Mahinda (Buddhist monk)

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

Devi (mother)
SectTheravada
EducationBuddhist religion
Known forEstablishing Theravāda Buddhism in Sri Lanka
Bed of Mahinda in Mihintale

Mahinda (

Sanghamitra
.

Mahinda was sent as a

Buddhist missionary to the Anuradhapura Kingdom in Sri Lanka. Mahinda attained arhatship and resided at Mihintale
. He played an important role in proliferating Buddhism throughout the Indian subcontinent.

Historical sources

Arahat
Mahinda was found

The

Rajagala monastery confirm the fact that Thera Mahinda came to Sri Lanka to propagate Buddhism and lived there until his death.[3]

Period: Circa 200 BC, Script: Early

Brahmi, Language: Old Sinhala
Transcript: Ye ima dipa paṭamaya idiya agatana Iḍika-[tera-Ma] hida-teraha tube
Translation: "This is the stupa of the elder Ittiya and the elder Mahinda, who came to this Island by its foremost good fortune."[3]

The Mahavamsa says that Mahinda, the son of Ashoka, came to Sri Lanka and that Ashoka's daughter became a nun and brought the Bodhi Tree.[4]

Though Ashoka wanted his prodigal eldest son Mahendra to succeed him and made several attempts to bring him out of renunciation, due to the orthodox Hindu community's refusal to accept a Buddhist Crown Prince from a Vaishya mother as well as Mahendra's own lack of enthusiasm to take over an empire, he gave up. Though texts describe Mahendra's motive in leaving for Sri Lanka as spiritual, historians have argued that it was more of a political motive. Ashoka had feared that Mahendra would be killed just like Sushima, so to keep him safe and to avoid any succession war, he sent him to Sri Lanka. The party left from Vedasagiri

vihara, believed to be modern-day Sanchi
.

Mahavamsa and Dipavamsa, the chronicles of Sri Lanka, record the arrival of the party on the full moon of

Devanampiyatissa, in the Royal Hall and in the Nandana Garden in the Royal Park, leading to the start of the public embrace of Buddhism in Sri Lanka. The royal park Mahamegha was then set aside as the residence for Mahinda's party, and in later times became the Mahavihara, the earliest centre of Buddhist culture and scholarship Sri Lanka. The Chetiyagirivihara monastery was then established in Mihintale
.

Mahinda then sent for his sister

bodhi sapling from the original tree in Bodh Gaya
to be sent to Sri Lanka, where it was planted in the grounds of the Mahavihara and is still visible today.

After a month spent delivering discourses to Sri Lankans who had ventured to the capital, Mahinda retreated to

Gautama Buddha were transferred from the Maurya Empire to Sri Lanka. Mahinda then had Arittha, Devanampiyatissa's nephew, a bhikkhu, expound the Vinaya
monastic code of discipline to further Buddhism in Sri Lanka.

Mahinda outlived Devanampiyatissa and died at the age of 80 in

Uttiya, who succeeded his brother, organized a state funeral for Mahinda and constructed a stupa to house his relics at Mihintale
.

Significance and legacy

The 20th century Sri Lankan monk

Mauryan empire
to the island, along with its architecture. More recently, Suwanda H. J. Sugunasiri, a Canadian scholar, has identified him as the Redactor of the oldest Buddhapuja in the world (247 BCE).

Mihintale, the mountain where Mahinda supposedly first encountered King Devanampiyatissa and the site of his funerary stupa, is an important pilgrimage site in Sri Lanka.[5] Pilgrimages are traditionally undertaken in the month of June (Poson in the old Sinhala calendar), when Mahinda is believed to have arrived in Sri Lanka on the full-moon night of the month, a traditional time for religious observances in Theravada Buddhism.[5]

See also

References

  1. ^ "Ashoka's son took Buddhism outside India". The Times of India. Nirmukta. 16 March 2015.
  2. ^
    ISBN 0-02-865910-4
  3. ^ a b Paranavitana, Senarath (1962). An inscription of circa 200 B.C. at Rajagala commemorating saint Mahinda. Colombo: University of Ceylon review by Ceylon University Press. pp. 159–162.
  4. ^ "Asoka's Missions".
  5. ^
    ISBN 0-02-865910-4

Sugunasiri, Suwanda H. J., 2012, Arahant Mahinda - Redactor of the Buddhapujava in Sinhala Buddhism (with Pali Text, Translation and analysis), Nalanda Publishing Canada,

ISBN 978-0-9867198-4-4

External links
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