Mahānāma: More than a Monk

Abstract

It has long been accepted that King Mahānāma of Sri La[ndot]ka was involved in a Sinhalese mission to China in 428 AD. However a closer look at the sources on which this claim is based reveals a new perspective on the identity of Mahānāma. Data from the Pāli chronicle, the Cūavasa, when cross-examined with references found in the Chinese historical records Jinshu, Songshu, Liangshu and Nanshi, and with the travel reports of Wang Xuance and Xuanzang, not only reveal that Mahānāma was an international ambassador while he was still a prince, but also show that he was the envoy instrumental in securing the construction of a rest-house for Sinhalese pilgrims near Bodhgāya.

Keywords:

• Buddhist history
• envoys
• fifth century
• Sri La[ndot]ka
• India
• China

Notes

¹V.A. Smith, ‘The Inscriptions of Mahanaman at Bodhgaya’, in The Indian Antiquary, Vol.31 (1902), p.195; W. Geiger, The Mahāvamsa or The Great Chronicle of Ceylon (trans. M.H. Bode) (New Delhi and Chennai: Asian Educational Services, [1912] 2003), p.xxxix; H. Bechert et al. (eds), Der Buddhismus I, Der indische Buddhismus und seine Verzweigungen, Die Religionen der Menschheit, Band 24, 1 (Stuttgart, Berlin, Köln: Verlag W. Kohlhammer, 2000), p.290.

²The records of the Sinhalese missions to China found in several Chinese historical records have been studied in depth by E. Zürcher and A. Heirman. See E. Zürcher, ‘Tidings from the South, Chinese Court Buddhism and Overseas Relations in the Fifth Century AD’, in A. Forte and F. Masini (eds), A Life Journey to the East. Italian School of East Asian Studies, Essays: Vol.2 (Kyoto: Scuola Italiana di Studi sull’ Asia Orientale, 2002), pp.21–43; and A. Heirman, ‘Vinaya: From India to China’, in A. Heirman and S.P. Bumbacher (eds), The Spread of Buddhism, Handbuch der Orientalistik, section 8, Vol.16 (Leiden and Boston: Brill, 2007), pp.167–202, esp. pp.181–5.

³J.E. Tennent, Ceylon; an Account of the Island Physical, Historical, and Topographical with Notices of Its Natural History, Antiquities and Productions, Vol.1 (London: Longman Green & Roberts, 1860), p.620; Geiger, The Mahāvamsa or The Great Chronicle of Ceylon, p.xl; Zürcher, ‘Tidings from the South, Chinese Court Buddhism and Overseas Relations in the Fifth Century’, pp.36, 39; and Heirman, ‘Vinaya: From India to China’, p.184.

⁴According to his interpretation of the list of kings in the Sinhalese chronicles, Upatissa ruled in 428 AD in Sri La[ndot]ka, not Mahānāma. See Geiger, The Mahāvamsa or The Great Chronicle of Ceylon., p.xl, n.2.

⁵Both of these claims are repeated in L. Renou and J. Filiozat, L'Inde classique—manuel des études indiennes. Vol.I (Paris: Librairie d'Amérique et d'Orient, [1949] 1985), pp.247–8. The assertion that King Mahānāma ruled Sri La[ndot]ka at the beginning of the fifth century is stated many times, for example in E.W. Adikaram, Early History of Buddhism in Ceylon or ‘State of Buddhism in Ceylon as Revealed by the Pāli Commentaries of the 5th Century AD’ (Colombo: M.D. Gunasena & Co. Ltd., [1946] 1953), p.93; M. Winternitz, A History of Indian Literature. Vol.II: Buddhist and Jaina Literature. English Translation by V. Srinivasa Srama from the original German: Geschichte der Indischen Literatur, Band II (Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass, [1983] 1999), p.184; G.P. Malalasekera, Dictionary of Pāli Proper Names, Vol.2 (New Delhi: Mushiram Manoharlal Publishers, [1983] 2008), p.516; and A. Hirakawa, A History of Indian Buddhism, from Śākyamuni to Early Mahāyāna. Buddhist Tradition Series, Vol.19 (trans. and ed. P. Groner) (Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass, [1990] 1998), p.125.

