DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.27191#0097
Chap. III.
STUPAS.
63
certainty—everything in future ages being ascribed to Ajoka,
who, according to popular tradition, is said to have erected
the fabulous number of 84,000 relic shrines, or towers to mark
sacred spots.1 Some of these may be those we now see, or are
encased within their domes ; but if so, they, like everything else
architectural in India, are the earliest things we find there. It
is true, the great pagoda—the Shwe Dagon at Rangun—is said
to contain relics of all the four Buddhas of the present Kalpa,
the staff of Kakusandho; the water-dipper of Konagamano ;
the bathing garment of Kajyapa, and eight hairs from the head
of Gautama Buddha;2 but supposing this to be true, we only
now see the last and most modern, which covers over the older
erections. This is at least the case with the great dagaba at
Bintenne, near Kandy, in Ceylon, in which the thorax-bone of
the great ascetic is said to lie enshrined. The ‘ Mahawansa,’ or
Buddhist history of Ceylon, describes the mode in which this
last building was raised, by successive additions, in a manner
so illustrative of the principle on which these relic shrines
arrived at completion, that it is well worth quoting:—“ The
chief of the Devas, Sumana, supplicated of the deity worthy of
offerings for something worthy of worship. The Vanquisher,
passing his hand over his head, bestowed on him a handful of his
pure blue locks from the growing hair of the head. Receiving
it in a superb golden casket, on the spot where the divine
teacher had stood, he raised an emerald stupa over it and
bowed down in worship.
“ The thero Sarabhu, at the demise of the supreme Buddha,
receiving at his funeral pile the Thorax-bone, brought and
deposited it in that identical dagaba. This inspired personage
caused a dagaba to be erected twelve cubits high to enshrine
it, and thereon departed. The younger brother of King
Devanampiyatissa (B.C. 244), having discovered this marvellous
dagaba, constructed another encasing it, thirty cubits in height.
King Dutthagamini (cir. B.C. 96), while residing there, during his
subjugation of the Malabars, constructed a dagaba, encasing
that one, eighty cubits in height.” Thus was the “ Mahiyangana
have reached Europe at least as early as
the ist century of the Christian Era,
inasmuch as Plutarch (‘ Moralia,’ p. 1002,
Dtibner, ed., Paris, 1841) describes a
similar partition of the remains of
Menander, among eight cities vvho are
said to have desired to possess his
remains; but as he does not hint that
it was for purposes of worship, the
significance of the fact does not seem to
have been appreciated. Conf. ‘ Questions
of King Milinda ’ in ‘ Sacred Books of
the East,’ vol. xxxv. introd. p. 20.
1 ‘ Mahawansa,’ p. 26, ‘ Hiouen
Thsang,’ torn. ii. p. 417 ; Beal, ‘Buddhist
Records,’ vol. ii. pp. 87-88.
2 Account of the great bell at Rangun.
—Hough, ‘ Asiatic Researches,’ vol. xiv,
p. 270.
STUPAS.
63
certainty—everything in future ages being ascribed to Ajoka,
who, according to popular tradition, is said to have erected
the fabulous number of 84,000 relic shrines, or towers to mark
sacred spots.1 Some of these may be those we now see, or are
encased within their domes ; but if so, they, like everything else
architectural in India, are the earliest things we find there. It
is true, the great pagoda—the Shwe Dagon at Rangun—is said
to contain relics of all the four Buddhas of the present Kalpa,
the staff of Kakusandho; the water-dipper of Konagamano ;
the bathing garment of Kajyapa, and eight hairs from the head
of Gautama Buddha;2 but supposing this to be true, we only
now see the last and most modern, which covers over the older
erections. This is at least the case with the great dagaba at
Bintenne, near Kandy, in Ceylon, in which the thorax-bone of
the great ascetic is said to lie enshrined. The ‘ Mahawansa,’ or
Buddhist history of Ceylon, describes the mode in which this
last building was raised, by successive additions, in a manner
so illustrative of the principle on which these relic shrines
arrived at completion, that it is well worth quoting:—“ The
chief of the Devas, Sumana, supplicated of the deity worthy of
offerings for something worthy of worship. The Vanquisher,
passing his hand over his head, bestowed on him a handful of his
pure blue locks from the growing hair of the head. Receiving
it in a superb golden casket, on the spot where the divine
teacher had stood, he raised an emerald stupa over it and
bowed down in worship.
“ The thero Sarabhu, at the demise of the supreme Buddha,
receiving at his funeral pile the Thorax-bone, brought and
deposited it in that identical dagaba. This inspired personage
caused a dagaba to be erected twelve cubits high to enshrine
it, and thereon departed. The younger brother of King
Devanampiyatissa (B.C. 244), having discovered this marvellous
dagaba, constructed another encasing it, thirty cubits in height.
King Dutthagamini (cir. B.C. 96), while residing there, during his
subjugation of the Malabars, constructed a dagaba, encasing
that one, eighty cubits in height.” Thus was the “ Mahiyangana
have reached Europe at least as early as
the ist century of the Christian Era,
inasmuch as Plutarch (‘ Moralia,’ p. 1002,
Dtibner, ed., Paris, 1841) describes a
similar partition of the remains of
Menander, among eight cities vvho are
said to have desired to possess his
remains; but as he does not hint that
it was for purposes of worship, the
significance of the fact does not seem to
have been appreciated. Conf. ‘ Questions
of King Milinda ’ in ‘ Sacred Books of
the East,’ vol. xxxv. introd. p. 20.
1 ‘ Mahawansa,’ p. 26, ‘ Hiouen
Thsang,’ torn. ii. p. 417 ; Beal, ‘Buddhist
Records,’ vol. ii. pp. 87-88.
2 Account of the great bell at Rangun.
—Hough, ‘ Asiatic Researches,’ vol. xiv,
p. 270.