The History of the Buddha's Relic Shrine: A Translation of the Sinhala Thupavamsa (Aar Texts and Translations)

321 Pages·2006·1.74 MB·English

by  Stephen C. Berkwitz

the history of the
buddha’s relic shrine
texts and translations series
series editor
Mark Csikszentmihalyi,University of Wisconsin-Madison
A Publication Series ofThe American Academy ofReligion
and OxfordUniversity Press
THESABBATHJOURNALOF Translated,withanIntroduction
JUDITHLOMAX bySimonKaplan
EditedbyLauraHobgood-Oster IntroductoryessaybyLeoStrauss
Introductoryessaysforthesecondeditionby
THEANTICHRISTLEGEND
StevenS.SchwarzchildandKennethSeeskin
AChapterinJewishandChristianFolklore
WilhelmBousset DURKHEIMONRELIGION
TranslatedbyA.H.Keane E´mileDurkheim
IntroductionbyDavidFrankfurter EditedbyW.S.F.Pickering
LANGUAGE,TRUTH,AND ONTHEGLAUBENSLEHRE
RELIGIOUSBELIEF TwoLetterstoDr.Lu¨cke
StudiesinTwentieth-CenturyTheory FriedrichD.E.Schleiermacher
andMethodinReligion TranslatedbyJamesDuke
EditedbyNancyK.Frankenberry andFrancisFiorenza
andHansH.Penner
HERMENEUTICS
BETWEENHEGELAND TheHandwrittenManuscripts
KIERKEGAARD FriedrichD.E.Schleiermacher
HansL.Martensen’sPhilosophyofReligion EditedbyHeinaKimmerle
TranslationsbyCurtisL.Thompson TranslatedbyJamesDukeandJackForstman
andDavidJ.Kangas
THESTUDYOFSTOLENLOVE
IntroductionbyCurtisL.Thompson
TranslatedbyDavidC.Buck
EXPLAININGRELIGION andK.Paramasivam
CriticismandTheoryfromBodintoFreud
THEDAOISTMONASTICMANUAL
J.SamuelPreus
ATranslationoftheFengdaoKejie
DIALECTIC LiviaKohn
or,TheArtofDoingPhilosophy
SACREDANDPROFANEBEAUTY
AStudyEditionofthe1811Notes
TheHolyinArt
FriedrichD.E.Schleiermacher
GarardusvanderLeeuw
TranslatedwithIntroduction
PrefacebyMirceaEliade
andNotesbyTerenceN.Tice
TranslatedbyDavidE.Green
THESOURCEOFHUMANGOOD Withanewintroductionandbibliography
HenryN.Wieman byDianeApostolos-Cappadona
WithanIntroductionbyMarvinC.Shaw
THEHISTORYOFTHEBUDDHA’S
RELIGIONOFREASON RELICSHRINE
OutoftheSourcesofJudaism ATranslationoftheSinhalaThu¯pavamsa
_
HermannCohen StephenC.Berkwitz
X
the history of the
buddha’s relic shrine
A Translation of the Sinhala Thu¯pavamsa
_
Stephen C. Berkwitz
1
2007
1
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withoutthepriorpermissionofOxfordUniversityPress.
LibraryofCongressCataloging-in-PublicationData
ParakramaPandita,13thcent.
[SinhalaThupavamsa.English]
ThehistoryoftheBuddha’srelicshrine:atranslationoftheSinhalaThupavamsa/
StephenC.Berkwitz.
p. cm.—(AmericanAcademyofReligiontextsandtranslationsseries)
TranslatedfromSinhalese.
Includesbibliographicalreferencesandindex.
ISBN-13978-0-19-530139-7
ISBN0-19-530139-0
1. Ruwanweliseya(Anuradhapura,SriLanka)—History.
2. Buddhism—SriLanka—History. 3. GautamaBuddha—Relics—SriLanka—
Anuradhapura—History. I. Berkwitz,StephenC.,1969– II. Title. III. Series.
BQ6333.A582R887132006
294.3'435095493—dc22 2006046363
1 3 5 7 9 8 6 4 2
PrintedintheUnitedStatesofAmerica
onacid-freepaper
Dedicated with my deep appreciation and respect to
Professor W. S. Karunatillake and Professor G. D. Wijayawardhana
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acknowledgments
TheproductionofTheHistoryoftheBuddha’sRelicShrine,fromtheinitial
translation through its publication, was a long process that depended on
thekindassistance andencouragementofmanypeople.Thisworkgrew
outofdoctoralresearchthatIconductedinSriLankabetween1995and
1997 under the auspices of a Fulbright Junior Fellowship and the Uni-
versityofKelaniya,whichservedasmyhostinstitutionatthattime.Tissa
Jayatilaka of the U.S.-S.L. Fulbright Commission was instrumental in
facilitating the arrangements that allowed me to spend many months in
Sri Lanka learning to read Classical Sinhala one page at a time. I was
