Dēvānampiya Tissa

Sri Lankan king (r. 247-207 b.c.e.)

• Born: Unknown
• Birthplace: Anuradhapura, Tambapanni (now Sri Lanka)
• Died: 207 b.c.e.
• Place of death: Anuradhapura, Tambapanni (now Sri Lanka)

Dēvānaṃpiya Tissa was the first Buddhist king of Tambapanni, now called Sri Lanka. A great patron of the faith, he was the country’s first convert and was responsible for creating Tambapanni’s first Buddhist establishments.

Early Life

Little is known of the early years of Dēvānaṃpiya Tissa (deh-vah-nawm-pee-yah tee-sah), and the exact year of his birth is uncertain. The earliest record tells that he was anointed king and took the throne after the demise of his father, Mutasiva, in 247. In pre-Buddhist Sri Lanka there were neither proper kings nor a central government. His father probably was a provincial chieftain ruling over a large part of central Tambapanni; the capital was located at Anuradhapura. The Anuradhapura domain was important enough, however, to establish diplomatic connections with Madhura in South India and Pataliputra, the Mauryan capital in North India. A popular tale relates that, when Tissa ascended the throne, jewels immediately sprang up from the earth because of his meritorious past lives.

The Sri Lankan chronicle, the Mahāvamsa (fifth or sixth century c.e.; The Mahāvamsa: Or, The Great Chronicle of Ceylon, 1912), states that, after he took office, Dēvānaṃpiya Tissa sent various valuable gifts, including some of the gems rising from the earth, to his neighbor the mighty Mauryan king Aśoka as a token of his friendship. On learning from the Sinhalese ambassador that King Tissa had only a modest ceremony of investiture of kingship, Aśoka decided to send all the requisite implements for a full royal coronation, including a fan, a diadem, a sword, a parasol, shoes, a turban, ear ornaments, a pitcher, sandalwood, sumptuous garments, red-colored earth, water from Anotatta Lake and the Ganges River, one hundred wagonloads of mountain rice, golden platters, and a fine litter.

Once the gifts were delivered, Dēvānaṃpiya Tissa was installed a second time with the elaborate coronation ceremony prescribed by Aśoka. It may be that the honorific term Dēvānaṃpiya, or “Beloved of the Gods,” was an imperial title conferred by Aśoka on the neighboring king. The second coronation, with all its new stately regalia, connotes the friendly and intimate connections between India and Tambapanni. It also crystallized the authority of the king in a way that ensured his political dominance on the island.

Life’s Work

In response to the growing friendship with Dēvānaṃpiya Tissa, Aśoka sent his own son Mahinda Thera, a Theravāda monk, as a Buddhist missionary to the southern island. Before the advent of Buddhism, Tambapanni had no systematically organized state religion. Only the cults of Yakshas and Yakshis (male and female nature deities often associated with the spirits of the dead) and a form of tree worship seem to have been prevalent and popular forms of worship. The missionary Mahinda, on the other hand, offered a wholly new, organized, and profoundly ethical and philosophical religion. He arrived from India with a party of six other bhikkhus (monks) soon after Dēvānaṃpiya’s second coronation. Two of Aśoka’s grandsons, Sumana Samanara, a novice, and Bhanduka Upaska, a lay disciple, were included in the entourage. That Aśoka’s son and two grandsons were part of the mission indicates its special prestige and also the esteem with which Tissa was regarded by the Indian monarch. Sri Lankan sources recount a popular notion that King Dēvānaṃpiya and Emperor Aśoka had been brothers in a former life. A Buddhist legend contends that Mahinda and his associates were magically transported through the air from Mount Vedisaka in India to Missaka-pabbata, a forested mountain some eight miles east of the Sri Lankan capital at Anuradhapura.

The Buddhist canons record that the first meeting between Mahinda and Tissa occurred while Tissa was engaged in a hunting expedition at Missaka-pabbata (also called Chettiya-pabbata), today known as Mihintale. On the day there happened to be a great festival known as Jettha-Mulanakkhatta, and the king was out with an entourage of forty thousand men. Following a deer, the group was led to the very spot where the missionaries were. Mahinda, on seeing the king, called out to him by name. Although startled at first, Tissa, having heard of Buddhism from Aśoka’s ambassadors, received the Buddhist missionaries with great kindness. The visiting teacher began to pose a series of questions to Tissa, probing his capacity for understanding the complexities of Buddhism. Convinced of his goodness and intelligence, Mahinda proceeded immediately to preach the Culahatthipadopama Sutta (The Shorter Discourse on the Simile of the Elephant’s Footprint, 1912), a text that contains the principal teachings of the Buddha, including the Four Noble Truths. On completing the sermon, the king declared his allegiance to the new faith, and his entire entourage of expressed their willingness to embrace Buddhism as well.

