Ananda Metteyya: Controversial Networker, Passionate Critic

Abstract

Ananda Metteyya (Charles Henry Allan Bennett 1872–1923), according to some representations of Buddhism's transmission to the West, was a respectable member of an elite group of converts to Buddhism at the beginning of the twentieth century, who, in effect, stole recognition from a non-elite group. Whilst not contesting this basic premise, I first suggest in this paper that Ananda Metteyya was neither elite nor always, at least in the eyes of the Buddhist Society of Great Britain and Ireland, ‘respectable’. In fact, he came to pose a threat to the identity that the Society sought to create for itself. I then turn to three contexts within which Ananda Metteyya placed himself: international networks for the spread of Buddhism; anti-missionary networks within Sri Lanka and Burma; antiimperialist networks. His main vehicle within the first was the Buddhasāsana Samāgama, the international Buddhist organisation he founded in 1902 and the journal that accompanied it, which was sent to between 500 and 600 libraries throughout the world. Also significant was Ananda Metteyya's call for five men from four countries to come to Burma to be trained for higher ordination. Ananda Metteyya's anti-missionary agenda was realized through the promotion of Buddhist education in Burma and through a ruthless written critique of Christianity and Christian proselytisation. An anti-imperialist agenda was implicit within this and is extended in his writing. This paper argues, therefore, that Ananda Metteyya was a central figure in the global networking of a substantial number of those interested in Buddhism in the early years of the twentieth century. He was also an early Engaged Buddhist, a critic of the West and a robust promoter of the East.

Acknowledgements

The initial version of this paper was presented at the conference SE Asia as a Crossroads for Buddhist Exchange: Pioneer European Buddhists and Asian Buddhist Networks 1860–1960 hosted by the Study of Religions Department, University College Cork, Ireland, September 13–15, 2012 and funded by the Dhammakaya International Society of the United Kingdom as part of the 2012 postdoctoral fellowship, ‘Continuities and Transitions in early Modern Thai Buddhism’.

Notes

 1. Harris (1998). See Figure 1.

 2. See Crow (2009).

 3. The Sri Lankan revivalist, the Anagarika Dharmapala, predated him informally in 1893, when he visited London on his way to the Parliament of the World's Religions in Chicago, with a form of mission in mind. See Guruge (1991, xxxvii).

 4. Grant (1972, 85), quoted in Harris (1998, 6).

 5. Most particularly Bennett (1923, 1929).

 6. For his ongoing engagement with theosophy see Crow (2009, 55–62), Harris (2008).

 7. See Harris (2006).

 8. Perera (1923, 6). See also Minutes of the Council Meetings of the Society for 1911 and 1912, when Dr Hewavitarana's signature often appears (held at the Headquarters of The Buddhist Society, London)

 9. Minutes of the Council Meeting of The Buddhist Society of Great Britain and Ireland, January 9, 1914.

10. Minutes of the Council Meeting, March 31, 1910.

11. Ananda Metteyya (1909) and Ananda Metteyya (1911), as mentioned in Crow (2009, 166).

12. Personal conversation with Ron Maddox.

13. Letter to Elizabeth Harris from Mr T. Pemberton dated October 26, 1994.

14. Letter to Elizabeth Harris from Mr T. Pemberton dated October 26, 1994.

15. Humphreys (1968, 14).

16. In the late nineteenth century, the remedies prescribed for asthma included cocaine, opium and morphine. Bennett was heavily dependent on these in Britain and this may, periodically, have affected his lucidity and personality. See Harris (1998, 7n).

17. Crow (2009, 21–22). See also Harris (1998, 4).

18. Brunton (1941, 1st page of article).

19. Crow (2009, 20).

20. Harris (1998, 4).

21. Crow (2009, 25).

22. Harris (1998, 7).

23. Crow (2009, 26).

24. See Harris (1998, 6).

25. Symonds and Grant (1989, 181); quoted in Harris (1998, 6).

26. Crow (2009, 43).

27. Crow (2009, 44).

28. Symonds and Grant (1989, 180), cited in Harris (1998, 9).

29. Bennett in Britain had become very close to Samuel Liddell MacGregor Mathers, one of the founders of the Order of the Golden Dawn and it is probable that he wished to claim him as a father figure. See Crow (2009, 50–52). Evidence of this came to me in a conversation with Ven Balangoda Ananda Maitreya Thera (1896–1998), a person with first-hand memories of Bennett, who insisted that Bennett had kept the name McGregor until he died.

30. For accounts of his mission see Harris (1998, 11–13); Crow (2009: 71–77).

31. Personal letter from Mr T. Pemberton to Elizabeth Harris, October 26, 1994.

32. The Buddhist Review (1916) 8, 217–219; quoted in Harris (1998, 15).

33. Personal conversation with Alec Robertson, an associate of Cassius Perera, in the early 1990s.

34. Brunton (1941, 3rd page of article).

35. Crow contested the date that I had originally discovered.

36. Ananda Metteyya (1903d, 163–167).

37. See, for instance, Rhys-Davids (1894, 199–211), where Rhys-Davids accuses Tibetan Buddhism of being antagonistic to early Buddhism.

38. Ananda Metteyya (1904b, 497–520).

39. Bennett (1929, 5).

40. See particularly Ananda Metteyya (1908).

41. Buddhism (1903) I (I), iii.

42. Ananda Metteyya (1903d, 165).

43. See Tillett (1982).

44. See Harris (2012, 299–302).

45. See Crow (2009, 168–170).

46. Buddhism (1903) I (I), 161–163.

47. Bhikkhu Nyanatusita and Hecker (2008, 22–24). This part of the book is a translation from German of the autobiography of Nyanatiloka, published in 1948.

48. Bhikkhu Nyanatusita and Hecker (2008, 24). That Nyanatiloka refers to Metteyya as a Scotsman confirms that Metteyya's re-making of himself in Sri Lanka had been successful.

49. Bhikkhu Nyanatusita and Hecker (2008, 25).

50. Bhikkhu Nyanatusita and Hecker (2008, 192–195).

51. Perera (1923, 6), quoted in Harris (1998, 14).

52. Crow (2009, 77).

53. Leigh (2011, 10).

54. Leigh (2011, 78–84).

55. Crow (2009, 77).

56. See for example Ananda Metteyya (1903b).

57. Ananda Metteyya (1903a, 111–112).

58. Buddhism 2 (1), 115.

59. Ananda Metteyya rejected the theosophist view of the evolution of the soul but, nevertheless, thought in evolutionary terms. There was an evolution in the realm of compassion and one in the realm of wisdom. ‘In the area of wisdom, childhood was the realm of blind faith … Adolescence was the age of investigation and questioning, and adulthood the age of understanding’ (Harris, 1998, 48–49, drawing on Ananda Metteyya, 1908, 182–187).

60. See Leigh (2011, 40–60); Harris (2012, 294–295).

61. ‘And we would venture to express to Sir Hugh Barnes, as the Representative of the Imperial Government, the heart-felt thanks and gratitude of the Burmese people for the boon that the Government has granted them’ (Ananda Metteyya, 1903c, 208).

62. Ananda Metteyya (1903b, 12).

63. Ananda Metteyya (1903b, 13).

64. Ananda Metteyya (1904a, 535–536).

65. Harris (1998, 45).

66. Ananda Metteyya (1904c, 649).

67. Brunton (1941, 3).