the god of adam's peak

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The God of Adam's PeakAuthor(s): S. ParanavitanaReviewed work(s):Source: Artibus Asiae. Supplementum, Vol. 18, The God of Adam's Peak (1958), pp. 4-9+11-13+15-31+33-35+37-41+43+45-78Published by: Artibus Asiae PublishersStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/1522591.

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S. PARANAVITANARETIRED ARCHAEOLOGICAL COMMISSIONER OF CEYLON;PROFESSOR OF ARCHAEOLOGY, UNIVERSITY OF CEYLON

T HG O D O ADAM S

PE K

MCMLVIIIARTIBUS ASIAE PUBLISHERS *ASCONA *SWITZERLAND


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PRINTED IN SWITZERLAND


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CONTENTS

List of Illustrations.. .8I Adam'sPeakin History and Literature.. .I

II Saman,the God of Adam'sPeak, is the sameas Yama . . .22III SamiddhiSumanaand Mahakila: Aspects of Samanor Yama . . z8IV The CharacteristicsndIconographyof SamanComparedwith those of Yama 39V Divinities Associated with Saman 56

VI An Ancient SinhaleseKing as an Embodiment of Yama. . . 6iVII Yamaand Agastya: GeneralObservations . . .67

Index . . .75

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LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

Frontispiece: A Painting of Samanby an Indigenous Artist of the earlyBritish period, reproducedfromTheHistoryandDoctrines fBuddhism,y EdwardUpham,London i829.

Fig. i Adam's Peak, GeneralView .13Fig. 2 Bas-reliefrepresentation f a personageholding a dainda,n a wing-stonenow flanking he flightof

stepsat the mainentrance o the Laikitilaka, Polonnaruva.Probably9th Century. 3'Fig. 3 Bas-relief representationof a personage holding a davIaon one of the wingstones flanking the

flight of steps at the entrance to Rijavegyl-bhujafiga-mandapat Polonnaruva.Probably iothcentury .. 35

Fig. 4 Painting of the god Samanon a Wall of the temple at Kalaniya, i8th century.4.Fig. 5 A Drawing of god Saman, reproducedfrom An Accountof theInterior f Ceylon,by John Davy,

London I82I. 45Fig. 6 Image of God Saman n the CaveTemple at Dambulla, circa 2th century . .43Fig. 7 Bronze figurineof Yamafrom a Stapain the Alihana-parivenxat Polonnaruva,12thcentury 46Fig. 8 Sandal-woodImage of God Saman, n the Vihira at Palibaddala, possibly 13th century . . . 47Fig. 9 Stucco Image of God Samanat the G6namariylvaTemple, late i8th century .48Fig. io Copperimage of Yama, found buried under the feet of the ColossalBuddhaimage at Avukana,

probably8th century .49Fig. ii Two-facedfigureof Yama,buried undera porchin the Vijayirimaat Anurldhapura,9th century.

Now in the Colombo Museum .50Fig. 12 Bronze figure of Yama found buriedin a porch at the PuliyankulamMonastery,Anuridhapura,

now in Colombo Museum,circa ioth century . .Fig. I3 Bronze figure of Yama found in a Stfipa in the T6pivava, Polonnaruva,12th century.Now inthe Colombo Museum. .Fig. 14 Image of Saman,holding rod, in the BuddhistTemple at GodakEvelan the RatnapuraDistrict.

Modern .52Fig. I~ Bronze figureof horseman ound in a relic-chamber f theMahiyafiganaDigaba, circa ith century 58Fig. i6 Bronzefigureof horseman oundin a relic-chamber f the Mahiyaxiganiaigaba, circa ith century 59

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PREFACE

T he presentmonograph onstitutes furthernstalmentf the resultsof myinvestigationinto the religion of the ancient Sinhalesepeople, begun with the paperon "Pre-BuddhistReligiousBeliefsin Ceylon"(Journal f theCeylon ranch f theRoyalAsiaticSociety,Vol. XXXI,pp. 302-3 27) andcontinuedn "Mahdyinism n Ceylon" Ceylonournal f Science,ectionG.Vol.II, pp. 3 5- 7) "Sigiri,the Abode of a God-king"(Journal f theCeylonBranch f theRoyal

AsiaticSociety,Centenaryolume, p. i29-I 84) and "The God Upulvan"(Memoirs f theArchae-ological urvey f Ceylon,Vol. VI, pp. I9- 59).Should any devotees of the God of Adam'sPeakbe perturbedat his being identifiedwithYama,let me remindthem that this deity, the King of Righteousness(Dharma-raja),s "goodto the good" (Siva ivdndm). may,indeed,considermyselfashavingrendereda servicefor thecause of religionif thismonographwould result n the slightestaddition o thenumberof those,professingBuddhism n Ceylon,who do not feel alarmedat the mention of this deity'sname.I am gratefulto the Hon'ble JayaweeraKuruppu,the Minister or Local GovernmentandCulturalAffairs,Mr. D. C. R. Gunawardane,PermanentSecretaryof that Ministryand Mr.N.Q. Dias, Director of the Departmentof CulturalAffairs,for generous assistance owards thecost of publishing this work. Mr.W. S. Karunaratna as helped me by furnishing me withinformationabout, andphotographs of, the imagesat Paldbaddala nd Godakdvala.The infor-mation with regardto the image of Saman at Gonamiriydva,I owe to Mr.J. A. Uduvara.I amindebted to the InformationOfficerfor the photographutilisedfor Fig. i. The rest of theillustrations,apart from those reproduced from the works of Upham and Davy, are fromphotographstakenby the ArchaeologicalDepartment.

S. PARANAVITANAUniversity f Ceylon,Peradeniya,5th July,I95 7

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I. ADAM'S PEAK IN HISTORY AND LITERATURE

Among he numerousmountainpeakswhich rise fromthe centralmassifof the IslandofCeylon,the most famous,though not the highest,is Adam'sPeak(Fig. i),' knownamongthe Sinhaleseas Siripdda(the IllustriousFootprint) or Samanala-kandathe Peak of the god

Saman).The upper part of this mountain, rising like a pinnaclefrom the surroundingpeaks,is seen from many points in the plains,and from the sea. The steep sides of the mountain aredifficultto climb; but when one arrivesat the summit,with the help of chains and stepscut onrocks, one is confronted with a scene of undescribablegrandeur,particularlyf the climb isaccomplishedso as to be at the summitat sunrise.zGeographically,Adam'sPeak is importantas the main watershedof Ceylon,four of the principalriversof theIsland, ncludingthe Maha-v31iGaniga,he longest, having their source from this mountain,and falling to the sea on theeastern,westernand south-easterncoasts. The districtsto the south and east of Adam's Peakyield preciousstones-emeralds, rubies, sapphires,etc. - for whichthe Island hasbeenfamous,and which have earnedfor it its ancient name of Ratnadvipa.

It is, however, not so muchon account of its naturalgrandeur hatthe mountainhas beenvisited and written about throughoutthe centuriesby the inhabitantsof the Island as well asby foreigners.It is due to the reasonthatanindentationon its summithas beenveneratedas theFootprintof the Buddhaby the Buddhists,of Adamby the Muslims,and of Sivaby the Hindus.Tens of thousandsof the votaries of these three world religions performthe difficultascentevery year. To the Buddhistsof Ceylon, the mountainis of furthersignificance n that it isbelieved to be the abode of a god named Saman n Sinhaleseand Sumana n Pali-one of thefour deities3who have takenupon themselves the taskof protectingtheIsland and the religionof the Buddhaprofessed by the majorityof its population.

The traditions on account of which the SinhaleseBuddhists venerate this mountain arebrieflynarratedn the firstchapterof the Mahdvathsa,he well-knownPali chronicleof Ceylon.It is saidthat the Buddha, oreseeingthathis doctrinewould take firmroot in Lanika, onsecrat-Adam's Peak is 734I ft. above sea-level. The highest mountain in the Island, Pidurutaligala, rises 8282 ft. above sea-level.

2 Numerous are the accounts of Adam's Peak written in modern times by travellers and geographers. William Skeenhas collected the legendary, traditional and historical notices that were available to him in Adam' Peak, (W. L. H.Skeen & Co., Colombo, 1870).The well-known work, Ceylon y SirJamesEmerson Tennent,FourthEdition (London,Longman, Green, Longman and Roberts, i86o) is an indispensable work of reference. H. W. Cave, in his Book ofCeylonCassel and Company, Ltd., London, i91a), pp. 451 -46i, has given a very readabledescriptive account, andCeylon,by FriedrichM. Trautz, pp. ia-i z, has a succinct account;among his illustrationsbeing a striking photographof the shadow cast by the mountain at sunrise.3 The other three are Upulvan (Varuna) Skandaand Vibhiaana.

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ed the Island by paying no less than three visits to it, even though it had not yet become anabode of men. The first of these visits, according to sacred tradition, was undertakenby theMaster, eight months after the Enlightenment, in order to rid the Island of the malevolentYaksas who then infested it. Having, by miraculousmeans, made the Yaksas, who had as-sembledat the site of the modem MahiyafiganaDigiba, to quit Lafikd, the Buddhapreachedthe doctrineto a greatconcourse of celestialbeings who had come to honour him.A prominentfigure among the Devas who greeted the Buddha on this occasion was Mahdsumana f theSumanakitamountain,i. e. Adam's Peak. This god Sumana attained to the first fruit in thepath of salvation (sotdpatt:phala)nd begged of the Master for an object of worship. TheBuddhagave the god a lock of hairfrom his head,which Sumanaenshrined n a stapaat Mahi-yaixgana.4 ater,on the thirdvisit which the Buddhapaidto thisIsland at the invitation of theNiga king Maniakkhika,n the eighth year after the Enlightenment, he, after receiving thehomage of the Ndgasat Kalydin Ka1aniya earColombo), rose and "left the traceof his foot-steps on the Sumanakiita".sn this connection, it is noteworthythat the earlierchronicleDi-pava*sa, and Buddhagosa'shistoricalintroductionto the Samantapdsddikd,ave no referenceto Sumanakitaor the god Sumana, n theiraccountof the Buddha'svisits to Ceylon.

