity Sirya, -all these aforesaidkings of gods ...) The Pali verse, of which the above is a translation,reads as follows: Dbdtd Vidhdjtd Varuno Kuvero SomoYamoCandimd ydpi Surryo63 When the Sinhalesepassageis comparedwith its Pali original, it will be noticed that the phrase namdivya-rajjuruvo, Sumana coming between Soma ... and Candra...., stands for Yama in Pali. It thereforefollows that, to the author of the Sinhalese Jdtaka,god Sumanawas the same as Yama. This conclusion, of course, rests on the assumption that the reading Sumana in the paragraph quoted above, found in printededitions of the Pansiyapanas Jdtaka,is not due to a scribal error, and has been preserved in the same form as the fourteenth-centuryauthor wrote it. Hence, some reference to manuscriptsbecomes necessary. Of the eight manuscriptsof the Pansiyapanas Jdtaka, examinedin this connection, three contain the reading Sumana just as it is found in the printed editions. One has the slightly differentreading Samana which can easily be explained as due to an inadvertentomission on the part of the scribe to attach the vowel sign to the first syllable. Such lapses are extremelyfrequentin Sinhalesemanuscripts.One matwo ?athka and the other Sdma.Thus, nuscript has the reading Sakhain place of Sumana, that have among the manuscripts been examined,the majoritysupport the reading Sumana of the printed editions. This does not, however, necessarilyestablish that the fourteenth century author of the Pans/yapanas Jdtaka did actually adopt Sumanaas the equivalent of Yamain the Pali stanza quoted above. Of the eight names of gods containedin the stanza,three are given in the Sinha6! 62 63

Shrine of Upulvan at Devundara, A. S.C. Memoirs, vol. VI, Colombo, 1953, pp. 19-5 9. PanstyapanasJitaka, printed at the Jindlarikdra Press, Colombo, i929, p. 1499.

Jdtaka, edited by V. Fausboll, vol. VI, p.

20i.

24

lese translationin the same form as they occur in the Pali. Two names, Candra and Sfirrya are the Sanskritoriginals of the Pali forms. In place of the names Dhdtdand Vidhdtd, which stand at the head of the list of gods, the printededitions of the PansiyapanasJdtaka have Dbrtar4.stra. In its place, some manuscriptshave the readingsDdtru and Drta which appearto be corruptions of Dhdtr, the Sanskritequivalent of DhaJd.The reading Dbrtarda.tra of the printed editions thus appearsto be due to a false restorationby a scribe who has taken the corruptionsof the name Dbdtr as indicating the well-known god Dhrtardstra, the first of the four Mahdrdjas of Pali Buddhism.Similarly,it can be arguedthat a corruptionof the form Yamacould have been amendedby a scribe to result in the name of a god well known to him. For this argument,it is also significant that nowhere else in the Pansiyapanas Jdtaka or any other work of Sinhalese literaturehas Sumana been given as an equivalentof Yama.Against this, it may be arguedthat the Pansiyapanas Jdtaka is not from the hand of one writer, and the identity of Sumanawith Yama may not have been known to all of these writers; some, even if they knew it, might not have desired to emphasisethe fact. The manuscriptevidence taken alone, consequently,is not decisive in establishingwhether the author of the Pans~yapanas Jdtaka actuallyrendered Yama into Sinhaleseas Sumana, this position being equallytenablewith the opposite. The identification of Sumana with Yama,for which the printed edition of the Pansiyapanas Jdtaka and numerous manuscriptsof that text affordevidence, has thus to be supportedby an investigation into the names, characteristics,iconography and other aspects of the god Sumana(Saman) comparedwith those of Yama. And we now proceed on this investigation. Even if it be grantedthat the author of the Pansoyapanas Jdtaka did in fact render Yamaby it may be questioned whether his opinion on a matter relating to the identity of an Sumana, ancientIndian god is authoritative.The mannerin which he has dealt with the first two names in the Pali stanzaquoted above justifiesus in answeringthis questionin the affirmative. Whatever the nature of the variant forms in differentmanuscriptsand the printed editions, they all agree in giving one name in place of Dhdt! and Vidhdtd,the agent gods of Vedic texts64who in later Sanskritwritings have been identifiedwith Brahmdor Fate.65 In the Rdmayava, Book VI I, Cantozo, V. 2I, DhdtdandVidhit! have been identifiedwith Yama,i. e. Fate.66 In treating the two gods as one, our author had precedents;he may thereforebe consideredas one who was well-informed with regard to matters pertainingto ancientIndian gods, and his opinion about the identity of Yama with Sumana,if he actuallydid hold it, is worthy of credence. There is a very strong argumentin favour of the view that the author of the Pansiyapanas Jdtakawas responsiblefor the reading Sumana found in some of the manuscripts. In the preceding chapter, we have referred to the statement of Rijagekharathat a hermitage of Agastya existed on Rohana Mountain (Adam's Peak). Agastya is the foremost among the seven priests If the god having his abode on Adam's Peak is the same as (rtvdas) of Yama as Dharmardja.67 Yama, it is quite naturalfor the latter's chief priest, too, to have an abode on that mountain. As we have seen, Rdjasekhara furthermorerefers to a hermitageof Dharma in his description
64

6s
66

67

A. A. Macdonell, VedicMythology, p. 115. Hopkins, Epic Mythology, pp. i89 and 74. Yo Vidhait ca Dhd;t ca sukrteduskrte tathi Trailokyam tu valeyasyasa katha,*nu hanisyate Hopkins, Epic Mythology, p. I i6. 25

the identity of Dharma with Yama was of the Rohana Mountain. At the time of Rdjasekhara, of the abode of a god being referred universallyaccepted.NWith regardto the appropriateness to as a hermitage(aramapada),we may quote the following remarksof Hopkins on the usage in Sanskritepics: "So when Bhimais carriedaloft and visits mountainpeaks and devatayatanas, these are like the /dpasayatanas of the same account".68 Now, it would indeed be a strangecoincidence if errors on the part of scribes gave rise to a variantreading Sumana for Yama,when the latter god is associated in Sanskritwritings with the Mountain on which Sumanais reported to have his abode. It would be an equally strange coincidence, if Sumana should be a corruption of Yama, that its Sinhalese form Samanis the exact phonetical equivalent of a synonym of Yamain Sanskrit. The name Sumana, of a god correspondingto the deity of Adam's Peak, is not found in Sanskritand Pali writings. Neither Sumana,occurring in the list of Yaksas in the Atdnatiya Sutta,69 nor the deity of that name mentioned in the Lalitavistara as one of the Bodhi-vrksadevatas,can be held as identicalwith the deity of Adam's Peak. Sumanaof Adam's Peak is mentioned in the historicalwritings of Ceylon, for the first time, in the Mahdvaisa of about the fifth is a renderingfrom the Sincentury. The probability,therefore,is that the Pali form Sumana halese of that period. In Sinhalese,the god's name is Samanwhich, in the fourth or fifth century, would have been Samana, for in the Sinhaleseof that period, there were no unvocalised consonants. Now, we know that one of the names of Yama is Samana,meaning "Settler"or "Destroyer".As a palatalor cerebralsibilantis changedinto the dental in Sinhalese,the Sanskrit Samana would have been pronounced Samana by the people of Ceylon in the earlycenturiesof the Christianera. The dropping of the finalvowel has resultedin the form Saman, which is now in common use. In the Sinhaleselanguageof the fourth or fifth century,the form Saman would have representedthe Sanskritand Pali Sumana also by the working of the very wide-spread phonetical process of vowel-assimilation. The writers of the chronicles and commentaries, when they had to render the Sinhalesename Samana into Pali, would have naturallyadopted the form Sumana, for this was a name of frequentoccurrencein the classicallanguage,whereas as the name of a god might not have been known to them. Samana We cannot also be certainthat the form Sumana is due to the author of the Pali chronicle. Even if he adopted the form Samana, scribes of a later generation,unawareof a name Samana and familiarwith the equation Sumana- Saman,could have been responsiblefor the Pali name of this god of Adam's Peak found in manuscripts.Even if we grant that Mahdndma and other Pali writers did in fact use the form Sumana, that need not be an argumentestablishing that these writerswere not aware of the identity of the god of Adam's Peak with Yama. They were concerned with finding an equivalentin Pali for the old Sinhalesename of the god, and not with establishinghis identity,and they might have consideredthat Sumana was a name of Yama. Thus, the name by which the average Sinhaleseman refersto the god of Adam's Peak affords evidence for the identificationof that deity with Yama,which the authorof the Sinhalese Jdtaka has made. The mountain on which god Saman(Yama) has his abode is often referredto in Pali writings of Ceylon as Samantakita.This form of the name is not found in the earlierpart of the
68 69

Hopkins. Epic Mythology, p. ii6. Digha Nikdya, (P. T. S. Edition), vol. III, p.

205 .

26

chronicle(the Mahdvatzsa proper); but, in its later continuation,it has definitelybeen preferred to "Sumanakfita".7o As alreadystated, a Pali poem of the eleventh century, which deals with the legends relating to the sacredFootprint, is called Samantakita-vanand. In the Tamil poem the sacredmountainis referredto as "Samantamn" as well as "Samanoli",the latter AIaiyimekalai, Sumanae. being equivalent to Sinhalese "Samanola" or (i. Samana-kita). If we accept the date generallyascribedto the Mavzimekalai, the name Samantaor Samantakitamust have been prevalentas earlyas the sixth or seventh century.The mountainmust have been so designated because "Samanta" was recognised as an alternativeform of the name of the god who had his abode thereon. It is difficult to conceive of "Samanta"as an alternativeform of "Sumana", unless it be on the analogy of Skt. Samanta-bhadra (an epithet of Buddha)assumingthe form of in Sinhalese.A better explanationof "Samanta" "Saman-baduru" as an alternativename of this god can be furnishedif the Sinhaleseform of that name, "Saman",is derived from Skt. "Samana"and not "Sumana". "Samana"is derived from the root sam with the addition of the agentive suffix-ana,and means "settler" or "destroyer".The same meaning can be conveyed by the addition of the suffix-r.7 the resultingform being "Samitr".Such a form, so far as I know, has not been used in Sanskritliteratureas a name of Yama, but a legend in the Mahdbhdrata tells us that, on a certainoccasion, that deity functioned as the cook i. e. Samitr,of the gods.72 The legend, most probably,has arisenbecauseof the god having been known as Samitr,a word which also means "cook", literally, "preparer","dresser". In its stem form, or in the nominative singular, the word would have become Samata in old Sinhalese,due to the phonetic process of vowel-assimilation. This form is identicalwith the old Sinhaleseequivalentof Skt. and PNli"Samanta" and, in renderingthe name into Pali, "Samata" could have been representedby "Samanta". Arguing from the fact that the mountainis called Samantakiita, and on considerationsbased on iconographyI have elsewhere suggested that the god having his abode on Adam's Peak is the same as the Mahdydna BodhisattvaSamanta-bhadra. This suggestion has now to be given up, as the identity of Samanwith Yama rests on more secure grounds. But the origin of the Mahlydna Bodhisattva Samanta-bhadra has not been satisfactorilyexplained. His evolution from Yama may not be beyond the bounds of possibility. According to the beliefs of northern

Buddhists, Yamawill be rebornas Samanta-rdja, whenhe succeeds in expiating his own sinS.73
The Sabaragamu SamanDdvdle inscriptionof the 39th year of Pardkramabdhu VI (I4I0 to 1467), of which the original is no longer extant,74 refersto the god by the name of Laksmana, both in the opening Sanskritstanzaand in the body of the record which is in Sinhalese.Laksmana, it is hardlynecessaryto say, is the younger brotherof Rima, the hero of the Rdmdayaa. The Jinakdlamdlini, a historicalwork in Pali written in Siam during the sixteenth century, has also included a god named Lakkhana (Laksmana)among the deities who protect Ceylon.7s
70

71 72

Cflavadisa, chap. 6o, v. 64, chap. 6i, V. 70, chap. 68, v. 6, chap. 8o, v. 24, chap. 85, v. ii8, chap. 86, VV. 9, 20 and z8, chap. 88, v. 48, chap. 92, V. 17, chap. 93, v. I2, chap. 97, VV. I7, i8 and 3I, chap. 98, v. 84 and chap. ioo, vv. 8i and zzi. Whitney, SanskritGrammar.?5 I I 5? g and i i 8z.

Pura vai Naimvisdranye devib).atram updsate Tatra Vaivasvato rdjan Sdmitram akarot tadd. Mlahabhdrata,op. cit. I, I 89, I. 73 Alice Getty, Gods of Northern Buddhvism, p. 136. 74 Ceylon Antiquary and Literary Register, vol. II, p. 36-46. The text published is from a copy written on palm leaves. The

style of the documents supports its claim to be a copy of a fifteenth century stone inscription.
75

Bulletin de l'Ecole Franjaise d'Extrime-Orient, XXV, p. 46.

27

It is not difficultto explain how this name originated. The god Samanis referredto as an The word for footprint ardentworshipperof the Footprint of the Buddhaon Adam's Peak.76 which, it is possible, was often pronouncedin the abbreviatedform of in Sinhaleseis pada-lasa As the god of the (Foot)-Print, Samanwould have been referredto as lasa or las(P. Idiichana). Las-Saman,a name which the Brahminswho were placed in charge of the shrine in the reign VI must have takenas identicalwith the name of Rdma'sbrother,with which of Pardkramabdhu who befriendedRdmaand they were familiar.The prevalencein Ceylon of a cult of Vibhilsana, must have lent colour to this identification Laksmanaaccording to the story of the Rdmayapa, of the Brahmins. But the SamanDevdle inscription,the only documentin which the god of Adam's Peak is does not contain any other evidence to establishthat, in the fifteenthcentury, called Laksmania, the deity was held to be the same as the brother of Rdma. No exploit of Laksmanaof the has been credited to the god to whom the name of this hero has been given. If the Rdmaiyapa two were held to be identical, it is difficult to explain why, in the eulogies of the god, no reVibhisana, ference is made to his part in the vanquishing of Rdvana.In the Sdlalihini-sandesa, the god worshippedat Kdlaniya,is referredto in termswhich lay emphasison the parthe played in the story of Rdma.The poet Alagiyavanna,on the other hand, in the course of his fulsome a poem to which referencehas alreadybeen made, praise of the god Samanin the Silvul-asna, does not state anythingto indicatethat he was the sameas the brotherof Rdma.At Alutnuvara, one of the principalcentres of the Samancult, the priests do not relate any story connecting It seems likely, therefore,that the name "Laksman2a" their deity with the story of the Ramayanp. is due to a desire of the priests of the fifteenthcenturyto refer to the deity by a name in sonorous Sanskrit,in place of one smacking of the vulgar speech which then, as now, would have been considered not quite appropriateto a powerful divinity, in an impressive official document.
III. SAMIDDHI ASPECTS SUMANA AND MAHAKALA:

OF SAMAN

OR YAMA

Of god Sumanaand Adam's Peak, Upham has recordedthe following: "SamanDewa-raja is the king of the inferior deities of Koombandu;77 he is describedas having attendedthe preaand in consequencerenouncedhis wickedching of Buddhaat his firstarrivalat Mayhanganny78 ness. He is now declaredto be living with his deities on the top of SamanaGalle 9 (Adam's Peak) with power over Ceylon. In this mount (which is also a Mienmo) grows the tree called The Buddha seat of power, the minni phalange,82 Kirri-palol8o also Kinni-naga and Raja-lenai.81 for the purpose of offering was buried below this tree under the charge of Saman-dewa-raja, supplicationthereon; that the nagas, snakes, might obtain blessedness,that is, that they might
76 77 78 79 8o
8I

See, for example, SdlalihiniSanrdsa,edited by Bhadanta DharmdrdmaNdyaka Thera (Kelaniya, I925), v. 25.
P. Kumbhanda Mahiyahgana

Samanala-gala
Kiri-palu P. Rdjjyalana Mifi-palahga; P. matui-pallahka.

