Sunday Observer Online
   

Home

Sunday, 3 June 2012

Untitled-1

observer
 ONLINE


OTHER PUBLICATIONS


OTHER LINKS

Marriage Proposals
Classified
Government Gazette

Poson lights up Mihintale

With the dawn of Poson Full Moon Poya on June 4, Mihintale, the Cradle of Buddhism will once again glow with the purity of the Dhamma preached by the Buddha. Many devout Buddhists will trek to the hallowed precincts of Mihintale to pay homage to Arahat Mahinda Thera and the Buddha .

Poson which follows close on the heels of Vesak, the Thrice Blessed Day, is of great significance to the followers of the Buddha because it marks the day that Buddhism was introduced to the country from India.

Most of you must be familiar with the legendary story surrounding historic event - the arrival of Mahinda Thera atop Mihintale and King Devanampiyatisssa’s encounter with the great Thera.

Poson therefore is indeed a hallowed day that needs to be celebrated with great joy and piety because today Buddhism reigns supreme in this land because of what took place at Mihintale on a Poson Poya Day, thousands of years ago.

During Poson, pilgrims flock to Mihintale, one of the most sacred places of worship in Sri Lanka.

The pilgrims trek to this historic place mainly to pay homage to a great person, whose coming to Sri Lanka was the turning point in the island’s history. It was on a Poson Full Moon Poya that the Buddha Dhamma was introduced to the reigning monarch, King Devanampiyatissa by Mahinda Thera, who was sent from India by King Dharmashoka.

It was the symbolic meeting between the King and the Thera that led to the King embracing Buddhism and the country getting an identity as a Theravada Buddhist nation.Today Mihintale is a hallowed precinct and is known as the ‘Cradle of Buddhism.’

Mihintale means ‘plain of Mihindu’ (Mahinda). It is on a plain on this hill that Mahinda Thera, the missionary sent by King Dharmasoka of India met with the King Devanampiyatissa over 2350 years ago, on the Full Moon Poya Day in the month of Jettha - now known as Poson.

The famous hill is one of a group of hills which thrust themselves out of the plain about 8-13 km to the east of Anuradhapura.

It was then known as Missaka Pabbata (Pabbta means hill). In a short time, after this historic meeting, Missaka Pabbata became known as Cetiya Giri and Cetiya Pabbata, on account of the many dagobas and shrines built on the hill.

On Ambasthale, the grassy plain with mango trees where the Thera and King had the famous conversation, about the ‘mango trees’ ,there is a dagoba. It is built on a terrace encircled by octaganal pillars.

Above Ambasthale is the cliff where the Thera stood when the King first saw him. On this cliff is another dagoba Missaka Pabbata which has three peaks; each peak has a dagoba. The most impressive is Kantaka Cetiya situated to the west of the flight of step. Another is Indikatu Seya. (seya is the Sinhala form of the Pali ‘cetiya.”)

Mihindu Seya was built by King Uttiya who succeeded his brother Devanampiya Tissa. Uttiya was King when Mahinda Thera passed away. King Uttiya built the dagoba and enshrined a part of the Thera’s ashes there in, and named it ‘Mihindu Seya.’

The Mihindu Seya we see today is not what King Uttiya built. It has been renovated by a later king. As Mahinda Thera’s ashes are enshrined in a dagoba there, the hill has acquired a special sanctity.

A long flight of steps leads from the base of the hill to Ambasthale and another short flight to the cliff top.

M. W. Trevors Government Agent of the North Central Province in the late 1880s or 1890s wrote in the Manual of the North Central Province: “The temple with its flight of 1064 steps and its rock, commanding one of the most extensive views in the island is certainly a very striking object and we will pay a second visit.”