After this legendaryaccount, the chronicles do not record any benefaction to the sacredmountainby a Sinhaleseking for the periodof about a millenniumand halffromthe beginningof authentichistory.No inscriptionreferring o the worship of the Footprinton Adam'sPeakearlier han the eleventhcenturyhas been discoveredon the mountainor in its vicinity, or, as amatterof fact, anywhereelse in the Island.It is in the reign of VijayabihuI (Io5 5-I I IO) thatwe have the earliesthistoricalevidence in the chroniclesand in inscriptionsfor the cult of theFootprinton Adam'sPeak. It is recordedof this monarch that he, having seen the difficultiesundergone by pilgrims on theirway to worship the Buddha'sFootprinton Samantakilta, edi-cateda village namedGilimalaya o provide for their needs.6Similarly,he grantedvillages ontwo other routes to the Peak for the same purpose, recordingthe donation in stone inscrip-tions, and constructedrest-houseson the way. Inscriptionsof Vijayabdhuound at Gilimale7on the route to the peakfrom the south andwest, andat AMbagamuva8n the northernroute,confirmthe statement n the chronicle. The Amrbagamuvanscriptionstates that not only theBuddhaof the presentdispensation,but the. hreepreviousBuddhasof this kalpaalso hallowedthe peak by leaving their Footprints thereon. We also learn from this record that the kinghimself ascendedthe Peak andworshippedthe Footprint.According to the Mahdbodhirvmasa,showever, it was the sacredhill of Mihintal to the east of Anurddhapura n which the threeprevious Buddhas eft theirFootprints.

Niggarka Malla,who ascended he Sinhalese hronein I I 87 A. D., is statedin the chronicleto havegone on pilgrimage o the Peakaccompaniedby the four-fold army,andworshipped heFootprint with great devotion.lo As evidence of this monarch'svisit to the sacredmountain,

4 Mabjva)kXa, chapter I, VV. 21-43.s Mabdvankxa, hap. I, V. 77.6 Ibid., chap. 6o, vv. 64-67.7 CeylonJournal f Science, ec. G., Vol. II, pp. I8 5 and I96.8 EpigraphiaZeylanica, ol. II., pp. zoz-zi8.9 P. T. S. Edition, p. 117.10 Mahdvamka chap. 8o. v. 24.

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Fig. IAdam's Peak: General View

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he has left a long inscriptionengravedon the rock wall in the cave known as Bhagavilena,about a hundred feet below its summit,as one ascends t from the northern route. By the sideof this record, which states that NiggathkaMallare-granted he village of Amwbagamuva,ri-ginally donatedby Vijayabdhu, thereis an outlinedrawingof a man,obviously meant to be arepresentation f the king, with a short recordby its side, stating"this is the manner n whichKing Niggatika Mallastood worshippingthe footprint"."The increasingimportancewhich was being attached to the cult of the Footprint on theSamantakiitaas the Peak is often called in Pali)by the SinhaleseBuddhists n the eleventhandtwelfth centurieswas no doubt the reasonthat, duringthis period,a Palipoem of 8oz stanzas,named the Sarnantakitavanand,as composed by a learned theranamedVedeha.12The majorpart of this poem, however, is devoted to a recitalof the careerof the Buddha,as given in thetraditional ources, and an accountof the three visits of the Buddhato this Island.The descrip-tion of the mountainitself follows conventional lines; the poem, therefore,is of little inde-pendantvalue to the studentof history or religion.Parikramabihu I (I 225-I269) also went on pilgrimageto this sacredmountain,attendedby the four-fold army,and, having worshippedthe Footprint with great devotion, dedicatedto it the revenues of the country to a distance of ten gdutoas(about twenty miles) from themountain,which was populous and produced precious stones, and offered the royal orna-ments also."3 In the same reign, the ministernamedDevapatirija,at the behest of the king,improvedthe road leadingto the sacredMountainby constructingbridgesacross a numberofstreams,built rest-housesalong the road, installed an image of the god (Saman)on the terraceat the summit, builta pavilionon the summitwhich was enclosed by a wall, installed ronchainson ironposts to makethe ascenteasy,andconductedgreatfestivities n celebrating heworshipof the Footprint.14 Vijayabdhu,he son of Parikramabihu I, also undertook the pilgrimagetothe Footprint beforethatprinceascended he thrones asthe third of thatname.Viravikkama rVikramabihu,who ruled the Highlandsof Ceylonwith Kandyas the capital n the latter halfofthe fifteenthcentury,is recorded to have gone to the sacredmountain in one day, conductedelaborateestivitiesandmadevaluableofferingso the Footprint.16ajasithha (158I-I593),who renouncedthe Buddhistreligion of his ancestorsandembracedSaivism,grantedthe reve-nues from the Peakto the priestsof the religionof which he becamea convert.17 VimaladharmaStirya I (i687- 1707) is recordedto have gone to the Mountainon foot, and conductedgreatfestivities after having raised a silver umbrellaover the Footprint.x8His son and successorNarendrasirhha1707-1730) undertook hepilgrimage o the Peaktwice during his reign.19

CeylonJournalf Science, ec. G. Vol. II, pp. zo and 21.2 Prof. Wilhelm Geiger (Pali Literatureand Language,p. 43) and Prof. G. P. Malalasekera(Pali Literatureof Ceylon,

pp. 222-226) attributethe author of the Samantakdtavatntanio the thirteenthcentury. For the earlierdate here given,see my paper, "Negapatamand Theravida Buddhism in South India" in the Journalof theGreater ndiaSociey,Vol. XI,pp. I7-25313 MabhvajSa, chap.85,vv. ii8-I2I.

'4 Ibid., chap. 86, VV. 20-33.Is Ibid., chap. 88, v. 48.16 Ibid.,chap.9z, vv. I7-I8.17 Ibid., chap. 93, V. I2.is Ibid., chap. 97, vv. i6-i8.19Ibid.,chap.97, v. 31.

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Sri VijayaRijasitiha, the Nlyakkar princewho becameking of Kandyin I739, continuedtheworshipof the Footprintzo nd his successor,Kirti SriRijasitfihaI 747-1780), in whose reigntherewas greatrevival of Buddhism,restored o the Buddhists he incomesfromvillageswhichformerly appertainedto the Footprint, but had been given to Saivites by RijasitfhaI.2J Acopper-plate harter,donatingthevillage of Kuttdpitiya o Adam'sPeak by KirtiSriRijasiriha,is still in existence.The Footprint on the Samantakfltamountain was held in the highest venerationby theBuddhistsof Further ndia. Medhafikara-thera,ne of the leadersof a mission of Cambodianand Thai bbikkhuswho receivedordinationat Kalyini in Ceylonin 1425and, on their returnto their lands, established raternitiesknown as the Sihala-safigha,et up in a shrineat Sukho-dayaa representation f the Buddha's oot which, according o the inscriptionengravedon thestone, "exactlyresembledthe monument of the PreciousFoot which was manifested on the

summit of the Sumanakflta,he jewelledcrown of the Island of Lafiki".z The members of thereligiousmissionwhich was despatched o Ceylonby King Dhammacetiof Pegu to introducethe SinhaleseSafnghanto thatcountry,and arrived n this island n the reignof BhuvanekabdhuVI (1469-1476), also went on a pilgrimageto the SacredMountain.23Thoughthe chroniclesof Ceyloncontainno referenceo Adam'sPeakafter ts first egendarymention up to the eleventhcentury,there is evidence in Buddhistwritingsoutside Ceylonthatthe Footprint on that mountainwas held in high venerationby the faithful.The TamilpoemManuimekalai,hich is generallyattributed o about the sixthcentury, n Canto XI, refers o theFootprint of the Buddha on the high peak of Samantakfltan theIslandof Ratnadvipa, . e.Ceylon.CantoXXVIII narrateshe storyof spiritualbeingsworshippingSamanolin theIslandof Lafikd.24"Samanoli" s the Sinhalese"Samanola", quivalentto "Sumanakilta"n Pali; thename "Samantakfita" ill be dealt with in the sequel.Fa-hien,who spent two yearsat Anuradhapuran the beginning of the fifth century, hasrecordedthat the Buddha,when he visited Ceylon,by his spiritualpower, planted one foot tothe north of the city of Anuradhapura, nd one on the top of a mountain,the distancebetweenthe two being fifteenyoqanas.2she mountainreferred o musthave been Adam'sPeak,thoughit is not mentionedby name.The laterCinesepilgrim, HieunTsiang, who himself didnot cometo Ceylon, but gatheredinformationabout the islandwhen he visited SouthIndia in the firsthalf of the seventhcentury,does not mention the Footprintof the Buddhaat Adam's Peak,buthe refersto Mount Lankakn the south-eastof the Islandwhere the Buddhadeliveredthe Lafi-

kavataraSiltraz6.The inscription of Mahiniman at Bodh-Gayi (Fleet,Itzscriptionsf theEarlyGUptaKings,pp. 274-278) has recordedthat the early members of the school to which hebelongedhad their abodein the holy countryat the foot of MountLafika.That Mount Lanikawas anothernameforAdam'sPeak s clear romthe account,preservedn Chinese,ofVairabodhi'svisit to Ceylonin the last decade of the seventh century.Vajrabodhi,afterhaving remainedat20 Ibid.,chap. 98, v. 84.21 Mahivaksa,chap. Io0, V. 221.22 Fournerau,Le Siam Ancien Paris, i895), vol. I, pp. 242-254, and PlatesLXViii and LXXIX.23 IndianAntiquary,Vol. XXII (1893), P. 44.24 See S. KrishnaswamiAiyangar,Mayimekalaiints HistoricalSetting London, Luzac & Co, I928), pp. 137-138 and 2oo.25 Samuel Beal, BuddhistRecords f the WesternWorld, Boston, i885), Vol. I, p.Ixxii.26 Ibid.,vol. II, p. 25 1.