82

z8

by virtue of the doctrine be converted to the faith of the Buddhaand the same is the stony seat below the said tree in the island Minni-nagaDewainne,83 whereupon the Buddha sat down, tree the and communicated feelings (virtues) of his body. Samandewa leaning against the said or seat of power, on which the Buddha always is delineatedas standing on the minni-phalange,
sits.84

This quaintaccount proves that the Buddhists,from whom Upham derivedhis information about god Saman in the third decade of the nineteenth century, believed that the god of Adam's Peak was identicalwith the deity named SamiddhiSumanawho figures in the Mahdvat/saaccount of the Buddha'ssecond visit to Ceylon. This chronicleinforms us that Samiddhi tree outside the gates of the Jetavana-vihara at Srdvasti, Sumanahad his abode on a rajay-atana85 and held the tree over the head of the Buddhain the mannerof an umbrellawhen the Enlightened One came miraculouslyto NMgadipa (the modernJaffnaPeninsula),in order to prevent a threatenedwar between two factions of Ndgas, the casusbell being a gem-set throne. After the tree was establishedat the place where the warringfactions had been reconciled,the rajay-atana Buddha met the Ndga hosts, and the gem-set throne (P. mayi-pallafika, Sinhalesemkil-palariga) was placedunderthe tree as an object of worship.86 It is not recordedwhether SamiddhiSumana or accompaniedthe Buddhaback to India. That there was no ancient bestayed in NMgadipa, lief to the effect of SamiddhiSumanaremainingwith his raj/ayatana tree in Ceylon is indicated to a deity named Sumana,who had his abode at the by a referencein the Dhammapadat.thakathd gate-house of the Jetavana-vihara, and is said to have barredthe entry of a Yakkhini to the sacredprecincts.87 In the Mahdvat*sa itself, there is nothing to establishthe identity of SamiddhiSumanawith Sumanaof the Srlpddamountain. ;The latter, it is said, attainedto the first fruit of spiritual development on the occasion of the Buddha'sfirst visit to Ceylon. But it is not impossible for the same god to be localised in differentplaces, and ultimatelyto evolve as two distinct deities. Varuna,for instance,was believed to have his abode on the Asta mountain,as well as in the submarineworld. "Samiddhi"(Skt. samrddhi), the epithet prefixed to the name of the deity who is said to have accompaniedthe Buddha to Ndgadipa, means "wealth", "riches" or "prosperity".And if the equationof Sumanawith Samanai. e. Yama, is appliedto the name, it would mean Yama of Riches, Wealth, or Prosperity. If there is evidence for an aspect of Yama answeringto this description, that would be a further confirmationof the view of the author of the Sinhalese Jdtakathat Sumanais no other than Yama. It is, I think, legitimateto infer that the storieswith regard to a god residing at the gate of the Jetavana-vihdra in Buddha's time originatedfrom the circumstancethat a deity of a similarnature was installed in effigy at the entranceto monasteriesin India, and also perhapsin Ceylon. That such was actuallythe case is proved by the following statementof the ChinesepilgrimI-Tsing: "There is likewise in great monasteriesin India, at the side of a pillar in the kitchen or before the porch, a figure of a deity carved in
83 84 85
86 87

Alini-Ndga-divayina = P. Mani-Ndga-dipa. Edward Upham, The Historyand Doctrineof Buddhism, London, I 829, p. 5 '. Skt. rjiddana,Sinhalese, kiripalu,Buckamania Latifolia. Mahdvatsa, chap. I, VV. 44-70. Dvdrakoihake adhivalhi Sumano ndma devo. P. T. S. Edition, vol. I, p. 4I.
29

wood, two or three feet high, holding a golden bag and seated on a small chairwith one foot hanging down towards the ground. Being alwayswiped with oil, its countenanceis blackened, and the deity is called Mahikdlaor the great black deity."88 We may safely disregard the Chinese pilgrim's theory with regard to the origin of this deity's name, as due to edifying stories narratedto the faithful by the monks; but the existence of such a story itself indicatesthat Mahdkilainstalledat the entrance,or in the kitchen, of ancient Buddhist monasteriesin India was not Siva who, in his terrible aspect, was known as Mahlklla, in spite of I-Tsing's statementto that effect.The descriptionof the deity's figure as of Siva, given by the Chinesepilgrim does not at all correspondto any known representation (Protectorsof the Faith) of Tibetan and Mongolian or of those ferocious-lookingDharmapdlas Buddhism who have Saivite traits like holding a trident in one of their hands. The Nepalese Mahikdla,who holds a mongoose under his arm, does not also resembleSiva of that designation. It has been suggested that this Buddhist Mahlkdlawith the bag of gold is no other than has not but how the latter god could have been entitled to the epithet of Mahdkdla Kuvera,89 been explained. who, like SamiddhiSuFor the purpose of determiningthe identity of this god Mahakala mana,was installedat the entranceto ancientBuddhistmonasteriesin India, we must take into considerationthe essentialelement of his name. The first constituentof the compound, Mahd, is often found prefixedto propernames, includingthose of gods, in a purelypleonasticmanner, in the Mabdvatksa, The god of Adam's Peak, for instance,has been referredto as Mahdsumana chap. I, v. 33, whereas the same deity is referredto as Sumanain v. 77 of the same chapter,as well as in the commentaryof the chronicled Visnu is often referredto as Mahdvisnuby the Now, it is wellXIII, 4, 5, Yama is called Mahdyama. Sinhalese today. In the Atharvaveda, known that, in the post-Vedic Sanskritliterature,Yama has the name of Kdla, being identified with personified Time as destroyers, "Kdla" being synonymous with "Yama", "Mahdkdla" The fact that the name of a god consideredby a Sinhalese would be the same as "Mahdyama". writer of the fourteenth century to be the same as Yama has an epithet meaning "Wealth", "Riches" or "Prosperity"prefixed to it, supports this identificationwith Yama of the god, As a possessor of great wealth, Yama has been named bearinga bag of gold, named Mahdkdla. (II, 45, 34): "That wealth Says the Mahdbhdrata in companywith Kuvera, Sakraand Varuna.92 which was with Yudhisthirawas not seen of the king of gods (Sakra),nor of Yama, nor of Kdla in post Vedic literatureis conceived Varuna,nor of the Lord of Guhyakas(Kuvera)."93 (XIX, as the great destroyer;but, in the well-known hymns to Kdla(Time) in the Atharvaveda with the 53 and 54), it is the productive aspect that has been emphasised.The god MIahdkdla bag of gold and SamiddhiSumana,probably,are both due to the identificationof Yama with this beneficentaspect of Time. was often installedin the kitchen of Buddhistmonasteriessupports The fact that Mahdkdla
translatedby J. Takakusu, Oxford, I896, p. 38. Religion, of iheBuddhist I-Tsing. A Record Oxford, I914, pp. I43-4. Buddhism, Alice Getty, Godsof Northern 90 Va*satthappakdsini, P. T. S. Edition, vol. I, p. II 4. 91 E. W. Hopkins, Epic Mythology, p. 107. 92 RdmJyana, Book VII, chap. 9z, v. 17. vd Varuezasya 93 Aarsd irir Devardjasya Yamasya vdpiyJ fri rdjan Yudhiisthire. Guhyakidhipater
88 89

30

Fig. 2 Bas-relief representation of personage holding a da~nda; on a wing-stone of steps at entrance to Lankatilaka, Polonnaruva. flanking the flight

3'I

his identificationwith Yama, for among Indian gods, Yama was the only one who has had experiencein the culinaryart. We have alreadyreferredto his functioning as cook of the gods on a certainoccasion. Taste in food appearsto have been a blessing to be obtainedfrom Yama, for this, together with eminencein virtue, were the boons grantedby that deity to King Nala.94 In the Sabhdof Yama, wherein he revels with the Pitrs, there is everythingdesirable,not excluand the poet particularlymentions that the entourage of the divine King of ding apsarases, Virtue and Justice (Dharmardja) is provided with all good things "to lick and chew" which are tasty as well as abundant.gs The great thinkersof ancientIndia had obviously seen the connection between food and virtue, and realisedthat the latter cannot thrive where stomachs are empty. I-Tsing tells us how efficient a catererMahdkdla (Yama) proved himself on one occasion, when five hundred monks came without notice to a certain monasteryjust before meal-time. The abbot was distracted,but an old woman who was better awareof the capabilitiesof Mahdkala appealed to that deity with the necessary amount of faith, and cooked food adequate enough to entertainthe guests in a lavish manner appearedsuddenly. There being thus evidence for an aspect of Yama as giver of wealth, the identity of Sumanathe Bounteous with Sumanaof Sripdda, believed in by the Buddhistsof Ceylon earlyin the nineteenthcentury,gives furthersupport to the view recordedin the SinhaleseJdtaka that Sumanais no other thanYama. In connection with SamiddhiSumanabeing associatedwith a tree, it is relevantto mention that the .?gveda (X, I3 5, I) mentions a tree beside which Yama drinks with the gods. In the Atharvaveda (V. 4, 3) it is said that a fig-tree (Aftattha, Ficues Religiosa)exists in the third heaven, the abode of Yama.96 This is the same tree which is held sacred by the followers of the Buddha in Ceylon; Buddha and Yama are both called "Dharmardja". Anent this evidence for a Yama (Sumana) of Riches, we may also mention that Yima,97 the counterpartof Yama in Iranianmythology, was believed to have been the ruler of men in a golden age when every one was prosperousand contented. At the portals to ancientreligious edificesin Ceylon, too, there have been found representations of Yama, possibly personifyingTime. At the entranceto the Lafikdtilaka in Polonnaruva, the loftiest creation of the Sinhalese architectsof old, the outer face of the carved balustrade flanking the flight of steps on the left, contains the bas-reliefrepresentation of a personage of noble-looking countenance graspinga rod (datida) in both hands (Fig. 2). The figure leans on the pilaster on which rests the foot of the makarawhich is the principalfeature of the sculptural ornamentation of the balustrade.On the headis an elaboratepeakedmakta, and on the various parts of the body are ornamentsof diverse sorts. The garmentwhich drapesthe lower part of the body evidently depicts the height of fashion of those days, and in general,the figure,which is in the tribhahga pose, is full of grace, poise, dignity and majesty,and can be takenas an embodiment of prosperity. The rod held in the two hands proclaims the personage to be Danda94

Yamastvannarasatiprdddd dharme ca paramd;msthitim. Mahdbhbrata, III,54, 3 I . 95 Rasavac ca prabhbitat ca bhakfyam bhojyamarindama.

96

97

Albh. Critical Edition, II,8. 4. According to Buddhist Cosmography, the third heaven is Yama, presided over by a being called Suydma, but to the Buddhists, the third heaven is not the highest, as it was to the Vedic Indians. For Yima, see My/ho/ogv of All Races, vol. VI, pp. 304-319.

33

dhara,"the bearer of the rod", which is a well-known epithet of Yama. We have elsewhere at the portalsof religious buildings of ancientCeylon pointed out that the Ndga and the Makara symbolised Time98.The principal motif on the balustradeis this Makara,and the idea meant to be conveyed by it seems to have beenfurtheremphasisedby this representation of the bearer set against the pilasteron which the foot of the Makararests. Whether the of the rod (dayjda) ancient artists meant this figure to be a representationof Samanwe cannot say, but it will be shown in the sequel that modernfiguresof Samancarrya rod or sceptrein one of the hands. This balustradebearing a representationof Dandadharaor Yama is of a date earlierthan the twelfth century, when the building of which it now forms a part was raised. For it was meant to be fitted to a flight of five stone steps, whereas there are only three steps at this entrance of the Lafikdtilaka. Probably, it was of a prdsdda housing a Buddha image, the symbolism of which requiredfive steps at the entrance.99 The figure of Yama as Danddadhara may thereforebe ascribedto the eighth centuryor thereabouts. A figure bearing a rod is also to be seen on the outer face of the balustradeflanking the flight of steps leading to the pavilion called the Rajavesyabhujafiga at Polonnaruva(Fig. 3). The ornaments and draperyof this figure are less elaboratethan those of the Dandadharaat Lafikitilaka,but in pose as well as in the mannerin which the rod is held in the hands, there is a general resemblance.Here, too, the balustradehas been placed in its present position at a later date; it must originallyhave belonged to a religious edifice. These two divinities grasping the rod in both hands, meant to guard the entranceto a religious edifice, remind us of Sumanawho, we are told, stationedhimself at the entranceof the Jetavanaat Sivatthi and preventedthe entry of undesirablepersons to the precinctswhere the Buddha resided. The identity of Sumanawith Yama being established, the installation of a figure of Yama at the entranceto a Buddhist edifice in Ceylon lends support to the identification of Mahdkdla, installed at the porches of mediaevalBuddhist monasteriesof India, with Yama who was also known as Kdla. The aspect of Yama out of which the Buddhist deities Mahdkdla, referredto by I-Tsing, and Samiddhi Sumanawere evolved corresponds to that deity as he was conceived by the Vedic Aryans and the ancient Iranians; it differs from the popular concept now prevailing, based on the epics and the Purdnas,wherein Yama is the judge and punisherof evil-doers. The latteraspecthad developed at an earlydate, for, in the Devadita-sutta of the MajbimaNikaya, King Yama is depicted as supervisingthe torturesof Hell, though we are made to understand that he does so in order to maintainthe working of the law of karma,and would have been oo happy had men heeded his warnings and sparedhim the necessity of inflicting pain on them., The developmentof Yama into a judge and Supervisorof Hells does not appearto have made the earlierconception of this god altogether obsolete. It is evidently due to the parallelexistence of both concepts of this god that the Mahdsamaya-sutta speaks of two Yamasattending the Congressof Devas held in the forest near Kapilavatthu.IoI
98

Artibus Asiae, vol. XVII, pp. 227-230.

99 Ibid., p. 223.
z00

Lord Chalmers,FurtherDialoguesof the Buddha, vol. II, pp. 25 5-26o. 101 Duve Yami in Digha Nikdya (P. T. S. Edition), vol.11, p. 259. T. W. and C. A. F. Rhys Davids in the Dialoguesof the Buddha, part II, p. 290 translate the phrase as "the Yama twins" and take them to be the Castor and Pollux of Indian mythology, i. e. the AMvins.

34

Fig. 3 on the outer face of a wing-stone flanking Bas-relief representation of a personage holding a daen~ia, at Polonnaruva. the flight of steps leading to Rajavesya-bhuaianga-maiidapa

35

With regardto the informationsupplied by Upham establishingthe identity of Samanand Samiddhi Sumana(Sumana of Prosperity), it is pertinent to note that, in the Saman Devlle inscriptionalreadyreferredto, the epithet Laksmi,which has the same meaning as P. Samiddhi, has been prefixedto the name of the deity in one of the Sanskritstanzasoccurringin that docuIn the Sinhaleseportion of the document, too, we have the phraselaksmimat vi Laksment.0o2 in which laksmimat, manamahddtvdle, "aboundingin prosperityor splendour"may refer to the god or to his shrine. It is, of course, quite possible to explainaway the use of the word laksmi in the documentas due to the fondness for alliterationon the part of its author, but an inscription engraved on a rock half way up the ascent to the Peak, seems to furnish us with evidence that an epithet meaning "prosperity"or "splendour"has been prefixed to the name of the God of Adam's Peak for reasonsmore significantthan literaryeffect. The epigraph in question is inscribed on a rock at the head of a series of about hundred steep portion of steps, incised in order to overcome the difficulty of ascent over a particularly By the side of the inscription, the way up to the Peak, at a place referredto as Dharmardja-gala. which is badly weatheredand is in the script of the fifteenth century, is to be seen the outline drawing of a beardedman, 5 ft. 3 in. in height, of austerecountenanceand attire, holding his hands up in the attitude of worship, facing the Peak. We learn from the record that the series of steps was caused to be cut by an ascetic (tdpasa)named Dharmarija,who was born in a Brahminfamily named Girimahall. What is of interest to us in our present quest is that this holy man is describedas "a devotee of the OmniscientOne (i. e. the Buddha) and Sripati." "Sripati"is well-known as a name of Visnu, for according to the epics and the Pura-nas, that deity is the consort of Sri or Laksmi.But Visnu is not associatedwith Adam'sPeak in the religious literatureof Ceylon; modern popular beliefs, too, do not connect that deity with this mountain. A holy man who seems to have spent a considerabletime of his life at or about Adam's Peak must have been a devotee of the deity of that Mountain, i. e. Samanwho has nowhere been identifiedwith Visnu. We are thus led to the conclusion that "Sripati"was an would come to supportus in appellationof Samanin the fifteenthcentury.And the Mahdbhdrata this conclusion if we follow the authorof the Sinhalese Jdtakain identifying Samanwith Yama. The Rdjadharma section in the Sdntiparvan (Book XII) of the great epic, after recounting the divine origin of the institution of kingship, raises the question why the king is entitled to the implicit obedience of men, though he is but an ordinarymortal where physicaland mental faculties are concerned. The mythological justificationof the issue raisedis stated as follws: "At that time, a golden lotus came into being from the foreheadof Visnu, wherefromwas born the goddess Sri, the consort of wise Dharma. From Sri, by union with Dharma, 0 P4ndava, was born Artha. Therefore,in kingship are establishedDharmaas well as Arthaand Sri."1o3 Dharma being a name of Yama, this passage from the Mahdbhdrata supplies the evidence for the conclusion that, at one time, Sri, the goddess of Prosperity,was taken as the consort of
102

Lakrmi-Laksmana-ndma devapataye. Ceylon Antiquary and Literary Register, vol. II, p. 44. With regard to the name

Laksmana, see ante, pp.

103

27-28.

Visnor lalatat kamalam sauvarnamabbavat tada ?rii sambhb7tdyato devipatin Dharmasya dhimatab Sriyah sakildd Arthai ca jdto Dharmena Pandava Atha Dharmas tathaivirthab Sri! ca rajye pratisthitJ. Mahdbharata, XII, 59 vv. I32-I34.

