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Sāsanavaṃsa -(History of Dharma)(English | 中文 | བོད་ཡིག)

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English

led by the Elder Mahākassapa of Udumbaragiri, and purified the two groups as mentioned. He made the Dispensation pure. After that, during the time of the two kings Vijayabāhu and Parakkamabāhu, the Dispensation remained pure. Therefore, I will invite learned and capable bhikkhus and send them to the island of Sihala to receive the training again. And through these bhikkhus, who will continue in succession, the Dispensation will be established pure in our Ramañña country. Having thought thus, he requested the Elder Moggalāna and the Elder Soma to go to the island of Sihala. And the Elders, considering this to be a task for the establishment of the Dispensation, agreed. And the king, for the purpose of worshipping the Tooth Relic, Having prepared gift-offerings of meritorious things, for the veneration of the Sangha, and as presents for King Bhuvanekabahu, having placed these two ministers, Citradūta and Rāmadūta, in charge of two ships, when eight hundred and thirty-seven years of the Kali Yuga had passed, on the eleventh day of the full moon of the month of Māgha, on a Sunday, he sent Citradūta with the bhikkhus led by Thera Moggallāna on one ship. On the eighth day of Phagguṇa, they reached Kalambu port in the island of Sihala. But Rāmadūta, in that same year, on the twelfth day of the full moon of the month of Māgha, on a Monday, he sent with the bhikkhus led by Thera Soma on one ship. However, not getting a fair wind, on the ninth day of the bright half of the month of Citta, they reached Valligāma in the island of Sihala. Thereafter, those two ministers gave the gift-offerings and message-letters brought on the two ships to King Bhuvanekabahu and to the Sangha of bhikkhus. And for the bhikkhus sent by the king, exactly as stated in the message-letters, they established them in the novice-state at the water-boundary on the Kalyāṇī river, and then performed the ordination ceremony again. And after the ordination, King Bhuvanekabahu gave various suitable requisites to the bhikkhus, and saying, "This material gift shall be enjoyed until the end of life, but the mark of the name shall not perish," he gave the name Sirisaṅghabodhisāmī to Thera Soma, who was the leader of Rāmadūta's ship. And to the remaining ten theras, he gave the names: Kittisirimeghasāmī, Parakkamabāhusāmī, Buddhaghosasāmī, Sīhaḷadīpavisuddhasāmī, Guṇaratanadharasāmī, Jinālaṅkārasāmī, Ratanamālisāmī, Saddhammatejasāmī, Dhammarāmasāmī, and Bhuvanekabāhusāmī. To Thera Moggallāna, who was the leader of Citradūta's ship, he gave the name Dhammakittilokagarusāmī. And to the remaining ones: Sirivanaratanasāmī, Maṅgalatth He gave them the names: Kalyāṇatissa, Candagiri, Siridantadhātu, Vanavāsitissa, Ratanalaṅkāra, Mahādeva, Udambaragiri, Cūḷābhayatissa. But after twenty-two, he did not give names to the monks. However, he gave the name "newly trained" to all of them. After that, having performed pagoda worship and other duties, and completed their respective tasks, they returned. King Bhūvanekabāhu said to the envoy: "I wish to return the gifts to King Rāmādhipati, and you should return to send a counter-envoy." Having said this, when they were returning later, due to a strong wind, the ship sank in the middle of the great ocean. Then, all gathered on the ship sent by the Sinhala king, and after three days, due to another strong wind, they struck a rock in a shallow place, got stuck, and could not proceed. They tied a raft and went by foot. The Sinhala king's envoy gave the gifts and returned. Among the monks, death took some monks on the way. Alas, impermanent indeed are formations! Here it is said: Their undertaking, was not completed; Death will not take them yet, there is no regard for it. For this one is merciless, taking by force; It goes, as if the relatives are weeping, as if unwilling. King Rāmādhipati, for those monks, at the appropriate time, in the village land to the west of Hamsāvatī city, governed by the minister named Narasūra, repeatedly examined and reviewed the Pāli commentaries and other texts, and had the boundary-defining and boundary-establishing ceremonies performed. In the island of Sinhala, at the Kalyāṇī river, where the Buddha had bathed before, he established a water-boundary, and because it was performed by monks who had received ordination from the monks of the Mahāvihāra, he named it Kalyāṇīsīma. Thus, King Rāmādhipati, relying on the monks in Pattalaṅka, greatly promoted the Sāsana. He established it. From the year 838 of the Kali Yuga until the year 841, in the lineage of those bhikkhus, there were eighty chief theras. Their disciples were 14,226. Thus, the Dispensation of the Blessed One in the Mon country grew, flourished, and expanded. This was the seventh establishment of the Dispensation in the Mon country. But when King Anuruddha in Arimaddana City conquered and destroyed Sudhamma City with its king, the