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the AbhayagiriVihira for six months, started owards hesouth-east o ascend heLafnki-parvata.He arrived n the kingdom of Rohana and explained he doctrinesof the Mah-yana o the rulerof that principality."When at last, he reachedthe foot of the mountain,he found the countrywild, inhabited by wild beasts and extraordinarily ich in precious stones. After long waiting,he was able to climb to the summit and contemplate he impressionof Buddha's oot. Fromthe summit,he saw on the north-west he kingdom of Ceylon,and on all other sides the ocean".27Adam's Peakis easily recognisable n this description.It therefore ollows that, in the seventhcentury,MahdyanaBuddhistsof Indiaand China believed thata discoursewas deliveredby theBuddha to Rdvanaon Adam's Peak. In the Lahikdvatdra-sitra,he scene of this discourse s de-scribedasthesummitof the Mountain n the oceanatLafikdpura.28twill be shown in the sequelthat Adam's Peak is referred to in similar phraseology in the Ra/ataranginof Kalhana.It isthereforepossible that the authorof the Lahkdvatdra-sfitraad Adam's Peakin his mind whenhe described he miraculousscenein which the Buddha s made to delivera lecture on profoundphilosophical problems to the mythicalLord of the Rdksasas.In Ceylon tradition,however,Adam'sPeak is nowhere referred o as Lafikd-giri r -parvata; Rdvanahas nothing to do withthat mountain. On the other hand, there is, over fifty miles to the north of Adam's Peak, amountainof much smallerheight called "Lakgala" quivalentto "Lafikd-giri"n Sanskrit.

Comingto latertimes, we learnfrom Marco Polo that the fame of Adam'sPeak as a placeof religious importancewas known in Chinain the thirteenthcentury,and that Kublai Khansenta missionto this Island to secure or himself some of the holy objectswhichwerepreservedthere.2 A Chinese nscriptiondiscovered at Gallegives a long list of the valuableofferingssentin 141o by the first Ming Emperor, Yung-lo, through the envoys Ching-hoand Wang ChingLien to "the shrine of the Buddhist temple on the mountain of Ceylon", by which most pro-bablyis meantLafikd-parvataAdam's Peak).30

In Sanskritwritings,Adam'sPeakis referred o as Rohana. This name is not appliedto themountain n any Sinhaleseor Paliwork; "Rohana",however, is the nameof the ancientprinci-pality in South Ceylon, on the northern borderof which Adan's Peak is situated. Kalhana'schronicleof the kings of Kashmir,the Ra-atarangini,ives a fabulous accountof an expeditionto Lanikaby the mythical Meghavdhanawho was received with honour by Vibhilsana, heRdksasaking. In the course of thisnarrative,Adam'sPeakis referred o in the following words:"He, a mine of precious virtues (gutza-ratndkara)hen ascendedwith his forces that diadem ofthe ocean (ratndkara)Mount Rohana, which containsmines of manifoldprecious gems (ndnd-ratndkara). 1 Here, it will be noted, Rohana s calledthe diademof the oceanjust as Rdvana'sabode in the Lahikdvatdras referred o as samudra-malaya.alhana,therefore,appears to havetaken Ceylonto be the same as the Lankdof the Rdmayapa,nd Adam's Peak to be a mountainin Lanika, s Hieun Tsiang andVajrabodhihave done.

Rajagekhara, North Indianpoet and dramatistof the ninth century, agreeing with Vard-hamihiraand other Sanskritwriters,refers to Ceylonas Sithhala,and takes it to be an islanddifferentfrom Vdlmiki's Lanika.In his drama,the Bdlardmayaza, djasekhara as referred o

27 J. R. A. S., CeylonBranch,vol. XXIV., p. 88.28 Laeikdpura-samudra-malaya-fikhare.ahkkatdra-sutra dited by Bunyiu Nanjio (Kyoto, 1913), p. I.29 TheBookof Ser MarcoPolo, edited by Colonel Sir Henry Yule, London, i926, Vol. II, pp. 3 i6-320.30 EpigraphiaZeylanica, ol. III, pp. 3373 38.3' Kalhana'sRdjatarangini,ranslated by Sir Aurel Stein, Westminster, I900, vol. I., p. 78.

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Ceylon in more than one place and, wherever the reference s more than incidental,Rohanamountain is brought in as one of the most noteworthy features of the Island. In Act 3 of thatdrama,Rdjagekhara, y means of a poetic anachronism,has paid a compliment to the king ofCeylonof his day by makingthe Anurddhapuramonarch, the lord of the Siriihalas, o be pre-sent at Sita'ssvayarkvara,s one of the suitors. The femaledoor-keeper pratbdri), n her eulogyof the Sinhalesemonarch,states, among other things, that the ocean and the Rohanamountainare his two treasuries.3JIta'sconfidanterefersto the Sinhalesemonarchas "the SupremeLordof the Mountain of Jewels, Rohana".34

The reference o Sirhhala ndRohana n the tenthactof theBdlara-myayzas more interesting.In this act, Rdmna,fterthe slaying of Rdvana,proceeds to Ayodhydin the aerialchariot Pus-paka, accompaniedby SUta,Laksmana,VibhIsana,Sugrivaand others. After ascending to thesky from Lafikaand admiringthe view of the world from that position, the chariotis turnedin anotherdirection,when SItH xclaims:"Whatnow is this land which is likeunto anunbrokenexpanseof rainbows?"VibhIsanaexplains:"See in front of you the territoryof the Sirhhalas,which has the Ocean as the moat, which is adorned,as it were, with a beautifulcrestby meansof the Rohan. Mountain of which the ground is formed of preciousstones, where the waterof the Ocean, passing throughthe womb of oysters,is transformed o the condition of charm-ing jewelswhichareadornmentson the limbs of damselshaving the complexionof the shootsof the dirvdgrass. And more. People who produce the nectar of (sweet) speech, the RohanaMountain which produces gems and the Ocean which produces pearls these three are notfound together anywhereelse but in theIslandof the Sirhhalas". ItUhen interposes: - "Theholy sage Agastyaresideshere,it is said".ThereuponRdmaexplains o his beloved: - "This isthe hermitageof the holy sage on the table-land of the Lord of Gems (Rohanra).Moreover,thehermitagef Dharma s in front of you)".35 ThestatementshatAgastyahadanabodeonAdam'sPeak and the reference o a hermitageof Dharma are of great significance,andwill bedealt with furtherwhen we discuss the identity of the God of that Mountain.Rdjagekhara,nthe prologue to the Bdlardmadaya,ompareshimself to the Rohana Mountainin being a mineof gem-likevirtues.36

The Anargha-rdghava,Sanskrit drama based on the Rdmayana,written by Murdriwhoflourishednot later that the secondhalf of the ninth century,also refersto a shrine of Agastya

32 This is the only reference to Anuradhapura n Sanskritliterature. The printed edition of the BdlardmdyaenaBenares,I869), has "Anurodhapura".

33 Yasydmbudhiha Bhagavdna ca RohaeuddriPosiv-imau.Bdlardmdyaena,ct. III, v. 41.34 Rohana-mdinikka-girinoaramesaro.35 StIt / Akha~nd handala-koanda-mandala-padiravoadarounaesuddesoVibhisanah Pafyasyagrealadhi-parikha*mandalam hthaldnim.CitrottamsammanimayabhuvdohanendcalenaDurvdkdndacchavisuaturammandanamyad adhundm*Gdiresvambhohavati amitamratnatdm uktigarbhaihKimca/

janaf cavik-sudhd-sfifir ani-sutif a RohanahNdnyatraSirkhala-dvfpdnuktid-sfifiasagarabStit / Iha kila BhaavamAgatthi-mahest ivasatiRdmah Ida* hi BhagavatoRatnidhipater dhityakdydmframa-pada*Dharmiframa-padar unaragre.Bdlardmdyana, ct. XII, v. 48ff.36 Varnyam dguna-ratna-Rohana-girehimIbid., Act. I, v. x8.

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connectedwith the RohanaMountain n the Island of Ceylon.But, while Rdjagekharaeferstothe abode of Agastyaas located on a table-land(adhityakd) n the mountain,Murdri nformsus that the shrineof this celebratedSagewas on low-land (upatyakd) t the foot of the RohanaPeak.In the lastAct (theSeventh)of thisplay,Rdma,with Sitd,Laksmana,SugrivaandVibhisana,appearon the stage as returninghome to Ayodhyd n the aerialchariot, Puspaka.Afterhaving

ascended as high as the world of the Moon, the aerialchariotdescendsdown to continue thejourneykeeping the Earth in sight. Pointing southwards,RdmaaddressesSitHas follows:"There appearsto view the Sithhala sland,37a blue lotus arising from the Ocean, which isbeauteouswith the filamentof the Mountain of Precious Stones." SitHadds: "Whereroamsnoble Agastya, who (in complexion) is like unto a flower of the kdia grass (Saccharum pon-tareum).38Rdmarepliessmilingly:"Yes, Maithili,yes, the second shrineon the low-land of theRohanaMountain here, indeed, is that of the Sage who is the consort of Lopdmudra".39herest of Rdma'sspeech describes,in two elaboratestanzas, the feat performedby Agastya indrinking the waters of the Ocean, and the sunset over Ceylon which is referredto as "thegem-setthrone,called the Sithhala sland,of the UniversalEmperornamedSfigafra the EroticSentiment)",4ond do not concern us here.

The words "second shrine on the low-land of the RohanaMountain",etc. put into themouth of Rdmaby the poet suggests that there was another,and more important,shrine atthe place. The reference o a hermitage(adrama-pada)f Dharma(Yama) in the correspondingscene in Rdjagekhara'sdIaramayapaould justifyus in inferring that Murdrialso knew of theexistence, n his day,of a shrinededicated o thatdeity on or near Adam'sPeak in Ceylon. Thewords describingAgastya put into the mouth of Sitd appearto have a suggested meaning(dhvani).Agastya is called kdia-kusuma-sarikdiahhe who is comparable o the kdia flower".Kdafas personifiedas an attendantof Yama,o' and Agastya is one of the priests of Yama. Thefact that Rima's rejoinderis introduced with the stage direction, smitvd,"having smiled",would indicate that Rdmaunderstoodthe allusion in the words of Sitd, and that his wordswhich follow areso framedas to suggest the existenceof anothershrinewhich is not expresslymentioned. The commentatoralso informs us thatthere is anallusion in the words put into themouth of Sita; accordingto him, however, the suggestedmeaning s thatanotherwhite goosealso roams about, feeding itself at Adam's Peak.42Geese are not found in the locality of this37 Sim*hala-dvipammbhodhi-sambhitamdamutpalam

Madnikydcala-kifjalka-ramanuyamdiksyateAnarghardghava,irnayaSagarPress,Bombay, 937, p. 36I.38 SId / Jahimkdsa-kusuma-safkausogattha-hamsoarai( Yatrakdfa-kusuma-saikalsogastya-hams'as'arati)Anargharaghava,op. Cit., p. 36I. "The word hamshan this passage has been taken as meaning pre-eminent or noble". The passage canbe translatedas "whereroams the geese of Agastya with the colour of kasaflowers.But I am not awareof white swansbeing associatedwith Agastya.39 Rimab / (smitvd) Am Maithili dam. haiva Rohana-girerpatyakaydadviiiyam yaianat munerLopdmudrd-vallabhasya.Anarghardghava,p.cii., p. 362. Lopamudra is the wife of Agastva.40 .rmgdra-sdrvabhaumasyaaina-sim*hsaneimbala-dvipa-nimni.narghardghava,p.cit., p. 363.4 TasyamSimfapa-pdldfdsaahd_Kda-Kufddaya4UpdsateDharmarajammuiriiimantoirdmaydh

MahdbhAdraia,I, 8, 29.42 Anyo'pi IsveohatiuascaratikhAddatiibvanih.Anarghardghava,p.Ci4.,p. 36I.