37

Yama. The SinhaleseJdtaka of the fourteenth century identifies Samanwith Yama; thus, the god of Adam's Peak is entitled to the epithet of "Sripati". The extractfrom the Mahdbhdrata, quoted above, is at variancewith the accounts given in Purd-asand the classical Sanskritliterature,of the birth of Sr the same epic, the Rdmdyapa, and her marriage.Hopkins, however, has pointed out that Sri or Laksmi was, in the earlier strataof the Sanskritepics, not the exclusivewife of Visnu.1o0Apparently,the religiousthinkers of ancientIndia were not unanimousin the decision with regardto a suitablehusbandfor this importantgoddess, and therewere some who actuallysolemnisedthe marriagebetween Righteousness (Dharma) and Prosperity(Sri). But this union does not appearto have been celebrated with great rejoicings by the multitude in the same way as divine marriageshave been celebratedin antiquity,even though it is said to have lasted long enough to result in one issue, a son named Artha, of whom more would be said in the sequel. The female partnerin this divine union, who is proverbial for her fickleness, has found a consort more to her liking, with whom she has remainedlonger than with Dharma.A knowledge about the earlierunion of Sri with Dharmaseems, however, to have persistedin Ceylonwhen it was forgotten in India itself. It is fervently to be hoped that the religious revivalistsof our own day would succeedin resuscitatingthe formerunion of Prosperitywith Righteousness,and making it more enduring than it had been in the hands of the ancient sages. The referenceto the god of Adam's Peak, Yama- Saman,by the epithet of "Sripati"indicates that religious beliefs of a period earlierthan that of the Purdnas persistedin Ceylon, with regard to the gods worshipped by the Sinhaleseup to a comparativelylate date. This is also what we have seen in our study of Upulvan (Varuna).Ios The Brahminwho was responsiblefor the inscription at Dharmarija-gala, wherein Samanis apparentlycalled Sripati,claims to have belonged to a familycalledGirimahall. In this name,Giri (Mountain)probablyrefersto Adam's "chief secretary".The family of this can be equatedwith Sanskritmahd-lekhaka,106 Peak; mabald Brahminappearsto have held the hereditaryoffice of Chief Secretary with regardto affairs pertaining to the Peak, i. e. the stewardshipof its property and the managementof the services connected with it. A personage belonging to such a family can be trusted as an authoritywith regardto the traditionsrelatingto the Peak,andthe name appropriate to the divinity believed to reside thereon. The evidence detailed above, establishing Samanas a god of Wealth and Prosperity,also explains an epithet of this god which has hitherto remainedobscure in meaning. I refer to which, for example,is compounded with "Saman"in the Nikaya-saigrahaIo7 "BoksVJ" of the fourteenth century, and in the Hatksa-sandesa of the fifteenth century.'08 With the above evidence before us, we are justifiedin equating"Boksdl"with SanskritBhoga-idlin, "aboundingin Wealthor Prosperity".The full name"SamanBoksil" is thusequivalentto "SamiddhiSumana". The unknown person who narratedto Upham the legends connected with SamiddhiSumana about the god of Adam's Peak, therefore,appearsto have followed a genuine tradition.
104

Hopkins, Epic Mythology, p. 2o8.

52ff.

105 Paranavitana,The Shrineof Upulvan at Devundara, pp. 9iff. and

106

107

108

The usual equivalent of Skt. /ekhakain Sinhalese is le. But, the final e in Sinhalese words often changes to a; see Sigiri Graffiti,Introduction, p. xxxix ff. Edited by D. M. de Z. Wickrenasingha,Colombo, i890, p. z6. Verse I98 of BhadantaDharmdrdma Ndyaka Thera's edition, Colombo, i926.

38

IV. THE CHARACTERISTICS SAMAN COMPARED

AND ICONOGRAPHY

OF

WITH THOSE OF YAMA

The god appearsto have been adopted by the Buddhistsof Ceylon after divesting him of much of his mythological traits. In TheravddaBuddhism, gods are cast in the same mould. They are born in heaven as a result of good deeds performedby them as human beings, and enjoy the pleasuresof heaven while the effect of the good deeds remainsoperative. They are generallyon the side of virtue, and are preparedto help humanbeings in distress,so far as it is within their power according to the operation of the law of karma.As such, we do not find that data in the Pali Buddhist literatureof Ceylon, for example in the Samantakkta-vayvand, would be relevantto the identificationof Samanwith Yama. The priestswho officiatedat shrines dedicatedto Samanmust have had their traditions;but, if they createda special literature,no specimenof it dating from a period before the arrivalof the Portuguesehas come down to our times. The balladsand tracts dealing with this god that are now availablehave been written in recenttimes, afterthe older traditionshad been entirelyor partlyforgotten, due to the interruption of the rites and practicesunder the rule of the Portugueseand the Dutch, or intentionally tamperedwith by the Brahminsfrom South India. In spite of these unfavourablecircumstances of the god Saman,as he was preventingus from gaining an idea of the individualcharacteristics known in ancientdays, there are a few detailssignificantfor our presentpurpose,which we can gather about this deity from referencesin Sinhaleseliterature,from the writings of Englishmen in early British times, and from currenttraditionsand practices. The only Sinhaleseliterarywork which gives prominenceto this deity is the poem Savulasnaor -sandtsa, alreadymentioned. The poet, after taking the bird to the shrine, and describing the dance of the nautch-girls,devotes a number of stanzas to the appearance of the deity as manifestedto the devotees. The descriptionis highly conventional,but no referenceis made to a multiplicityof hands or other abnormalfeaturesin the person of the deity, who is depicted as an ideally perfect human form. In a number of stanzas,the complexion of the god Samanis referredto as darkblue or green.,o9 In stanzai47, for instance,the effulgenceof the ornamental archesof indra-nila stones in the city of Sabaragamu is comparedto the rays emanatingfrom the darkblue body of the deity. The crown on the head of the god is comparedto a golden peacock on the top of a mountainof collyrium(v. i 8i). Agreeing with this descriptionby Alagiyavanna, in the painting of Saman reproducedin the plate facing page 52 of E. Upham's Historyand Doctrineof Buddhism, the deity's body is green (see Frontispiece). This is in accord with the descriptionsof Yama in Sanskritliterature.In the Mahdbhdrata, for instance,when Yama came in person to take away the life of Satyavan,he appearedto the latter'sdevoted wife, Sdvitr1, as a man clad in yellow garments,with hair tied into a top-knot, beautiful,glorious like the Sun, of dazzlinggreen colour, having red eyes, holding a noose in the hand, and of terrifyingaspect.,,o In Indian Silpasastras,too, Yama is of dark colour."I' It appears, however, that there were
109

I O

" I'

The word used in Sinhalese is nil (Skt. ni/a) which may denote "green" or "dark blue". Mubhrtad iva cdpaiyat purufam pita-vasasam Baddha-mauli* vapusamantam Adioya-sama-tejasam SyJmdvaddta* raktdksam pdia-hastam bhaydvaham. Mahdbharata,III, 28i, 8-9. Gopinatha Rao, Elementsof Hindu Iconography, vol. II, p. 526.

39

of that deity in the sixteenth images of Samanwhich differedin colour from the representation According to Forbes, the colour of Samanis yellow, and Davy century shrine at Sabaragamu. says that this deity, like Ndtha, is white. Images of Samanto be seen in Buddhisttemples at the presentday are generallypaintedyellow. The Ceylon Buddhists,in depicting the deity as white or yellow, as well as dark blue (or green), agree with their co-religionistsin Tibet, Mongolia and China,where Yama may be either darkblue, red, white or yellow.II2 The colour of Saman, therefore,supportshis identity with Yama. In the painting of Samanreproducedby Upham, alreadyreferredto, the god holds a bow dhanh)."I3 in one hand. According to Hopkins, Yama as a god of war carriesa bow (Ydmyath was armed with the bow of One of the sons of Draupadi, according to the Mahdbhdrata, a work The is known. of Yama a bow too, literature, Sinhalese In Sarvajnagaula ikdra, Yama."11 of about the thirteenthcentury, comparesthe contractedeye-brows of frowning Yaksas to the bow of Yama (Yama-ra/a-dhanu-nibha kutila krfirabhr-yuga)."s On the other hand, Samanas depicted in Upham's painting holds a weapon which may be taken as a rod or sceptre, of several joints, with a spiked end. If we take this weapon as a sceptreor rod, it correspondsto the with which KAla,identified with Yama, is armed.116One of the names of Yama in Sanda~yda But, as the weapon shown in Upham's skrit is Dandadhara,"bearerof the rod (of justice)"."11 Forbes deillustrationaccompaniesa bow, it may be taken as a representationof an arrow."18 finitely says that the weapons of Samanare a bow and arrow. The painting of Samanin the near Colombo, dating from the second half of the eighteenth cenBuddhistshrine at KJlaniiya, tury (Fig. 4), representsthe god standingby the side of an elephant,holding an arrowin one of the hands. It differsfrom Upham's painting in omitting the bow, and representingthe god as yellow in complexion. Epic poetry in Sanskritrefers to arrows given by Yama to heroes. Indrajit,the son of Rda, in the course of the battlewhich ended his career,shot his uncle Vibhisanawith an arrow van. This would have slain the good Vibhisana,had not Laksmananegatived it given by Yama.119 in two places, has comwith a weapon of equal power given by Kuvera. The Mahdbhdrata, SamanDavdle, the pared an arrow to the tongue of Yama or Antaka.120 In the Sabaragamu in the annualprois taken of the which an an not god, image object of worship today is arrow, cession. In an unpublishedmanuscript,giving an account of the re-buildingof this shrine by of this arrow RdjasitihaII after its destructionby the Portuguese, the miraculousappearance the arrow of Rdma. is narratedin detail. The manuscriptrefers to the weapon as Rdma-sara, This may be due to a confusion of the legends relatingto god Samanwith those of the Devun112 113

114

115 II6
117

118
119

120

Buddhism, p. I 35. Alice Getty, Godsof Northern Epic Mythology, p. I I2. Girifamevaca Ydmyam Raudram-Agneya-Kauvera# Bharata. dhanm-ratnani Pancanda, Draupadeydndm CitrasalaPress, Poona, I93 I, VII, 23, 94. Mahabharata, edited by 0. Dhammajoti Thera, Alutgama, I936, Sarvajfia-,gunlJavtkdra, p. I I 2. Hopkins, Epic A!ythology, I, 54. Amarakosa, Eleven Yearsin Ceylon,vol. I, p. i 85. Sa pitrvydya sakkruddha Indrajic-charam ddade. Yama-dattam maha-balah. Uttamamraksasdm madhye Rdmdyanza, VI, 91, 47-48. p. I I 2. Hopkins, Epic Mythology,
40

p.

283.

