28 March, 2024

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Generations Of Men Lady – Ain’t Just One Man

By Darshanie Ratnawalli

 Darshanie Ratnawalli

Darshanie Ratnawalli

I heard Holmes chuckling to himself. In reply to my inquiring glance he said “Here is a lady Watson who should distribute her frenzy among hundreds of men instead of saving it for a single man”. I was astonished, for vulgar insinuation was the last thing I’d have expected from him especially in connection with a woman. With one notable exception Holmes was lukewarm in his appreciation of womankind, but he was invariably the gentleman. My disgust must have shown, for he said by way of explanation; “Her emotional excesses, her wrath should be directed against hundreds of men, chains of men linked to each other through pupillary succession instead of a single man”.

Perhaps I should save the reader from the intense irritation I felt at this elliptical way of talking (which actually made me throw the saltcellar against the wall inches above Holmes’ head), by stating outright that his remarks were directed at an article in the popular press (Colombo Telegraph) titled Which Buddha? Whose Buddhism? penned by Tisaranee Gunasekara. As far as I could see the lady was fixated on one man, a monk called Mahanama, the fount, the father of all evil. I said so to Holmes. Then occurred one of those rare instances that I am likely to cherish in memory to the end of my days. Holmes paid me a compliment. He said that I had true insight, which outshines the best deductive powers. “Why, what have I said?” I asked trying not at all successfully to hide a pleased smile. “You just uttered the key word Watson, “father”: the Origin, Sire, and Fount of that primeval female longing for a single male figure to center her most intense feelings of love or hate on”.

Suppose Watson that you are a woman. You direct an unseemly amount of passion not untinged with hysteria towards a monk who lived nearly 20 centuries ago and collated the essence of numerous Sīhala aṭṭhakathā into quite good Pāli verse and produced a work called Mahāvamsa. You say, this Bhikku Mahānama wrote this, that and the other and therefore he is this, that and the other. Supposing then that someone shows you the same episodes described the same way by another famous monk called Buddhaghosa, who wrote perhaps one generation earlier than Mahanama? Supposing that you also learn of a near identical narrative in an earlier work, Dīpavamsa, by another monk who wrote perhaps one generation earlier than Buddhaghosa, while decorously remaining anonymous? How would you feel about this concord? You’d feel cheated because it deprives you of your central male figure, the primeval father. The reason behind this concord; a collective tradition carried on by generations of anonymous men[i] won’t offer the same emotional scope as a single man with a name like “Mahanama”.

Consider the lady’s lines Watson “The Buddha of Mahawamsa is a totally different being from Siddhartha Gautama, the Buddha we meet in the Tripitaka and other Buddhist texts. Mahawamsa-Buddha is a holy-warrior who uses natural cunning and supernatural force to defeat enemies of faith. Mahawamsa-Buddha does not regard every living being with equal compassion, as the Buddha did. Mahawamsa-Buddha has attachments; he wants to protect Lanka, as the sole future-refuge for his teachings; in this political project, gods are his allies, arch-criminal Vijaya his instrument and Yakkas, the original inhabitants of Lanka, his enemies. So Mahawamsa-Buddha does something the Buddha never did. He comes to Lanka, and instead of preaching to the yakkas, chases them away.” I suggest Watson that a lady free from the Primeval Longing would have told herself “Before hanging on to Mahanama’s Mahavamsa Buddha, let me compare the Dipavamsa Buddha and Buddhaghosa’s Buddha re the same episode; The Lankan visit and the Yaksha taming”. (For the dating of these texts read Norman; 1983, p114-122- full text)

The fourth century Dipavamsa and the sixth century Mahavamsa contain near identical narratives on the taming of the Yakshas, while the book in between, Buddhaghosa’s Bāhiranidāna of Samantapasadika (Trans. N.A. Jayawickrama;1962[ii]full text) announces; “In His lifetime, the Perfectly Enlightened One came thrice to this Island. First, He came alone to tame the Yakkhas, and having done so went round the Island thrice securing protection for the Island of Tambapanni, knowing that after He had passed away in perfect Nibbana the Teaching would be established in the Island.”(p79)

You know how they graft sequels to the middle of the original story Watson? For example, the hero comes in, finds the heroine standing against a curtain and asks if she loves him. The heroine snarls that she wouldn’t die in a ditch with him. The hero then runs out and gets run over by a bus. This is the original story. Now in the sequel, the same scene unfolds, only after the hero has rushed out the camera moves back to the curtain against which the heroine is standing and we see that the villain is behind the curtain holding the heroine at gun point and that’s why she spoke so harshly to the hero. Likewise the common story in the earlier Dīpavamsa and the later Mahāvamsa of the Lankan visit of the Buddha and the encounter with the Yakshas is a sequel that flows seamlessly from the original biography of the Buddha given in the Vinaya Pitaka, without interrupting the original timeline or the sequence.

According to the original story in the Mahavagga of the Vinaya Pitaka (p118-125, SBE, Vol. 13[iii]full text), the Buddha performs various wonders to convert the Jatila Uruvela Kassapa. The first wonder is the conquering of the savage Naga king of Uruvela Kassapa’s fire hut. Here the recently enlightened Buddha battles the fire of the Naga king with his fire. It’s not from the first wonder that the sequel of the Lankan visit branches off but from the fifth wonder. Nevertheless the first wonder is significant because it involves the taming of a non-human, magical being with fire and contains the seed and a foreshadowing of the sequel: taming the Yakshas of Lanka with fire.