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mountain;hence the meaning suggested by the commentator s not appropriate.Whethertheseinferencescan be drawnfrom the words in the passagequoted or not, the Bdlaramaya-apnd theAnarghardghava,akentogether, affordevidence to the belief which prevailedamong the learnedmen of North India in the ninth century that Adam's Peak was associated with the cults ofYama(Dharma) and Agastya.

It is as a source of precious stones that the mountain s mainlyconceived in the Rajiataratiginias well as in the Bdlardmayapa.hree verses eulogising the Rohana Mountain in this respectare found in Sanskritanthologies. We quote these verses here in translation, gnoring the in-direct allusionscontained therein by means of double entendre.

A verse of a poet named Prahldana is as follows: - "O Rohana Mountain which amongthe mountains will balancein the scale with thee, the fragments of the rocks of whom areadornmentsof kings".43The compositionof an anonymouspoet reads:"Is not the Oceantheabode of gems? Is not the earth steadfast?Is not the broadheaventhe bearerof the footstepsof the virtuous?Whatindeedis not high I But,0 Rohana, he forehead ornamentof mountains,for the reason of acceptingto thyself with forbearance he confident blows with hatchetsofarmiesof supplicants, hou artworthy of being worshipped by the threeworlds".44The state-ment that the sky also bearsthe footprintsof greatand virtuous menno doubt containsan allu-sion to the footprint on the Rohanamountain,but the stanzacontainsnothing to indicateitsauthor'sbelief as to whose footprintit was. A poet namedSithhappaiyya, therwiseunknown,has writtenthe following in the form of a farewelldialoguebetweenthe RohanaMountainandsome of its gems going to the wide world: "We go" "Blessingto thee". "O Rohanamountain,do not, even in a dream,troublethy mind with the thought that these, separated rom me intheirexistence,will somehow manageto maintain hemselves.Brother we arethy gems; if webecome known by thy name,for that reason,who are the eroticallyminded lords of men thatwill not bearus on their diadems?"4S

The earliest Arab writer who refersto the Footprint on this sacred Mountainas that ofAdam, the first parentof the human race accordingto Judaism, Christianityand Islam, wasSoleyman,the account of whose voyages was written in A. D. 85 . Soleymanrefers to themountainby the name of "Al-Rohoun",in which we can recognise"Rohania" f Rijasekharawho flourishedabout the same time. As the Sinhalesedid not refer to Adam's Peak by thatname, it is clear that the early Arab travellersadopted the name by which the mountain wasreferredto by the people of North India. Accordingto Ibn Batuta who visited Ceylonabout

43 Rohanicala iailesu kas iuldti kalayet lavaYasyapaanya-khandni mandana,* medini-bbrtdm.Suktimuktdvali, Baroda, 1938, p. I22; Subbisita-raIna-bhin1dgdra, NirnayasagarPress, Bombay, I91I, p. 225.

44 Ratndndmna kim dlayo alanidhih kim na srhira mediniKim na vyoma mahat padam sukrtindm kim*ndma naivonnatamhHabho Rohana kin luydcaka-camu-nibfaika-/aikdhati-Kpinti-svikaranenagotra-filaka irailokya-vandyobhavdnSuktimukavali, op. cit., p. I22; Subhdsia-rafna-bhbjndgdra,NirnayasagarPress, Bombay, I9II, p. 225.

4S Ydmas le fubbamasru Rohanagire ma/ah sr/hiti-pragyutVart/isyanta ime katha* ka/ham iti srvapnepi maivamh rhahdBhrdfas le manayovayaz*yadi bhavannama-prasiddhasa/abKe frzgdra-parjyavj n~rpa/ayomaulau na dhdsyantinabSfikiimuktivali, p. 99; Subb sitaratna-bbhnJ4dgara,. 225.

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the year I 340, it was theImamAbu-Abdl-Allahwho firsttaughtthe way to Serendib,and thusto the Footprint on Adam's Peak. This holy man, whose tomb Ibn Batuta s said to have vi-sited in Shiras,died in A. H. 33i, i. e. 942. A. D. The footstep of Adam is referred to in aGnostic work of the fourthcentury,but this does not localiseit in Ceylon.46 bn Batuta, n hiswell-known book of travel,47 as given an accountof the pilgrimagethat he undertookto thePeak. As evidence of the pilgrimagesundertakenby those of the Muslim faith to this holymountain,there is a shortfragmentary ecordin Arabiccharacters,by the side of the drawingrepresentingNigamikaMallaworshippingthe Footprint,in the cave known as Bhagavilena,towhich referencehasalreadybeenmade. Whatis still legibleof the record,whichis in charactersof the i zth or i 3thcentury,hasbeen translatedas "Muhammad,mayGod blesshim (the fatherof Man . ).48 Ma Huan,a ChineseMuslim of the fifteenthcentury,refers n the account ofhis travels to a lofty mountain in this islandreachingto the skies, on the top of which thereisthe impress of a man's foot.49 According to Ma Huan, this is the impressof the foot of theancestor of mankind,a holy man calledA-tan, otherwisePan-kou.

To my knowledge,there s no work of any antiquitywhichrefers o theFootprinton Adam'sPeak as that of God Siva. The Purdazameferred o in Skeen's Adam'sPeak(p. 295) as givingan account of Sivanoli-pidam, is obviously a work of recent origin. Though this purdrnasclaimed to have been writtenin Sanskrit, he namesquoted from it are in Tamil form, andnoactualextract rom the work has been given so as to enableone to judge its age. The availableevidence does not show that there was any Saiviteworship of the footprint on Adam's Peakbefore Rijasirhha who, duringthe last decade of the sixteenthcentury,handedover the con-trol of that shrine to Saivapriests. The word "Sivan-oli" ppears to have been based on thename of the mountainas given in the Ma,7imekalai"Samanoli" -and not a genuine, inde-pendent development. Ibn Batuta states that Arya Cakravarti, he king of Jaffna, sent withhim fouryogiswho were in the habit of visiting the foot-mark every year; with thesealso wentfour Brihmanasandten of the king'scompanions.so t is clearfrom this thatHinduswere in thehabit of going on pilgrimageto Adam'sPeak in the fourteenthcentury; but it does not neces-sarilyfollow thatthe objectof worship on the summitof the mountainwas associatedwith thegod Siva. The name"Svargdrohanam"Ascentto Heaven),by whichTamils of the Hindu faithrefer to this mountains,is reminiscent of the name "Rohana",by which Adam's Peak is re-ferred to in literature. It is thereforeprobablethat, in the fourteenthcentury, the Hindus ve-neratedAdam's Peakas the abode of Agastyaand Dharma,as Mount Rohanawas believedtohave been by Rijagekharan the ninth century.

MediaevalEuropeantravellers,Marco Polo and Marignoli,refer to Adam's Peakas one ofthe marvelsof this Island andgive quaintaccountsof it,s2naturallyaying moreemphasison theMuslimtraditions than on those of the Buddhists.Portuguesehistorians, Joao Ribeiros3and46 This account is summarisedfrom Tennent's Ceylon, vol. I, pp. 584-585 and vol. II, pp. 134-I 36.47 Ibn Batuta: Travelsn Asia andAfrica, translatedand selected by H. A. R. Gibb, London, I929, pp. 25 8-26o.48 Ceylonournalof Science, ectionG, vol. II, p. 2 I.49 J. R.A.S., CeylonBranch,vol. XXIV, p. ioi.so Ibn Batuta, op.cii., p. 255.si Skeen, Adam'sPeak, op.cii., p. 35.S2 TheBookof Ser MarcoPolo, translatedand edited by Sir Henry Yule, vol. II, pp. 3X6-322.53 TheHistoricTragedyf theIslandof Ceilaoof CaptainJoao Ribeiro, translatedby Sir PaulPeiris,ThirdEdition, pp. 80-82.

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Ferna6 de Queyroz54 ave given accountsof Adam's Peak. As the Portugueseheld the districtsat the foot of the Peak to the south for a considerablenumber of years, t is not impossiblethatsome of them did actuallyclimb the mountain. Donald Ferguson, however, has expressedhisopinion that the first Europeanto describe Adam's Peak from personalobservationwas theGerman,Daniel Pathey,who climbed the mountain n i684 and has included a brief account ofit in his book.SsPathey served as a soldierin the Dutch East India Company n Ceylon, butthe Dutch, during the greater part of their rule of the maritimeprovinces, applied the nameAdamsbergto a hill in the SouthernProvincewhich, in altitude, n no way compareswith therealAdam's Peak.

Less than two months after the cession of the Kandyan Kingdom to the British in i8I5,LieutenantMalcolmascendedAdam's Peak and,to the astonishmentof the pilgrimsassembledon the summitto paytheir devotion to the Footprint,fired threevolleys as a reminder o themthat a British armedpartyhad reached he summit.56 Most books writtenabout Ceylonduringthe earlierperiodof Britishruleover the Island contain a descriptionof thePeak,or an accountof a visit paid to it.S7The fascinationof this Mountainto those who admirethe grandeurandsublimity of Nature continues to be as great as ever, and pilgrims of three differentfaiths,counting millions of adherents,continue to ascend the mountain, year afteryear, during theseasonthat is most suitable or the purpose.The conquestsof modernsciencehavebeenpressedinto service to make the Peak more impressiveto the pilgrim,for the way to the summithasbeen lit by electricity rom power harnessedat a spot not very far from the base of the moun-tain,in gratitude o the god, it is said,for his part n the removal of the obstacleswhichdelayedthe completionof the engineeringworks that supply power not only to light the Peakbut alsothe Cityof Colombo.