Z.~

~~~ ~~~ ~~~ ~~ ~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

4'

Fig. 4 Painting of the god Saman on a wall of the temple at KAlaniya.

Fig. 6 Image of god Saman in the Cave temple at Darhbulla.

43

darashrine,whereRIma wasworshipped. n2i

It is also possible that the readingRima-sara in the manuscript is due to a clericalerror,and that the correct reading should be Yamaor Ydmya-Sara. John Davy, at plate facing p. i98 of An Account etc. (London, of theInterior of Ceylon, i 8z i), has given a drawing of the god Saman with four arms(Fig. 5). The right hand holds a flower, and in the left is a sceptreending in a trilida.According to the Vi4zudharmottara, Yamashouldhave four arms,and the left hand should hold a flaming trilida. South Indian also referto images of Yamawith lilpasastras four armsandholding a fruit or tenderleaves izz The figure of Saman in one of the hands. published by Davy apparentlyshows the influence of South Indian Brahmins. The oldest image of Saman, still worshipped as such, which is known to me, is a representationof that deity in the famous rock-temple at Damibullain the MdtalaDistrict (Fig. 6). The image is more than lifesize, and standsby the side of a similarimage of Upulvan (Varuna), now identified with Visnu. Both images are carved out of wood and painted. They exhibit superbskill on the part of the artist in modelling, and are dignified and majestic in general appearance. In theircostume andornaments,the two images are almost alike; in colour, however, they differ.While the body of Upulvan is painted dark green, that of Saman is yellow. Both hands of the images are held forward, with the palm outwards. Of the right hand, the forefingertouches the thumb,while the other fingers,very sensitivelyrendered,are held up with a slight backward curve. The pose of this hand resembles that called kataka-hasta in South Indiantexts on iconography.Of the left hand also, the fore-finger touches the
121 122

/0"

/~~~~~~~~~~~
\r as\,

e~~~~~~~~~~2

Fig,.

A Drawing of the god Saman, reproduced from An Accountof theInterior of Ceylon by John Davy.

pp. 32ff. Paranavitana,The Shrineof Upulvan at Devundara, vol. II, p. 5z6. Gopinatha Rao, Elementsof Hindu Iconography,

45

no abnormality in the number of thumb, the other fingers are bent down. There is no vdhana, hands or other bodily features,and no weapon or other distinguishing symbol held in either hand. The gods are representedin the ideal human form as conceived by the artist. In this respect, these images of Upulvan and Samancorrespondto the descriptionsof the deities in the Sinhalesepoetical literatureof the fifteenthand sixteenth centuries. The Darhbullarock-temple,in which this image of Samanis found, goes back to about the second centuryB. C., as attestedby the Brihmi inscriptionsbelow the drip-ledgesof the caves.

with imagesby NiNanka Theprincipal caveswereembellished Malla (ii87-

Ii96).

The images

of the Buddha and the gods were painted, and the walls and roofs of the caves covered with in the eighteenthcentury.The image of Samanthat frescoes, in the reign of Kirti Sri Rajasirhha we have noticed is far superiorin its artisticmodelling to any image dating from the eighteenth century; we may, therefore, safely ascribe it to the reign of NigariakaMalla, i. e. the twelfth century.The rock temple of Daffibullahas been in continuous occupationby bhikkhus, and the identificationof this particularimage with Samanhas therefore to be taken as due to an unbroken tradition. For comparisonwith this twelfth-centuryimage of Saman,we may take a small bronze image, 3 i/i6 in. in height, which can be definitelyidentified as Yama, and ascribedto the same period (Fig. 7). It was found deposited in a stone receptacle(garbha, referred to asyantragala), with twenty-fiveholes, inside a small stfpa in the areaof the Allhana Parivena at Polonnaruva.123 This monastic institutionwas founded in the reign of ParikramabihuI (I I 53- 186), andmusthavebeenabandoned alongwith other monuments at Polonnaruva when that city was sackedby invadersfrom SouthIndia in the second decade of the thirteenthcentury. The stfpa in question, and the objects deposited therein, must thereforedate from the second half of the twelfth century,or the first quarterof the thirteenth. In the garbhastone were deposited figurines of the dikpdlas, and that we have taken as Yama was found in the centralhole on the southern side, thus establishingits identity with Yama. Moreover, this identity is furtherconfirmed by the images that were found in the adjoining holes. In the one to the east of the hole occupied by Yama was a figure representinga bearded old man holding a waterpitcherin one of his hands.This correspondsto the iconographyof Agni, the guardianof the south-east,in Sanskrittexts. To the west was a figure of Riksasatypewith eight armsbearingvariousweapons. This is Nirrti, the guardianof the south-west. The figure
Fig. 7 Bronze Figurine of Yama from a Stupa in the Alahana parivena at Polonnaruva.
123

Archaeological Survey of Ceylon:Annual Reportfor1gro, pp.

i9-2i.

46

.* 3's*

;*.

*:

.*.

'.

. ._ .................

5~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

reemls h iae

epea ead h ekdcon(aua fSa n in th ahul Fig. 8 Sandalwood Image of God Saman in the Vih1ra at Palabaddala. ;iti x _* k47 :..:4

depositedbetween these two, occupying the centralposition of the southern side, must clearly be meant to reptesentYama the guar of the South. Making due allowancefor the differencein size and material,this bronze figurine of Yama

K w * t P, "'~~4

. . . |as

on the head, the draperyand ornaments,and the two hands not holding any object. The pose of the hands, however, is not identical. The right hand of the bronze figurine is almost in the same attitude as the left hand of Saman at Darfibulla, while the left hand is held down alongside the body. But the pose of the hands of the gods during this period , ,+ v does ..v not appearto have been regarded a mark of individuality,for it is the same for Upulvan as well as for Samanat Dam'bulla. The image of Samanwhich is now taken to the Peak every year during the pilgrim season, to receive the homage of the devotees, conforms to the iconographical type at Damrbulla. This image is about a foot in height, is reputed to be made of sandal-wood and is silver gilt (Fig. 8). The god, thus, is representedin this image as white in colour,
i - of part

with no emblems or vehicle. For the greater the year, the image is kept in the Buddhist vihiraat Palbaddala, near the base of the Peak on the southernroute. It is loadedwith golden chains and other jewellery, donated by the pious. These are removed only on the occasion of the ritual bathing of the deity; so, it has not been possible to take a photographfrom which the artisticcharacteristicsof the image can be estimated.The face, <_ ~~~~~~however, is ofbenignant character; itis not impos= sible that this is the identicalimage fashioned by in the thirteenthcentury. Devapatiraja type oSama l imgewich carried no ~~~~~~~~~~The weapon or emblem in the two hands prevailedup to the close of the eighteenth century, side by side the type illustratedby Davy, as is exemplified l ~~~~~~~~~~~with by a stucco image of the deity (Fig. 9), still being worshippedat a Buddhist temple in the village of Fig. 9 in the Anuradhapura District. Of Gonaxniriyava in imagt rh ad the Stucco Image of God Saman at the G6namlriylva abha yamDdri. this image, the right hand is in the abbayamudri, Temple. while the left is in the varada. The head-dress,drapery and ornamentscan dearly be seen as developments from the type at Dam-bulla. On the other hand, bronzes which can definitelybe identifiedas figures of Yama, found in Ceylon, representthe deity as holding a sceptre or rod in one of the hands. At Avukana in the Anuridhapura District, bronze figures of Brahmi and the four Lokapilas were buried in a cavity of the rock under the lotus pedestalof the giant statue of the Buddha.Yama is represenl: 1[my;
a

sbut

48

ted here as brandishing a rod or club (danda) in one of the hands (Fig. IO). This image must date fromthe eighthcenturyatthe latest, of for an inscription in characters that period was found on one of the stone slabs of the shrinewhich enclosed the Buddhaimage. There imis a possibility that the Buddlha age andthe figuresof deitiesburied under its feet are of a date earlier than the shrine of which remains still exist. Figures of Lokapilas, Yama among them,have also been found buried under the floor of the porches facing the cardinalpoints at near an edifice in the Vijaydrdma These figuresare Anuradhapura.124 and two-faced. The four-armed two hands in the front are held together in the attitude of adoration, while one of the hands at the back holds a weapon characteristic of eachgod; thatofYama (Fig. i i), buried under the southern porch, was a club. The peculiarcharacter of the images was due to the function that the gods were expected to perform. Each one of them had to ward off evil coming from the quarterthat he occupied. For this, he had to look towards that quarter; but this could not be done without turning his back to the Fig. io shrineif he had only one face. The Copper Image of Yama, found under the feet of the Colossal Buddha images of the gods were therefore Image at Avukana. four and faces provided with two hands, the normalface at the front facing the shrine with the hands in a worshipping attitude, while the face at the back watched evil influencesfrom that quarter.The extra pair of hands with evil inventions,without disturbingthe worshipping could deal with any possible intruders
124

H. C. P. Bell, Archaeological Survey of Ceylon, Sixth Progress Report, Colombo I 896, p. 8 and Plate XXIII; Coomaraswany, Bronzes from Ceylon, Colombo, I9I4, p. 23 and Plate XXIII, fig. I40.

49

attitudeof the front turnedtowardsthe object of veneration. The image of the deity buriedunder the floor of the southern porch of the at Anurddhapura Vijaydrdma has been called Virfidhaka by Bell, on the suppoof the Buddhist sition that the Mahlrdjas scheme are the deities represented.But s ~~~~~~ I the vajraon a staff held in one of the hands of the image buried under the eastern porch identifies that deity as bki Indra. The possibility is that the Brahmanical,and not the Buddhist,Lokapilas have been pressed into service for guarding this sanctuary.The drawing of the bronze image buried under the southernporch of the Vijaydrdma, publishedby Bell, shows the deityasholding a rod in one of the hands. The image has suffered damage in the Colombo Museum,where it is now, but without this distinguishingweapon. The disarming of the deityhad alreadytaken place when Coomaraswamynoted it in his of Ceylon. BronZes Bronze figures of Lokapilas have also been found buried under the floor of the porches facing the cardinalpoints of the raised quadrangleat Puliyankulama, a monastery of about the ninth I25 century,to the east of Anurddhapura. These images arenot two-facedlike the but are fourLokapdlasof Vijaydrdma, armed, all the arms being at the front. Fig. ii these four bronzes, there is one Among figurineof Yamafoundburiedin a porchat Two-faced Vijayirima,Anuridhapura. in one of the which holds a double vajra hands, representingIndra, and another which similarly holds a noose, being a representationof Varuna. One of these figures holds a rod in one of the hands, and it must be taken as a representation of Yama. Bell, however, has not given a detailed description of each figure in relation to the porch under which it was found, and the bronzes appearto have been mixed together in the Colombo Museum,for the

7K,

125

of Ceylon,pp. 2 I -2 for I 896, p. 3 and Coomaraswamy,Bronzes of Ceylon Survey Bell, AnnualReportof theArcbaeological and Plate XXIII, fig. i25-Iz8.
50

2,

a'Z,

Fig. Iz

Fig.

Bronze Figure of Yama found buried in a porch at the PuliyankulamMonastery, Anuradhapura.

Bronze figure of Yama, found in a Stupa in the Topavava, Polonnaruva.

image bearingthe dagda (Fig. I 2) is describedin the catalogueas Dhatarattha, found under the northern porch. Dhataratthais not associatedwith the north and the iconographylabels the image as Yama. WYith this four-armedfigure of Yama, it is Interestingto comparethe drawing of Samanwith four armsto which we have alreadyreferred. A bronze figure of Yama has also been discoveredin a stone receptacle (garb-/ a) deposited in the twelfth century stzgpa in the lake of Thpavaiva at Polonnaruva(Fig. I3) The identifica5'I

Fig. I4

Image of Saman, holding rod, in the Buddhist Temple at God1akdvela.

tion, in this instance, is beyond doubt, for Bell has given accuratedescriptionsof the images of the ten Dikpa1as,and the positions occupied by them in the garbha.I26 This figure of Yama is two-armed;in one arm is a rod which, however, is damagedat the two ends. With these images of Yama bearing the rod or the staff,should be compared a modern in the Ratnapura stucco image of Saman,of colossal size, in the Buddhisttemple at GodakEvela District (Fig. I4). In one of its two hands, this image holds a short rod with a trefoil-shaped knob at the upper end. The tradition of Samanbearingthe rod is thus found to have persisted up to modern times. The trefoil-shapedknob could easily have developed into the trifzla in the hand of Samanas illustratedby Davy.
126

Bell, Archaeological Surveyof Ceylon,Annual Report for 1909, pp. 28-30 and Coomaraswamy,Bronzesof Ceylon,p. 92, and Plate XXIII, fig. 136. 52

Thus we have in Ceylon several types of Yama and Saman. The type of Yama with no weapons or emblems in the hands correspondsto the figures of Samanat Damwbulla, Adam's Peak (Pallbaddala)and Gbnamiriyiva. That bearing the club or staff,or rod, is the prototype of the Samanimage noted by Davy. In the circumstance that the colour of Samanis yellow in some images, while it is dark green in others, there is a parallelin Yama images of Mahayana lands. The buffalo as the vehicle of Yama is referredto in Indian literature,I27and appearsin iconography,at a comparativelyrecent date; no image of the deity with this vehicle has been a pedestalplacedby the found in Sinhaleseart. In Upham'spainting, the god Samanstandsonw an of as a is entitled to this vehicle. The iconographicaltraits of side elephant.Yama, dikpdla, Samanwhich we have examinedthus confirmthe identificationof that deity with Yama. We have alreadyreferredto the belief recordedby Upham that Samanis the king of the tells us that Yama, when enraged, makes Kumbhandas.Dhammapila,in his Paramatthajotikd, many thousands of Kumbhandasto burst and die like seeds of sesamum in a heated pan, by a mere glance with the eye which is his weapon.'28In the same passage, it is said that Vessavanacreatessimilarhavoc among the Yaksaswith his mace. Vessavanais the king of the Yaksas;it thereforefollows that Yama was held by the Theravdda Buddhistsof Ceylon in the fifth century to be the king of the Kumbhandas. The overlordship of the Kumbhapjas,with which Yama as well as Samanhas been credited,lends supportto the theory that the two gods are one and the same. The impish spirits called the Kumbhandasare not referredto in the Sanskritliteratureof Brahmanism, and are known only from Buddhist writings. According to the Atanatiya Sutta, Kumbhandasare ruled by Virflhaka, one of the four great kings of Cdturmaharajika heaven.129 Viriilhaka,according to Buddhist cosmology, is the guardian of the south, an office filled by Yamain the scheme for the government of the Universe evolved by the Brahmins.The bronze figuresdiscoveredat Avukana and the Vijaydrama, noted above, prove that the Brahmanicalscheme of Lokapdlaswas known to the Ceylon Buddhistsin the Anuradhapura period. An attempt at reconciling the two differentsystemsof the guardianship of the quarterswas no doubt the reasonfor makingYama (Saman),the guardianof the South, the overlord of the Kumbhandas. The Sdvul-sandisa refers in two places to the qualityof mercy, compassionor pity (Sinhalese kulunu, Skt or Pali karugd),with which god Sumanais endowed. Verse i88 says: "The pair of long blue eyes of the divine king Sumana,which shines like pricelessindranila gems and indivara flowers (blue water-lilies), are verily two beautiful fishes which move about in the river of his compassionextended equallytowards all beings at all times."I30 Verse I93 describes the god's chest in these words: "The wide and broad expanseof the chest of this lord of Suras, in which there arelines of hair in the mannerof darkmoss aroundwhich hover bees in the shape of rays from the eyes of celestialnymphs, is verily a captivatinglake filled to overflowing with
127 128

Hopkins, Epic Mythologv, p. iI 6.

Yamena ruithena nayanavudhena olokita-matte anekdni KumbhandasahassiniIatta-kapdle hid vjya vipphurantini vinassanti. P.T. S. Edition, vol. II, p.z 2.25 Paramatthajotika, Rhys Davids, Dialogues of the Buddha, part. iii, p. I9I. Dilena mahafiguifidunil ifiduvaranranga Sumana sura-rajuge digu nil nuvanyuga Nitina sav satan veta patala ekarafiga Sarana sonduruminyuvaleka kulunugahga.

129 130

53

