Origins of image worship in Buddhism

by Kumudu GUNATHILAKA

The Buddhist tradition reveals that there were images and drawn portraits of the Thathagatha, displaying his contemporary likeness in existence, during his lifetime. The sublime teaching of the Master provides the complete Supra-Cosmic-psychology extant, that transcends the three illusory planes of being.

It has no place for the worship of icons and idols. His followers knew that form is not realistic. They offer flowers and burn incense and light a lamp, not to expect favours, or offer prayers to the image of the Master. Thereby they pay homage to the Master in gratitude.

The aim of the practitioner is to find which is beyond change. The correct perspective of the Master, could be had through the idiom of the ‘Dhamma’. According to the reliable sources, it is evident that, the authentic shape of the Thathagatha, has been preserved to-date.

It was the habit of the Master, to allow those assembled to receive his blessings, before walk into the cell for a brief respite, after pre-meridian repasts. When the master was away on a mission, those followers who call for glimpse of the Master for His blessings, were visibly saddened.

This situation came to the notice of King Pasenadi of Kosala, who sought for the permission of the Master, to have his likeness cast, so that people could still show their gratitude to the Master, without feeling much about His absence.

First image

The request of the king was granted by the Master. Thus, in the very lifetime of the Master, the first image of the Thathagatha was carved, with his permission, in white sandalwood, at the behest of King Pasenadi of Kosala.

The Master examined the finished image, and assented that it resembled Him in mien. A complete account with more details of making this sandalwood image of the Master is in ‘Kosala Bimba Warnana’.

The illustrious Fa-Hien tells that, King Pasenadi of Kosala, who had known and revered the Thathagatha from his young manhood, until he and the Master were eighty, caused an image of the Master, to be carved in Sandalwood, and this was the first images of the Master, and became the specimen for all subsequent ones.

Fa-Hien saw this image at Jethavanaramaya in the fifth century A.D. Puri, the present seaside resort of Orissa, was the ancient capital Odanthapuri of King Brahmadaththa, from where the Tooth Relic of the Thathagatha, was taken to King Kithsirimevan of Sri Lanka, by Prince Dhantha and Princess Hemamala, for its protection.

Today this ancient site is full of Buddhist associations. Most of the noble monuments of the ancient Indian civilization were destroyed by the iconoclastic invaders in the 11th and 12th centuries.

Buddhists were able to shift the sandalwood image of the Master to Puri for protection. Sir Edwin Arnold and Anagarika Dharmapala identified this image, worshipped by Buddhists and Hindus alike in Puri, as the original sandalwood image of the Thathagatha, carved by King Pasenadi of Kosala, 2500 years ago.

The temple of ‘Jagannatha’ of Puri in Orissa was considered as one of the eight Holy Places of worship in India, on the basis of Thathagatha’s Relics. Huen Tsiang described about five Chetiyas where the Relics of the Master were preserved.

The Buddhists believed that, the Rib-Bone of the Thathagatha, still remain in the wooden image of ‘Jagannatha’. Indian scholars agree that, all the ancient cave temples of Puri in Orissa, have been the work of the primitive Buddhists.

King Chandasoriya of Arakan, on hearing about the fame and the sublime teaching of the Thathagatha, decided to visit central India, and pay homage to the Master.

Knowing the good intension of the noble monarch, the Master, with his brethren visited Selagiri of Arakan, and showed six places in the vicinity to the disciples, where the Bodhisathya spent six of his previous existences.

On hearing the presence of the Great Teacher to his kingdom, King Chandasoriya arrived Selagiri with alms and offerings.

The Master instructed the King and his subjects in the five and eight precepts, and about the ten great virtues, a righteous monarch should observe. The king invited the Master and the disciples to his capital, ‘Dannawathi where the Master delivered sermons to the people for a week.

The pious King made a request to the Master seeking permission to cast his likeness, for them to pay homage thereafter. The wish was granted, and the Master rested under a hanyan tree on Siriguththa Hill.

The likeness of the Thathagatha cast by them was extraordinary. The king ordered his men to place the statue on a jewelled throne, in a shrine surmounted by a carved spire, built on the summit of the Siriguththa hill.

“I shall pass into Nibbana in my 80th year, but you, instinct with my essence will live five-thousand years, which is the life-span of my teaching”.

The Master addressed the image thus, and took His departure, after delivering the final sermon to Arakans there. This image remained on the summit of the hill for 2400 years, before reaching Mandale.

Arakan was invaded by Mongolians who destroyed the capital in 957 AD. Arakans came back to power in 1060 AD and renovated the temple destroyed by the invaders.

The kings had a great veneration for it, and attempted to take it to Burma, on several occasions. Failing which, they often made pilgrimage to the shrine. Arakan became the land of the great image.

Burma united under its Lung-Paya dynasty in 1784, invaded and acquired Arakan. The Burmese monarch took the great image of Siriguththa hill, to his Capital, Mandalay where it is installed at present.

The British acquired Burman in 1885. The original city built by King Chandasoriya, walls of the Siriguththa hill temple including its three courts, the reservoir, statues of the guarding angles, and many more others have been discovered by the British archaeologists.

In the library of King Tri-Tu-Dhamma, situated in the first court of the temple, near the west gate of the Siriguththa hill, there was a number of ancient books on ola-leaf manuscripts.

Compassion

The most ancient and notable was known as ‘Sappadana Prakarana’, which provides a detailed account of the Thathagatha’s visit to Arakan, and casting of the image of the Master, and the erection of the temple premises on Siriguththa hill by King Chandasoriya to mark the visit of the Great teacher, to his country.

This famous image, a bronze, ten feet high, represent the Thathagatha, legs folded left hand opened on the lap, the right touching the earth, with the tip of the finger, a symbolical gesture denoting compassion for all beings. This image was the blood, and life of the Arakans.

It is the object of fervent worship by millions of pilgrims monthly throughout the ages. It has been coated so thickly with gold-leaf each year, and its original slender and antique beauty, i.e. the true likeness of the Thathagatha, has been hidden from the world at present.

The great poet Kshemendra sings in Sanskrit verse in his ‘Avadanakalpalatha’ which the Thathagatha, through itinerant merchants, sent to princess Mukthalatha of Lanka, a drawn portrait of the Master, and instructions on Dhamma written on a cloth, in response to her inquiry about the sublime teaching.

She practised accordingly keeping the portrait as a meditational aid, and attained the four stages of sainthood. She was the recorded Lankan to realise Nibbana during the life of the Master.

Once on the advice of the Master, King Bimbisara sent a portrait of the Thathagatha with a sermon scribed on a plate of gold, to the King of Roruka, according to Divyawadana-Rudrayanavadana.

On another occasion, on the advice of the Master, King Bimbisara sent a portrait of the Master drawn on a refine cloth, together with a message in Magadhi, scribed on plates of gold, to the King of Gandhara. On both occasions the kings and their people accepted the sublime teaching.

These are few instances where the likeness of the Thathagatha was cast and drawn, with the dawn of the Buddhist Era.