Indian Antiquary Vol 17

SR No.: 032509
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: John Faithfull Fleet, Richard Carnac Temple
Publisher: Swati Publications
Publication Year: 1984
Total Pages: 430
Language: English
Classification: Book_English
File Size: 19 MB

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126
THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY.
(MAY, 1888.
tion on the ministry of the revived church; Daxhdvarisa. This work is mentioned in the and these foreign monks brought with them Turnour recension of the Mahávarhsa ;" and, their books to form the nucleus of its new that being so, the date of this recension of the literature.
Mahávansa has to be brought down to some Sir Emerson Tennent guesses that this king- time later than the reign of queen Lilavati in dom of Aramana may be a part of the Indo- the 12th and 13th centuries, instead of standChinese Peninsula, probably between Arracan ing in the 5th century A.D. as its commentator and Siam;" and Turnour"' had already, without tried to persuade his readers. A commentary giving any authority, fixed it in Arracan ; on the Sanskțit grammar of Chandragâmi but the passages in the Rajaratnákari, the glosses on the Samanta-púeddika commentary Rájáralı" and the Mahávarsa," in which it is on the Vinaya and on a commentary on the mentioned, clearly locate it on the Coromandel Anguttara, the Vinaya-sangaha, and other coast; and, as it is not Påndya nor Chôla, works in the PAli and Sinhalese languages, the only part of that coast which remains is were written in her reign,” which was a period that which lies between Chôļa and Kalinga, of unusual literary activity, her På dyan namely, the old dominions of the Pallavas. friends probably contributing their share of
It is possible that the following passage in materials for it. General Fytche's Burma's may in some way be Pandit Vijayachakka, A.D. 1186, was a connected with this Ceylonese legend :-"In learned prince and a Páli scholar, and he com1080 A.D. (which falls in the reign of Mahala posed poems in that language." Hardy Vijayabahu) the Talaings were conquered doubtfully supposes this king to be the author by Anaurata, the Burmese king of Pagan, of a commentary on Buddhaghosha's Visuddhi. who burnt and sacked Thatûn, and took away márga, but his short reign precludes the with him to Pagan the Buddhist scriptures supposition that he could have written a work brought by Buddhaghosha, as also the most of that magnitude while he occupied the learned of the priesthood;" since, besides the throne. Perhaps it belongs to the reign of one coincidence of time, the name of this Burmese of the other Vijayachakkas. king corresponds with that of the foreign The new life which had thus been given to king," Anoorudda,' the friend of Vijaya- Ceylonese Buddhism was not destined to last båhu, as given in the Mahavarisa version of much longer; a series of weak reigns, with a the tradition."
fresh series of invasions from the continent of His son Parakramabahu, A.D. 1153 to 1186, India, followed rapidly upon each other from maintained this revival on the orthodox basis A.D. 1196 to 1255; and these invaders began of the Tripitaka," even in the midst of the to destroy both the country and religion;" the excitement of rebellions, invasions and counter- monks were “hanted from place to place and invasions," he provided two libraries in the had lost all their books by the Malabars;" and, palace which he erected for the head of the to crown the destruction, the last of these in. Mahavira monastery," and restored a hundred vaders made the reigning king prisoner, put and twenty-eight libraries elsewhere. The out his eyes, "and extirpated the established Abhidhanappadipika, a Páli dictionary, was religion." The recently resuscitated literature compiled in his reign."
of the island naturally fell in for its share of His queen, Lilavati, was a Pandyan prin- these calamities : and at length "all the books cess and a patroness of learning; and during which had been written [from the time of her triple reign, A.D. 1197, 1209 and 1211, Valagam Abhaya] had been from time to she specially patronized the author of the time destroyed by the Malabars," so that on 1. Introd. p. xv. Ceylon, I. 406, note.
* Upham, I. 271, 298 : II. 86, 252. 50 Upham, II. 86, 87 1 ib. II. 147, 252, 254.
* Upham, I. 280, 287, 292, 296, 298; II. 87, 253. ** Upham, I. 293. 3 Vol. II. 170. 87 Upham, I. 300.
" Upham, L. 312. ** Upham, I. 253. The intermediate reign of Vikrama- * Turnour, Introd. p. xxxvii. bihu, A.D. 1127, is passed over lightly in the legends. - Journal, As. Soc. Beng. VI. 258. Muta Coomart His daughter is the heroine of the Rainúvali (Wilson, Swamy's Dathayuhaa, 24. Iurnour (loc. cit.) sometimes Hindy Theatre, II. 814.) [Phayre, History of Burma, confounds the PAli Dathavare with the Sinhalese p. 37, dates that Anauraths is said to have communicated Daladivarissa.
" Turtour, 241. with Ceylon direct, and that be invaded Arracan " Dathavamsa, Introd. p. xix. 80. (pp. 37, 46).-ED).
1 Uphaw, J. 313.
** Man. Bud., 512.