II. SAMAN, THE GOD OF ADAM'S PEAK IS THE SAME AS YAMAIn the numerousreferences o Adam's Peakin historicalandliteraryworks of diverse origin

that we havebrieflypassed n review, otherthanthose from Sanskrit ources, t is the Footprinton its summit,whetherit be veneratedas that of the Buddha or of Adam,that has been consi-dered as conferringdistinctionupon the mountain.But the name by which the mountainisreferred o in the earliestaccount of it in the Mahdvaisa s Sumanakfta,and the Commentaryof that chroniclecategorically tatesthat the name was due to the reason of the Peak being theabode of a Devardja king of gods) calledSumana.58 his god, as we have seen, figuresin theaccountof the firstvisit of the Buddhato Ceylon, where the Mahdvaksatself refersto him as

54 TheTemporalndSpiritualConquest f Ceylonof FatherFerna6 de Queyroz, translated by Father S. G. Perera. ColomboI930, vol. I, pp. 37-42.ss J. R.A. S. CeylonBranch,vol. XXII, p. 197, et.seq. With regard to Mulgirigala being called Adam's Peak, it is inter-esting to note that the name of this rock as appearing in a twelfth century inscription is Muhundgiri (Skt. Sam-udragiri). Adam's Peak, as we have seen, has been identified with Lanka-parvatawhich is in some places referred toas Samudra-malaya.

s6 Skeen, Adam's Peak, pp. 337-340.57 See, for instance, An Accountof theInteriorof Ceylon, tc, by John Davy, London, i821, pp. 337-349.58 Mahavam#sa,hap. I, v. 77 and Va*satthappakdsini, .T. S. Edition, p. I I4.

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Mahdsumana f the Sumanakiitamountain." The epithetdevinda= Skt.devendra,he chief ofgods) is applied to him there, suggesting that he was not an obscuregodling of purelylocalsignificance.According to the Samantakzita-vannand,t was at the special nvitation of this godthat the Buddha hallowedthe mountainby leaving the impressionof his foot thereon.60

We have also referredabove to the statement n the chroniclethatDevapatirdja,n the thirt-eenth century,installed an image of God Sumanaon the summit of the Peak. A small shrinededicatedto that deity still exists on the summit,on a somewhat lower level than that of thesacred Footprint. The Sinhalese Buddhist pilgrims to Adam's Peak, while considering theFootprintas the main object of their devotion, extend a measureof adorationto the divinityalso. Every one of them makesit a point to requestthe god to sharein the merit that he hasearnedby climbing the Peak and worshippingthe Buddharepresentedby his Footprint, foraccording o Buddhistbelief,the powerof the gods to do good is enhancedby suchpartakingofthe meritearnedby humanbeings.

Less than nine miles in a direct line from the foot of the Peak, and in the vicinity of themodern town namedRatnapura, t a placecalledSabaragamu,here hasbeen, fromtimeimme-morial,a shrinededicated o the god Sumanaor Saman.This shrinewas the recipientof royalbounty in the fifteenthcentury, but, in the next century, t was razed to the ground by the Por-tuguesewho were in occupationof the areafor some decades.Afterthe recoveryof the districtby the Sinhalesekingsof Kandy,anew shrine o Samanwas builtby Rdjasithha1 (i635-i687),not exactlyon the site of the ancientshrine,but where the Portuguesefort stood, which itselfwas built on the grounds of the ancientBuddhistvihdra.This shrine,the SamanDEvdleof Sa-baragamuas it is called,still exists,possessingconsiderable states,attractingmanydevotees toit, and annuallycelebratinga festival, called the Perahira, n accordancewith ancientcustomand ritual.A shrine dedicated o god Samanalso exists today at Alutnuvaraby the side of theMahiyafiganaDdgaba which, accordingto the Mfahdvatisa,as the first sthpato be built inC(eylon,during the very lifetime of the Master,on the initiativeof god Saman.Thus, at twoof the sixteen most venerated shrinesof the SinhaleseBuddhists,Samanis associated n theworshipwith the Buddha.Therearealso, at a number of less importantreligiouscentres n theIsland, shrines dedicated o tliis deity and,in manyBuddhisttemples,the imageof Saman s tobe found togetherwith the other threegods who areconsidered o be the guardiansof theIs-land. In the HatksaSandesa, . i98, Saman,among other gods, is invoked to shower blessingson thereigningmonarch, ardkramabdhuI (1410-1467). Alagiyavanna,owards he close ofthe sixteenthcentury, wrote the Sinhalesepoem Savul-sandisan the form of a message sentthrough a cock to the god Saman at Sabaragamu, equesting the deity to protect and grantvictory to the poet's patron, Rdjasithha.

The gods SumanaandUppalavanna igurein the storiesin which have been embodied theearliestrace memories of the Sinhalese.Uppalavannaplays an important part in what werebelieved to have been the events leading to the Sinhaleseestablishinga home in thisIsland.Sumana s credited with the establishmentof the most ancientsanctuaryof the national faith.Throughouta period of over two thousand years,in spite of the vicissitudes of history, both

59 Mahivapksa, chap.I, v.- 33.60 Samantakfita-vannani,dited by Bhadanta W. Sri Siddhdrtha Dhammdnandaand Bhadanta M. Siri Idnissara Thera,Colombo, 1910, vv. 7i8ff.

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these gods have succeededin maintaininga place in the religious consciousness of the vastmajorityof the Sinhalesepeople. It is, therefore,reasonable o assumethat Sumanaand Uppa-lavannawere among the gods worshippedby the ancientSinhalesewhen they, some five cen-turies before the Christianera, came from North India and colonised thisIsland, and that thelegends narratedabout them in the Mahdvarhsaave come into being as a consequenceof thedesire to reconcile the worship of these divinities with the tenets of Buddhism, after theyadoptedthat faith in the thirdcenturyB. C. That this is so in the case of Uppalavannahas beendemonstratedby me in tracinghis evolution from theIndo-Aryangod Varuna.61 he Sinhaleseversion of theJdtaka,written in the fourteenth century,contains reliableevidence to provethat Uppalavanna's olleague, Sumana, races his origin from a god held in equal venerationwith Varuna n North India at the time the originalSinhalesesettledin Ceylon.In the Sinhaleseversion of the BhiridattaJataka,we come acrossthe following passage,62in which the king of gods, Sumana, s included among a list of divinities: Dhrtargstra amdivyarajuruvJoa, Varma namdivyarayuruv6oa, Kuvera amdivyarajluruvoa, Somanamdivyarajjuruvja, Sumana amdivya ajjuruvj a,Candra ivya-putrayja, Sfrya divya-putrayjayanamesiyaludivya ajadaruviThe divine king named'Dhrtardstra,he divine king named Varuna, hedivine king namedKuvera,the divine king namedSoma, the divine king named Sumana, hedivinityCandra he divinity Sirya, -all these aforesaidkings of gods ...)

The Pali verse, of which the above is a translation,reads as follows:DbdtdVidhdjtd arunoKuveroSomoYamoCandimddpiSurryo63

When the Sinhalesepassage s comparedwith its Palioriginal,it will be noticedthatthe phraseSumananamdivya-rajjuruvo,oming between Soma ... and Candra ..., stands for Yama inPali. It therefore ollows that, to the author of the Sinhalese dtaka,god Sumanawas the sameas Yama.

This conclusion, of course, rests on the assumptionthat the reading Sumanan the para-graph quoted above, found in printededitions of thePansiyapanasdtaka, s not due to a scribalerror, and has been preservedin the same form as the fourteenth-centuryauthor wrote it.Hence, some referenceto manuscriptsbecomes necessary.Of the eight manuscriptsof thePansiyapanasdtaka,examined n this connection,three containthe reading Sumanaust as it isfound in the printed editions. One has the slightly differentreadingSamanawhich can easilybe explainedas due to an inadvertentomission on the part of the scribeto attachthe vowelsign to the firstsyllable.Suchlapsesareextremely requent n Sinhalesemanuscripts.One ma-nuscripthas the reading Sakha n place of Sumana,wo ?athka and the other Sdma. Thus,among the manuscripts hat have been examined, the majority supportthe readingSumana fthe printededitions.

This does not, however, necessarilyestablish that the fourteenth century author of thePans/yapanasdtaka did actually adopt Sumanaas the equivalentof Yama n the Pali stanzaquotedabove. Of the eight namesof gods contained n the stanza, hree are given in the Sinha-

6 Shrine of Upulvan at Devundara, A. S.C. Memoirs, vol. VI, Colombo, 1953, pp. 19-5 9.62 PanstyapanasJitaka, printed at the Jindlarikdra Press, Colombo, i929, p. 1499.63 Jdtaka,edited by V. Fausboll, vol. VI, p. 20i.