Mahinda Thera spent the first month after his arrival in Sri Lanka in Anuradhapura, the capital then, and came to Mihintale to spend ‘Vas’ , the three-month retreat during the rainy season when bhikkhus stay in one place. Although the Thera came to Anuradhapura on and off, he spent most of his stay in Sri Lanka - almost half a century (less two years) meditating in the silence of Cetiya Giri. The cave he occupied is known as ‘Mihindu Guhava.’

Mahinda Thera and his disciples, leading an austere life, devoting their time to meditation attracted scores of men young, and not so young, who donned on yellow robes. It could be truly said that from Anuradhapura to Missaka hill, the land ‘gleamed with saffron robes.”

King Devanampiya Tissa had 68 cells hollowed in the rock for the use of bhikkhus and kings after him did likewise. King Aggabodhi (AD 598) built a pond on Ambasthale for the use of bhikkhus. It was known as Nagasandi.Many erudite bhikkhus lived on the hill during the Anuradhapura period and devotees came to listen to well-known preachers such as Maliyadeva Thera, the last arahant in Lanka.

Buddhagosha, the author of the Visuddhi Magga written in the time of King Mahanama, has said that there were four main well-developed and renowned temples at that time. They were Mihintale, Haththikuchchi, Dakkinagiri and Situlpavuva.

Fa-hsien who visited Lanka in the fifth century wrote that there were 2,000 bhikkhus residing at Cetiyagiri. (This may have been a convenient round number, not the exact number of resident monks the number may have included those visiting Cetiyagiri).

Mihintale is a vast complex which had, beside accommodation for bhikkhus, a daanasala, (alms hall) and a vedahala (hospital). As revealed in an inscription, the daanasala was not only an alms hall but also a meeting place. The monks met there to make important decisions about the administration of the vihara (which included all the dagobas and shrines). It has a long hall - 114 feet in length and 77 feet wide. The southern end of the building had been used as a kitchen. Water was brought to the building along pipe from the ponds.

The many roomed vedahala had a beheth oruwa(a medicinal boat) which had been filled with medicated oil. Patients were made to lie down in the boat when being treated for rheumatism. The beheth oruwa is still there.

The Sinha Pokuna is not really a pond. It is a water spout (diya pihilla). Water comes out from the mouth of a life-size carved lion. The water comes through clay pipes from the Naga pokuna which is on a higher ground.

Now a question arises, when did Cetiyagiri become Mihintale? When Fa Hsien wrote in the fifth century it was Cetiyagiri. This grateful disciples must have given the hill their teacher’s name, but when?According to the late Dr. Senarat Paranavitarna, even after the jungle tide swept across Raja Rata, there is evidence that pilgrims come in trickles to Anuradhapura and the more adventurous might have climbed Mihintale.

With the clearing of the jungle and modes of transport introduced in the late 19th century, more and more pilgrims converged on Anuradhapura and Mihintale at Poson.

The visit to Mihintale was in the morning or early afternoon and the poojas concluded long before dusk. It was only after Lake House started to light up the hill and the surrounding area for Poson in 1962 that devotees were able to do their devotions leisurely with no thought of getting back to the pilgrims’ rest before dark.

I have been there on a few occasions in the late sixties and early seventies and seen the moon rise behind the hill. There was an air of piety as well as of gaiety and men, women and children were going up and down in the night.

Many pilgrims must have thanked (‘pin dunna’) - Lake House for the privilege.

EMAIL |   PRINTABLE VIEW | FEEDBACK

Casons Rent-A-Car
Millennium City
www.apiwenuwenapi.co.uk
LANKAPUVATH - National News Agency of Sri Lanka
Telecommunications Regulatory Commission of Sri Lanka (TRCSL)
www.army.lk
www.news.lk
www.defence.lk
Donate Now | defence.lk
 

| News | Editorial | Finance | Features | Political | Security | Sports | Spectrum | Montage | Impact | World | Obituaries | Junior | Magazine |

 
 

Produced by Lake House Copyright © 2012 The Associated Newspapers of Ceylon Ltd.

Comments and suggestions to : Web Editor