So to the First Wonder; “And the Blessed One effected the appropriate exercise of miraculous power and sent forth a cloud of smoke. Then the Naga, who could not master his rage, sent forth flames. And the Blessed One, converting his body into fire, sent forth flames. When they both shone forth with their flames, the fire room looked as if it were burning and blazing, as if it were all in flames…That night having elapsed, the Blessed One, leaving intact the skin and hide and flesh and ligaments and bones and marrow of that Naga, and conquering the Naga’s fire by his fire, threw him into his alms-bowl, and showed him to the Jatila Uruvela Kassapa (saying), ‘Here you see the Naga, Kassapa ; his fire has been conquered by my fire’.” (Maha Vagga 1,15,1-7)

Now to the fifth wonder and thence to Lanka. In the original Vinaya Pitaka story, the Buddha realizes through his power of reading minds that on the day of a certain great sacrifice, Uruvela Kassapa would feel outshined by His presence. So the Blessed One-(Maha-Vagga 1,19,2): “went to Uttara Kuru; having begged alms there, he took the food (he had received) to the Anotatta lake; there he took his meal and rested during the heat of the day at the same place.”

This is how the 4th century AD Dipavamsa sequel branches out from the original; “43-Having understood the thought of the Jatila, the Sage, who looks through the minds of other men, went by his high (magical) power to (Uttara-) Kurudipa collecting alms. 44 Near the Anotatta lake Buddha took his meal; there he gave himself up to meditation (Jhanas) and compassionate thoughts. 45. With his Buddha-eye, the highest in the world looked over the universe; the stainless Teacher (then) saw the most excellent Lankadipa. 46. At that time the ground of Lanka was covered with great forests and full of horrors; frightful, cruel, blood-thirsty Yakkhas of various kinds. 47 and savage, furious, pernicious Piscacas of various shapes and full of various (wicked) thoughts, all had assembled together. 48. I shall go there, in their midst; I shall dispel the Rakkhasas and put away the Pisacas, men shall be masters (of the island.)”  (See OLDENBERG, Dip[iv], p. 120-121, Full text)

Now observe Watson the exact same way the 6th century AD Mahavamsa sequel branches off from the original; “Now since a great sacrifice by Kassapa of Uruvela was near at hand, and since he saw that this latter would fain have him away, he, the victorious over enemies, went to seek alms among the Northern Kurus ; and when he had eaten his meal at evening time near the lake Anotatta, the Conqueror, in the ninth month of his buddhahood, at the full moon of Phussa, himself set forth for the isle of Lanka, to win Lanka for the faith. For Lanka was known to the Conqueror as a place where his doctrine should (thereafter) shine in glory ;and (he knew that) from Lanka, filled with the yakkhas, the yakkhas must (first) be driven forth.” – (Mahavamsa[v] 1.17,18, 19,20, p3, full text)

@ http://ratnawalli.com /  and rathnawalli@gmail.com


[i] “It would seem that the Dīpavamsa, Buddhaghosa’s Bāhiranidāna, and the Mahāvamsa are all based on the Sīhala aṭṭhakathā material which was kept at the Mahāvihara, and the differences between these three works are due to the various authors making use of different strands of the material, and laying different emphasis upon the material which they have in common. It has been suggested that some of the differences between the Bāhiranidāna and the Mahāvamsa arise from the fact that the former was translated directly from Sinhalese Prakrit prose into Pāli prose, while the author of the latter was under the restriction of metrical considerations. The differences between verses in the Dīpavamsa and the Bāhiranidāna have been put down to recension variation, but such differences could equally well be explained as arising from

alternative interpretations of verses in non-Pali dialects”- (p118,  K. R. Norman, 1983, ‘Pāli Literature Including the Canonical Literature in Prakrit and Sanskrit of all the Hīnayāna Schools of Buddhism’ in Vol. VII of ‘A History of Indian Literature’Full text)

[ii] N. A. Jayawickrama, 1962, ‘The Inception of Discipline and the Vinaya Nidana’, Being a Translation and Edition of the Bāhiranidāna of Buddhaghosa’s Samantapāsādika, the Vinaya Commentary in Sacred Books of the Buddhists Vol XXI (Full text)

[iii] The Sacred Books of the East, Vol XIII, Vinaya Texts Translated From The Pali By T. W. Rhys Davids And Hermann Oldenberg, Part I- The Patimokkha, The Mahavagga, I—Iv- (Full text)

[iv] The Dīpavamsa edited and translated by H. Oldenberg, 1879- (Full text)

[v] The Mahavamsa translated into English by Wilhelm Geiger, 1912- (Full text)

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    Disclaimer. Thanking the positive commentors, yet emphasizing that comments and the commentors on this site are not connected with me in any way. All the comments are entirely a reflection on the democracy and the discretion of this site. I haven’t solicited those comments in any way, nor am I part of any “circle” consisting of these commentors. They are completely unknown to me and I haven’t submitted my article to them. This disclaimer is to establish the widest distance from and renounce all responsibility for the levels of comprehension of those outside my intended target audience. In other words, this is not my group. Although there are sites out there that are maintained to facilitate discussion within a group, this is not to my knowledge such a group-site. It’s broad-based with a wide readership of which (hopefully) the commentors are a minute fraction.

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      Go away !