⁶The Dīpavasa, the oldest extant chronicle of Sri La[ndot]ka, has been handed down anonymously and is likely to have been composed not long after 350 AD. See O. von Hinüber, A Handbook of Pāli Literature, Indian Philology and South Asian Studies, Vol.2 (Berlin and New York: Walter de Gruyter, 1996), p.89.

⁷The Mahāvasa is traditionally dated about one century later than the Dīpavasa, at the end of the fifth century. Ibid., pp.90–1.

⁸ Ibid., p.88.

⁹ Cūavasa, xxxvii.53 & 99, in W. Geiger, Cūavasa, Being the More Recent Part of the Mahāvasa (trans. from German into English by C.M. Rickmers) (Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass, [1928] 1996), pp.1, 8.

¹⁰ Ibid., p.9, translation of Cūavasa, xxxvii.100 & 104.

¹¹ Ibid., pp.9 & 17, translation of Cūavasa, xxxvii.105 & 178.

¹² Ibid., pp.17 & 21, translation of Cūavasa, xxxvii.179 & 208.

¹³ Ibid., pp.21 & 26, translation of Cūavasa, xxxvii.209 & 247. The relative merit and trustworthiness of the Sinhalese chronicles is discussed for example in Geiger, The Mahāvamsa or The Great Chronicle of Ceylon, pp.xx–xxii; G.P. Malalasekera, The Pāli Literature of Ceylon (Kandy: Buddhist Publication Society, [1928] 1994), p.134; and under the heading ‘The Value of the Ceylonese Chronicles’ in B.C. Law, A History of Pāli Literature (Varanasi: Indica Books, [1933] 2000), pp.531–8. The chronology of the reign periods of Sinhalese kings also plays a crucial role in the debate on the dating of the Buddha. The most complete discussion is found in H. Bechert (ed.), The Dating of the Historical Buddha (Symposien zur Buddhismusforschung, 3 Vols.) (Göttingen: Vandenhoeck und Ruprecht, 1991, 1992, 1997).

¹⁴ Jinshu, Vol.1, juan (chapter) 10, pp.249, 257, 263.

¹⁵P. Hoang, Concordance des chronologies néoméniques chinoise et européenne. Variétés sinologiques, no.29 ([Shanghai] Taiwan: Kuangchi Press, [1910] 1968), p.159.

¹⁶ Jinshu, Vol.1, juan 10, p.264.

¹⁷Quoted from E. Zürcher, The Buddhist Conquest of China. 2 Vols. Reprint with additions and corrections (Leiden: E.J. Brill, [1959] 1972), p.371, n.378. For the sake of consistency, Wade-Giles transcriptions have been altered to Pinyin.

¹⁸ Ibid., referred to in M. Deeg, Das Gaoseng-Faxian-Zhuan als Religionsgeschichtliche Quelle, Der älteste Bericht eines chinesischen buddhistischen Pilgermönchs über seine Reise nach Indien mit Übersetzung des Textes, Studies in Oriental Religions, Vol.52 (Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz Verlag, 2005), p.177, n.858. See also Heirman, ‘Vinaya: from India to China’, p.184, n.110.

¹⁹Institut Ricci (ed.), Le grand dictionnaire Ricci de la langue chinoise (Paris and Taipei: Institut Ricci-Desclée de Brouwer, 2001), Vol.6, p.387.

²⁰M. Monier-Williams, A Sanskrit–English Dictionary (Oxford: Clarendon Press, [1899] 2000), p.443; W.E. Soothill and L. Hodous, A Dictionary of Chinese Buddhist Terms, with Sanskrit and English Equivalents and a Sanskrit–Pali Index (Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass, [1937] 2003), p.429; and A. Hirakawa, A Buddhist Chinese–Sanskrit Dictionary (Tōkyō: The Reiyūkai, 1997), p.1190.