also refer to comand the Mayfira-sandisa the cool water of compassion.""'The Paravi-sandisa of god Upulvan.I32 One may, therefore,not attachparticularsignifipassion as a characteristic cance to the above descriptions,and pass them as mere conventional rhetoric, but for the cir(compassion) is constantlyon the lips of the pilgrims who cumstance that the word karundva of Saman. All along the way, in the train, in the omnibuses, or wenthe abode to Sripada, go ding their wearyway on foot, the pilgrims, at frequentintervals,shout out karutivayi.A party of pilgrimsgreets anotherpartywith this word. When one is exhaustedby the strenuousclimb, yi. the others infuse courage to one by shouting karuendva with the Buddhajust as much asprajida (wisdom) is of course associated Karund (compassion) is, and the pilgrims go to Srlpddatoday with the avowed purpose of paying homage to the Footprint of the Buddha, showing respect to Samanbeing only a secondarymotive. But it is significantthat the Sinhalese Buddhists going on pilgrimageto other holy places of their reor the Temple of the Tooth in Kandy, do not use the ligion, like the Bo-tree at Anurddhapura, would make one conThis circumstance as they do on their way to Srlpdda. slogan karundvayi, clude, almost against one's wish, that the devotee wending his way to the Footprint shouts as an invocation to the god on the Peak, and not in referenceto Buddlhaas an karwunvayi embodimentof compassion.This conclusion gains support from an unexpected source. The Natyaldstraof Bharataenumeratesthe deities presiding over the eight sentimentswith which the theory of dramaturgydeals, and the god concernedwith the sentiment of Pity or Compassion is no other than Yama, with whom Samanhas been identified.33 The well-known traits and raudraare assigned, indicate of the deities to whom other sentiments (rasa) like f.rtigdra that this scheme reflects the qualitiesof the gods as they were conceived when the NOtyaidstra was written. The connection of the erotic sentimentwith Visnu, for instance, is very approof that deity, are takeninto conpar excellence a, the Avatdra priatewhen the activitiesof Krishn. sideration. Consideringthe conception of Yama as the god who condemnssinnersto sufferthe tortures of Hell, the associationof the quality of mercy with him will be a cause of surpriseto many. But this is the logical outcome of that very circumstance.We must rememberthat Yama, in condemning sinnersto Hell, merely acts as the agent of a higher power, the law of Karma,in the mannerof a judge who condemns a criminalto the gallows, in administeringjustice. And in Brahmanism.Buddhaghosarefers to him as Dhammiko raja, "a just Yama is Dharmardja king".34Apparently, Yama does not take delight in the unpleasanttasks which his office has imposed on him, for the following words have been attributedto the Buddhahimself: "Time was, Almsmen, when the thought came to King Yama; - They that are reportedto do evil in
131

13
'33

'34

nil sevela Sunilvasi rodagdvasunu Lakal suramtba net kdn kelinamihilola nisipulul-uramadala Vipul me surirduge Sihil kulun-amhbin piri vilekamana-kala. edited by T. SunandasabhaThera, Matara, I925, Compare, for example, Paravi-sandesa, edited by Valipatanvila gri Dipamkara Thera, Colombo, 1923, VV. 143 and I5o. Pramatha-daivatab. hasyab Srxigiro Visnu-daivaoyo karunoYama-daivatab. RaudroRudrddhidaivaoyak Kala-devo Mahakdlah bhayanakab Bibhatsasya Brabma-daivatab. syddadbhuto Viro Mahendra-devab Natya a'stra,Kavyamala Series, Bombay, I943, p. 95. P. T. S. Edition, vol. IV, p. 23 I. Papaifcasudanf,

V. I84,

and Mayura-sandesa,

54

the world are punished in these diverse ways. Would thatI might become a human being and that there might arise in the world a Truth-finder,Arhat all-enlightened,to whom I might attachmyself to hear the Lord preachhis Doctrine and myself to understandthe Lord's Doctrine".'UsKing Yama is representedas sending five messengers so that people may take heed and act in such a manneras to give him no occasion to condemn them to Hell. Even when sinners go to his presence,he is said to remindthem of their good actions, so that they can grasp the memory of such an action and be born in heaven. A story is told that a certainhigh dignitary of ancient Ceylon, who had to appearbefore Yama's tribunalafter his death, was asked by the functionariesof that tribunalto recall to mind any good action that he had done. The dignitarycould not think of any good deed of his, and it appearedas if therewas no alternative but to condemn him to Hell. As a last resort, however, he was taken to the presenceof Yama himself. The King of Justice then reminded him of his having once offered flowers to the He grasped this as a sign (nimitta), and was duly born in HeaMahdthapaat Anurddhapura.
'36 ven.

The ThervddaBuddhistsof Ceylon thus appearto have borne no grudge againstYama, and were readyto appreciate the importanceof the role that the deity had to play in maintainingthe ethical code. The Mahdyinists, on the other hand, depict Yama in a lurid light, and have createda god named Yamantaka,powerful enough to crush him.137 It is by seeing the sufferingsof sentient beings that compassion or pity (karugi) is engendered in one's mind. In the case of the Buddha, too, it was after he gained insight into the that compassion developed in full measure.'38 wanderings of beings in sarksdra Yama's functions are such as to make him familiarwith the sufferingsof worldly beings more than in the case of any other god. It is thereforequite appropriatethat the sentiment of karund has been classifiedas his speciality. Not only the qualityof Mercy(karutid), but also that of Wisdom (prajid)has been attributed to the god of Adam's Peak. The SamanDdvdle inscription refers to the god as an Ocean of Wisdom and Compassion (prajina-k-rpd-sindhave). This is in accord with the deity's identification with Yama. Dharma,i. e. Yama, as we have seen above, has been describedas wise in the Mahdbhdrata. Of all the characters in that greatepic, none is so endowed with wisdom as Vidura, who was believed to have been an incarnationof Dharma.'13 In the Kathopanisad, profound doctrines about the Absolute and life after death are expoundedin the form of a lecture delivered by Yama to the ghost of the Brahminboy Ndciketas,sacrificedby a wrathful father.140 This god must have been consideredas typical of wisdom for the sage who composed the religious tractin question to have attributedto him teachingswith regardto which a great modern philosopherhas said that, "in the whole world there is no study so beneficialand so elevating" as they are.
135 136
I37

138 '39

140

Lord Chalmers,FurtherDialoguesof theBuddha. vol. II, p. 260. Papahcasfidani, P. T. S. Edition, vol. IV, p. 234. Alice Getty, Godsqf NorthernBuddhism, pp. I 35- I 37 and 14 5- I 46. Asvaghosa's Buddhacarita, E. H. Johnston's translation, pp. 203-204. Dharmo Vidura-ripena Sidra-yoniv ajdyata. Mahabharata,1, MI0, 27. For the dialogue between Yama and Naciketas, see The Upanishads, translatedby F. Max Muller, PartII (Sacred Books of the East, vol. XV, Oxford I900), pp. I-24.

55

- V. DIVINITIES

ASSOCIATED

WITH SAMAN

(v. zoo), the messenger,after delivering his petition to god Saman,is In the Sdvul-sandesa enjoined to pay homage to the Consort of the deity, and to inform her also of the business on which he had come. The goddess is merely referredto as "the deity who is the Queen"; no personalname is given. Nor has any individualtrait of the goddess been mentioned,her praises being sung in purelyconventionalphraseology.It is thereforenot possibleto determinewhether this goddess was the same as Dhiimornxnwho, accordingto the epics, is the Consortof Yama. The Consortof Saman,thus, does not come to our aid in revealinghis origin and identity. "the Divine Lord, the In the next verse, the poem refers to a deity named Kumara-surinidu Prince",to whom also homage had to be paid for the successfuloutcome of the mission. In the is in the form of a a poem of the fifteenthcenturywhich, like the Sdvul-sandesa, S,~lalihi~yi-sandjsa, his Consort,and the Prince, message to be delivered to a god, the principaldeity, Vibhilsana, i. e. the son of the king of gods, are mentioned one after the other.'14 In the Saman DEvale (the inscription, alreadyreferredto, the Bis6-deviyan(the Consort) and the Kumara-deviyan Prince) are also named. It may thereforebe that, during this period, a Trinity comprisingthe principaldeity, his Consort and his son was worshippedin shrinesdedicatedto gods, and that has been brought in merely to satisfy the dementioned in the Savul-sandesa Kumara-suriiidu as the poem does not refer to any individual characteristics mandsof this scheme, particularly of this deity. Against such a conclusion is the mention of another deity in the next verse to whom referencewould be made in the sequel. In order to decide the identity of this Kumaraon the basis of Samanbeing Yama,we have to note that no son of Yamafiguresin the surinidu, literature. In this connection, we may leave out of considerationthe monkeys Brahmanical are said to who, in the Rdmayana, named Gaja, Gaviksa, Gavaya, Sarabhaand Gandhamddana be the sons of Vaivasvata142 i. e. Yama. was not a son of Saman(Yama),he musthave been closely related,for he If Kumara-surinfdu in the was associated worship with the latter.We must thereforeundertakean investigationwith regard to the next of kin of Yama, for which purpose we have to refer to his parents. In the Vedic as well as in the epic literatures,Yama is said to be the son of Vivasvat (the Sun-god) by Saranyi, the daughterof Tvastr. Vivasvat and Sarax.iywere also the parentsof the twin-deities the only differencebeing that, when the Mvins were born, Vivasvat and known as the AMvins, the mother of the Mvins is calledAglrin!, In the Pura-nas, assumed had equine forms.143 Saranyfi and the twins receive the appellationof Asvini-kumarau.144In this connection,it is appositeto quote the words of Sir William Jones, the first Englishmanto have made a study of the gods of India: "Suryais believed to have descendedfrequentlyfrom his car in a human shape, and to have left a race on earth, who are equally renowned in the Indian stories with the Heliadai in the dual, of Greece. It is very singularthat his two sons, calledAsvinau or Aswini-Cumarau should be consideredas twin-brothers,and paintedlike Castorand Pollux; but they have each
141 142

'43

144

with commentary, edited by Bhandanta DharmdrdmaNdyaka Thera, Colombo I925, VV. i06-107. Sdlalihini-sandea W. Hopkins, Epic Mytholog, p. II 3. and W. Hopkins, Epic Mytholog, pp. Io7ff. For the For Yama, see A. A. Macdonell, Vedic Mytholog, pp. I7I-I73 Agvins, see Macdonell, op. cit., pp. 49-54, and Hopkins, op. cit., pp. i67-i69. For reference to the Aivins as Aivini-kumdras, see H. A. Wilson, The Visnu Purdna,vol. I (London I 86i), p. 141, Madras, i864, pp. 197-198. vol. III (London, I864), p. 248, and Edward Moore, HinduPantheon,

56

the characterof Aesculapiusamong the Gods, and are believed to have been born of a nymph who in the form of a Mare, was impregnatedwith sunbeams".I45 In the Vedic literatureas well as in the epic, the Asvins are describedas young and beautiIt is could have been shortenedto Kumdrain popularparlance. The name Asvinikumdra ful.I46 therefore reasonableto assume that a god named Kumdra,worshipped in associationwith a deity who has been held to be the same as Yama, is no other than an A~vin, who had the same parents as Yama. This conclusion becomes all the more plausible due to the fact that bronze images which can be identified as representationsof the Asvins have been found at a place which is one of the principleseats of the cult of Sanianin Ceylon,namelyMahiyangana. at Mahiyaxnganxa is referred As has already been stated, the original foundation of the ddgdba by traditionto Saman,and this shrine is regardedby the Buddhists of Ceylon as enjoying the In dedicated to whom is situated close to the ddgdba. specialprotection of the deity, a dgvdle the later I95 I, the Archaeological Departmentclearedawaythe debrisformed by the collapse of restorationsof this ddgdba, and brought to light a relic-chamberI'7 which, from the objectsfound therein,has to be taken as dating from the eleventh century.Placedon the covering stone slabs of the chamber,there had been a terra-cotta figure of about half life-size; this has been crushed by the weight of the masonryabove it and only its head was recovered. Inside the chamberitself, the principalobject deposited was a rectangularstone box in which were the relic-caskets. Placed on the floor of the chamberon each of the four sides of the stone box was a bronze figure of a horseman,presumablymeant as guardianof the relics inside the box. One of these four figures of horsemen (Fig. I 5) is of superb workmanship;the other three are of inferiorquality.Presumably,the specimenwhich is of superiorartisticqualityis of a date earlierthan the eleventh century,and the other threehave been madein imitationof it (Fig. i 6). The horse is in a prancingattitude, the two forelegs resting on the figures of crouchinggayas. The rider, wearing a makutaand adorned with ornaments,holds a sword in one hand and a spear in the other. He is brandishinghis sword in a challenging manner. Seated behind the rider in an uneasy posture is a female holding what looks like a staff in her right hand, with the other hand she is holding the right hand of the rider. If not for this, she looks as if she would have slipped down from the back of the horse. The general appearance of the figure is that the horseman,to whom the female is clinging for support, has rescuedher and is defying all comers in protecting her from danger.One would, at a first glance, be inclined to take these horsemen as representingthe four Mahdrdjas who guardIndra'sheaven, but the female figure seatedbehind the back of the ridercannot be explainedon this assumption.On the other hand, to have owed the Asvins are noted as succouringdeities. Many persons are said in the IRgveda their deliveranceto the divine twins. They brought on a car to the youthful Vimadawives, or a wife named Kamadyfiwho seems to have been the beautifulspouse of Purumitra.I48 In a hymn to the twin horsemen occuring in the Mahdbhdrata (I, 3, 62), we are told that the two AMvins
145 146

147

148

Asiatic Researches, vol. I, p. 263. See Macdonell, Vedic Mythology, p. 49 and Hopkins, Epic Mythology, pp. i67-I70. In the Mah bhdrata,I, 3, 70, the AMvins are described asyuvanau. For an account of the opening of this relic chamber and a catalogue of the objects found therein, See Archaeological Survey of Ceylon,Annual Reportfor iqyI, pp. i6-i8 and 48-59. Macdonell, VedicMythology, p. 52.

57

WXAie

Fig. IS

Bronze Figure of a horseman, found in a relic chamber of the MahiyanganaDigaba.

rescued, for the sake of Saubhaga,Varttiki who had been forcibly capturedby Suparna;149 but the story of this rescue has not been given in detail in the epic. It is very likely that the divine horsemenare representedin the act of similarlyrescuinga femalein distress. In the .Rgveda itself, the Agvins are describedas going about in cars drawn by horses, or birdslso there being no evidence to show that they owe their name to the reasonthat they by the heroesNakulaand Sahadeva,the sons of the Asvins, ride on horseback.In the Mahbbhbrata, are similarlydescribed as fighting from chariots like other princes of their time. But, in the Pdrakumbdsirita (v. II 7), King Parikramabihu is compared to Nakula for his proficiency in
149Graspt
ISO

balenaVartlikdm Supareasya AmuicatdmAlvinau Saubhagaya. p. So. Macdonell, VedicMythology,

58

Fig.

x6

Bronze figure of a horseman, found in a relic-chamberof the Mahiyaigana Digaba.

riding horseshoeand in the Sdvul-sandesa (v. 6z) R-jasirhhais compared to the same hero for the same accomplishment. is2 If Nakula was taken by Sinhalesepoets to be the ideal horseman, it must have been due to the reason that he was a son, in fact an avatdra,of one of the AMvins. Moreover, the name Alvin also means horseman,and the counterpartsof these twin gods in the Greek and Lettic mythologies rode on horseback.Sir WilliamJones, in the passagequoted above, has noted the fact that towards the close of the eighteenthcentury, the Asvins in India were painted like Castorand Pollux. It is thereforenot improbablethat, in mediaevalCeylon, the Asvins were representedas horsemen. The description of Kumara-surinidu in the Sdivulsandesa does not state how the god was represented.The word yuga "pair"occurs after "KuI

5I Turanga nagumata Nakula-rada. I2Sobana Naku/araju men niagemin Aruta.

59

mara-suriidu",but it cannot be ascertained whetheryugarefersto the precedingword or to sirisaranawhich follows; the phrase may be translatedeither as "the sacredfeet of the two gods We cannot thereforedecide whether, Kumara"or "the two sacredfeet of the god Kumdra".'13 at the Sabaragamu DEva1e,there were two images of gods called Kumdra.As the gods are twins, two images of them would have been exactlyalike, and it is not impossiblethat one was consideredsufficient.However this may be, we are,I think, justifiedin concludingthat the god associatedwith Samanin the Sabaragamu Devdle, and the images of horsemen found at Mahiyafngana, are identical with the Asvins. At the present day, there is a belief that the deity called Kumdraat Sabaragamu is the same as Vibhlsana.This confusion seems to have arisen from the words of Sri Rdhula in the SdIalihini-sandisa (v. go) that Vibhisanaremoves the sufferings of men causedby their sins, as well as by disease,so efficaciously,just as a drop of water not remainingon a lotus leaf, that the divine physicians(the Asvins) are merelyheardof in the sayings of the learnedmen.154 If these horsemeninside the relic-chamber were representations of the AMvini-kumdras, the deity shown in effigy above the relic chamber could have been Yama(Saman).He, too, must have been given a place in the defensive scheme,if his associate gods were pressedinto service. The Sdvul-sandisa (v. 202) mentions yet another god associatedwith Saman(Yama) at the shrinein the sixteenthcentury.He is introducedto us in the following words: "My Sabaragamu good friend, do worship the two illustriousfeet of the divine Lord Sapu and inform him, too, of this matter-Lord Sapu, whose fiery energy and commandare comparableto the flamesissuing forth from the eye in thejatd of Harawho burnedTripura,and who filled the expanseof the whole world with the abundanceof his fame".'isThis descriptiondoes not furnishus with any individual characteristic of the god, for the eulogy may be applied to any other divinity. We have thereforenothing but his name to guide us in identifying him. No god of this name is worshipped today at the Sabaragamu SamanDEvdleor, as far as I am aware, at any other shrine. No referencehas been found to a god named Sapu in any other Sinhalesewriting. If Sapu be treatedas a proper name, it does not correspondto the appellationof a god known to us in Indian literature.The word Sapu occurs in Sinhaleseas the equivalent of Skt. and Pdli campaka (a tree, MicheliaChampaka) or sampatti (wealth, riches, etc.) Sampatti means the same as Artha, and we have seen above that Artha personifiedwas held by some religious thinkers of India to be a son of Dharma(i. e. Yama), born of the goddess Sri. Saman being identical with Yama, the worship of a god correspondingto Artha, in associationwith him, would thus be quite appropriate.If these identificationsof Kumara-suriiduand Sapu-surinidu are found tenable, the set-up of divinities in the Sabaragamu DEvile in the sixteenthcenturycorresponds to that of the royal Courtin mediaevialCeylon. There was the king and queen, corresponding to the god and his consort. Next in order of precedencecame the Ma-pawho was normally a younger brother of the king, if there was one. Then followed the Xpd, who was normallythe