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        ~゜・_・゜~  D.R- Dement Reekers Alpha-Art

        “”Get moving! It’s time for you to be turned into a ‘César’…””

        credo quia absurdum est –[I believe it because it is absurd]
        power of the concubine to `the nation` – Beware of the dog ;)

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        Robert.R

        “Go away !”

        Where? Back to her Aryan myth pool?

    • 12
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      Disclaimer: The comments I write here are entirely mine and mine alone and I thank Colombo Telegraph for the opportunity to write freely, without let or hindrance. These comments are written of my own freewill and hence I absolve the Fragrant One (Holmes and Watson too) from any accusations of incitement or persuasion. I confess that I am not a member of any ‘circle’ as such but I will admit to membership of the ‘Friends of Lipton Circus’, The Thalanabatu Club and the Uswetikeyawa Beach Appreciation Society. The Fragrant One is, mercifully, unknown to me, and if I should see her at anytime, I will promptly retreat as discreetly as possible in order to avoid contaminating the fount of all oriental myths.

      Of my own, and with no coercing, I confess to taking vicarious pleasure from the splendidly far-fetched ramblings of the Fragrant One, and I further testify that I have not experienced similar upliftment since those many heady perfumed nights in the presence of the old storyteller of Galle Fort, on the veranda of Mrs Brohiers’ grand old mansion.

      All this is written on the day of the Super Full Moon, Nikini Poya day, 10th August 2014.

      • 2
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        Cool.
        “Wit beyond measure is man’s greatest treasure.”
        —Rowena Ravenclaw- Harry Potter Universe

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          The wolf’s head!

          I loved that Highland Terrier Mascot.

          “Jo” Rowling

          O:-)

        • 4
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          Man’s greatest treasure lies deep below the Women’s universe, there he fights and sprites with his own will and formidable vigor.

          – James Salmonella.

          • 0
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            James Salmonella.

            Puta madreta,oh ah ha,

            Somewhere over the Rainbow – Israel “IZ” (RIP Angels Voice)

            https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V1bFr2SWP1I

            she says:
            ‘The bigs hit me, so I hit the babies; that’s fair.’ In these words kid epitomized the history of the human race. ~ Education and the Social Order by Bertrand Russell

            (^‿◕)

      • 8
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        Spring Koha

        You were alright when you wrote your last comment.

        What has happened to you between then and August 10, 2014 at 6:44 am?

        Were you infected by killer fragrant pollen?

        If things smell good, don’t inhale.

    • 9
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      WTF is this “Disclaimer” ? Is someone forcing you to post your article here?

    • 3
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      Didn’t read your writing baby.. no comments.. feel pity about the man around you…

    • 6
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      Ratnawalii,
      You need water to live… Do you know how and why water is coming out of the tap when you open it? You may wish to isolate yourself with the belief that you are very intelligent than others or Sinhalese Buddhist doctrine of “do not associate with ASATHPURUSHA or Modayas”… Think.. you don’t have to walk to natural stream to get your water any more or you are NOT continuously frighten that roof of your dwelling may fall on you.Why.. who made these happen for you…. When you get sick now or later when you are older, there are medicine to give you at least temporary relief….How you get those?? that is because of Modayas or imperfect people around you make those basic needs for you… Isolate from unity assuming your are ultra intelligent would make your life miserable…

    • 4
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      American Mama, American Mama Where are You!

      Where are you? we need your opinion as a FREE THINKER to sort out Myths, lies and imaginations expressed here.

      Hope you are not lost in Karmic Energy and Rebirth Myths ans experimentation.

    • 3
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      Darshanie Ratnawalli

      Confirmation bias of Buddha Visiting Lanka, the land of Native Beddah

      “In His lifetime, the Perfectly Enlightened One came thrice to this Island. First, He came alone to tame the Yakkhas, and having done so went round the Island thrice securing protection for the Island of Tambapanni, knowing that after He had passed away in perfect Nibbana the Teaching would be established in the Island.”-(p79)

      All these try to say Buddha visited the Island 3 times, when in fact it was not true. Dipawansa also says the Yakkas are non-humans as well, and talks about the great war between the serpents.

      All these are Confirmation bias stories to show Buddha visited Lanka, the land of native Veddah, before Mahinda Thera.

      http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Confirmation_bias

      Confirmation bias, also called myside bias, is the tendency to favor information that confirms one’s beliefs or hypotheses.[Note 1][1] People display this bias when they gather or remember information selectively, or when they interpret it in a biased way. The effect is stronger for emotionally charged issues and for deeply entrenched beliefs. People also tend to interpret ambiguous evidence as supporting their existing position. Biased search, interpretation and memory have been invoked to explain attitude polarization (when a disagreement becomes more extreme even though the different parties are exposed to the same evidence), belief perseverance (when beliefs persist after the evidence for them is shown to be false), the irrational primacy effect (a greater reliance on information encountered early in a series) and illusory correlation (when people falsely perceive an association between two events or situations).

      A series of experiments in the 1960s suggested that people are biased toward confirming their existing beliefs. Later work re-interpreted these results as a tendency to test ideas in a one-sided way, focusing on one possibility and ignoring alternatives. In certain situations, this tendency can bias people’s conclusions. Explanations for the observed biases include wishful thinking and the limited human capacity to process information. Another explanation is that people show confirmation bias because they are weighing up the costs of being wrong, rather than investigating in a neutral, scientific way.

