And Dasa-Silas in Sinhala
3 Pañipatti 4 5 Arhant Mahinda as Redactor of the Buddhapåjàva and the Pa¤ca-, Aññhangika- and Dasa-sãlas in Sinhala Buddhism Trinity College, Suwanda H J Sugunasiri University of Toronto; Nalanda College Abstract of Buddhist Studies (Canada) Buddha Påjà ‘Homage to the Buddha’ is a religious practice found in every Buddhist temple and many a Buddhist household around the world. Over the last two millennia or more, it has taken many a shape and turn. This treatment, however, relates to the Buddha Påjà in the particular cultural context of Sinhala Buddhism, writing it as a single word, Buddhapåjàva (with a -va Canadian Journal of denoting the Sinhalizing suffix) to distinguish it from the ritual in Buddhist Studies, Number Eight, 2012 other cultural contexts. It is as practiced in Sri Lanka, ironically, not in Sinhala but in Pali, Buddhism being introduced in the 3rd c. BCE by Arhant Mahinda during the reign of Devanampiya Tissa in the Anuradhapura period. It is not the Buddhapåjàva itself, however, that is the topic of this paper, but its authorship. Finding no evidence of its authorship, or origin, in India, it comes to be located in Sri Lanka. Seeking evidence for its Redactor from within the ritual itself, we are led to none other than Arhant Mahinda who introduces the Buddhadhamma to the island. It is also established how, in the very process of creating the Buddhapåjàva, the pa¤ca-, aññhangika- and dasa-sãlas also come to be systematized into a coherent pattern. Two alternative dates for the possible launch of the ceremony © 2012 are suggested, making it the oldest living Buddhapåjà ritual in the by Nalanda College world.
[Show full text]