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lese translation n the sameform as they occur in the Pali. Two names,Candra nd Sfirrya rethe Sanskritoriginalsof the Pali forms. In placeof the namesDhdtdand Vidhdtd,which standatthe headof the list of gods, theprintededitions of thePansiyapanasJdtakaaveDbrtar4.stra.nits place, some manuscriptshave the readingsDdtru and Drta which appear o be corruptionsof Dhdtr, the Sanskritequivalent of DhaJd.The readingDbrtarda.traf the printededitionsthus appears o be due to a false restorationby a scribewho has taken the corruptionsof thename Dbdtras indicating the well-known god Dhrtardstra,he first of the four MahdrdjasfPali Buddhism.Similarly,t can be arguedthata corruptionof the form Yama ould have beenamendedby a scribeto resultin the name of a god well known to him. For this argument, t isalso significantthat nowhere else in the Pansiyapanasdtakaor any other work of Sinhaleseliteraturehas Sumana een given as an equivalentof Yama.Against this, it may be arguedthatthe Pansiyapanasdtakais not from the hand of one writer,and the identity of SumanawithYamamaynot have been known to all of these writers;some, even if they knew it, might nothave desired to emphasise he fact. The manuscriptevidencetakenalone, consequently, s notdecisive in establishingwhether the author of the Pans~yapanasdtakaactuallyrendered Yamainto Sinhaleseas Sumana,his position being equallytenable with the opposite. The identifica-tion of Sumanawith Yama, or which the printededition of the Pansiyapanasdtakaand nu-merousmanuscriptsof that text affordevidence,has thus to be supportedby an investigationinto the names, characteristics,conography and other aspects of the god Sumana Saman)comparedwith those of Yama. And we now proceedon this investigation.Even if it be granted that the author of the Pansoyapanasdtakadid in fact renderYamabySumana,t may be questioned whether his opinion on a matterrelatingto the identity of anancientIndiangod is authoritative.The manner n which he has dealtwith the firsttwo namesin the Pali stanzaquoted above justifiesus in answering his question in the affirmative.What-ever the nature of the variantforms in differentmanuscriptsand the printededitions, they allagreein giving one namein place of Dhdt and Vidhdtd, he agent gods of Vedic texts64whoin later Sanskritwritings have been identified with Brahmdor Fate.65 In the Rdmayava, ookVI I, Cantozo, V. 2I, DhdtdandVidhit have beenidentifiedwithYama, . e. Fate.66 n treatingthe two gods as one, our authorhad precedents;he may thereforebe considered as one whowas well-informedwith regard to matterspertainingto ancientIndiangods, and his opinionabout the identity of Yamawith Sumana, f he actuallydid hold it, is worthy of credence.There is a very strong argument n favour of the view that the authorof the PansiyapanasJdtakawas responsible or the reading Sumanaoundin some of the manuscripts. n the preced-ing chapter, we have referred to the statementof Rijagekhara hat a hermitage of Agastyaexisted on RohanaMountain (Adam'sPeak). Agastya is the foremostamong the seven priests(rtvdas)of Yama as Dharmardja.67f the god having his abode on Adam'sPeak is the sameasYama, it is quite naturalfor the latter'schief priest, too, to have an abode on that mountain.As we have seen, Rdjasekharaurthermorerefers to a hermitage of Dharma in his description64 A. A. Macdonell, VedicMythology, . 115.6s Hopkins, Epic Mythology,p. i89 and 74.66 Yo Vidhait ca Dhd;t casukrteduskrte athi

Trailokyamu valeyasya a katha,*nuhanisyate67 Hopkins, Epic Mythology, . I i6.25


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of the RohanaMountain.At the time of Rdjasekhara,he identityof Dharmawith Yamawasuniversallyaccepted.NWithegardto the appropriateness f the abode of a god being referredto as a hermitage(aramapada),we may quote the following remarksof Hopkins on the usagein Sanskritepics: "So when Bhima s carriedaloft and visits mountainpeaks anddevatayatanas,these are like the /dpasayatanas f the sameaccount".68Now, it would indeed be a strangecoin-cidenceif errors on the part of scribesgave rise to a variantreadingSumanaor Yama,whenthe latter god is associated in Sanskritwritings with the Mountain on which Sumana s re-ported to have his abode. It would be an equally strange coincidence,if Sumanahould be acorruption of Yama,that its Sinhaleseform Saman s the exact phonetical equivalent of asynonymof Yama n Sanskrit.

The name Sumana, f a god correspondingto the deity of Adam's Peak, is not found inSanskritand Pali writings. Neither Sumana, occurringin the list of Yaksasin the AtdnatiyaSutta,69 or the deity of that name mentionedin the Lalitavistara s one of the Bodhi-vrksa-devatas,canbe held as identicalwith the deity of Adam'sPeak. Sumanaof Adam'sPeak is men-tioned in the historicalwritings of Ceylon, for the first time, in theMahdvaisa of aboutthe fifthcentury.The probability,therefore,is that the Pali form Sumanas a renderingfrom the Sin-halese of that period. In Sinhalese,the god's name is Samanwhich, in the fourth or fifth cen-tury, would have been Samana, or in the Sinhaleseof that period, there were no unvocalisedconsonants. Now, we know that one of the names of Yama is Samana,meaning"Settler"or"Destroyer".As a palatalor cerebral ibilant schanged nto the dentalin Sinhalese,he SanskritSamanawould have been pronounced Samana y the people of Ceylon in the early centuriesofthe Christian ra. The dropping of the finalvowel hasresulted n the form Saman,which is nowin commonuse. In the Sinhalese anguage of the fourthor fifthcentury,the form Samanwouldhave represented he Sanskrit and Pali Sumana lso by the working of the very wide-spreadphonetical process of vowel-assimilation.The writers of the chronicles and commentaries,when they had to render the Sinhalesename Samananto Pali, would have naturallyadoptedthe form Sumana,or this was a nameof frequentoccurrence n the classical anguage,whereasSamana s the name of a god might not have been known to them.We cannot also be certain that the form Sumanas due to the author of the Pali chronicle.Even if he adopted the form Samana, cribes of a latergeneration,unawareof a name Samanaand familiarwith the equation Sumana Saman,could have been responsible or the Palinameof this god of Adam'sPeakfound in manuscripts.Even if we grantthat Mahdndma nd otherPali writers did in fact use the form Sumana,hat need not be an argumentestablishingthatthese writers were not aware of the identity of the god of Adam's Peak with Yama.They wereconcerned with finding an equivalent in Pali for the old Sinhalesename of the god, and notwith establishinghis identity,and they might have considered hat Sumanawas a nameof Yama.Thus, the nameby which the average Sinhaleseman refers to the god of Adam'sPeak affordsevidence for the identificationof that deitywith Yama,which the author of the Sinhalese dtakahas made.

The mountain on which god Saman Yama)has his abode is often referred o in Pali wri-tings of Ceylon as Samantakita.This form of the name is not found in the earlierpartof the

68 Hopkins. Epic Mythology,p. ii6.69 Digha Nikdya, (P. T. S. Edition), vol. III, p. 205 .

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chronicle the Mahdvatzsaroper);but, in its latercontinuation, t has definitelybeenpreferredto "Sumanakfita".7os alreadystated,a Pali poem of the eleventh century, which dealswiththe legendsrelatingto the sacredFootprint,is calledSamantakita-vanand.n the TamilpoemAIaiyimekalai,he sacredmountain s referred o as "Samantamn"s well as "Samanoli", he latterbeing equivalent to Sinhalese"Samanola"i. e. Sumana-or Samana-kita). If we accept thedategenerallyascribed o the Mavzimekalai,he nameSamantaor Samantakitamusthave beenprevalentas earlyas the sixth or seventhcentury.The mountainmust have been so designatedbecause"Samanta"was recognisedas an alternative orm of the nameof the god who had hisabode thereon. It is difficultto conceive of "Samanta"as an alternative orm of "Sumana",unlessit be on the analogyof Skt. Samanta-bhadraanepithetof Buddha)assumingthe form of"Saman-baduru"n Sinhalese.A betterexplanationof "Samanta" s an alternativename of thisgod can be furnished f the Sinhalese orm of that name, "Saman", s derived from Skt. "Sa-mana"andnot "Sumana".

"Samana" s derived from the root samwith the additionof the agentive suffix-ana,andmeans "settler"or "destroyer".The same meaningcan be conveyed by the addition of thesuffix-r.7 the resultingform being "Samitr".Such a form, so far asI know, hasnot been usedin Sanskrit iteratureas a name of Yama, but a legend in the Mahdbhdrataells us that, on acertainoccasion,that deity functioned as the cook i. e. Samitr,of the gods.72 The legend, mostprobably,hasarisenbecauseof thegod havingbeenknownas Samitr,a wordwhichalsomeans"cook", literally,"preparer","dresser". In its stem form, or in the nominativesingular,theword would havebecomeSamata n old Sinhalese,dueto thephoneticprocessof vowel-assimi-lation. This form is identicalwith the old Sinhaleseequivalentof Skt. and PNli"Samanta" nd,in renderingthe nameinto Pali, "Samata" ould have been representedby "Samanta".Arguing from the factthatthe mountain s calledSamantakiita,nd on considerationsbasedon iconographyI have elsewheresuggested that the god having his abode on Adam's Peakis the sameas the MahdydnaBodhisattvaSamanta-bhadra.his suggestionhas now to be givenup, as the identity of Samanwith Yama rests on more securegrounds. But the origin of theMahlydnaBodhisattva Samanta-bhadra as not been satisfactorilyexplained. His evolutionfrom Yamamay not be beyond the bounds of possibility.Accordingto the beliefsof northernBuddhists,Yamawill be rebornasSamanta-rdja,henhe succeeds n expiating isown sinS.73The Sabaragamu amanDdvdleinscriptionof the 39th yearof PardkramabdhuI (I4I0 to1467), of which the originalis no longer extant,74 efersto the god by the name of Laksmana,both in the opening Sanskritstanzaandin the body of the recordwhich is in Sinhalese.Laks-mana,it is hardlynecessaryto say, is the youngerbrother of Rima, the hero of the Rdmdayaa.The Jinakdlamdlini,historicalwork in Pali written in Siamduringthe sixteenthcentury,hasalso included a god namedLakkhanaLaksmana)among the deitieswho protectCeylon.7s70 Cflavadisa, chap. 6o, v. 64, chap. 6i, V. 70, chap. 68, v. 6, chap.8o, v. 24, chap. 85, v. ii8, chap. 86, VV. 9, 20 and z8,chap. 88, v. 48, chap. 92, V. 17, chap. 93,v. I2, chap. 97, VV. I7, i8 and 3I, chap. 98, v. 84 andchap. ioo, vv. 8i andzzi.71 Whitney, SanskritGrammar.? I I 5? g and i i 8z.72 Pura vai Naimvisdranye evib)atram updsateTatra Vaivasvato rdjan Sdmitram akarot tadd. Mlahabhdrata,op. cit. I, I 89, I.73 Alice Getty, Gods of Northern Buddhvism, . 136.74 CeylonAntiquary and Literary Register, vol. II, p. 36-46. The text published is from a copy written on palm leaves. The

style of the documents supports its claimto be a copy of a fifteenth centurystone inscription.75 Bulletin de l'Ecole Franjaise d'Extrime-Orient, XXV, p. 46.

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It is not difficultto explainhow this name originated.The god Saman s referred o as anardentworshipperof the Footprintof the Buddhaon Adam's Peak.76The word for footprintin Sinhalese s pada-lasawhich, it is possible,was often pronouncedin the abbreviated orm oflasa or las (P. Idiichana). s the god of the (Foot)-Print,Samanwould have been referred o asLas-Saman,a name which the Brahminswho were placedin chargeof the shrinein the reignof PardkramabdhuI musthave takenas identicalwith the nameof Rdma'sbrother,with whichthey were familiar.The prevalence n Ceylonof a cult of Vibhilsana,who befriendedRdmaandLaksmanaaccordingto the story of the Rdmayapa,must have lent colour to this identificationof the Brahmins.