      Confirmation biases contribute to overconfidence in personal beliefs and can maintain or strengthen beliefs in the face of contrary evidence. Poor decisions due to these biases have been found in political and organizational contexts.[2][Note

      http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Confirmation_bias

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      Disclaimer in a public forum is the duty of the Forum Administrators, not the job of any wayward contributing authors. It looks funny Miss.Darshanie mistook the public forum into a pubic forum, pathetic.

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        Bolnav Kamikova

        “Miss.Darshanie mistook the public forum into a pubic forum, pathetic.”

        Please bear with her, she is only a child.

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    Darshanie Ratnawalli

    Trying to claim a fable that Buddha arrived in Lanka. Can you prove the Sun goes around the earth. After all, the sunrises from the east, where Buddha is suppose to have come from?

    1. ” were directed at an article in the popular press (Colombo Telegraph) titled “Which Buddha? Whose Buddhism?” penned by Tisaranee Gunasekara. As far as I could see the lady was fixated on one man, a monk called Mahanama,”

    A lot of people are fixated om Para-Monk Mahanama od Mahawansa Fame-Notariety, because of the lies and imaginations that makes Para-Sinhala”Buddhist” Monks and masses to go berserk and tormenting Tamils and now recently Muslims, in Lanka, the land of Native Veddah.

    2. “Supposing then that someone shows you the same episodes described the same way by another famous monk called Buddhaghosa, who wrote perhaps one generation earlier than Mahanama? Supposing that you also learn of a near identical narrative in an earlier work, Dīpavamsa, by another monk who wrote perhaps one generation earlier than Buddhaghosa, while decorously remaining anonymous?”

    Does not matter who who wrote it. Lies and imaginations are just that- lies and imaginations.

    3. “The fourth century Dipavamsa and the sixth century Mahavamsa contain near identical narratives on the taming of the Yakshas, while the book in between, Buddhaghosa’s Bāhiranidāna of Samantapasadika (Trans. N.A. Jayawickrama;1962[ii]- full text) announces; “In His lifetime, the Perfectly Enlightened One came thrice to this Island. First, He came alone to tame the Yakkhas, and having done so went round the Island thrice securing protection for the Island of Tambapanni, knowing that after He had passed away in perfect Nibbana the Teaching would be established in the Island.”-(p79)”

    Remember the Greeks and the Bible said that the Sun goes around the Fixed Earth. Is that true. These are just fables, myths, and there is no evidence that Buddha came to the Island. This fable was introduced AFTER Buddhism was introduced to the Island of Lanka, the land of Native Veddah.

    4. Reference: Reference: Tennent Chapters I, II, II, and V. Pages 549 to 643.Chapter II , The aboriginal inhabitants of Ceylon. Page 327.

    In 1860, before the contamination of Mahawansa with Sinhala Buddhist nationalism and Chauvinism in the 20th Century. The information is from Tennett.

    Chapter II , The aboriginal inhabitants of Ceylon. Page 327. “ To the question as to what particular race the inhabitants of Ceylon at that time belonged , and whence or at what period the island was originally peopled , the Buddhist Chronicles furnish no reply.”

    5.Page 329. “ Whatever momentary success may have attended the preaching of Buddha, no traces of his pious labors long survived him in Ceylon. The mass of its inhabitants were still aliens to his religion, when, on the day of his decease, B.C. 534, Wijayo, the discarded son of one of the petty sovereigns in the valley of Ganges, effected a landing with a handful of followers in the vicinity of the modern Puttalam”

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      You deserve a meddle Sir.
      Apart from the Buddhists, there were Nargas; people of different faiths also lived on this land.

      • 6
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        Did you mean the ‘meddle’ like “touch or handle (something) of Amarasiri without permission”?.

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      Pattirippuwa claims itself of accommodating a false Buddha relic of a Canine Tooth, unimaginably non-human. Sadu sadu sado.

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    A new Sherlock Holmes and Watson story I thought.
    But this discourse is about the Buddha and early buddhist texts annexed.
    Only one thing I do not understand – how did The Buddha come three times to this Island all the way from Kapilawasthu in Nepal, north of the subcontinent?
    Why did he – or did he at all – permit/instruct his disciples to cut up his body into a thousand pieces, after his death, and distribute them to persons who appear to have taken them to regions far away, except one tooth taken to north India, which was later brought to the Island.

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    Darshanie Ratnawalli

    Do you believe the Sun Goes around the Earth. After all the Ancients sais so, and the Bible said so too, by Joshua stopping the Sun for 24 hours, so that he could finish his war.

    Did Monk Mahanama and the Authors before him Said something like or similar things alike Buddha visiting the Island?

    Do you know BOTH the Sinhala and the Tamils are paras from Southern India? The proof is their bodies, in the form of DNA.

    The Ancients and the Church myths were taken care of by Copernicus, Galileo, Kepler rand Newton.

    Who will take care of the Mahawansa Myths? Prof. Nalin de Silva? The Portuguese academic?

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      [Edited out]

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        [Edited out]

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    Come on………all that was quite possible for even the Buddha in all his loving-kindness to have done. For even God and Allah tend/tended to do the same things do the same things. For island of Lanka was indeed full of demonic wild people and spirits at that time (and some of them still remain even to this century), – i.e. before they heard the Buddha’s word.

    We don’t see these supernatural things anymore, because humans are far evolved at this point in time and so much of the supernatural is redundant, but there is a good possibility that in the pre-evolved world of humans, a helluva lot of Janic forces had to go shooting out of higher-humans to tame the lower humans.