153

I54

55

The line reads Kumara-devinduyugasiri sarana siyapala. Pav r6 duk dura lana pokur-azba lesina Dev-veda dsenapamaneki viyalun basina. Tipura divR Hara dala net agev led ana Sapura kala yasas rasa lova lula sobana Sapu-surinduge nama karayuga sini sarana Me puvata sala karanu ma mitura tuma kalana

6o

son of the reigning monarch.Kurmara-surinidu, accordingto our identification, was half-brother of Yama(Saman)and Sapu-suriindu was his son. They thus correspondedto the Mipi and Apa of the royal household. The relationshipbetween the principaldivinity and the subordinate gods appearto have been forgotten in the sixteenth century,from which date we have literary referencesto them. At Alutnuvara,i. e. Mahiyangana, a goddess named MahaLoku Akka is worshippedtoday in associationwith Saman.The name means "The Great Big Eldest Sister",and the goddess is taken as a sister of Saman. No other goddess is worshipped at this shrine. This is the only shrinein Ceylon known to me where a god is associatedin the worship with his sister, and not is of great significancein the identificationof Samanwith with his Consort. This circumstance Yamahas a twin sister namedYami; in the epics she is calledYamund. Yama,for in the Rgveda, This sister of Yama is of no significancein epic mythology, but the northernBuddhistsappear not only to have preservedher name, but given her a fiction, that is, to look afterfemaleculprits, while Yama is busy with the males.

VI. AN ANCIENT

SINHALESE

KING AS AN EMBODIMENT

OF YAMA

According to a tradition currentamong the SinhaleseBuddhists,it was Vattagaman!Abhaya (circaI04 B. C. and 89-77 B. C.) who discovered the sacredFootprint on Mount Samanola (Adam'sPeak) and institutedits worship.156 This mountainis believed to be the abode of Saman whom a Buddhist scholar of the fourteenth century has identified with Yama. It is therefore significant that VattagamaniAbhaya is referred to, in ancient inscriptions, in the chronicle, and in the Pdli Commentaries, by an epithet which is a well-known name of Yama. We now proceed to state this evidence and examineits implications. An inscriptionin an earlytype of the Brahmiscript,found at Koravakgala,near Situlpavuva in South Ceylon, recordsthat the cave in which it is indited was fashionedand dedicatedto the in the reign of a king named Tisa (Skt. Tisya, P. Tissa), by a dignitarynamed Cema(Skt. sangha The long inscription,or rather Ksema), the treasurerof Pita-maha-raja (Skt. Pitr-mahi-rdja.157) the series of inscriptions,on the pavement of the Dakkhina Thipa at Anurddhapura,Is8 to be ascribedto the third centuryon palaeographical grounds, refers,in a number of places, to that monument as founded in the reign of Pita-maha-raja. We know from the Mahdvan*saisq that a Vihira was founded in the reign of Vattagdmanrii the Dakkhin. Abhaya. Pita-maha-raja, therefore, is no other than Vattagaman! Abhaya. This conclusion is supportedby the Koravakgala inscription when it states that an official, who dedicateda cave in the reign of a king named Tissa, held the office of treasurerin the reign of Pita-maha-raja, for Vattagamaniwas closely followed on the throne by his nephew Tissa, called Mahacal MahdTissa in the chronicle. The
The story of how Vattagaman! Abhaya, when in concealment, was miraculously led to the Footprint at the summit of the Peak has been given by William Skeen in Adam's Peak, op. cit., pp. i6-I7. The text of this inscription runs thus: Pita-mabarajbaha baqdakarika parumakaSumana pu/a parumakaCemasalene rajha Tifabarajbiyaji niyateagataanagatacaw-difaJagafa. See A. S. C. Annual Reportfor 1948, p. 9. Chap. XXXIII, v. 88.

I56

157

IS8

159

6i

identificationis further clinched by the Pali commentarieswlich, in their not infrequent referencesto the events of the reign of Vattagimani Abhaya,160 call him Pitirija. The fact that an inscription,set up a few yearsafterthe deathof Vattagaman. i Abhaya,refers and that the traditionsrecordedby the Pali commentatorsas well as by to him as Pita-maha-raja, the Dakkhina Vihira inscription knew him by that name, go to prove that, in his life-time, many of his subjects called him by that epithet. The reason why such an unusual name was attachedto him arouses our curiosity; the old chronicler,too, seems to have realisedthat an explanationwas necessary. For, he refers to the title of Pitirija (the element mahaappearsto have been optional) borne by VattagdmaniAbhaya and, moreover, he tells us how the king came to be known by it. Vattagamaniii Abhaya, we are told by the chronicler,adopted as his own son Mahical Mahdtissa,the son of his elder brother, KhallhtaNiga. As he stood in the position of father to MahddiciMahaiissa,VattagamaniAbhayawas called Pitirdja,"the father king".16i This explanation,though charmingin its naivete, hardly carriesconviction. The adoption of another'sson as one's own is not so extraordinary an occurrenceas to justify a sobriqueton that account to one who does so. Even less is the justification,when the adoption is of a son of one's own brother. If VattagamaniAbhayahad to be given an epithet based on paternity,it was not necessaryto seek the reason for it in the fact that he adopted his brother'sson as his own, for he had sons of his own, one of whom, Coraniga, succeededto the sovereignty. Even without any formaladoption, the son of one's own brotheris, accordingto the Sinhalesesystem of kinship, modern as well as ancient,entitled to be called "son". Vattagamani was Mahaciili's "father"even without adoption. The explanationof the epithet "Pitirdja" given in the Mahdva*sa appears,therefore,to have been invented, not necessarilyby the authorof that chronicle, at a time when the real significanceof the word had been forgotten. It is also not impossible that the explanationis due to a desire, for reasonswhich would become clear in the sequel, to prevent its real purport gaining currency among the people. According to the Mahdvathsa, it was the people who gave tbis sobriquet to Vattagamai Abhaya, but the commentaryto that chronicle has recordedthat this king, after remainingin concealmentfor a time when he was deprivedof his sovereignty by the Tamil invaders,rallied the people round him by proclaiminghis name as "I am Pitirija, son of Saddhdtissa".162 The commentaryhas often recorded historical traditions not taken into account in the chronicle itself, and if we, therefore, assume that this is one such instance, it is significantthat Vattawhen he wanted to rally the people round him, made use of this particularepithet in gaman.ii, preferenceto his personalname. We cannot imagine that a sort of nickname,due to the king's adoption of his brother'sson as his own, would have had the effect of rallying the people to his standard.There must have been some significancein the epithet "Pitirija"which entitled him to the allegianceof the people, and induced to make them fight for him. What that could have been, we now proceed to investigate. If the title "Pitirdja" was not due to its bearerstandingin the relationof "father"to another
160 i6i

162

See, for example, Sammohavinodani (P. T. S. Edition), p. 448 and Samantapisadikd ( P. T. S. Edition), pp. 440 and 473. Mahdvaksa,chap. XXX, vv. 35-36. Aham Saddhdaissassa pu/to PifirijJ nima. Vaisatbhappakisini,P. T. S. Edition, vol. I, p. 617.

62

person, it is necessary,in order to explainits significance,to ascertainthe other meaning that could have been attachedto it. The equivalent in Sanskritof P. "Pitirj-a"is "Pitrrdja", and this, we know, is not uncommon in the epics as a name of Yama-a name appropriate to that god for the reasonthat he is the king of the Pitrs, i. e. the Manesor the spiritsof the departed. In Book I, Canto48, V. 23 of the Mahdbhdrata, for instance,we read vyaktath mayd'pi gantavyam Pi.rraja-niveianam (There is no doubt that I, too, should one day go to the abode of Pitrrdja, i. e. Yama). "Pitrraja" occurs as the name of Yama in several other passagesof the same epic, for example, II, 8, 30 andIII, z8i, I4. If P. "Pitiraja" and the old Sinhalese "Pita-maha-raja" be understoodin this sense, the epithet borne by Vattagaman1 which was preferredby Abhaya, some, in ancienttimes, to his personalname, would indicatethat he desired his subjectsto regard him as Yama, the Divine Judge. According to ancientIndian political theory, elaborated at lenght in the Mahdbhdrata, Manusmrti and the Rdmayapa, the king was an embodimentof one or other of certaingods, in accordancewith the emphasiswhich one may lay on this or that function of royalty.I63More than four centuriesafter the time of Vattagimani Abhaya, Kassappa I (circa473-49 i A. D.) of Ceylonhad a remarkable palacebuilt on the summitof Sigiri rock, so as to identify himselfwith Kuvera in the paradiseof Alakd on the summit of Kaildsa.I64Such political doctrineswere repudiatedby the Theravddaschool of Buddhismwhich reigned supremein Ceylon, but there is no reason why some kings did not attemptto go against orthodoxy, and set themselves up as divine rulers. And Vattagdmaniwas the earliest of Ceylon kings to have braved the orthodox Mahdvihira.If Kassapain a later age proclaimedhimself to be an embodimentof Kuvera, one of the Lokapdlas, it might have been for the reasonthat a precedenthad been establishedby Vattagimani Abhaya calling himself an incarnationof Yama, another Lokapala. Such a conclusion would also make intelligible an episode in the story of Vattagamani Abhaya, as it is narratedin the Mahdvatksa.i6s A few months after his first accession to the throne, VattagdmaniAbhaya was defeated in battle by invaders from SouthIndia, and was forced to flee for life. When the king, with those dearestto him, was fleeing before his enemies through the northerngate of Anurddhapura, a Jainaascetic,it is said, cried out that the "MahdkalaSihala" was runningaway.This phrase"Mahdkdla-Sihala" is generallyassumedto mean"the great blackSinhalese", and is taken by some translators of the chronicleas well as by writers on and studentsof Ceylonhistoryas a personalinsult which the Jainaascetic,meanlytaking advantage of the occasion, hurled at the king in his adversity. The epithet can, of course, be interpreted in that sense if the scene were shifted from ancient Anuridhapurato modern Europe. But, in ancientCeylon, or in India, no one would have been offendedby being remindedof his complexion. Some of the great heroes in Indian literatureare describedas dark, for instance RIma and Krsna. Draupadi, the heroine of the Mahdbhdrata and Damayanti,immortalisedin one of the most beautifulpoems in Sanskrit,were darkof complexion. This did not make them the less desirable.Even today, Sinhalesevillagers will not feel ashamedby such names as Kalu
163

See Mahibbirata, Book XII, Canto 68, vv.

vv. 3ff.

4Iif.

Book VII, Canto 63, vv. izff. and Manusmrti,chap. VII, Rdmdyaya,
i29

164

165

See my paper, Sigiri, the Abodeof a God-king in the Centenary Volumeof the RoyalAsiatic Society,Ceylon Branch,pp. to i83 for a detailed discussion of the evidence for this theory. Chap. xxxiii, vv. 37-45.

63

in which Kalu,"black",is a componentpart.Moreover, Banda,Kalu Minike or Kalu Mahattaya, the Jainaascetic could not have damagedthe king's reputationby referringto his bodily complexion, for which he was not responsible. The Nigantha, if he wanted to pay back for any real or imagined injury, might have made use of words impeaching the king's characteror conduct. The expressionput in the mouth of the Jainaasceticis, in fact, synonymouswith "Pitiraja" the epithet by which Vattagamani or "Pitamaharaja" Abhayais referredto in the chronicleand inscriptions;for, as we have discussedand establishedabove, Mahdkilacan be interpretedas a name of Yama. The spectacleof a king, who had to flee before his earthlyenemies only a few months afterhe had proclaimedhimselfto be Yamaon ascendingthe throne,would haveindeed aroused any one's sense of irony. If the Jaina ascetic did not approve these political doctrines which ascribedsuch divinity to kings, as was very likely, there was no better propagandathan to bring the irony of this situationforcibly home to the people by shouting that the Mahdkdla (Yama) of the Sinhalesewas taking to his heels. Yama is generally conceived as a god of fearful aspect, and a king who identifiedhimself with Yama must have cultivated this bearing. There appearto have been current, in ancient Ceylon, folk-talesin which VattagamaniAbhayafigured in such a capacity.For Buddhaghosa, i in the Samanfapdisddikd, refers to an incident in which the gnashing of teeth by Vattagama Abhaya was sufficientto cause the death of an unfortunateindividual named Cuilasumana.166 And a figurative expression indicating, in Sanskrit,that one is dead, is Yama-dat*strdntarath gatah,"gone between the teeth of Yama."167 If the significance of Vattagamani'stitle, Pitirdja,is as given above, it will enable us to understand,in their proper perspective,the events of his reign, as given in the Mahdvatksa and the commentaries. DutthagdmaniAbhaya (circa i6i-I37 B. C.) who re-establishedthe first dynasty of Sinhalesekings after an interval of Tamil domination,so guided his policy that the interests of the royal house became identicalwith those of the Buddhist sangha. The king exand the bbikkhus tended his liberal patronageto the satigha, exerted their great influencewith the people towardsthe aim of making the latter attachedto the royal house. This happyunion between the state and the church continued with little interruption up to the accession of Vattagamani.The majority of the people had accepted the Buddhist creed, and they would have been gratified by the religious policy of Dutthagamani and his successors. But there were Jainas as well as Brdhmanas, who would naturallyhave been antagonisedby the royal family identifying itself so closely with the interests of the sangba. They, however, had no chance to express their dissatisfactionby hostility towards the royal family, for the latter had popular support so long as the satigha was on the side of the king. If Vattagdmani, as we have inferred, proclaimedhimself to be Yama, acting on political doctrines not consistent with the tenets of the Theravdda, while remainingan adherentof the Buddhistcreed, he would certainlyhave offendedthe Sinhalesesangba which, up to that time, was not divided into sects, and was not preparedto endorse any doctrines opposed to those preachedby Mahinda.The would have resultedin the unpopularityof the king, and those sections displeasureof the safigha
166

Piturafiio ca Sihala-narindassa d&thdkotanena Ck/asumana-kutumbiya-marane rajiddhidaIthabbJ.Samantapdsddikd (P. T. S. Edition), p. 440.

See Monier-Williams' Sanskrit Dictionary, s. v., yama-da'*sra.

167

64

of the population,who had alreadybeen antagonisedby the pro-Buddhistpolicies of the royal family,would have found an opportunityof translatingtheir discontent into action. And this was precisely what happened. A Brahminnamed Tiya, who was hostile towards Buddhism, raised the standardof revolt, and the invasion by SouthIndian hordes, which drove the king into hiding, was probablynot unconnectedwith domestic discontent. in hiding, was gatheringforces to regain his throne. In the meantime,those Vattagdmani, who had wrested power from him did not extend patronageto the satigha, some members of which must have realised that, in spite of his heretical theories in politics, Vattagdmaniin power would be more advantageousto the Buddhist Churchthan the rulers of SouthIndian origin. Thus we find that an influentialthera helped Vattagamani duringhis yearsof misfortune. An incident relatingto this period of the king's eclipse gives us an indicationthat, even when he was reduced to extreme straits, he was not preparedto forego any fraction of the divinity which he claimedfor his person. While still rallyingthe people to his cause, he had the support of eight powerful chiefs, one of whom he very impoliticallyslew for not having prostrated humbly on the ground before him. This alienatedthe other chiefs who deserted the king. At this criticaljuncture,too, it was that same therawho persuadedthe chiefs not to desert Vattagaman.Abhaya,by the powerful argumentthat it was only by supporting him, in spite of his impolitic conduct, that the Buddhist Churchcould be firmly established. Vattagdmaniat last regained his throne, but adversity did not force him to renounce his claim to be Pitrrdja(Yama). He founded the Abhayagiri-vihdra and granted it to that thera who helped him in his adversity. But the older establishmentof the Mahdvihdra excommunicated this thera,thus leading to a schism in the Buddhist Church. If Vattagamani,as we have inferred,claimedto be a god-king (Yama),the establishment of the Abhayagiri-vihdra in opposition to the Mahdvihdra was perhapsdictatedby the necessityof having a communityof monks who were not opposed to his political doctrines.With the support of the king, the Abhayagiri fraternityincreasedin numbers. The king's lukewarm attitude to the Mahdvihdra, in spite of the traditionsof his family,was very likely due to the reasonthat the membersof tliis fraternity who realisedthat such an uncompromisinghostility towardsthe only leaderwho could defend the Island againstinvadersfrom abroad and anti-Buddhistelements at home, would ultimately undermine the position of the sangha, had probably enrolled themselves as members of the Abhayagirifraternity. If Vattagdmani Abhaya,as we have suggested, identifiedhimselfwith Yama, he would have paid particularattentionto a mountainwhich was believed to be the abode of that deity, who, as we have pointed out, is the same as Saman of Adam's Peak. When the Footprint on the mountaincame to be veneratedas that of the Buddha,it is naturalthat traditionassociatedthe name of that monarchwith the inaugurationof its worship. It may not be impossible that the institutionof the worship of the Footprinton the summitof this mountainas that of the Buddha, was deliberatelyplanned in order to reconcile the Buddhists to the cult of the god who was believed to have his abode thereon. is anotherwell-known epithet of Yama. Its old Sinhaleseequivalent,"Dha"Dharmardja" maraja"or "Damaraja" is found as a royal name or epithet in several cave inscriptions,in the oldest forms of the Brahmiscript,discoveredat a numberof places in Ceylon. Inn inscription at Bovattegala,Damaraja is saidto have been the son of the eldest of ten brotherswho were the