extremely fortunate to have been assigned to work with Professor W. S.
Karunatillake at Kelaniya, who generously committed to working with
me forseveralmonthsand provided invaluable encouragement and sup-
port with this project. Mygood fortunecontinued when Professor G.D.
Wijayawardhana agreed to assist me with my work. I undertook this
translation under the guidance of these two professors, although I am
solelyresponsibleforanyerrorsordeficienciesherein.Bothprofessorsare
truly extraordinary scholars and wonderful human beings. I feel a tre-
mendous amount of gratitude to them for opening up the rich corpus of
classical Sinhalaliterature tome.
I must also acknowledge the support and encouragement I received
formyworkontheSinhalaThu¯pavamsafrommydissertationcommittee:
_
viii acknowledgments
NinianSmart,GeraldJ.Larson,BarbaraHoldrege,andCharlesHallisey.
Charles Hallisey played a particularly important role in turning my at-
tention to this particular Sinhala text and persuading me to focus more
narrowly on a single vamsa text, rather than on the entire genre of Bud-
_
dhisthistoricalwriting.Itisunlikelythatthistranslationwouldhaveever
been made, much less published, if it were not for the guidance of these
four scholars. Their respective examples and confidence in me continues
to be inspiring.
Thepublicationprocesshasbeenlong,butultimatelyworthwhile.Pre-
paring a complete English translation of a lengthy, thirteenth-century
Sinhala history is not easy, especially since there are precious few con-
ventionsandstandardstouse.Andgiventhelimitedfamiliaritywiththis
literature in the West, it was not easy finding a publisher. Thus I am
extremely grateful to Cynthia Read at Oxford University Press for her
interest,patience,andsupportconcerningthiswork.WorkingwithCyn-
thia,JuliaTerMaat,LindaDonnelly,MargaretCase,andmanyothersat
OUP has been a delightful experience. Likewise, I owe a great deal of
thanks to Mark Csikszentmihalyi, former editor of the American Acad-
emyofReligion’sTextsandTranslationsSeriesandthepersonwhofirst
expressedinterestinmyworkandthenshepherdeditthroughthereview
process.Theanonymousreviewersofmytranslationdevotedtheirtimeto
going through my manuscript and making numerous suggestions for its
improvement.Iwishtothankthemforcommittingthemselvestotheoften
thanklessjobofreviewingabookmanuscript.
Brill Academic Publishers, the publisher ofmy book Buddhist History
intheVernacular:ThePowerofthePastinLateMedievalSriLanka(2004),
generously allowed me to reproduce many quotations here that also ap-
pear in my book-length study of Buddhist history writing as a form of
religiousandethicalpractice.Inthisearlierwork,Ianalyzeandtheorize
about the writing of historical narratives in Sri Lankan Buddhism. Al-
though some of the arguments from Buddhist History in the Vernacular
appearintheintroductiontothistranslation,Iencouragereaderstocon-
sult this work in its entirety to see how I interpret works such as the
Sinhala Thu¯pavamsa.
_
Finally, as always, I wish to acknowledge my family and friends for
believing in me and not questioning my sanity while I dedicated many
yearstothetaskofreadingandtranslatingSinhalatexts.Mywife,Imali,
has been a constant and invaluable source of encouragement, while my
acknowledgments ix
daughter, Rashmi,reminds meofthe satisfaction to begainedoutside of
mywork.Myparents,RobertandPamelaBerkwitz,andmyparents-in-
law, Somasiri and Sumanaseeli Dabare, gave me their support and took
pleasureinmyaccomplishmentsalongtheway.Andtherehavebeenmany
otherswhohavecontributedtothiswork,includingsomewhoprobablydo
notevenrealizeit.Sufficeittosay,Iamgratefultoallthosewhoshowedan
interestinmytranslationandthosewhohelpedmetoaccomplishit.