    Someone must have spoken to Buddha about the horrors on the island of Tambapanni, and so Buddha took up the challenge to go there to civilize the Lankans. India at that time had far more civilized and evolved people called Hindoos, who treated Buddha as one of their gods wherever he went. So he thought he had a good shot of explaining the no-god principle (tried as he did in India). But even he was not prepared for his encountering’s in Sri Lanka.

    Having reached the highest Jana, Buddha was thus able to release his powerful forces to combat the incomprehensible evil of Lanka and fight fire with fire. Loving-kindness thought and actions only belong to a certain human realm and above, but as for the Yakkhas at that time, they were far below the norm. Thus did he evolve the Sinhala race. And in his final blessing on Lanka did he breathe his last.

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      No one who has ever read a discourse of Buddha can believe that he would harm anyone let alone Yakkas (who I think are quite cute). so it has to be that Nagas were Buddhists while yakkas were not in ancient SL, and conflict would have ensued which obviously ended in Nagas coming on top! Neither Naga’s nor Yakkas are living in SL today – so why this anger with Monk mahanama I do not get it ? do the stupid people living today think Manhama was Sinhala ? I do not think he would have identified himself as thus! we can only gather what went on 2500 yrs ago from these chronicles which is quite interesting actually

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        Dawn Dale

        “what went on 2500 yrs ago from these chronicles which is quite interesting actually”

        The chronicles could be the early pioneering science fictions or erotic sex magazines old perverts would have tremendously enjoyed or both.

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        Nagas would not have had a religion except for some semblance of Hinduism that managed to trepidly cross over the Palk, and attempt to civilize the wild Lankans. It could not have been the high structured Hinduism of the Bhagavad Gita and Mahabharata, because if it were so, Nagas would never have converted to Buddhism. (But, the again………..maybe Buddha’s high Janic prowess would have converted even the Nagas , who might have been high-structured Thamil Hindus at the time……but again Buddha could have never used violence, except in allegorical form…..but maybe that could have been enough to convert them).

        What Mahanama wrote about 1,500 years ago was probably a factual account of what he saw at the time of Lanka’s political and social structure, and tales of history and myth. However, with the words of Buddha kicking in, in 1,500 years, and with subsequent Dravidian invasions, that political and social systems seems to have changed to accommodate a newer higher-evolved human order of things – in 1,500 years, all tribes of Sri Lanka got amalgamated with each other. Only the Native Veddas will be angry about this- poor guys, they lost all their pre-historic lands.

        Otherwise some European colonist in the 500 years of Lanka’s colonial history would have written of what he had seen, of the same structure in Sri Lanka of what Mahanama saw. However it was Olcott and Anagaraka Dharamapala who tried to revive Buddhism the 1,500 year-ago way, disregarding the 1,500 years of civilization and evolution that had come about through Buddha’s final blessing.

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          Ramona, You’ve said it.
          I’ve worked with a lot of Nagas, during my time (N-raja, N-ratnan, N-linga, N-narthan, etc.).
          Buddha didn’t convert them.
          Why?

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            Ancient Buddhist mythology like Mahavamsa and Maha Yazawin speak of Sinhalese people being around for 1,750,000 years, and descending from a race called the called Mahasammata. They were Buddhist for all that time, with 27 Buddhas to guide them in their state of Theravada Buddhism. It seems that the latest Buddha, Gautama of 2,500 years ago, was from that race of solar people.

            Considering the region of the earth this Mahaasammata people came from i.e. South Asia, one would assume that they were mostly of the Dravidian stock and of the Buddhist religion, with some kind of division of labour (of what was actually the original form of the Hindu religion), till the Aryans from Iran galloped in and converted it to a racial form of Hinduism. Some of that Aryan blood came down to Sri Lanka with Prince Vijaya and his 700 men+ 700 women (+/- 700 women). Also interaction between Sri Lanka and North India because of Buddhism, would have brought in a point percentage or so extra Aryans, thus creating the modern Sinhala-Buddhist-Race, with its own language and script (we assume that Sinhala-Christians being from coastal regions, have more Thamilian, European, Chinese and African mixtures).

            All countries of the earth had division of labour- Egypt with the pharaohs, England with the aristocracy, most countries of the world with slavery,………but one thing is certain: The most recent Buddha, Gautama, was the first human and Buddha to give a non-racial, non-caste system, based on social values, democracy and liberté, égalité, fraternité, that most of the world in this epoch of time is trying to emulate.

            However, if in dispute about racial origins, for reasons of bringing respite to our land, UN-mandated DNA testing should give a final and conclusive result, in readiness for the next epoch Therevada Buddhism and the latest Therevada Buddha.

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        Why not Dawn Dale?
        The cobra worshipping Tamils in the north and the native Veddas could be their descendant living amongst us today.

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          *cobra worshiping Tamils in the north and the native Veddas could be their descendant living amongst us today*

          This is contrary to the traditional view, that the populace evolved from Indoaryans who disembarked to the ancient land of Tamira parani, armed with brammi script and Indoaryan culture, and spread the Buddhist philosophy.

          Historolinguitics suggests that Indoaryans formed the lingua franca that is the Sanskrit and Pali from which Sinhala and Tamil evolved. Dravidian buddhists from Andhra helped to consolidate buddhist philosophy in Srilanka by translating buddhist canon into Pali and burning the texts written in ‘deepa basha’.

          Sinhala is an ancient language with no influence from Dravidian languages, thereby becoming and Indoaryan isolate among the sea of south Indian languages.