The following morning, Mahinda and his companions entered the capital city, where they were received by the king and taken into the royal house. Tissa served his guests lunch and called on the five hundred women of the palace, including Anuladevi, a minor queen, to pay their respects to their Buddhist guests. After lunch, Mahinda addressed the royal household about various Buddhist canons for the spiritual development of all. Hearing him speak, all the ladies declared their desire to become Buddhists. Meanwhile, numerous other city dwellers, learning of the presence of the teachers, gathered at the palace gate, asking for an opportunity to hear Mahinda talk. Tissa ordered that the Elephant Hall be cleared and readied. There, Mahinda taught from the text called Devaduta Suttanta, and one thousand more from the assembly declared their intentions to follow the path laid down by the historical Buddha. Soon the Elephant Hall was overflowing with more and more seekers wanting Buddhist instruction, and the king ordered that sufficient seats be provided in Nandanavana Park on the south side of the city. It was there that Mahinda taught the Asivisopama Sutta and another thousand were converted. Thus, by the second day of his arrival, Mahinda had led twenty-five hundred Sri Lankans to the path of enlightenment.

Tissa urged the party of missionaries to take up residence in the royal pavilion in Mahameghavana Park, located a short distance outside the city. The location of the park was ideal; removed from the city, it afforded the monks quiet for their meditations, yet it was near enough that it was easily accessible to visitors. Once installed there, the king offered to give the park to the monks as a tangible evidence of his devotion and his firm dedication to support the faith. The transfer of the land was affirmed by the traditional gesture in which the king poured water over the hands of Mahinda. The chronicles relate that the act of transference was followed by many miraculous events. The gift of land not only assured the material well-being of the monks, but it also marked the establishment of the first official Buddhist complex in Tambapanni. The park came to be known as the famous Mahāvīra or Great Monastery; it has continued throughout the centuries to remain the primary center of Theravādin Buddhist culture and learning in Tambapanni. In 207 b.c.e., Dēvānaṃpiya and Mahinda laid out a vast planned complex on the site that thenceforth was known as the Holy City of Anuradhapura. In doing so, they established the sacred boundary (sima) so as to include the city in order that the king and his family could live within the Buddha’s command. The gesture is important because it affirmed the inviolable position of a Buddhist king. From then until the nineteenth century, only a king who was Buddhist had the right to rule the country.

Mahinda continued to preach for several more days, converting the multitudes to the new faith. On the seventh day, he announced to Tissa that he was returning to Missaka-pabbata on the mountain; in accordance with the Buddhist tradition, the monks needed to spend the period of vassa (monsoon season) in remote isolation. Tissa then donated the mountain site to the teacher and the following; it became known as Cettiya-pabbata. On that very same day, the king’s nephew Maha-Arittha joined the order with fifty-five of his elder and younger brothers. After the king ordered that sixty-eight caves be cleared for the monks’ occupation, Mahinda and his fellow bhikkus spent the first vassa on the mountain. At the end of the season, the king ordered a thupa (stupa or burial monument) to be constructed to house relics of the body of the historical Buddha Śākyamuni.

Before the onset of the rainy season, Queen Anuladevi expressed her wish to take the Buddhist vows and become a full-fledged nun. Because only a ranking Buddhist nun was authorized to confer that station on the queen, Tissa sent an envoy to King Aśoka asking that he send his daughter Sanghamitta to Tambapanni so that she could establish an order of nuns (Bhikkhuni Sasana). While awaiting the arrival of Sanghamitta, Anuladevi and her companions observed the tenfold precepts of the faithful. Meanwhile, Tissa ordered construction of a building suitable for a nunnery so that all would be ready for the female community; it was called Hatthalhaka Vihara. Sanghamitta arrived, accompanied by several nuns. She initiated Anuladevi and her attendants and thus inaugurated the first female Buddhist establishment.

