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Father San Germano speaks with detestation of this king as a monster of wickedness, but notes that, in his time, it was a capital offence to drink DI8SBRTATI0N. 53 A step was made daring this reign in the further organi- sation of the Samgha, at the head of which were four Saingharijfts, under the Supreme Head of the Order. Four more were now added to the number. The king's Guru, f^an&bhis&sanadhaja, was made Supreme Head. He is said to have been very active in religious reforms, moving from vihilra to vih&ra, teaching, practising ascetism, and writing books. Two years after the founding of Amarapura, the Parupana-Ekaiusika dispute had been revived by the restless Atula, who sent a letter to the king maintain- ing that he had scriptural authority, in a text called CUlaganthipada, for the practice of baring one shoulder and wearing a girdle round the body (p. 136). The king thereupon called together an assembly of Mahatheras to meet the champion of the Ekamsikas, and come finally at the truth. This debate, in which Atula was put to utter shame and met with " threefold defeat," is described with great zest. The historian illustrates each " defeat " with a picturesque tale, to bring home to the reader the miserable confusion of the heretic and the triumph of his opponents. The triumph, this time, was final and com- plete for the orthodox party. With the dramatic scene in the Council Hall ends the long-drawn-out story of the controversy. A royal command established the Parupana practices for the whole of the kingdom, and, according to the author, they obtain everywhere to the present day (p. 142),^ wine, smoke opium, or kill any large animal. {Burmese Empire, ed. Jardine, p. 85.) Father San Germano's description is borne out by the royal history itself. (Phayre, Hist. Bar., p. 230.) ^ He adds that his account is only a summary, for if the whole controversy were related, with all the disputes and arguments on both sides, the Sasanavamsa would be too tedious. 54 A BURMESE HISTORIAN OF BUDDHISM. An important religious event at the opening of the present century was the rise of the so-called " Amara- PURA " school of Ceylon,^ which, as Panhasami is careful to point out, owed its origin to the Burmese Samgharaja Nanabhivainsa. He had bestowed ordination in the year RE. 1162. 1800 to a Sinhalese deputation, headed by the thera Ambagahapati,^ whose visit to Amarapura proved a strong feeling, existing in a part of the Ceylon community, that the unbroken succession of theras could only be secured by consecration in Mramma (p. 142). Bodoah PrA's later years are passed over in silence.3 In ' Spence Hardy gives the chief tenets of the Amarapura School, whose aim was to restore the ancient purity of Buddhism. Among the principal points are, that this sect (1) allows ordination to all castes ; (2) the members go about with both shoulders covered and eyebrows unshorn. (Eastern Monachism, pp. 328, 329.) 2 The following account of this incident is given by Yule : "In the teeth of fundamental principles the privilege of admission to the Order was, in Ceylon, long confined to the highest caste. ... In the end of the last century a bold candidate of low caste, with several like- minded companions, visited Amarapura in search of ordination. They were well received by the king and priests, were admitted to the Order, and, on their return to Ceylon in 1802, accompanied by several Burman priests, brought a missive from the Thathana Bain or Patriarch at Amarapura, to the corresponding dignitary at Kandy. Their community is known in Ceylon as the Amarapura Society, and they denounce the heterodox practices of the established body there." (Mission to the Court of Ava, p. 241.) 3 It would be difficult for our historian to speak either of the king's pretensions to Buddhahood, which the Order refused to recognise, or the gigantic pagoda, begun by his command, which his deeply discontented subjects would DISSERTATION. 