          It is likely northern province was populated after twelfth century after the “Magha the terrible” invasion. Therefore they became cobra worshipers.

          If you have any concerns please consult Lanka web or the omnipresent DR.

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            ken robert

            As you know I am bit thick and don’t understand many thinks.

            Are you categorically saying the first ape spoke Sinhala and practiced Sinhala/Buddhism before the birth of Buddha?

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            Seems that modern Sinhala-Lion Race is mostly from Orissa-Bengali gene-pool (85% by some estimates, for the highest possibility of Orrisa-Bengali genes).

            Orissa-Bengal were previously Dravidian lands, with later Indo-Aryan migrations and/or conquests. Hardly any pure Aryan.

            (50:50 Draviaian:Aryan ratio of Bengali-Orrisa gene-pool. That brings it up to 42 ½ : 57 ½ Aryan:Dravidian ratio for SB’s( by the highest estimates pertaining to Aryan genetics).

            Tamils seem to be the master Dravidian race, with Sinhalese and other tribes having varying mixtures.

            This is not to demean the Sinhalese race for their mixtures, but to extol the vibrant variation. Exactly as what Buddha wanted.

            • 2
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              According to the Harappa Ancestry Project, the Aryan (Baloch Caucasian data) is about 30% in Bengalis, making it 28.3% of Aryan for SB’s.

              We would hope that Pure-Blooded Thamils will respect SB’s right to exist, and any animosity will remain in the realms of cuisine, even as the British person scorns the French person for eating frog legs, and the French person scorn the British person for eating eels.

        • 4
          1

          Never ever despise of the Native Veddah of CT, he is a formidable assessor on all sectors of your brain when in need.

          • 2
            0

            Inbrogrimpia
            “Never ever despise of the Native Veddah of CT, he is a formidable assessor on all sectors of your brain when in need”

            Ancestors of Native vedda were one of the greatest of pioneers venturing as far as Australia approximately 60,000 years ago. They survived the unimaginable volcanic eruption of Toba in the ancient times.

            More recently as far 2000 years ago, the mighty Persian empire did not want to risk fighting with a mongrel population of veddas in India. Ambitious Alexander thought, he could decimate the Indians, but his soldiers knew the fate across the river Ganges and mutinied.

            Therefore it is quite important that we cherish the native genes!

  • 7
    3

    Utterings of a strange woman, indeed! Disclaimer and all..

    What would Sherlock do in Gautama’s India ? How would his eccentricities be treated?

    How would Gautama do in Conan Doyle’s England?

    Ne’er the two shall meet…no matter the fascination and urge of a strange woman to confuse us mere Lankans.

  • 2
    14

    TG was always anti-Mahinda Rajapakse, because she was for the Sri Lankan – unpatriotic party or UNP.

    TG was always pro-LTTE, and anti-sinhala buddhists.

    Probably anglican too.

    • 10
      1

      This is not an article by TG, have you finally lost it? :-)

      • 1
        1

        Maybe for once you should try reading an article before polluting its comments section, “Robert” :D

        • 1
          1

          Blacker/SSSM,

          `Boo`ts do you always talk like that or are you wearing itchy wowlas??

          (’-’*);

        • 2
          1

          Siva Sankaran Sarma Menon

          “Maybe for once you should try reading an article before polluting its comments section, “Robert””

          Brilliant.

        • 2
          0

          Sharmoota, you too is a Brute is a non-imagined fact.

      • 3
        0

        Jimbo sleepwalks when he dead walks like a zombie.

    • 3
      1

      Jim softy, Lorenzos, Leelas, Kiroianda Kuamnamserkas and Avtars,

      “TG was always anti-Mahinda Rajapakse, because she was for the Sri Lankan – unpatriotic party or UNP.”

      What is True and what is not true about MaRa?

      Was it because MaRa lies and allows citizens killing by their agents and cronies? Mara claims he does not know when in fact he knows. He claims he is Buddhist when in fact he follows Mara? Whom is MaRa and their cronies deceiving.

      UNP os for United National party and D.S,Senanayaka showed his Unpatriotic by disenfranchising the SL Estate Tamils of their citizenship.

      Remember, UNP, SLFP and all the other parties are paras, paras from South India. Check the DNA.

      Post Script: Are there liars at Lankaweb?

      Why is that Amarasiri’s posts give indigestion and constipation to the moderators of Lanka Web when Amarasiri points out the lies and distortions? Is it because Lankaweb is a lie and distortion spreading media of the para-Sinhala Buddhist racists, and there is no room for alternate opinions from Agnostics and Egalitarians? So Lankaweb’s following claim is a lie, and therefore they are liars.

      THE LANKAWEB LIE, GIVEN BELOW:

      “We believe in Free Speech, Right of Expression that Creates Platform for Dialogue. Therefore we do not moderate every comment posted on this web site. Once filtered through the initial registration process, any subsequent comments can be posted directly on the website to make it truly interactive. However, any abusive comments will be deleted forthwith and contributor’s membership will be cancelled immediately.”

  • 5
    1

    It is best to ignore Tissaranne G – those who write for ideological reasons select facts to fit the ideology, but fail to justify the ideology as they are not even conscious of it.

    [The same applies to the writers of the Deepawansa and the mahawamsa]

    Anyway, in this case, All TG has to say is that “Mahanama” now stands for a culminating character which stands for Mahanama, Buddhagosha and the previous anonymous authors as well as the Lankan heirs of the Indo-Aryan-mythic traditions. TG and other secular-anglocentrics and marxists with a horror of Buddhism as a political force have a concept of the Buddha that is is not the Buddha of the Mahawamsa or of the Buddhists scriptures, but just what they have selected from “Light of Asia” or some such popularization as what should be the figure of the Buddha.