²¹T.W. Rhys Davids and W. Stede (eds), The Pali Text Society's Pali–English Dictionary (Oxford: The Pali Text Society, [1921–25] 2004), p.297.

²²H. Oldenberg, The Dipavamsa, An Ancient Buddhist Historical Record (New Delhi and Madras: Asian Educational Services, [1879] 3rd rpr. 2001), p.162, a translation of Dīpavasa, ix.30.

²³C. Akanuma, A Dictionary of Buddhist Proper Names. Bibliotheca Indo-Buddhica Series no.130 (Delhi: Sri Satguru Publications, 1994), p.679.

²⁴Institut Ricci (ed.), Le grand dictionnaire Ricci de la langue chinoise, Vol.5, p.1176.

²⁵ Ibid., Vol.5, p.679.

²⁶Hirakawa, A Buddhist Chinese–Sanskrit Dictionary, p.325; and Monier-Williams, A Sanskrit–English Dictionary, p.795.

²⁷J. Nattier, A Guide to the Earliest Chinese Buddhist Translations, Texts from the Eastern Han and Three Kingdoms Periods, Bibliotheca Philologica et Philosophica Buddhica X (Tokyo: The International Research Institute for Advanced Buddhology, Soka University, 2008), p.4.

²⁸See the list of Sinhalese kings in Oldenberg, The Dipavamsa, An Ancient Buddhist Historical Record, pp.226–7; and Chap. 1 of the Cūavasa in Geiger, Cūavasa, Being the More Recent Part of the Mahāvasa, pp.1–26.

²⁹Hirakawa, A Buddhist Chinese-Sanskrit Dictionary, pp.328–9, 331; and Akanuma, A Dictionary of Buddhist Proper Names, pp.144, 149.

³⁰U. Wogihara et al. (eds), Kanyaku taishō Bonwa daijiten shinshō han (Tokyo [1986] 2006), p.578. For the early middle Chinese [EMC] pronunciation of da and shi, see E.G. Pulleyblank, Lexicon of Reconstructed Pronunciation in Early Middle Chinese, Late Middle Chinese and Early Mandarin (Vancouver: UBC Press, 1991), pp.69, 281: dà/dài: EMC [da'/daj^h] and shī: EMC [s˛i].

³¹Heirman gives a clear chronological overview of the journey made by Faxian to India and Sri La[ndot]ka in Heirman, ‘Vinaya: from India to China’, p.174.

³²Based on the identification of the Chinese Ta-mo-kiu-ti from the account of Faxian, with the monk Dhammakathi mentioned in the Cūlavasa during the reign of Buddhadāsa, E.R. Ayrton claimed as early as 1911 that Buddhadāsa ruled Sri La[ndot]ka when Faxian visited the island. See E.R. Ayrton, ‘The Date of Buddhadasa of Ceylon from a Chinese Source’, in Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland (1911), pp.1142–4. However, M. Deeg does not find this argument convincing. See Deeg, Das Gaoseng-Faxian-Zhuan als Religionsgeschichtliche Quelle, Der älteste Bericht eines chinesischen buddhistischen Pilgermönchs über seine Reise nach Indien mit Übersetzung des Textes, p.157: ‘wer zu Faxians Zeit König in Ceylon war- ein Versuch der meines Wissens noch nicht überzeugend durchgefürht worden ist … .’

³³For a detailed overview of these Chinese historical records, see E. Wilkinson, Chinese History, A Manual, Revised and Enlarged, Harvard-Yenching Institute Monograph Series, 52 (Cambridge, Mass. and London: Harvard University Asia Center, 2000), pp.501–15.

³⁴ Songshu, juan 97, p.2384.

³⁵ Liangshu, juan 54, p.800.

³⁶ Nanshi, juan 78, pp.1964–5.

³⁷Zürcher, ‘Tidings from the South, Chinese Court Buddhism and Overseas Relations in the Fifth Century AD’, p.43.