At the time he sent for Sanghamitta, Tissa also requested a branch of the Bodhi tree beneath which the Buddha had attained his enlightenment. The details of the manner in which Aśoka selected and cut the branch from the sacred tree and how it was sent to Tambapanni are recorded in the Mahāvamsa and the Samantapāsādikā (fifth century c.e.). Reception of the tree branch in Tambapanni was observed with a great ceremony in which Tissa waded neck-deep in the ocean and carried the cutting on his head to the shore where he had a pavilion specially built for it. Soon the tree was permanently planted at the nunnery, Hatthalhaka Vihara, where Buddhists in Sri Lanka have paid it the utmost respect throughout the centuries. Eventually thirty-two saplings of the Bodhi tree were distributed throughout the island.

Along with the cutting from the Bodhi tree, Aśoka sent along more than fifty families among whom were learned ministers as well as representatives of various occupations and guilds. The gesture suggests that Aśoka wanted to introduce many forms of higher learning and skills to Tambapanni. Tradition relates that the begging bowl (patra dhatu) and various fragments from the body of the historical Buddha were sent to Tambapanni along with the tree limb. A fragment of the Buddha’s right collarbone was housed in the Thumparama Dagaba (stupa) at Chettiya-pabbata, and the alms bowl was kept in the royal palace. Buddha’s relics signified the presence of the Buddha himself and his residence on the island. During his forty years as king, Tissa continued to support the faith and to donate land and structures for the use of the saṅgha (Buddhist community). He built many other important structures including the Issarasamanaka Vihara, Vessagiri Vihara, the Mahapali refractory at Anuradhapura, and the Jambukolapattana in Nagadipa. Dēvānaṃpiya Tissa died in 207 b.c.e. His younger brother Uttiya, who actively continued to promote Buddhism, followed him on the throne. Mahinda died in 200 b.c.e. at Chettiya-prabbata, and his relics are enshrined in a stupa at the site.

Significance

King Dēvānaṃpiya Tissa’s influence was enormous. As a devout believer, he was instrumental in efforts to convert his family and subjects to Buddhism. It was he who made Buddhism the state religion and founded the indigenous monastic order for both men and women. In addition, he implemented many social programs for the welfare of the people. The course of the island’s history was altered significantly by his conversion and included the introduction of foreign technologies, particularly large-scale, durable architecture. By donating lands and constructing monastic complexes he created an enduring stronghold for Theravāda (Hināyāna) Buddhism in Sri Lanka. Not only was his patronage key for the establishment of Buddhism, but he also fostered a great age of higher learning in Sri Lanka. Under the wise stewardship of Tissa, a great influx of learning, both sacred and secular, occurred. These events mark Sri Lanka’s transition from a provincial island culture to a complex civilization known for its erudition and its advanced material culture.

Bibliography

Adikaram, E. W. Early History of Buddhism in Ceylon. Migoda, Ceylon: D. S. Puswella, 1946. Provides an excellent and comprehensive history of early Sinhalese culture as revealed in Buddhist commentaries. Includes bibliography.

Sekhera, Kalalelle. Early Buddhist Sanghas and Viharas in Sri Lanka (up to the Fourth Century A.D.). Varanasi, India: Rishi, 1998. Review of early monastic life in Sri Lanka. Contains list and layout of important monasteries. Includes bibliography.

Smith, Bardwell L. Religion and Legitimation of Power in Sri Lanka. Chambersburg, Pa.: ANIMA Books, 1978. Considers Sri Lankan history and the role of Buddhism in state matters and politics. Includes bibliography.

Rahula, Walpola. History of Buddhism in Ceylon: The Anuradhapura Period, Third Century B.C.-Tenth Century A.D. 2d ed. Colombo, Ceylon: M. D. Gunasena, 1966. Addresses the pre-Buddhist social conditions of Sri Lanka and the establishment of Buddhism and its history for a period of one thousand years. Includes bibliography.

Trainor, Kevin. Relics, Ritual, and Representation in Buddhism: Rematerializing the Sri Lankan Theravada Tradition. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1997. A careful study of the cult of the relics of Siddhārtha Gautama, the historical Buddha, as manifested in Sri Lanka. Includes bibliography.