A Sinhalesework, Dhdtuvazsa,which consons of a prince named Gamani(Skt. Grdmamii).168 tains some traditionsnot recordedby the croniclesstates that "ten brotherkings" who ruled at Kataragamain south-east Ceylon were killed by Gothdbhaya,the son of Mahdndga.x69This Mahandga was the younger brother of DevanampiyaTissa, the contemporaryof Asoka, and in fear not far from Kataragama, having fled from Anurddhapura settled down at Mahdgdma, of his life due to an intrigue of Devinampiya Tissa's wife.17oThere is little doubt that the "ten brothers"referredto in the B6vattegalainscriptionare identical with the "ten brother kings" who was the son of the eldest of these ten brothers must have of the Dhdtuvat'hsa. Damaraja flourishedin the second centuryB. C. These princesof Kataragama appearto have belonged to a family differentfrom that which as the capitalwhen Buddhismwas introruled in the north of the Island with Anurddhapura were present by invitation on the occasion of duced to Ceylon. The Ksatriyasof Kataragama of the branchof the sacredBo-tree sent to Ceylon by Asoka. the planting at Anurddhapura of the ten brother The slaying dynasty by a scion of the Anurddhapura kings of Kataragama does not appearto have put an end to the power of this ruling family of south-easternCeylon. the son of the eldest of the ten -brothers, and descendantsof this Damaraja,are For Damaraja, a princessnamedAbi mentionedin inscriptions.In a numberof inscriptionsat Kottadimifthela, Savera,daughter of Prince Tisa (Skt. Tisya) who was a son of Damaraja,is mentioned as the wife of a prince named Tiga(Skt. Tisya), son of PrinceAbaya (Skt. Abhaya).'7' This prince (Abayaof the inscriptions), Tisa has to be identifiedwith KdkavannaTissa, son of Gothdbhaya who slew the ten brothers. It thereforeappearsthat the intrudingprincesfrom Anurddhapura, afteran initial strife,formed an alliancewith the local ruling family. The issues of this union of a dynasty ruling family with a scion of the Anurddhapura princessbelonging to the Kataragama B. who restored Sinhalese at were Dutthagdman-i Anurddhasovereignity i6i-I37 C.), (circa pura after a period of Tamil rule, and Saddhdtissa(circa the father of Vattagamani I37-119), i, the Pitrrdja who was known by an epithet which is a name of Yama. Vattag-ma (Yama),was thus a descendantof a prince named Dharmardja (Yama). that fact the of a ruling prince bearingthe name of a deity If one is not preparedto concede is adequateevidence for an inferencethat the prince in question claimedto be an embodiment of that god, one should at least agreeto the assumptionthat the god was consideredas his tutelary divinity by the person whose namewas the sameas the god's. It thus follows that a member i. e. Yama. The territory of the Kataragama Ksatriyafamily was a worshipperof Dharmardja, was as -a ruled name which the mountainbelieved known Rohana over which these princes by to have been the abode of Yama (Saman)was best known to people outside Ceylon. It is quite that the princes of Rohanapaid homage to the deity of the RohanaMountain,and appropriate consideredhim to be their tutelarydivinity. a Dhamaraja In a cave inscriptionat Mihintale,near Anurddhapura, is named as the father '72 the the donor of cave. in who was the south of Ceylon, of a prince named Agaliya, Damaraja
x68 169 170 '7' 172

and I I4-I Section G., vol. II, pp. 99-i00 Ceylon Journalof Science, Ibid., pp. I75-I76. Mahdvamsa, chap. XXII, vv. 2-8. Annual Reportfor 1934, p. 2I. Archaeological Survey of Ceylon, p. 95. Annual Reportfor I9II-12, Archaeological Survey of Ceylon,

I 5.

66

or his son, is very unlikely to have figured in a donative inscriptionat Mihintale,for in their time, the relationsbetweeen the princes of Rohana and the rulers of Anurddhapura could not have been friendly. The name Damarajaalso occurs in an inscription at Nattukandain the Anurddhapura District, but it is not clear in what connection. "Dharmardja" being a name of Yama, it is not impossiblethat it was an alternativename of Vattagamafi,who bore the epithet also a name of Yama. Pitirdja (Skt. Pitrrdja),

VII. YAMA AND AGASTYA:

GENERAL

OBSERVATIONS

The investigationsthat we have carriedout thus far into the names of Saman,his characteristics and associates,all tend to confirmhis identity with Yama,which the author of the Sinhalese Jdtakahas accepted. In fact, certaintraits of Saman,such as his overlordshipof the Kumbhandas,and the associationof his sister in his cult, can be satisfactorily explainedonly on the basis of this god being the same as Yama. The worship of the god Samandoes not appearto have been introducedamong the Sinhalese after their adoption of Buddhism.On the other hand, the referenceto this god in connection with the first of the three visits which the Buddhais believed to have paid to Ceylon, suggests that he was a deity honoured by the Sinhalesebefore Buddhismwas preachedin this Island. His worship, it is thus probable,was a part of the religious practicesof the Indo-Aryans, the ancestorsof the Sinhalese,who came to Ceylon about the fifth or sixth century B. C. This was two or three centuries before the composition of the earliest stratumin the Indian epics, and the religious beliefs and practicesof these north Indian immigrantsto Ceylon could not have differed much from those reflected in the oldest sections of the Mahdbhdrata and the to "the older is over Brahman And, according Hopkins,'73 epic pantheon presided by Rdmayanya. as creatorand beneficentancestor of the other gods, among whom Agni, Yama, Varuna,Kubera and Indra(not least) are the most energetic, most commonly referredto, and invoked." The recent discovery of the images of Brahmdand the four Lokapdlas,symbolicallyburied under the feet of the great rock-cutBuddhaat Avukana,also proves that it was over the cults of these gods, forming part of the religious beliefs and practicesof the ancient Sinhalese,that Buddhismwas superimposed. Those adventurouspioneerswho first settledin Ceyloncame southwardsby way of the sea; among the deities who received their allegiance,two must have been constantlyinvoked whenever dangers, imaginaryor real, threatenedthem, i. e. Varuna,the god of the Sea, and Yama, the guardianof the South. Elsewhere, we have demonstratedthat the worship of Varunawas prevalentamong the ancientSinhalese,and that, under the guise of Upulvan,he was considered It thereforestands to reason that Yama, the to be the national god in the fifteenth century.'74 guardianof the South, was also worshipped by the ancient Sinhaleseand, being naturalisedin the same manner as Varuna, still continues to receive the homage of large numbers of the Sinhalesepeople, though his origin has been obscuredin the course of the centuries. When the Indo-Aryansbegan their expansion southwardsfrom Arydvarta (the region bet173 174

Hopkins Epic Mythology, p. 77. Paranavitana. The Shrine of Upulvan at Devundra, Oxford University Press, I953, pp. i8-59.

67

ween the Himalayasand the Vindhya range), they seem to have named certainprominentgeowhich they encounteredafterfeaturesin the fabled realmof Yama. A river graphicallandmarks in Orissa-which they had to cross in their advancesouthin Kdlifiga-the modern Mahdnadi the streamwhich the disembodiedsoul has to cross before arriving wards was called Vaitaranii, in the Elysium of Yama.17S In Ceylon, the Indo-Aryansarrivedat the end of the known earth as one advanced southwards from Arydvarta,and further south was nothing but an endless expanseof sea. They could thereforehave come to the conclusion that, at last, they had arrived very close to, if not actuallyinto, the realm of Yama, to attainwhich was the fervent prayerof the ancient Aryans of India, as expressed in the hymn:I76 "Where the son of Vivasvat (i. e. Yama) reigns as King, where the secretplace of heaven is, where these mighty waters are, there make me immortal. Where life is free, in the third heaven of heavens, where the worlds are radiant,there make me immortal." The mountain called Adam's Peak in English and Siripadain Sinhaleseis clearly visible from the sea when one approachesthe Island from the West, and Kalydni (Kdlaniya),at the mouth of the river of the same name, close to Colombo, the modern capital of Ceylon, is recamefrom North India ferredto in the Valdhassa JitakaI77as one of the placesto which mariners in the most ancient times, even before the Island was colonised by the Sinhalese.The conical peak of this mountain, seen in the distant haze as if it is touching the highest point of heaven in the southern regions, must have suggested itself to those early marinersas the abode of the in the following words:I78 "King Yama god of the South. This is describedin the Mahdbhdrata the righteous, the lord of all living creatures,resides in the southern quarter,the path of those who are departed.This is the holy Sariyamana,an exceedinglywondrous sight, which is endowed with supremesplendourand is the abode of the king of the departedbeings." Yama'sabode is here not specificallystatedto be a mountain,like the abodes of other Lokapalas; but, in the Rgveda (X, I4, I), Yama is said to have "passed away along mighty steeps The difficult ascentto Adam's Peak can very well be imaand spied out the path for many"I79 gined as the "mighty steeps"along which one has to pass to attainto the highest heaven, where Yama revels with the departedfathers.The earlypioneerswho arrivedat what must have been to them a wondrous land, after having braved the perils of the sea, in their sense of relief and gratitudeto the gods, could thus have taken this peak as leading to Sarhyamana, the abode of "the peak the Guardianof the South, Yama, if it was not that very abode. Sarhyamana-kiita,
'75 176

'77
'78

179

Hopkins, Epic Mytholog, p. I Io. Rgveda, IX, II 3, 8-9, Max Muller's translation. Ydtra rdjd Vaivasvatdydtrdvar6dhana* divdh Ydtrdmuryahvdfrirpas tItra mdm amrtam krdhi Ydtrdnukdmdmcdranam, trindke'tridive'divdh Lokaydtra jydtismantas tItra mam amrtam krdhi. Jdtaka, English Translation, vol. II., p. go. Yamas tu rdjd dharmdtmdsarva-prdna-bbrtdm prabhuh Preta-satva-gatfm etdm,daksindm darito disam Etat Samyamanampunyam ativddbhuta-darsanam Pretardjasya bhavanamrddbydparamaydyutam Mbh. (Critical Edition), III, i6o, 89. PareyiM'misark pravdto mahlr dnu Babhbbyabpdnthdm anupaspasdndm .?g.-Veda, X, 14, I.

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which is Sathyamana", by the working of well-known phonological processes that can be exemplified by numerous examples, can result in Samanola, the name by which Adam's Peak is referredto in Sinhaleseliterature. In this connection, it is not without significancethat the phrasesukrtindm padam "that which bears the foot-step of the virtuous", found in one of the Sanskritverses describingAdam's Peak which we have quoted above from anthologies,sounds like an echo of a verse in the MabdbbdrataI80 which describes Sarhyamana as "the goal of the virtuous" (suwkrtindthgatibh). Another divine or semi-divinepersonageunder whose specialprotection the Indo-Aryans, migrating southwardsby land or by sea, must have placed themselves,was the powerful Sage Agastya. He is the most prominentof the seven Rsis of the southernquarterwho are the priests (rtvijas) of Yama,'8' and is the regent of the star Canopus. Among men accustomed to pay homage to Yama, Agastya, too, must have been held in veneration. It is, however, not due to his associationwith Yama alone that Agastya commanded the allegianceof the ancientIndoAryans. Rsis of Agastya's calibrewere not consideredinferior to any god, unless it be Siva or Visnu after the one or the other of these two had attainedto the position of SupremeDeity. Agastya had performedwondrous feats, according to the beliefs of the ancientIndians,to help the gods out of difficultiesfrom which they could not extricatethemselvesby their own power. He drank up the waters of the Ocean in order to enable the gods to slay the Asuras who had taken refuge therein.182 He is praisedfor having enabledthe Sun to continue in its dailycourse, without being impededby the VindhayaMountain.183 He brought about the downfallof a particularlymalevolentAsuranamedVdtdpi.I84He is said to have madethe Dandakakranya habitable by orderingParjanya to rain thereon.I85 In short, it was mainly due to the benevolent activities of Agastya, appropriately called the Sage of the South, that the regions south of the Vindhyas had been made accessibleto the Aryans. He is believed to have been the family priest of the Pdndyakings of South India,,86and Tamilsconsiderthis Sage to have been the originatorof the grammarand the literatureof theirlanguage.He is supposedto have his abode on the Mountain called Podiyil at the extreme end of the western Ghats. Legends connecting Agastya with the lands colonised by the Indiansin FurtherIndia andIndonesiawere prevalentamong the ancient peoples of those lands.I87 Rdma,during the course of his wanderingsin the forests of the Deccan, is said to have paid a visit to the hermitageof Agastya, and the words put into the mouth of that hero by Vdlmlki would convey some idea of the veneration in which Agastya was held by the Indo-Aryan pioneers who first came into the then unknown lands of the South: -"This is the hermitageof
180

Mahabhdrata, Citrai1la Press, Poona, VII, 72, 44. 181 Unmucub Pramucuscaiva Svasdytreyal ca viryavin Drqdhavyaf cordhvabdbufca ta/hi Tprzasomaingiras putrafita/ha'gasya4 pra/dpavan Mitrivaruwyayob Dharmardjartvijah sapta dakfied*k difam jiritab. Mahbbbirata (CitrasalaPress), XIII, I 5I, 34-3 5. For the story, see Mahibbirata,Book III, Cantos I0I-I03. III, I02, 2-I3. Mahibharata, Ibid., Book III, Cantos 95 to 97. Ramdyana, Va.nivilasaPess, SrIrafigam,Book III, Canto I 3, VV. 33-43. Raghuvarsa,Canto VI, v. 6I. K. A. Nilakanta Sastri, A Historyof SouthIndia(Oxford University Press), p. 71 i.

I82
'83

184 I85 186 187

69

that (Agastya) who forcibly conqueredDeath with the desire of doing good to the world; by whom, the performerof holy deeds, the Southern Quarterhas been made fit for refuge; due to the might of whom this SouthernQuarter,instead of being ruled (by them), is viewed with From the time this (Southern)Quarterwas visited by the Sage of holy terror by the Rdksasas. have been without hatredand are pacified;from the name of the Holy One deeds, the Rdksasas has this SouthernQuarterbeen called the Auspicious (pradakfivj),and has become known in the three worlds, being incapableof violation by (those addictedto) cruel deeds; in obedience to the command of whom the lofty Vindhya Mountain,engaged in obstructingthe course of the Sun, does not increasein height; of that long-lived Agastya of renowned deeds, this is the hermitagewhich is full of splendour and is frequentedby disciplinedmen. This Holy One is The honoured by the world, and always is concerned about the welfare of the virtuous."I88 Southern Quarteris just as much under the protection of Agastya as it is of Yama. Asvaghosa 189 In the usage of ancientIndians, refersto the SouthernQuarteras "presidedover by Agastya". "to go South" meant the same as going to death. Those who were venturesome enough to undertakethe journey to the South, voluntarilyin searchof wealth, or by compulsion for various causes, must have, in those ancient days, endeavouredby all possible means to gain the favour of Agastya. If these adventurerstook the maritimeroute, Agastya'sinterventionwould have been all the more welcome. Agastya is the enemy of the Ocean, and if prayersto Varuna were not efficaciousin a storm, a frown from the Sage of the South on behalf of marinersin distresswould have been consideredsufficientto overawe the spiritsof the watersand to make them behavein such a manneras not to causedistressto those who utter the Sage'sname.When these immigrantsat last arrivedsafely in a land of promise, they must have consideredthat the happy end of their quest was due, at least partly,to the beneficialinfluenceof the divine Sage, and must have given expressionto their sense of gratitudeby continuing to honour his name. The cult of Agastya, together with that of Yama, must, in this manner,have been an important part of the religious observancesof the early Sinhalesebefore they embracedBuddhism. It is thereforeno matterfor surprisewhen we are told by an Indianauthor of the ninth centurythat an abode of Agastya existed on or near Adam's Peak. In the description of the southern regions, wherein the monkeys were to search for SitH mentions a mountainnamed Kunfjara, which was very near abductedby Rdvana,the Rdmdyaza the utmost limits of the habitableworld beyond which was the darknessof Yama's realm. On
188

lokinirk hita-kdmyayd Nigrhyalarasi mpryum Daksind dik krtdyenafarazyd puyzya-karmand Rdksasdb diramapadam prabhdvddyasya Tasyedam trdsdd drfyate Dig iya* daksinfd nopabbujyate dig iyat*pueya-karmami Yadd prabbrticdkrdntd praidnidrajanfcard4 Taddprabbrtinirvairib daksinjdik pradaksind Nimna ceyam Bhagavato krfirakarmabbih Prathiti trisulokesudurdharsd niratoBhaskarasydcalottamah Gatit, niroddbur* failo na vardhate Nidefampilayanyasya Vindhyab tasyaloke viiruta-karmanab. Ayam dfrghdyusas
Agasyasydiramab frimin vinitajana sevitah

189

satim sidhubbite nityaratab Esa lokdrcitah Rdmayana,III. II, 8z-88. difam. edited by E. H. Johnstone, Canto IX, v. 26. Agasoya-justd7m Buddhacarita,
70