    This is not different from the idealized romantic picture of “Jesus” that was created in Victorian times, essentially after Earnest Renan wrote “La view de Jesus”. The same goes for the concept of God who was to be feared, being replaced by a God who is loving.

    The Buddha’s taming the fire of the Nagas or the Yaksahs is no different from the stories of Knights fighting fire-throwing dragons, or the related miraculous stories from Greek Myth.

    • 3
      6

      Sometimes you do get it right Kautilya AKA Prof. CD

      • 3
        1

        “generations-of-men-lady-aint-just-one-man”
        Like Wasi the outlaw?

        don’t argue an obvious fact- you are frightened of your shadow!

        Professors with PhD doing the `Pakistani healing Dance`.

        The disgrace of the island – priest, professor, police, politician.

        (Buddhist Silenceo!) – condemn what you don’t understand to change culture that too without humour??

        Doyle is for investigative school kids. – cacoethes

        The 3 faces of Pablo Picasso de España.

        [Vocatus atque ,non vocatus ,Deus aderit ]
        Invoked or not invoked, the god is present
        Carl Jung’s, Fluntern, Zurich,

  • 9
    3

    Darshanie Ratnawalli,

    It appears that you rate yourself and your writing too high for the plebs of commentators.

    Commentators are not idiots, many of them may be more intelligent, better educated, better informed, rational and scientific than you are.

    Your opinions are not established facts, and even facts are subjected to scrutiny as in science.

    In my opinion it pays to be humble for any writer, so be humble.

  • 10
    1

    The factual position is that Buddha never wrote his autobiography, nor was there anyone around to witness as to what happened to take notes. All what has been narrated since, are concoctions of imaginations, of individuals to satisfy their own egos as much as this DR attempts to do.

    • 0
      6

      This is not so. The result of Buddhist meditation practice is direct intuitive understanding. This knowing is not the result of logic or reason. Some people in history have narrated their experiences but we have to sort the wheat from the chaff.

    • 2
      1

      gamini

      “The factual position is that Buddha never wrote his autobiography, nor was there anyone around to witness as to what happened to take notes. “

      Timeline of Buddhism- Mostly orally transmitted and recorded much later on, so what was said what was recorded may contain errors due to the time-lag and additions by human imaginations, just like Monk Mahanam imaginations. It was the Greeks who introduced statutes and Buildings to Buddhism, based on their Arts.

      http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_Buddhism

      http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_Buddhist_Council

      “According to this record the incident which prompted the Elder Mahakassapa to call this meeting was his hearing a disparaging remark about the strict rule of life for monks. The monk Subhadda, who had ordained late in life, upon hearing that the Buddha had expired, voiced his resentment at having to abide by all the rules for monks laid down by the Buddha. Many monks lamented the passing of the Buddha and were deeply grieved but Subhadda spoke up to show happiness and relief that Buddha was gone.”

      “29 BCE: According to the Sinhalese chronicles, the Pali Canon is written down in the reign of King Vaṭṭagamiṇi (29–17 BCE)[2]”

      • 6
        0

        Amarasiri,

        I can not fathom why the monks lamented and cried when Buddha died if they were true Buddhists, because death is the only certainty while everything else is not. After all Buddha lived up to a ripe old age of Eighty Years and he was hunched and used a stick to walk in his last stages. How accurate Buddhism is depicted by old paintings in all Temples, of Buddha in death as that of a young person of thirty years in comparison to a person of eighty years. What a distortion of reality?

      • 3
        0

        You are correct, the word Mitra was typically not an Indian word, it is derived from the name Mitra (Dimitrios)meaning `Earth goddess` from the Menender’s Afghan Greek period which put much influence in the North Indian politics & the integration of Buddhism into politics after Chandragupta Maurya’s pact with them.

    • 0
      0

      stupidest comment made on CT -obviously does not know history of Buddhism.

  • 2
    0

    ???????????????

    Lapatiya where are you? I need to see your comment on this?

    Read the first few paragraphs and realised it is no fault of the author but just the affects of the full moon.

  • 5
    1

    Tisaranee is making a distinction between the universal compassion of the Buddha, and the partisanship of the Buddha of the Mahavamsa. If other Buddhist monk writers attributed partisanship to the Buddha, that only strengthens Tisaranee’s distinction. That distinction is also the distinction between the Buddhism of the Buddha, and the Sinhala supremacist Buddhism of today. This laboured attempt to discredit Tisaranee actually goes to show how right Tisaranee is.

    • 1
      3

      H.L. Senevirathne is Bull$hitting.

      He should understand that Buddha’s compassion and Mahavamsa or chulavamasa, Deepavamsa, Thupavamsa are books written by monks. All those books are historical records of Sri Lanka.

      I can understand the results of the failed education system of Sri lanka once the colonial masters left.

    • 6
      1

      Prof HL Seneviratne

      Jim softy types:

      “H.L. Senevirathne is Bull$hitting.”

      Please bear with him, he didn’t mean it. When he reads good/brilliant/excellent comments his arms pop out of his pockets and randomly knock the key board. He has no control over his fingers.

      Its like Nazi salute, when the supporters saw the Führer their right arm automatically rose and stayed parallel to the ground. His supporters didn’t have control over their body or brain.