But the SamanDevdle inscription,the only documentin which the god of Adam'sPeak iscalled Laksmania, oes not contain any other evidenceto establish hat, in the fifteenthcentury,the deity was held to be the same as the brotherof Rdma.No exploit of Laksmanaof theRdmaiyapaas been creditedto the god to whom the name of this hero has been given. If thetwo were held to be identical,it is difficultto explainwhy, in the eulogies of the god, no re-ferenceis madeto his partin the vanquishingof Rdvana.In the Sdlalihini-sandesa,ibhisana,the god worshippedatKdlaniya,s referred o in termswhich lay emphasison the parthe playedin the story of Rdma. The poet Alagiyavanna,on the other hand, in the course of his fulsomepraiseof the god Saman n the Silvul-asna, poem to which referencehas alreadybeen made,does not stateanythingto indicatethathe was the sameas the brotherof Rdma.At Alutnuvara,one of the principalcentresof the Samancult, the priestsdo not relate any story connectingtheirdeitywith the storyof the Ramayanp.t seemslikely,therefore, hatthe name"Laksman2a"is due to a desireof the priestsof the fifteenthcenturyto refer to the deity by a namein sono-rous Sanskrit, n placeof one smackingof the vulgar speechwhich then, as now, would havebeen considerednot quite appropriate o a powerful divinity, in an impressiveofficial docu-ment.

III. SAMIDDHI SUMANA AND MAHAKALA:ASPECTS OF SAMAN OR YAMA

Of god Sumanaand Adam'sPeak, Uphamhas recordedthe following: "SamanDewa-rajais the king of the inferiordeitiesof Koombandu77 he is describedas having attendedthe prea-ching of Buddhaat his first arrivalat Mayhanganny78ndin consequencerenouncedhis wicked-ness. He is now declaredto be living with his deities on the top of SamanaGalle9 (Adam'sPeak) with power over Ceylon. In this mount (which is also a Mienmo) grows the tree calledKirri-palol8oalso Kinni-nagaand Raja-lenai.81he Buddha seat of power, the minni halange,82was buriedbelow this tree under the chargeof Saman-dewa-raja,or the purposeof offeringsupplication hereon; that the nagas,snakes,might obtainblessedness,that is, that they might

76 See, for example, SdlalihiniSanrdsa, dited by Bhadanta DharmdrdmaNdyaka Thera (Kelaniya, I925), v. 25.77 P. Kumbhanda78 Mahiyahgana79 Samanala-gala8o Kiri-palu8I P. Rdjjyalana82 Mifi-palahga; P. matui-pallahka.

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by virtue of the doctrine be converted to the faith of the Buddhaand the same is the stony seatbelow the said tree in the island Minni-nagaDewainne,83whereuponthe Buddha sat down,leaning againstthe said tree and communicated he feelings (virtues) of his body. Samandewais delineatedas standingon the minni-phalange,r seat of power, on which the Buddhaalwayssits.84

This quaintaccountproves thatthe Buddhists,from whom Uphamderived his informationabout god Saman in the third decade of the nineteenth century, believed that the god ofAdam's Peakwas identical with the deity named SamiddhiSumanawho figures in the Mahd-vat/saaccount of the Buddha'ssecond visit to Ceylon.This chronicle nforms us that SamiddhiSumanahad his abode on a rajay-atana85ree outside the gates of theJetavana-vihara t Srdvasti,and held the tree over the head of the Buddha n the mannerof an umbrellawhen the Enligh-tened One camemiraculously o NMgadipathemodernJaffnaPeninsula), n order to preventathreatenedwarbetweentwo factions of Ndgas,the casusbell being a gem-setthrone. Afterthewarringfactions had been reconciled,the rajay-atanareewas establishedat the placewhere theBuddhamet the Ndga hosts, and the gem-set throne (P. mayi-pallafika,inhalesemkil-palariga)wasplacedunder the tree as an objectof worship.86 t is not recordedwhetherSamiddhiSumanastayedin NMgadipa,r accompanied he Buddha back to India.That there was no ancientbe-lief to the effect of SamiddhiSumanaremainingwith his raj/ayatanaree in Ceylonis indicatedby a reference n the Dhammapadat.thakathdo a deitynamedSumana,who hadhis abode at thegate-house of the Jetavana-vihara, nd is said to have barred the entry of a Yakkhini to thesacredprecincts.87

In the Mahdvat*satself, thereis nothing to establishthe identityof SamiddhiSumanawithSumanaof the Srlpddamountain. ;Thelatter, it is said, attainedto the first fruit of spiritualdevelopmenton the occasionof the Buddha's irst visit to Ceylon.But it is not impossibleforthe samegod to be localisedin differentplaces, and ultimately o evolve as two distinct deities.Varuna,for instance,was believed to have his abode on the Asta mountain,as well as in thesubmarineworld.

"Samiddhi" Skt.samrddhi),he epithet prefixedto the name of the deity who is said tohave accompanied he Buddha to Ndgadipa,means "wealth","riches" or "prosperity".Andif the equationof Sumanawith Samana . e. Yama,is appliedto the name,it would meanYamaof Riches, Wealth, or Prosperity.If there is evidence for an aspectof Yamaansweringto thisdescription,that would be a further confirmationof the view of the author of the SinhaleseJdtakathat Sumana s no other than Yama. It is, I think, legitimate o infer that the stories withregardto a god residing at the gate of the Jetavana-vihdran Buddha's time originatedfromthe circumstance hat a deity of a similarnature was installed in effigy at the entranceto mo-nasteries n India,and also perhaps n Ceylon. That such was actually he case is proved by thefollowing statementof the ChinesepilgrimI-Tsing: "Thereis likewise in greatmonasteries nIndia, at the side of a pillarin the kitchen or before the porch, a figure of a deity carved in83 Alini-Ndga-divayina= P. Mani-Ndga-dipa.84 Edward Upham, The History andDoctrineof Buddhism, ondon, I829, p. 5 .85 Skt. rjiddana,Sinhalese,kiripalu,Buckamania atifolia.86 Mahdvatsa,chap. I, VV. 44-70.87 Dvdrakoihake adhivalhi Sumano ndma devo. P. T. S. Edition, vol. I, p. 4I.

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wood, two or threefeet high, holding a golden bag and seatedon a smallchair with one foothangingdown towardsthe ground. Being alwayswiped with oil, its countenance s blackened,and the deity is called Mahikdlaor the great black deity."88

We may safely disregardthe Chinese pilgrim's theory with regardto the origin of thisdeity'sname,as due to edifyingstories narrated o the faithfulby the monks; but the existenceof such a story itself indicatesthat Mahdkila nstalledat the entrance,or in the kitchen,of an-cient Buddhist monasteries n India was not Siva who, in his terribleaspect,was known asMahlklla, in spite of I-Tsing's statementto that effect. The descriptionof the deity's figureasgiven by the Chinesepilgrimdoes not at all correspondto any known representation f Siva,or of those ferocious-lookingDharmapdlasProtectorsof the Faith)of TibetanandMongolianBuddhismwho have Saivite traitslike holding a trident in one of their hands. The NepaleseMahikdla,who holds a mongoose underhis arm, does not also resembleSiva of thatdesigna-tion. It has been suggestedthat this BuddhistMahlkdlawith the bag of gold is no other thanKuvera,89 ut how the lattergod could have been entitledto the epithet of Mahdkdla as notbeen explained.

For the purposeof determining he identityof this god Mahakalawho, like SamiddhiSu-mana,was installedat the entrance o ancientBuddhistmonasteriesn India,we must takeintoconsideration he essentialelementof his name. The first constituentof the compound, Mahd,is often found prefixed o propernames, includingthose of gods, in a purelypleonasticmanner,The god of Adam'sPeak,for instance,has been referred o as Mahdsumanan the Mabdvatksa,chap.I, v. 33, whereasthe samedeity is referred o as Sumana n v. 77 of the samechapter,aswell as in the commentaryof the chronicled Visnu is often referredto as Mahdvisnuby theSinhalesetoday. In the Atharvaveda, III, 4, 5, Yama is called Mahdyama.Now, it is well-known that, in the post-VedicSanskrit iterature,Yama has the name of Kdla,being identifiedwith personifiedTime as destroyers, "Kdla"being synonymouswith "Yama","Mahdkdla"would be the same as "Mahdyama". he fact that the nameof a god consideredby a Sinhalesewriter of the fourteenth century to be the same as Yama has an epithet meaning "Wealth","Riches" or "Prosperity"prefixedto it, supportsthis identificationwith Yama of the god,bearinga bag of gold, named Mahdkdla.As a possessorof greatwealth,Yamahas beennamedin companywith Kuvera,Sakraand Varuna.92 aysthe MahdbhdrataII, 45, 34): "Thatwealthwhich was with Yudhisthirawas not seen of the king of gods (Sakra),nor of Yama,nor ofVaruna,nor of the Lord of Guhyakas Kuvera)."93Kdlain post Vedic literature s conceivedas the greatdestroyer;but, in the well-knownhymnsto Kdla(Time) in the AtharvavedaXIX,53 and 54), it is the productiveaspectthat has been emphasised.The god MIahdkdlaith thebag of gold and SamiddhiSumana,probably,are both due to the identificationof Yamawiththis beneficentaspectof Time.

The fact that Mahdkdlawas often installed n the kitchenof Buddhistmonasteries upports88 I-Tsing. A Record f iheBuddhistReligion,ranslatedby J. Takakusu,Oxford, I896, p. 38.89 Alice Getty, Godsof NorthernBuddhism,Oxford, I914, pp. I43-4.90 Va*satthappakdsini, . T. S. Edition, vol. I, p. II 4.91 E. W. Hopkins, Epic Mythology, . 107.92 RdmJyana,Book VII, chap. 9z, v. 17.93 Aarsd irir DevardjasyaYamasyaVaruezasyadGuhyakidhipaterdpiyJfri rdjanYudhiisthire.

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Fig. 2Bas-relief representation of personage holding a da~nda; n a wing-stone flanking the flight

of steps at entrance to Lankatilaka, Polonnaruva.

