Duruthu Poya - Was There Buddhism In Early Sri Lankan History?

The ancient chronicles have documented the introduction of Buddhism to Sri Lanka in 236 BCE as the dawn of the Buddhist era when the seed of Buddhism were sown; implying that the period prior to the advent of Arahant Mahinda this Land was bereft of Buddhism. And that the early inhabitants were unaware of the teachings of the Buddha.

- Rajitha Weerakoon

These chronicles however, give themselves away with the documentation of the three visits of the Buddha to Sri Lanka, recorded as having taken place about two and a half centuries before the ceremonial introduction of the Doctrine by Arahant Mahinda.

It is recorded that Gautama Buddha’s first visit to Sri Lanka nine months after His Enlightenment was to Mahiyangane which according to chronicles had been made on a Duruthu Pasalosvaka Poya day. His next visit was to Nagadeepa which He had made five years later and to Kelaniya eight years later. These places are still considered sacred and are venerated as places visited by the Buddha.

Mahavamsa on Buddha’s visit to Mahiyangane wrote thus: ‘When God Sumana met the Buddha and supplicated for a token to be worshipped, the Buddha presented him with a fistful of blue-black hair from the crown of His head which God Sumana enshrined in a small dagaba of sapphire at Mahiyangane.

‘And on the deathbed of the Buddha, Sarabhu Thera, who was a disciple of Arahant Sariputta, extracted from the embers the ‘givatti-dhathu’ (adam’s apple) brought it to Sri Lanka and enshrined it in the same dagoba in Mahiyangane.’

Dagabas at Nagadeepa and Kelaniya denote Buddha’s second and the third visits respectively which are continued to be venerated. Therefore, with Buddha’s visits thus documented in the ancient chronicles, could it be possible that Buddhism was non-existent before its formal introduction by Arahant Mahinda? And the mentioning of Sarabhu Thera’s presence at the Parinirvana ceremony of the Buddha reveals that there had even been monks in Sri Lanka, during the time of the Buddha and long before the establishment of the Bhikku Order by Arahant Mahinda.