65 1819 his grandson Sirithibhavanadittapavaramanpita b. e nsi. sacceeded him. Three of this niler's rehgious discussions with his niinisters are recorded, two of which were of very practical interest, dealing with the ancient grants of land, Ac," to the Saingha. The Ministers laid down the principle (based on the Vinaya and Atthakatha) that the Order could continue to claim all rights bestowed by donors in time past (such as a share of produce of the land granted, provision for the repairing of cetiyas, &c.) (p. 145.) On another occasion Hpagyidoa asked in whose reign gifts of land, with cetiyas and viharas, had first been bestowed on the Order. In this case, too, the minister consulted (who went back as far as the time of the Bhagavat Sujata for a precedent) was able to answer to the king's satisfaction. Hpagyidoa's later years, darkened by listless brooding over defeats and narrowed territory, were not marked not finish (see Father San Germano's account in Burmese Empire; Yule, Mission to the Court of Ava, p. 169; Phayre, Hist. Bur., p. 219). Hpagyidoa (1819). Hist. Biir.,^. 287. "He com- menced his reign well. He remitted some taxes for three years, and in a speech to his courtiers promised to rule justly and to follow the precepts of religion " {Hist. Bur., p. 252). 2 Bp. Bigandet says that according to inscriptions found at Pugan it is evident the monasteries and temples were endowed, in the palmy days of that city, with rice- fields, fruit-trees, cattle, &c. ; but that no vestige of such acts of bestowal, dating within the last three or four centuries, has been found (see Life or Legend of Gaudama, p. 169). 3 In the first Anglo-Burmese War (1824) he sank into inactivity and melancholy, and was at length dethroned by his brother, the Prince of Tharawadi (Hist. Bur., p. 260), who, himself, afterwards went mad. 56 A BURMESE HISTORIAN OF BUDDHISM. B. R 1199. by any special benefits to the Samgha. In 1837 the reign of his younger brother Siripavaradityalokadhi- PATi began -.^ the only events recorded are the appoint- ment, death, and funeral of the Samgharaja, the appoint- ment of his successor (who wrote a commentary on the Saddhammapajotikd) , and the arrival of another depu- tation from Ceylon (p. 147). The accession of Siripavaradityavijayananta ^ B. E. 1208. (1846 A.D.) seems to have fallen at the beginning of a period fruitful in religious literature. A great number of books were written ; those mentioned by Paiihasami are chiefly Atthayojanas in Burmese, on the Suttapitaka and commentaries. It is certain that the scholars of the Burmese community were deeply in earnest in their endeavour to make the ancient scriptures, the treasury of the purer, earlier Buddhism, accessible to the lesser learned, to whom tlkds written in Pali would have taught nothing. The author of the Sasanavamsa (whose name now appears, for the first time, as a pupil of the Samgharaja) praises with exaggerated, enthusiastic loyalty the king who next ascended the B.E. 1214. throne (p. 148), Meng-dun-Meng 3 (1852), as the source of the religious revival of those days ; but it is clear that the monks had already done their part of the work in writing and teaching before the righteous king was at the head of affairs. An immediate consequence, how- ever, of the king's earnestness was that religion was zealously practised, in appearance at least, by the royal family, the court, and the people as a whole. ^ Tharawadi Meng (1837 a.d.), Hist. Bur., p. 287; Yule's Mission, pp. 131, 226. 2 Pugan-Meng (son of Tharawadi) (1846 a.d.), of whom Sir Henry Yule says : " He had all the worst parts of his father's character without the plea of insanity in excuse." 3 Brother of Pugan-Meng, whom he deposed {Hist. Bur., p. 287). DI8SBBTATIUN. 67 The historiau rises literally into a song of praise * as he dwells on the virtues of the dhammarajd and the new enthusiasm for reli|Tion, in monks and laity alike. But already, a year after the festival of the founding of liatana- punna ^ — Meng-dun-Meng's new capital — the general fervour seems to have cooled. Meng-dun-Meng learned with grief that signs of growing laxity were appearing in the Order. It was the old story — a departure from the primitive strictness of the precepts that the Master had laid down, to rule the bhikkhu's life. Some used gold and silver, others chewed betel-nut at unseasonable hours, drank forbidden beverages, and went into the villages, wearing shoes and canying umbrellas.