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| Sunday, 29 January 2006 |
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Sri Lankan monarchs who climbed Sri Pada by Godwin Witane Sri Lanka's world famous 'Sacred Mountain' is once again the attraction, where devotees from all parts of the country engage in the annual pilgrimage.
Their voices echo and re-echo from their innermost hearts in the cold clammy atmosphere with resounding voices shouting Karunawai as they ascend or descend. In the crisp air and sunshine, hordes of butterflies swarm the historic mountain as it were in company with the pilgrims. Yellow and white butterflies and jewel coloured varieties merge with the greenery of the sacred peak as they too pay homage to the sacred footprint. The name 'Samanalakanda' may have been given to this mountain because of this phenomenon. This mountain has gained so much publicity due to its sanctity believed by all four main religious adherents namely Buddhists, Hindus, Christians and Islamists. The undisputed fact is that whatever religion each pilgrim belonged to, the religious devotional fervour of all of them are identical and lasting.
On the 8th year after enlightenment, Lord Buddha visited Kelaniya at the request of the Naga King Maniakkika. On this occasion it is said that Buddha was accompanied by 500 monks. After his sojourn at Kelaniya, Buddha visited three other places, namely, Digavaapi, Kataragama and the beautiful mountain in the central hill country 7360 feet high. Here the Buddha left the trace of his left foot at the summit on a gem stone, on the request of God Saman, the guardian of the peak. Buddhists believe that the real footprint is below the now visible rock impression which is not proportional to that of a human being. Buddhist devotees who climb the peak regard god Saman as their benevolent protector. Buddhism was introduced to Lanka during the reign of King Devanam Piyatissa (247-207 B.C.). He was the grandson of King Pandukabaya, (437-307 B.C.) the pre-Buddhist founder of Anuradhapura, Capital of Lanka, which lasted for 1,500 years upto the middle of the 18th century A.D. It is believed that the first person to discover the sacred footprint was king Valagambahu about the year 100 B.C., while he was in exile in the mountain wilderness, better known to our people as 'Sri Pada Adaviya', to escape the marauding Cholians. He had been led to the summit of the mountain by a deity in the guise of a stag. Thereafter, not only ordinary pilgrims, but Royalty with their court retinue paid homage to the footprint of the Buddha from ancient times. The Sinhalese kings alone, in their devotion and persistence made the peak accessible to the crowds of devotees who annually trekked the mountain. The thousands of pilgrims who make their annual pilgrimage to Sri Pada today, perhaps do not realise the difficulties their ancestors had to undergo in order to pay their need of homage at the sacred footprint. Whatever route they undertook to ascend the peak their difficulties must have been insurmountable. Marco Polo (1254-1324), who visited the peak in the 14th century remarked that in places flights of steps were cut in the rocks but none upwards and downwards up to the summit. Links of mighty chains that hung from the precipices were once the only way to climb. They were like a swaying rope ladder. Says John Still who wrote the famous book Jungle Tide and one who took delight in association with a race whose culture and history made this island prominently famous in the ages past, a country with a serene and happy environment, steeped in tradition and religious diversity. He describes the fate of a Sinhalese family that climbed the peak then, 'A whole family of Sinhalese villagers once set out on pilgrimage, children and their parents and the grandparents too, and when they came to the precipices and were all hanging on the long chain like a living Rosary, a violent storm sprang up suddenly, and the chain was swung fiercely from side to side. But they still hung on, though they dared not move in any direction, up or down. Then came a tremendous gust of wind like the breath of an angry god, and the chain was swung so far to one side that it hung no longer over the pilgrim path but clear above a frightful chasm into a valley far below, and there buffeted by the storm, unable to climb or descend, the people hung while their strength endured, and then fell off, one by one, as fruits fall from a tree. First, the old man and the very young, then the women, and last of all the men, while the folk of the village who had been waiting for their own turn, to climb upon the chain and who had watched the whole tragedy while they cowered against the face of the angry mountain, saw in the strongest man of all, last of the race, leave hold and go spinning down to the tree down below. Our history records that the Sinhalese kings went on pilgrimage to the peak. Kings who are accustomed to regal footwear toiled barefooted up its rough and rugged way to the shrine of the Scared Foot Print at the