Nine Discourses preached by Arhath Mahinda

Dr. Keerthi JAYASEKERA

The chronicles make Asoka’s first wife the daughter of a merchant of Vedisagiri, Devi by name, whome Asoka married when he was viceroy at Ujjayani. The Mahabodhivamsa calls her Vedisa-mahadevi and a Sakyani or a Sakya-kumari, as being the daughter of a clan of the Sakyas who had migrated to ‘Vedisamnagaram’ out of fear of Vidudabha menacing their mother country. Thus the first wife of Asoka was related to the Buddha’s family, or clan. She is also described as having caused the construction of the great Vihara of Vedisagiri, probably the first of the monuments of Sanchi and Bhilsa. This explains why Asoka selected Sanchi and its beautiful neighbourhood for his architectural activities.

Of Devi was born a son, Mahendra (Mahinda in Pali) in 284 B.C. and a daughter, Sanghamitra in 282 B.C. who in 268 B.C. at the age of fourteen was married to Asoka’s nephew, Agnibrahma and gave birth to a son named Sumana in 267 B.C.

Ordination of Mahendra

According to Mahavamsa, Devi did not follow Asoka as sovereign to Pataliputra, for there his chief queen then was Asandimitra. Mahavamsa tells us that Asoka’s eldest son Mahendra and daughter Sanghamitra were both ordained in the sixth year of his coronation when they were twenty and eighteen years respectively. It is also stated that Asoka’s son-in- law, Agnibrahma, was ordained in the fourth year of his coronation, i.e. in 266 B.C. before which a son was born to him.

Ordination of Mahendra took place in 264 B.C. by the Thera Mahadeva, with Majjhanthika as president of the chapter performing the Kammavacham and the second ordination of Mahendra by Moggaliputta Tissa Thera as his Upadhyaya. Ordination of Sangha Mitra was by her acharya Ayupala and Dhammapala as the Upadhyaya. Dr. E.W. Adikaram in his classic work ‘Early history of Buddhism in Ceylon’ quotes the Samanthapasadika account of Mahinda’s advent since it agrees in the main points with the Mahavamsa account; after the third council at Pataliputra (modern day Patna) Mahinda was requested by his preceptor and the Sangha to visit Ceylon and establish the Sasana in that Island.

Not the proper time

After consideration Mahinda concluded that it was not yet the proper time to go there. Mutasiva (307-247 B.C.) the then reigning monarch of Ceylon, was advanced in years and it was not possible to establish the Sasana under his patronage. Awaiting the accession of Mutasiva’s son Devanampiyatissa to the throne, Mahinda set out from Asokarama with the theras Itthiya, Uttiya, Sambala, Bhaddasala, the novice Sumana and the lay disciple Bhanduka to pay a visit to his relatives. Mahinda in due course, arrived at and lived for one month at Vedisagiri, the residential quarters of his mother. It was in 252 B.C. that Mahinda visited his mother and he was by then twelve years as a monk.

According to the Mahavamsa, in the seventeenth year of Asoka’s coronation, under the presidency of Moggaliputta Tissa Thera the third Buddhist council was held at Pataliputra. At the end of this council Buddhist missionaries were sent out to different countries overseas. None of Asoka’s edicts refer to Mahinda’s mission to Ceylon. However a fresco on a wall in one of the caves in Ajanta is supposed to depict the event. Ceylon is mentioned as Tamrapani in Rock Edict II and XIII, and as a country already included by Asoka in the list of countries to which he despatched his Dutas or Messengers to prosecute his scheme of Dharma-Vijaya or Moral Conquest.

It is not generally known that Buddhism flourished in South India. Dipavamsa and Mahavamsa are silent on the subject. The historian Vincent Smith has advanced the view that as South Indian Tamils constantly harassed the Sinhalese with invasions, the buddhist monks who wrote the chronicles were prejudiced against them and did not wish to give them a place in their works. However most scholars accept the view that Buddhism was introduced to South India by Arhath Mahinda himself. Ven. Hisselle Dhammaratana Thera, that great Tamil Scholar monk, in his book “Buddhism in South India”, a wheel publication No. 124/125, gives a fascinating account on the subject.

Although our chronicles say that the Venerable Mahinda arrived in Ceylon through his supernormal powers, the scholars are of the opinion that he travelled by sea, and called at Kaveripattinam in South India. He sojourned there in a monastery called Indra Vihara, which was one of the several monasteries constructed in this part of the country by the Emperor Asoka.

