Mahiyangana pride of place

Mahiyangana today

Mahiyangana prior to restoration

 

By D.C. Ranatunga
The State Vesak Festival is being held in Mahiyangana this year during the Vesak Week starting on 30 April. Vesak Poya is on 3 May.
Mahiyangana is among the most important places of veneration for the Buddhists. Its significance is illustrated by the fact that Mahiyangana is placed in the number one position among the 16 places believed to have been hallowed by visits of the Buddha.
‘Mahiyanganam Nagadeepam Kalyanam Padlanchanam…’ is how the stanza worshipping the ‘Solosmsthana’ – the 16 places of veneration – begins, referring to Mahiyangana, Nagadeepa, Kelaniya and Sri Pada. This really is the order in which the Buddha visited these places. Being the first place visited by the Buddha, Mahiyangana occupies pride of place.
The Mahavamsa – Great Chronicle – records the first visit of the Buddha nine months after Enlightenment:
“In the midst of Lanka, on the fair river bank, in the delightful garden three yojanas long and a yojana wide there was a great gathering of the yakkhas dwelling in the island. To this great gathering of the yakkhas went the Blessed One, and there, in the midst of that assembly, hovering in the air over their heads, he struck terror to their hearts by rain, storm, darkness and so forth. The Yakkhas, overwhelmed by fear, besought the fearless Vanquisher to release them from terrors.”
The Buddha dispelled their fears, got them to make way for him to come down, spread a rug and seated on it preached to them. He advised them to shift to Giripada, possibly in the interior highlands.
Among the deities (devas) who gathered to listen to the Buddha was Sumana (Saman deviyo), whose abode was the mountain Samanthakuta. He pleaded with the Buddha to leave behind something to worship. The Buddha “passing his hand over his head bestowed on him a handful of hairs” which Sumana placed in a golden urn and built a stupa over it at the very spot where the Buddha sat.
Thus, the first stupa to be built in Sri Lanka was at Mahiyangana on the banks of the Mahaweli Ganga, the country’s longest river. Over several centuries Sinhalese kings continued to enlarge the stupa.
After the passing-away of the Buddha, the collar-bone of the Buddha was picked up from the ashes and brought by a monk, Arhant Sarabhu, to Mahiyangana. He placed the relic in the stupa and built over it. It has been recorded that King Devanampiyatissa’s brother had covered the dagoba over and made it 30 cubits high for greater security.
King Dutugemunu (161-137 BC) dwelt in Mahiyangana during his march to Anuradhapura to capture the kingdom invaded by the Tamils. He enlarged the dagoba to 80 cubits high. It was subsequently rebuilt by King Vijabahau (1055-1110 CE), who ruled from Polonnaruwa.
It is interesting for Mahiyangana temple to be mentioned in commercial transactions in the time of the ancient kings. The Badulla inscription of King Udaya IV (946-954 CE) has a reference to commercial activity in the area.
According to regulations stipulated in the inscription, a trader who kept his shop open on a Poya day was liable to supply a certain quantity of oil for the burning of lamps at the temple. If he failed to do so, a fine was imposed and the collection was used for the same purpose. There is also reference in the inscription to the fact that the king used to visit the temple.
Over the years Mahiyangana, like most other places was covered by jungle with movements in the population.
It was in the early 1940s that the need to restore Mahiyangana was seriously looked at. D.S. Senanayake, who was then Minister of Agriculture and Lands in the State Council, took the initiative in forming the Mahiyangana Restoration Committee heading it himself. The restoration work continued for over a decade.
Today Mahiyangana has become a popular place of Buddhist worship with devotees making it a regular spot in their ‘vandana gaman’.