      In Jimmy’s case the opposite happens.

  • 4
    1

    If anyone trusts Mahawamsa then they have to believe that the Sinhalese origin is due to mating of a lion with a human princess! They cannot only believe in certain sections of Mahawamsa that suits their beliefs.

    • 2
      1

      Park

      “They cannot only believe in certain sections of Mahawamsa that suits their beliefs.”

      No Lion DNA found so far on Para-Sinhala, Para-Tamil, Para-Muslim and Native Veddah Genes.

      This is called Confirmation bias. Buddha visited 3 times, The Yakkas and Nagas were converted. Native Veddah not converted? Buddha Flew to mount “Adams Peak”, Lanka was blessed to be Dhamma Depaya etc. This conformation bias is not restricted to Sinhala Buddhism, but is found in many religions and cultures.

      http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Confirmation_bias

      Confirmation bias, also called myside bias, is the tendency to favor information that confirms one’s beliefs or hypotheses.[Note 1][1] People display this bias when they gather or remember information selectively, or when they interpret it in a biased way. The effect is stronger for emotionally charged issues and for deeply entrenched beliefs. People also tend to interpret ambiguous evidence as supporting their existing position. Biased search, interpretation and memory have been invoked to explain attitude polarization (when a disagreement becomes more extreme even though the different parties are exposed to the same evidence), belief perseverance (when beliefs persist after the evidence for them is shown to be false), the irrational primacy effect (a greater reliance on information encountered early in a series) and illusory correlation (when people falsely perceive an association between two events or situations).

      A series of experiments in the 1960s suggested that people are biased toward confirming their existing beliefs. Later work re-interpreted these results as a tendency to test ideas in a one-sided way, focusing on one possibility and ignoring alternatives. In certain situations, this tendency can bias people’s conclusions. Explanations for the observed biases include wishful thinking and the limited human capacity to process information. Another explanation is that people show confirmation bias because they are weighing up the costs of being wrong, rather than investigating in a neutral, scientific way.

      Confirmation biases contribute to overconfidence in personal beliefs and can maintain or strengthen beliefs in the face of contrary evidence. Poor decisions due to these biases have been found in political and organizational contexts.

  • 1
    8

    Darshanie wanted bring a message in her own way. But, most did not understand or did not want to understand.

    As I wrote earlier, TG writes pro-LTTE, anti-sinhala buddhist (because they can not blame buddhism), anti – Rajapakse articles. All the LTTE Tamils-antigovt-people, christians are used to cheer TG.

    On the other hand, Darshanie proved, That Tamils were wrong when they tried to prove that there was a Tamil homeland in Sri Lanka. Because of all these people – Tamils and Christians/catholic alike – working for a Tamil Homeland to Tamils are angry with Darshanie and they have created their own mental picture about Darshanie.

    So, they all wrote anti-Darshanie comments.

    • 4
      1

      Jim Sothy,

      You better thank Tamil Buddhagosha and the Tamil Mahanama for introducing Buddhism to the Sinhalese in this country. I dread to imagine if Buddha was born as a Sinhalese.

      • 4
        1

        gamini

        You got it all wrong.

        Soon you will find yourself reading Buddha’s “autobiography” full of good news about his birth in this blessed land of the Sinhala/Buddhists, how in his childhood he was educated by Champika’s ancestors, how he was related to Irathinavalli’s ancestors, how he learned nuclear physics under Nalin de Silva’s maternal forefathers, Sakya Muni’s lineage traced directly to Mahinda’s ancestors, ……….

        Don’t bang your head on the nearest wall. I haven’t stop since I started reading trash.

    • 1
      1

      Jim softy, Lorenzos, Leelas, Kiroianda Kuamnamserkas and Avtars,

      “TG was always anti-Mahinda Rajapakse, because she was for the Sri Lankan –”

      All s are paras, paras from South India.Tamils, Sinhala, Muslims etc. Check the DNA.

      Jimbo et al, at least CT posts your opinions, Amarasiri is NOT afforded that at Lankaweb. why Double standards. It was like the Church banning the Copernican Heliocentric Model.

      Post Script:

      Are there liars at Lankaweb? Why is that Amarasiri’s posts give indigestion and constipation to the moderators of Lanka Web when Amarasiri points out the lies and distortions? Is it because Lankaweb is a lie and distortion spreading media of the para-Sinhala Buddhist racists, and there is no room for alternate opinions from Agnostics and Egalitarians? So Lankaweb’s following claim is a lie, and therefore they are liars.

      THE LANKAWEB LIE, GIVEN BELOW:

      “We believe in Free Speech, Right of Expression that Creates Platform for Dialogue. Therefore we do not moderate every comment posted on this web site. Once filtered through the initial registration process, any subsequent comments can be posted directly on the website to make it truly interactive. However, any abusive comments will be deleted forthwith and contributor’s membership will be cancelled immediately.”

  • 1
    2

    [Edited out]

    Colombo Telegraph must be thanked for allowing Ratnavalli to educate Tisaranee. But this kind of Marxists cannot be tamed. Does this T know what is Ummagga Jatakaya??

    I do not think T has guts to respond to R.

    • 2
      2

      C_W,

      `guts to respond to R.`

      Megusta_CULO!

      ` Ummagga Jatakaya??` U_J

      Giallo=Yellow Criminal,

      Un-passed Jesus

      it goes for throat when you sniff it.

      O:-)

      O:-)

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