Mon country became kingless and remained so. In the Mon country, in Muttima City, the Soṇuttara lineage was one group, the Sivali lineage was one, the Tāmalinda lineage was one, the Ānanda lineage was one, the Buddha lineage was one, and the Mahānāga lineage was one— these six groups existed separately, with different communion and different nikāyas. However, the Dispensation established by King Dhammaceti remained unbroken. There was only one nikāya with common communion. The three Mon countries, namely Haṃsāvatī and Muttima, are united as one, called Sunāparanta, and they stand. Formerly, they were places where the commands of the Maramma kings prevailed. Therefore, some bhikkhus from the Maramma country went to the Mon country and re-undertook the training at the Kalyāṇī Sīmā. The Dispensation established by King Dhammaceti spread throughout the entire Maramma country and remains established. From the time the Dispensation of the Soṇuttara Theras was established in the Mon country, until the time of King Manohari in Sudhamma City, the existence of Arahants should be known. After that, however, in the time of the Theras of the Uttarā Jīvāriya lineage and Mahākāḷaprānadassī, only those who had attained worldly jhāna and abhiññā existed. Now, however, in all three Mon countries, only the Dispensation established by King Dhammaceti remains. Here, the lineage of the Dispensation is to be understood in terms of cause and effect, and in terms of beginning and end. having weighed it, should be taken in the way it is customarily done, according to the three methods shown from the beginning. And this lineage of the Dispensation is said to be for those who are modest, virtuous, and desirous of training, not for the immodest. And in that lineage of elders, the elder Medhaṅkara, residing in Muttimanagara, composed a work called Lokadīpakasāra. And the elder Ānanda, residing in Haṃsāvatīnagara, composed an exposition of the Abhidhamma commentary called Madhusāratthadīpanī. And the elder Dhammabuddha, also residing in Haṃsāvatīnagara, composed a commentary on prosody called Kavissāra. And the elder Saddhammālaṅkāra, also residing in Haṃsāvatīnagara, composed a treatise called Paṭṭhānasāradīpanī. Likewise, another elder composed a work called Apheggusāra. Thus, the Dispensation, having been the dwelling place of many kinds of authors and great elders, penetrated and became a flourishing place. Thus, in the Sāsanavaṃsa, the path of the story of the Dispensation in Suvaṇṇabhūmi, The Third Chapter. 4. The Path of the Story of the Dispensation in the Yonaka Country 4. Now I will tell of the origin of the Dispensation in the Yonaka country. Indeed, the Blessed One, benefiting those who could be trained, desiring that his Dispensation would long endure in the Yonaka country, wandered on a journey with the community of bhikkhus and went to a city called Labhuñja. At that time, a hunter gave a hariphala fruit. After eating it, when the haribīja seeds were thrown, they did not fall to the ground but remained suspended in the air. Seeing that, he smiled. Seeing that matter, the elder Ānanda asked. He declared: "In the future, Ānanda, my relic stupa will be established in this place, and the Dispensation will flourish." And because it was the place where the hariphala fruit was eaten by the Blessed One, the name of that country became Haribhuñja. And because of the water-suttika placed by two ascetics, its name became Labhuñja in the language of the Yonakas. At that time, a chief of the Lavakulas, sitting near a certain mother named Mapinnā, was teaching his seven-year-old son He ordained him, having offered him to the Blessed One. Through the practice of meditation, he attained arahantship in a short time. Because a seven-year-old novice had realized arahantship, this place is called "Caṅgamaṅgha" in the Yona language. Over a long period, it came to be called "Jaṅgamaṅgha". From that time onwards, the Dispensation was established in the Yona country. This was the first establishment of the Dispensation in the Yona country. When two hundred and thirty-five years had passed in the Dispensation, Mahārakkhita Thera went to the Yona country and established the Dispensation in many countries, such as Kambojakhemāvara, Haribhuñjā, and Yuddhaya. All these countries, when taken together and shown, were referred to by the commentators as "Yonaloka" using the common word that means "place" or "region". This is a natural practice for authors, to convey a different meaning in some way or another. Mahārakkhita Thera, with five bhikkhus, came to the Yona region from Pāṭaliputta by air and converted the Yonas with the Kāḷakārāma Sutta. He bestowed the adornment of the paths and fruits upon one hundred and seven thousand beings. Ten thousand went forth in his presence. Thus, he established the Dispensation there. And it is said in the commentary: "Then, having gone to the Yona country, that sage Mahārakkhita converted the Yonas with the Kāḷakārāma Sutta."

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