this mountain,it is said, there was an abode of Agastya plannedby Vi'vakarmd,the divine arWhen the ancient Indo-Aryansarrivedin Ceylon, the southernmostland known to chitect.19o them at that time, some of them might even have believed that the mythicalabode of Agastya, referredto in the legends with which they were no doubt familiar,was actuallyin this Island. in referringto Adam's Peak, mentions We have seen in the first chapterthat Rdjasekhara, contains evidence together the hermitagesof Dharma,i. e. Yama, and Agastya. The Rdmayaya to show that special reverenceto Dharmawas a trait of the followers of Agastya. Describing the conduct of the inmates of Agastya's hermitage,V51mikisays: "Here, gods, together with siddhas and great Rsis, wait upon Agastyawho is abstemiousin his food. The sage is gandbarvas, such that here (in this hermitage)will not live anyonewho is a liar, or is of wicked disposition, or is a hypocrite, or injuresothers, or is given to carnalpleasures.Here, gods, Yaksas, Ndgas Dharma in this passage and Garudas remain abstemious in food, worshipping Dharma".19' is in the edicts of may mean Virtue in the abstract,in the same manner as the word dhathma the gods for whom shrinesexistedin the hermitageof Agastya,the Asoka; but, in enumerating etc.'92In includesDhirma along with such gods as Brahma,Visnu, Kuvera, Varunia, Rdmayana in Agastya's hermitagebegins with that of Brahmaand ends with fact, this list of devasthdnas that of Dharma.The followers of Agastyathus seem to have been worshippersof Dharma,i. e. Yama. It is thus in the fitnessof things that Yama as well as Agastyawere both associatedwith the same sacredmountain. From a study of the religious beliefs which were currentamong the people of North India at the time the Sinhalesecame to Ceylon from that region, it thus becomes clear that Yama as well as Agastya, among others, were worshipped by them. And there is little doubt that they continued to revere this god and Maharsiup to, and even after, their adoption of Buddhism. of the The acceptanceof Buddhismby a people is not necessarilyfollowed by the disappearance gods whom they were wont to worship. The conversion of a people to Buddhism generally results in the conversion of the gods of that people also to the same faith. The Buddhais the teacher,not only of men, but also of gods. The gods thus continue to exist, but not the same as and a host of other gods continued to receive before. In India, for example,Indra, Vaigravana homage from the people who had become followers of the Buddha, though the animal sacrifices and certainother featuresassociatedwith the worship of these gods in pre-Buddhisttimes were given up. In fact, these gods are representedas themselvesbeing devoted followers of the Buddha,ever readyto renderassistancein making the Message of the EnlightenedOne known throughout the world. The mannerin which the early missionarieswho preachedthe doctrine of the Buddha in Ceylon dealt with the deities of the ancient Sinhalesemust have been the same. Varuna, the Lord of Waters,whom the Sinhalesewere wont to worship, has been representedas the deity
190 '9'

192

Rdmayaya, Book, IV, Canto 41, VV. 3 5-36. Atra devabsagandharvabsiddhdf ca paramarsayaP Agastyat niyatdhdrati satatam paryupdsate Nitra jiven mprsvadd kruro vdayadi ad sashab Nrianhiab kamavrtto va munir esa tathdvidhah A tra devds cayaksarsca nagas ca patagaip saha Vasanti niyatdhdrddharmam drddhayi~savab Rdmayana, III, II, vv. 80-83. Rdmdyaya, III, I2, i8-2o.

7I

under whose protectionthe king of gods, Sakra,had placed Ceylon at the specialrequestof the Buddhahimself.This deity has evolved as Upulvan of latertimes.Yama, too, was so enshrineed in the heartsof the people that he had to be fitted in to the religious life of those who had been his votaries. The god's principalfunction was to safeguardJustice and morality.This is an aim to which no Buddhist could take exception. The meting out of punishmentto the wicked for this end, as one of the functions of the god, seems to have been emphasisedless and less, so that, in course of time, this characteristic of Yama was almost altogetherforgotten. Thus the name Yama went into disuse and the god was referredto as Samana.In order to adapthim to the new religious life of the people, he is representedas having attainedto the first fruit of the religious life (sotdpatti-phala) by listening to the Buddha's preaching on the occasion of his first visit to the Island. Moreover, he has been regardedas the original founder of one of the most venerated shrines of Ceylon. As if this were not enough to make him a good Buddhist updsaka, he invites the Buddhaon the third visit to leave a Footprint on the top of the Mountain which is his abode. It is perhapsreasonableto assume that the traditionsconnecting the god with Mahiyafigana and Adam's Peak, respectively,are two distinct attemptsindependently made to fit the deity into the Buddhist system. It is worthy of note that the earliest chronicle of Ceylon, Dijpavathsa, and Buddhaghosa's have nothing to say of God Sumanain connection with the Buddha'svisits to Samantapdsddikd Ceylon.'13 These two authorities, evidently, were either not aware of the legends relating to God Sumana,or more likely did not attach any importanceto them, and have ignored them. The Mountainof Sumanahas not been listed by Buddhaghosaamong the places sanctifiedby the Buddha,but the belief in the Footprint appearsto have been currentamong some people in his time, for Fa-hien, who visited Ceylon a few decades before Buddhaghosa,mentions the Footprint on Adam's Peak, though not by name, and that over which the AbhayagiriDlgiba was built. It is thus clearthat the followers of the Abhayagirisect had acknowledgedthe claims of Adam's Peak before those of the Mahdvihdra acquiescedin them. The author of the Mahdvaisa, though belonging to the Mahdvihdra, has included the Abhayagirias well as Adam's Peak among the places favoured by the Buddha. In the earlyperiod, however, neither Uppalavanna nor Sumanaappearsto have been given much importanceby the Mahavihirateachers,for there is no mention of either of these gods in the chronicle, after the referencesto Uppalavanna in connection with the story of Vijaya, and to Sumanain the account of the Buddha'svisits, until we come to the thirteenthcentury.This does not necessarilymean that they had been forgotten by the people, but that the Mahdvihara monks were not enthusiasticabout them. In fact, the burialof the images of Brahm!and Lokapalas under the pedestalsof Buddhaimages, and the installationof Kuvera on lavatory stones in monasteries,indicate that the Mahivihdratried to suppress the worship of these gods by emphasisingtheir insignificancewhen comparedwith the Buddha.But the cults of these gods, as well as the worship of the Footprint on Adam's Peak, though not encouraged by the
193

The Dipavatsa and the Samantapisddiki refer to only eight places as having been visited by the Buddha in Ceylon. The number eight, most probably, was on the analogy of the Atamahdcaitya in India associated with the careerof the Buddha. In the Mahdvaksa,sixteen places are given as sanctifiedby the Buddha. It is possible that various places competed for the honour of being included in the A~tamahacaityas of Ceylon, and the author of the Mahdaraksa did not feel himself justified in deciding on the validity of these claims, and listed them all in his work.
72

orthodox religious leadersin Anurddhapura, were probablyprevailing in places away from the main centres of Theravdda Buddhism; it is, in fact, after a prince belonging to a branchof the royalfamilythat had been in Rohanafor several centuries,establishedhimself at Anurddhapura in the eleventh century, after repelling the Chola invaders,that we have a record,for the first time, of a royal benefactionto Adam's Peak. Similarly,it was after the centre of political gravity shifted far away from the ancient capitals in the thirteenth century, that there is mention in the chroniclesof a king of Ceylon concerninghimself with the worship of Saman. At Adam's Peak today, there is no evidence of Agastya who, in the ninth century, was believed by Sanskritwriters to have had an abode there. This sage has no part in the popular religion of the Sinhalesetoday. His feat in drinkingthe ocean is often mentionedby poets, but only for rhetoricalpurposes. No ancient image that can conclusively be proved as of Agastya has been found in the Island. Prof. Vogel, however, is of opinion that the colossal rock-cut statue at the Potgul Vehera in Polonnaruvais a representationof Agastya.'94"Ati", the name of the Ministerwho figuresin the Minipeinscriptionof the thirteenthcentury,can be etymologically connected with Agaszya.'95 This sage, however, was known to the early Buddhists.He and his brother Sarabhafiga are the heroes in two Jdtakastories.I96 In the Akitti Jdtakaof the Pali collection, which correspondsto Agastya Jdtakaof the Jdtakamdld, the sage is connected with Kdveripattana in the Tamil country and the Island of Kdradipa, near the JaffnaPenisulain Ceylon. Buddhisttraditionthus agreeswith the Hindu in connecting Agastyawith SouthIndia and Ceylon, but it knows nothing of the bizarrefeats ascribedto him in the Sanskritepics and the Purdnas.The Buddhist sage Agastya is representedas renouncing vast wealth in order to follow a life of rigorous self-control, and running away from Benaresto Kaveripattanam, and from there to the lonely island of Kdradipa,to escape the attentions of pious men and women who admiredhis asceticism.At Kdradipa, he was not troubledby pious men and women, but the king of gods, Sakka,proved himself to be a nuisancewith the offer of his boons. The position which Saman occupies in the religious consciousness of the Buddhists of Ceylonis similarto that of other traditionalgods of the Sinhalese.The ordinarypeasant,in areas surroundingshrines dedicatedto the god, regardshim with considerableawe and respect, and solicits his aid in difficultiesand misfortunes. Offeringsare made to the god when his intervention is regardedas having proved efficacious. In the temples themselves, daily services are conducted more or less according to ancient ritual, and special festivals are celebratedaccording to traditionalforms, thanks to the endowments made in former days. Neither the worshippers nor the priests, however, exhibit that fervent devotion which the Hindus display in worshipping their gods. The priests can hardly be called distinguished for learning, and are generallyrecruitedfrom certainfamiliesin which the vocation is hereditary.Theirs is, however, not a specialisedprofession. They attend to the service of the temple while pursuing agricultural or other occupations for their livelihood. The prayersto the god are generally in Sinhalese, with here and there a stanzain corrupt Sanskrit.Neither the priests nor the educated Buddhistswho visit these shrinesare inquisitive about the meaning of the traditionalforms of
94 CeylonJournal of Science, Section G., vol. 1, pp. 230-231.
195

x96

Epigraphia Zeylanica, vol. V, p. i6o. See TheJitaka, English Translation, vol. IV, pp. 148-152 for the Akitti 'Jatakaand vol. V, pp. 64-79 for the Sarabhamhga Jataka.

73

worship, or of the antecedentsof the deity. The cult is continued as it has come down from the past. In fact, any inquiry about the meaning and origin of the worship, or the credentialsof the god, would be treatedwith suspicion, or even hostility, by the priests, and by the average educatedBuddhistas unnecessarymeddling in things that might well be left alone. Yama, with whom the deity of Adam's Peak was originallyidentical,possesses names or characteristicsin common with the personages to whom the Footprint is attributedby the adherents of different religions today. Yama is Dharmaraja;so is the Buddha. Yama is the first father of mankind; so is Adam to the Muslims. Yama is Kdla the destroyer; Siva is Mahdkdla, and his function is to destroy the world when necessary. A mountain originally sacredto Yama could thus have become a place sacredto the adherentsof Buddhism,Islam or Saivism, by a natural process of assimilation,when Yama came graduallyto lose his hold on the religious consciousness of the people.

74

INDEX

Abhayagiri I7, 65, 72

Abhaya-Mudra48
Abu-Abdl-Allah 2i I, 20-22, 74 Adamsberg 22 Agastya I8-2I, 25, 69-7I, 73

Buddhist iI I 5ff., 2I, 23, 27, 54f., 57, 64ff., 7I Buffalo, Yama's vehicle 53

29ff,

39f., 48, 0ff.,

Adam I

Agni 46, 67 Akitti Jataka73

Alagiyavanna 24, 28, 39

Allhana Parivena46 Al Rohoun (Adam's Peak) 20

Alutnuvara 23, 28, 6i Amhbagamuva i2, I5 Anargharaghava I8-20

Candra,god 24, 25 Castorand Pollux 34, 56, 59 C-turmahirijika, heaven 53 China, Chinese I6, I7, 2I, 29, 30, 40 Ching-ho I7 Coomaraswamy,A. K., 49f. Damaraja65 Dam'bulla45, 47, 48, 53 Danda (rod or sceptre), Yama's weapon 33, 40, 49, 5oif. Dandadhara(Yama) 33, 34, 40 Davy, John 22, 40, 45, 5I, 53 Devaduta-sutta34 DevanampiyaTissa 66 DevapatirajaI5, 23, 48 Devundara 24, 38, 40 Dhamaraja(prince) 66 Dhammaceti, king of Pegu I 7 29 Dhammapadatthakathi Dhammapila (commentator)53 Dharma (same as Yama) I 8ff., 25f., 37f., 55, 60, 7 I Dharmapalas30 Dharmaraja(Buddha) 33, 74; (Yama) 25, 33, 54, 66, 74; ascetic 37 Dharmaraja-gala 37 Dhatarattha5I Dhatr, god 25 Dhrtaristra, god 24, 25 Dikpalas 46, 5I, 53 Dipavaibsa I2, 72 Divine Kings 37, 6i ff. Dutthagimani 40, 64 Fa-hien i6, 72 Fate 25 Ferguson, Donald z2 75

Antaka, same as Yama 40

Anuradhapura I2, i6, I8, 48, 50, 53, 55, 6I, 63, 66, 67, 73 Arab, Arabic 20, 2I Arya Cakravarti 2

Asvattha, tree 33 Asvin 34, 56-6o Asvini, Mother of Asvins 56 Asvini-Kumara 56, 57, 6o A-tan (first man) 2i Atinltiya-Sutta 26, 53
Atharvaveda 30, 33

Avukana 48, 53, 67

Bilaramayana I7-20

Bell, H. C. P., 49, 50

Bhagavilena I5, zI

BhuridattaJataka 24 Bhuvanaikabahu VI, i6 Bis6-devi (Consort of the God) 56 Boksal, aspect of Saman 38 B6-tree 54, 66
Brahma 25, 48, 67, 7I, 72 Brahmanas 2i, 28, 37-39, 45, 50, 53-55, 64f. Buddha iif., I5ff., 22f., 28f., 34, 37, 47f., s4f., 65f., 7I ff. Buddhaghosa 12, 54, 64, 72

Footprint I I f., I 5 f., 20ff., 27f., 54, 6i, 65, Forbes, Colonel 40

72,

74

Maha Loku Akka, goddess 6I Maharijas,gods 25, 50, 53, 57 Mahasamaya Sutta 34

Gilimalayai 2 Girimahala,family 37, 38 Godakevela 5I G6namariyava48, 53

Hieun Tsiang i 6, I7 Hopkins, W. 38, 40
Ibn Batuta 20, 2I

Mahasumana 22, 30 Mahavali II Ganiga

Mahivamhsa I I f., I 5 f., Mahavihara63, 65, 72
22

ff., 26 ff.,

29, 62

ff., 66,

72

Mahavisnu 30 Mahayama 30
MahayanaI6,
I7, 27, 53, 55 Mahiyaigana z8, 5 7,6of.; -Dagaba I 2, 57, 6of., 72 23;

Devale 28

Iconography 38f.
Indra 50, 57, 67, 7I

Inscriptions I2, I6, i8, 37f., 46, 55f., 6If., 66f.

I-Tsing
29, 30, 33, 34

Makara33, 34 ManiakkhikaNaga I2 Manimekalai,poem i6, Maninaga-dipa29

28, 29 Mani-Pallanka MarcoPolo I 7,2 I Marignoli 2I

2I

Jataka (Sinhalese) 24, 26, 29, 33, 37, 38, 67, 73 Jetavana-vihara (in India) 29, 34 Jinakalamalimi 27

Jones, Sir William 56, 59 Kailasa63

Kila, Yama 30, 34, 40, 45 Kalaniya i2, z8, 40, 68 Kalhana I7

Mayuira Sandesa 54 Medhanikarathera I6 I 2, 67 Mihintale

Yamaimagesin 30, Mangolia, 22 Muhundgiri 22 Mulgirigala

Murari I 8, I 9

40

Kaliniga68
I 2, i 6, 68 Kalyii Kandy, Kandyan I5, i6, 22, 23, 54

MuslimsI I,2
Nagas
I2,

I,

74

28, 29, 34, 7I

Kiradipa 73 Karuna,mercy, quality of Yama 53ff. Kassapa,king of Ceylon 63 Kataragama66 Kirtti Sri Rajasimiha i6, 46 Kiripalu, tree 28 Kumara,god 57, 59 Kumara-devior-surinidu56, 59 Kumbhandas28, 53, 67 Kuttipitiya i 6
Kuvera
24, 30, 40, 63, 67, 7If.

29 Nagadipa I5 Narendrasirhha Natha,god 40

Natyasastra54 Nikaya-safigraha 38 Nirrta 47 Ni~safikaMallaI2, I

5, 2 I,

46

Pada-lasa,footprint 28 Palbaddala 48, 53

Pan-kou2I Pansiyapanas Jataka 24,

25 I5;

Laksmanai8f., z7f., 37, 40; -Maha-devile 37 Laksmi 37, 38; -mat 37 Lanika-giri (mountain) i6, I 7
Lanka-parvata i6, 22 Lankapura I 7 Lanikavatara-suitraI 6, I 7 Las-Saman28

Papain-casiudani 54 Parakramabahu, I, 46; II, Parakumbasirita 58 Paramatthajotika 53 ParaviSandesa54 Pathey, David 22

VI,

23, 27,

z8, 58

Pegu 29
Perahara,festival 23 6I ff. Pita-maha-raja Pitiraja52, 6zff., 67 Pitr 33; -maha-raja 6 I; -raja (Yama) 63, 65 if. Polonnaruva 33f., 47, 52, 73 Portuguese 2I if., 39f.

Lokapilas 48, 49f., 63, 67f., 72

Mahibhdrata
I9,

27, 30, 33, 37ff., 55ff., 63, 67ff.

Mahabodhivathsa i 2

Mahagama66
Mahakala z8, 30, 33f., 63f., 74

76

Potgul Vehera, statue at 73

Prahladana, poet 20

of Saman 55 Prajin, wisdom, characteristic

Puliyankulam 50

Soleyman 20 Soma, god 24

Srivasti 29

Puranas 34, 37f., 56, 73 Queyros, Ferna6 de

22

Sri, goddess 37, 38, 6o

Sripida, mountain 29, 33, 54

RijasekharaI 7ff., z5 f., 7 I

Rajasirhha I, I5f., 2I, 23, 57; II, 23, 40

Sripati, same as Saman 37f. Sri Vijaya Rajasirhha i6 20 Subhasita-ratna-bhindigara 20 Suiktimuktavali

Sumana, god, same as Sanlian iif., 53, 72; of Jetavana 29, 34 Suirya, god 24f.
22f.,

I7, 20 Riajatarafigin tree z8, 29 Rajayatana,

Raksasa I 7, 46, 70 Rima i8f., z7f., 40, 46, 63, 69 Ramayana i8, 25, z7f., 30, 38, 40, 56, 63, 67, 69ff.

28ff., 33f.,

Sumanakfita(Adam's Peak), iz, i6, zzf., 27 same as Adam's Peak 21 Svargarohan.am, Tennet, Sir Emerson i i,
2I

Ratnadvipa ii,

Ratnapura 23, 5I Ravana I7f., 28, 40, 70

1Rg-veda 33, 58, 6i, 68

Ribeiro, Joao 2i Rohana, mountain, i. e. Adam's Peak I7ff., 25f., 66;

Theravida iU, 39, 53, 55, 63f. Tibet, Tibetan 30, 40

Province i6f., 67, 73

Sabargamu, town and devale 23, 27, 39, 40, 6o Saliva, baivism I5f., 2I, 30 Sakra 30, 72f. Saman, god, i5, 23, 25f., 28f., 34, 37ff., 47f., 5Iff.,

Time, personifiedas Yama 33f. Tisa (Tisya or Tissa) king 6i, 66 T6pavava 5I Tribhaniga, pose 33 Trisfla 45, 5 I
Upham, Edward 28, 29, 37f., 53 Uppalavanna, god I 2, 24, 72, See Upulvan Upulvan, god ii, 24, 38, 458f, 54, 67 72

s6f., 6of., 65, 67, 73; Consort of 56; as god of wealth 38; as Lord of Kumbhandas38, 53; devile 23, 27 f., 37, 40, 5 56, 6o; images of 40, 45ff., 5I,
53 Samana 24, 72 Samana 26f., 29 28 Samanala-gala

Vaivasvata,Yama 56
Vajra 50
Vajrabodhi i6f.

ValahassaJataka68
Varhsatthappakasini 22, 3o, 62

Samanala-kanda (Adam's Peak) i I Saman-boksil 38

Samanola i6, 27, 6i, 69

Varada-mudra 48
Varahamihira I 7 Varuna iI, 24, 29f., 38, 45, 5o, 67, 70f.

Samanoli i6, 21I, 27 Samanta,same as Saman 27 Samanta-bhadra (Buddha or Bodhisattva) 27 Samantakfta(Adam's Peak) I 5f., z6f.
Samantakuita-vannana i5, 23, 27, 39

VattagamaniAbhaya 6i if. Vedeha-theraI 5

Vedic
25, 33f.,

56f.

Vessavana (Kuvera) 53
Vibhlsana ii, I7f., z8, 40, 56, 6o Vidhata Vidhatr 25 Vijaya 72

Samantam(Mountain) 27
Samantapasadika iz2, 6z, 64, 72

Samanta-raja (Yama) 27 SamiddhiSumana z8ff., 33, 34, 37f. Samudra-giri or-malaya22 Sarhyamana 68, 69 Sapu, god 6o, 6i; identified with Artha 6of. Savul-asnaor-sandesa 23, z8, 39, 53, 56, 6o Silpasastras39, 45 Sirhhappaiya, poet zo Siripada,Adam's Peak II, 68 8iva, god iI, 21, 3o, 69, 74

VijayabahuI, 37; III, I5

Vijayarama 49, 50, 53

Vikramabahu,of Kandy I 5 Vimaladharma SuIrya II, I 5 ViravikkamaI 5

Virudhaka, VirfiTha 50, 53

Visnu 37f., 45, 54, 69, 71 Visnudharmottara 45 Vogel, J. Ph., 73 Wang Ching Lien I7

77

Yakkhini 29 Yaksas I2, I6, 29, 40, 53, 7I Yama, god i9f., 22, Z4ff., 34, 37ff., 45ff., 49ff., 6of., 63ff., 74; as cook 27, 33; as god of wealth i8ff.; images of 47ff., 54f., as judge and superintendent of Hells 34, 54f.; identified with Saman iiff.; as lord of Kumbhandas 53; associated with Karunirasa 54f.; two Yamas 34; his heaven 33

Yamintaka 55 Yam!, sister of Yama 6i Yamuni, sister of Yama 6i Yimya-gara45 Yantra-gala46 Yima 33
Yudhisthira 30

Yung-lo

I7

78