³⁸ Songshu, juan 97, p.2384 and Nanshi, juan 78, p.1965.

³⁹Hoang, Concordance des chronologies néoméniques chinoise et européenne, p.160.

⁴⁰Tennent, Ceylon; an Account of the Island Physical, Historical, and Topographical, p.620; Geiger, The Mahāvamsa or The Great Chronicle of Ceylon, p.xl; Renou and Filiozat, L'Inde classique—manuel des études indiennes, pp.247–8 ; Zürcher, ‘Tidings from the South, Chinese Court Buddhism and Overseas Relations in the Fifth Century AD’, pp.36, 39; and. Heirman, ‘Vinaya: from India to China’, p.184.

⁴¹Hirakawa, A Buddhist Chinese-Sanskrit Dictionary, p.1277.

⁴² Mohenan is attested as a transliteration of Mahānāma in Wogihara et al. (eds), Kanyaku taishō Bonwa daijiten shinshō han, p.1015; Hirakawa, A Buddhist Chinese-Sanskrit Dictionary, p.559; and Akanuma, A Dictionary of Buddhist Proper Names, p.383.

⁴³Institut Ricci (ed.), Le grand dictionnaire Ricci de la langue chinoise, p.512.

⁴⁴Soothill and Hodous (eds), A Dictionary of Chinese Buddhist Terms, with Sanskrit and English Equivalents and a Sanskrit-Pali Index, p.250; H. Nakamura, Bukkyōgo daijiten, shukusatsuban (Tōkyō: Tōkyō Shōseki, 1981), p.827; and Hirakawa, A Buddhist Chinese-Sanskrit Dictionary, p.193.

⁴⁵Monier-Williams, A Sanskrit–English Dictionary, p.325.

⁴⁶E.G. Pulleyblank, Outline of Classical Chinese Grammar (Vancouver: UBC Press, [1995] 2000), p.14.

⁴⁷A. Ganguly, A Chronological Account of Indian History, Important Persons and Events From 600 B.C. to August 15, 1947 (Delhi: B.R. Publishing Corporation, [1996] 2001), p.13.

⁴⁸P.C. Bagchi, India and China: A Thousand Years of Cultural Relations (Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 1971), pp.74–5.

⁴⁹T = J. Takakusu, K. Watanabe and G. Ono (eds), Taishō shinshū daizōkyō , 100 vols. (Tōkoyō: Taishō issaikyō kankōkai, 1924–35).

⁵⁰ Japanese-English Buddhist Dictionary (Tōkyō: Daitō shuppansha, [1991] rev. ed. 1999), p.128.

⁵¹M. Deeg has made the most complete recent study of Faxian in his Das Gaoseng-Faxian-Zhuan als Religionsgeschichtliche Quelle, Der älteste Bericht eines chinesischen buddhistischen Pilgermönchs über seine Reise nach Indien mit Übersetzung des Textes, Studies in Oriental Religions, Vol.52 (Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz Verlag, 2005).

⁵²Ganguly, A Chronological Account of Indian History, Important Persons and Events From 600 B.C. to August 15, 1947, p.13.

⁵⁴Quoted from S. Beal, Si-Yu-Ki, Buddhist Records of the Western World. Translated from the Chinese of Hiuen Tsiang, AD 629 (New Delhi: Munshiram Manoharlal Publishers, [1884] rpr. 2004), pp.133–5.

⁵³T = J. Takakusu, K. Watanabe and G. Ono (eds), Taishō shinshū daizōkyō , 100 vols. (Tōkoyō: Taishō issaikyō kankōkai, 1924–35).

⁵⁵ Pabbajitvā kani ho so jīvamānamhi bhātari. Cūavasa, xxxvii.210, in Geiger (ed.), Cūavasa, Being the More Recent Part of the Mahāvasa, p.21.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Gudrun Pinte

I would like to thank the anonymous referees for their constructive remarks. Many of their valuable suggestions have contributed to the realisation of this article.