summit more than 7,300 feet above the level of the ocean that can be seen like a glittering cord faraway along the horizon 50 miles away. The first to climb was Vijaya I (1059-1114 A.D.) followed by several subsequent kings. Panditha Parakramabahu II (1236-1271) went on pilgrimage in the 13th century to express his devotion to the Buddha by worshipping at the peak. His devotion to religion excelled his love for poetry and literature. He donated lands to the shrine and called his Chief Minister Deva Pathiraja and asked him to make the journey to the peak for the devotees painless as the road leading to the summit was inaccessible due to swamps, wilderness and lofty mountains (Chulawansa LXXXVI-9-2). Towards the latter part of the 10th century king Udaya of Anuradhapura (934-937 A.D.) built a relic house on the peak but the Cholians who invaded the country destroyed it. Vijayabahu I of Polonnaruwa made endowments to support the Holy Shrine. He granted lands on the way to the mountain, built resting houses and in unblemished humble piety offered his jewelled crown to Sri Pada. This is recorded in the Panakaduwa copper plate. King Nissanka Malla in the 12th century A.D. inscription on the rock at the summit gives an account of him (1187-1196). His name is recorded as one who climbed the "Holy Mountain" as most other Sinhalese Kings had done in the past but he went there with his army. In all the rock inscriptions he had made at Sri Pada as well as at other Buddhist Temples as Rangiri Dambulla, he had exhausted the vocabulary of ecstasy in describing his performances. King Parakramabahu II (1238-1271) who had his capital at Dmabadeniya visited the Peak in person during his reign. King Veera Wickrama set up the Dolos Mahe Pahana in 1542. The Buddhists had been the custodians of the Peak except for a short period when King Rajasinghe I (1581-1593) who became an apostate by embracing the Hindu religion believing that it was possible to expiate his patricidal sin according to the assurance given to him by the Hindu priests. After the erosion of his piety and religious fervour, King Rajasinghe got down workmen from India and built the Berendi Kovil at Seetawaka. It was later destroyed by the Portuguese. He massacred Buddhist monks and destroyed Buddhist temples. When Buddhist General of Kandy, Wimaladharmasuriya refused to carry out his orders to destroy Buddhist monks, Wimaladharmasuriya was taken to Seetawaka and buried in a pit upto his waist and while the King was witnessing this crime the Poosaris or Priests of Berendi Kovil stoned him to death. Thus, Wimaladharmasuriya became a martyr for the cause of Buddhism. During the troublesome reign of King Rajasinghe, Sri Pada suffered considerably. He handed over the shrine to the Saivite priests who had won the favour of the King. Later a Samanera Monk from Medagammana roused the Sinhalese Buddhists of Sabaragamuwa against the Saivites and thought stiff resistance of the people restored Sri Pada once again to the Buddhists, where ancient forms of religious worship persists unbroken until today. King Rajasinghe had a sorrowful death by blood poisoning as a result of a bamboo splint piercing his foot at Seetawaka. King Wimaladhramasuriya I (Konnappu Bandara) visited the Peak even though the place was under the custody of the Saivites in the 17th century. He raised a silver umbrella over the Sacred Footprint. King Wimaladharmasuriya II (1677-1707) set out from Kandy along with his Ministers and a large number of troops to worship Sri Pada. King Veera Wickrama Narendra Singhe of Kandy (1707-1739) in the middle of the 18th century provided 780 steps to reduce the arduousness of the climb. In days gone by pilgrims who climbed Sri Pada during night carried a light or pandama with an oil daubed wick stick on a bamboo stick. This could be seen like a wriggling illuminated giant serpent moving up the mountain. Much has been written of the conical shadow of the Peak which as the sun rises seems to be projected in from the air without lying upon the forest below as one's eye expects. This is a curious optical phenomenon. King Sri Rajasinghe appointed Sangha Raja Sri Saranankara as the incumbent of the 'Holy Mountain'. Sri Pada mountain was visited by several foreigners among whom was the Muslim traveller Ibn Batuta who in his writings records that he visited the Peak in 1344. Fa Hein, the Chinese traveller ascended the mountain in 412 AD. The first European to climb the mountain was Lieut Malcolm in 1816, H. C. P. Bell, the British Archaeological Commissioner of Ceylon climbed the Peak in 1907. Importance was attached to the Sacred Bo Tree ever since the time it was planted in Anuradhapura in the 3rd century BC. The next hallowed object was the Tooth Relic of Lord Buddha enshrined at the Dalada Maligawa, Kandy. The three routes taken by the pilgrims who climb Sri Pada today are Ratnapura, Kuruwita and Hatton routes. Approach from Hatton is an easy walk with steps constructed on the path right along up to the Peak. |
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