Monastery built by King Asoka

The commentator Dhammapala Thera mentions in his works that he resided in a monastery which was built by King Asoka in a place called Bhadaratirtha. Rock caves for monks are to be seen in the Madura district of the Pandya country.

The Brahmi script used by king Asoka in his inscriptions has been utilised in some writings. Hisselle Dhammaratana Thera states that from the aforementioned facts it may be concluded that Buddhism was introduced to South India by King Asoka and his son Venerable Mahinda, about the same time as the introduction of Buddhism to Ceylon.

Thus having arrived in Ceylon (Sri Lanka), Arhath Mahinda met the King Devanampiyatissa at Missakapabbata or on the Rock at Mihintale. Arhath Mahinda following a conversation with the King Tissa, which helped the Thera to gauge the intellectual capacity of the king (earliest recorded I.Q. tests carried out) found that the King was quick-witted and was able to understand the Dhamma, he expounded the Culahatthipadopama Sutta, which contained the whole pathway in Buddhism to perfection. At the end of the discourse the King and his retinue of forty thousand people embraced the new faith. This is called the Minor Discourse of the Simile of the Elephant’s Footprint was first preached by the Buddha to the brahmin Janussoni at Jetavana monastery at Savatthi. (in the Majjima Nikaya).

On the following morning Arhath Mahinda preached Petavatthu and Vimanavattu, about the worlds of the gods and heavenly abodes and Devils, Goblins and conditions at hell. (in the Kuddhaka Nikaya) and also the Saccasamyutta, about the four Noble Truths (in the Sanyuttha Nikaya) to the King, Anula Devi and five hundred ladies.

On the same day Mahinda preached Devaduta Suttanta (in Sanyutta Nikaya), at the Hall of the State Elephant followed by Asivisopama Sutta (in Majjima Nikaya) at Nandanavana. The Devaduta Sutta deals with the three warning messengers of Death the sight of old age, the sight of illness and the sight of death. The man who fails to pay heed to these messengers and is guilty of unrighteousness is condemned by Yama to the tortures of the Nahanirayas.

Anamataggiya Discourse

On the third day Mahinda preached the Anamataggiya Discourse, and on the fourth day the Aggikhandhopama Sutta. This discourse was preached by the Buddha while touring in Kosala with a large concourse of monks, the sight of a blazing fire being made the occasion for the discourse.

It was better for a man to seek shelter in, embrace and lie down upon the raging flames than to live in the guise of a monk and accept the alms of the faithful while being guilty of evil conduct. It is said that while the sutta was being preached sixty monks vomited hot blood, sixty left the Order in diffidence and sixty others became arahants.

The commentary adds that the Buddha foresaw this result, and that later many of the monks, hearing of the discourse and fearing dire consequences for themselves, returned to the lay-life in such large numbers that the Order became rapidly depleted. It was to counteract this result that the Culaccharasanghata Sutta was preached.

This sutta is mentioned as an example of a sermon based on some immediate experience, in this case a fire. Further this sutta was preached by Arhath Mahinda, in the Nandana pleasance, on the day the Mahameghavana was gifted to the Sangha. On the seventh day the Thera preached the Maha-appamada Sutta, this discourse was first preached by the Buddha to Pasenadi of Kosala.

Diligence is the one quality that acquires and keeps welfare both in this life and in the next; just as the elephant’s foot is chief among all feet, so is diligence the best of qualities. After preaching this Sutta to the King the Thera returned to Cetiyagiri.

Having thus introduce the Buddha Dhamma to the royalty and the people, the Thera ordained the Minister Maha Arittha and fifty five of his elder and younger brothers, thus formally establishing the Bhikkhu Order.

Establishment of Mahavihara, which became the leading monastery in Ceylon, getting down the sacred Bo sapling with Sanghamitta which led to the establishment of the Bhikkuni Order, and presiding over the Thuparama Council held at Anuradhapura where Maha Arittha Thera recited the Vinaya, which helped to complete the process of establishing Buddhism in Ceylon are some of the highlights of Arhath Mahinda’s missionary activities in Ceylon.

Dr. Adikaram goes on to say: from the facility with which Mahinda and the people of Ceylon understood one another, we may incidently observe how closely allied the languages in Ceylon and in North India at that time must have been. A comparison of the earliest inscriptions of Ceylon and those of North India in the corresponding age leads one to the same inference.

Dr. S. Paranavithana in his book Sinhalayo says: “When saint Mahinda preached Buddhism for the first time in Ceylon, he gave the explanations, as he had received them from his teachers, of certain words and expressions in the Pali Sermons. These were handed down orally with great care in the monasteries; and later teachers continued to add to this exegetical literature”.