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his identificationwith Yama, for among Indian gods, Yama was the only one who has hadexperience n the culinaryart. We have alreadyreferred o his functioningas cook of the godson a certainoccasion. Tastein food appears o have been a blessingto be obtainedfromYama,for this, togetherwith eminence n virtue,were the boons grantedby thatdeityto King Nala.94In the Sabhdof Yama,whereinhe revels with the Pitrs,thereis everythingdesirable,not exclu-ding apsarases, nd the poet particularlymentions that the entourageof the divine King ofVirtue and Justice(Dharmardja)s provided with all good things "to lick and chew" whicharetasty as well as abundant.gs he greatthinkersof ancient ndia had obviously seen the con-nection between food and virtue, and realised hat the latter cannot thrive where stomachs areempty.

I-Tsing tells us how efficient a catererMahdkdlaYama) proved himselfon one occasion,when five hundredmonks came without notice to a certainmonasteryjust before meal-time.The abbot was distracted,but an old womanwho was betterawareof the capabilitiesof Mahd-kala appealed to that deity with the necessaryamount of faith, and cooked food adequateenough to entertainthe guests in a lavish mannerappearedsuddenly.There being thus evi-dence for an aspect of Yama as giver of wealth, the identity of Sumana he BounteouswithSumanaof Sripdda, elievedin bytheBuddhistsof Ceylon early n the nineteenthcentury,givesfurthersupport to the view recorded n the SinhaleseJdtakahat Sumana s no other thanYama.In connectionwith SamiddhiSumanabeing associatedwith a tree,it is relevantto mentionthat the .?gvedaX, I3 5, I) mentions a tree beside which Yama drinkswith the gods. In theAtharvavedaV. 4, 3) it is said that a fig-tree (Aftattha, FicuesReligiosa)exists in the thirdheaven, the abode of Yama.96This is the same tree which is held sacredby the followers ofthe Buddhain Ceylon; Buddhaand Yamaare both called"Dharmardja". nent this evidencefor a Yama(Sumana) of Riches, we may also mention that Yima,97he counterpartof Yamain Iranianmythology, was believed to have been the ruler of men in a golden age when everyone was prosperousand contented.

At the portals to ancientreligious edifices n Ceylon, too, there have beenfound representa-tions of Yama,possiblypersonifyingTime. At the entrance o the Lafikdtilakan Polonnaruva,the loftiest creation of the Sinhalese architects of old, the outer face of the carvedbalustradeflanking the flight of steps on the left, containsthe bas-reliefrepresentation f a personageofnoble-looking countenance raspinga rod(datida)n both hands (Fig.2). The figure leans on thepilasteron which rests the foot of the makarawhich is the principalfeature of the sculpturalornamentation f the balustrade.On the head is an elaboratepeakedmakta, andon the variouspartsof the body areornamentsof diverse sorts. The garmentwhich drapesthe lower part ofthe body evidently depicts the height of fashion of those days, and in general, the figure,whichis in the tribhahgaose, is full of grace,poise, dignity andmajesty,andcanbe takenas an embo-diment of prosperity. The rod held in the two hands proclaimsthe personageto be Danda-

94 Yamastvannarasatiprdddd dharme caparamd;m thitim.Mahdbhbrata,III,54, 3I

95 Rasavac caprabhbitat ca bhakfyam bhojyamarindama.Albh.Critical Edition, II,8. 4.96 According to Buddhist Cosmography, the third heaven is Yama, presided over by a being called Suydma,but to the

Buddhists,the third heaven is not the highest, as it was to the Vedic Indians.97 For Yima, see My/ho/ogv of All Races, vol. VI, pp. 304-319.

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dhara,"the bearerof the rod", which is a well-known epithet of Yama.We have elsewherepointedout that theNdgaand the Makara t theportalsof religiousbuildingsof ancientCeylonsymbolisedTime98.The principalmotif on the balustrade s this Makara,and the idea meantto be conveyed by it seemsto have been furtheremphasisedby this representation f the bearerof the rod (dayjda)et againstthe pilasteron which the foot of the Makararests.Whethertheancient artistsmeant this figureto be a representationof Samanwe cannot say, but it will beshown in the sequelthat modernfiguresof Samancarrya rod or sceptre n one of the hands.This balustradebearing a representationof Dandadharaor Yama is of a date earlierthanthe twelfth century, when the building of which it now forms a part was raised.For it wasmeantto be fitted to a flight of five stone steps, whereas there are only threesteps at this en-trance of the Lafikdtilaka.Probably,it was of a prdsddahousing a Buddha image, the sym-bolism of which required ive steps at the entrance.99 he figureof Yama as Danddadharamaythereforebe ascribed o the eighthcenturyor thereabouts.A figure bearinga rod is also to be seen on the outer face of the balustrade lankingtheflight of steps leading to the pavilion called the Rajavesyabhujafiga t Polonnaruva Fig. 3).The ornaments and draperyof this figure are less elaborate han those of the DandadharaatLafikitilaka,but in pose as well as in the manner n which the rod is held in the hands,thereis a general resemblance.Here, too, the balustradehas been placedin its presentposition at alaterdate; it must originallyhave belongedto a religious edifice.These two divinitiesgraspingthe rod in both hands, meantto guard the entranceto a re-ligious edifice,remindus of Sumanawho, we aretold, stationedhimself at the entranceof theJetavanaat Sivatthi and preventedthe entry of undesirablepersons to the precinctswhere theBuddha resided. The identity of Sumanawith Yama being established, the installationof afigureof Yamaat the entrance o a Buddhistedifice in Ceylon lends support to the identifica-tion of Mahdkdla, nstalledat the porches of mediaevalBuddhistmonasteriesof India, withYamawho was also known as Kdla.

The aspect of Yama out of which the Buddhistdeities Mahdkdla, eferredto byI-Tsing,and SamiddhiSumanawere evolved corresponds to that deity as he was conceived by theVedic Aryans and the ancient Iranians;it differsfrom the popularconcept now prevailing,based on the epicsandthe Purdnas,whereinYamais the judgeandpunisherof evil-doers.Thelatteraspecthad developedat an earlydate,for, in the Devadita-sutta of the MajbimaNikaya,King Yamais depictedas supervisingthe torturesof Hell, though we aremade to understandthat he does so in order to maintainthe working of the law of karma,and would have beenhappy had men heeded his warnings and sparedhim the necessity of inflicting painon them., oThe developmentof Yamainto a judgeand Supervisorof Hells does not appear o have madethe earlierconception of this god altogetherobsolete. It is evidently due to the parallelexi-stenceof both concepts of this god that the Mahdsamaya-suttapeaksof two Yamasattendingthe Congressof Devas held in the forest nearKapilavatthu.IoI98 ArtibusAsiae, vol. XVII, pp. 227-230.99 Ibid., p. 223.

z00 Lord Chalmers,FurtherDialoguesof theBuddha, ol. II, pp. 255-26o.101Duve Yami in Digha Nikdya(P. T. S. Edition), vol.11, p. 259. T. W. and C. A. F. Rhys Davids in the Dialogues f theBuddha,part II, p. 290 translate the phrase as "the Yama twins" and take them to be the Castor and Pollux of Indianmythology, i. e. the AMvins.

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Fig. 3Bas-relief representation of a personage holding a daen~ia,n the outer face of a wing-stone flanking

the flight of steps leading to Rajavesya-bhuaianga-maiidapat Polonnaruva.

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With regardto the informationsupplied by Upham establishing he identityof SamanandSamiddhiSumana Sumanaof Prosperity),it is pertinent to note that, in the Saman Devlleinscriptionalreadyreferred o, the epithetLaksmi,which has the samemeaningas P. Samiddhi,has been prefixed o the name of the deityin one of the Sanskrit tanzasoccurring n that docu-ment.0o2n the Sinhaleseportion of the document, too, we have thephrase aksmimat i Laks-manamahddtvdle,n which laksmimat, aboundingin prosperityor splendour"may refer to thegod or to his shrine. It is, of course,quite possible to explain awaythe use of the word laksmiin the documentas due to the fondnessfor alliterationon the partof its author,but an inscrip-tion engraved on a rock half way up the ascent to the Peak, seems to furnish us with evi-dence that an epithet meaning "prosperity"or "splendour"has been prefixedto the name ofthe God of Adam'sPeak for reasonsmore significant hanliteraryeffect.The epigraphin question is inscribedon a rock at the head of a seriesof about hundredsteps, incisedin order to overcome the difficultyof ascent over a particularly teep portion ofthe way up to the Peak,at a placereferred o as Dharmardja-gala. y the side of the inscription,which is badlyweatheredand is in the scriptof the fifteenthcentury,is to be seen the outlinedrawingof a beardedman, 5 ft. 3 in. in height, of austerecountenanceand attire, holding hishandsup in the attitudeof worship, facing the Peak. We learn from the recordthat the seriesof steps was caused to be cut by an ascetic (tdpasa)namedDharmarija,who was born in aBrahminfamily named Girimahall.What is of interest to us in our presentquest is that thisholy manis describedas "a devotee of the Omniscient One (i. e. the Buddha) and Sripati."

"Sripati" s well-known as a name of Visnu, for accordingto the epics and the Pura-nas,that deity is the consortof Sri or Laksmi.But Visnu is not associatedwith Adam'sPeakin thereligiousliteratureof Ceylon; modernpopular beliefs, too, do not connect that deity with thismountain.A holy man who seems to have spent a considerabletime of his life at or aboutAdam's Peak must have been a devotee of the deity of that Mountain, i. e. Saman who hasnowhere been identified with Visnu. We are thus led to the conclusion that "Sripati"was anappellationof Saman n the fifteenthcentury.And the Mahdbhdrataould cometo supportus inthis conclusionif we follow the authorof the Sinhalese dtaka n identifyingSamanwith Yama.

The Rdjadharmaection in the SdntiparvanBook XII) of the great epic, after recountingthe divine origin of the institution of kingship, raises the question why the king is entitled tothe implicitobedience of men, though he is but an ordinarymortal where physical and mentalfacultiesareconcerned.The mythologicaljustificationof the issue raised s statedas follws: -"At that time, a golden lotus cameinto beingfrom the foreheadof Visnu,wherefromwas bornthe goddess Sri, the consort of wise Dharma. From Sri, by union with Dharma,0 P4ndava,was bornArtha.Therefore, n kingshipare establishedDharmaas well as Artha and Sri."1o3

Dharmabeing a name of Yama, this passage from the Mahdbhdratauppliesthe evidencefor the conclusion that,at one time, Sri, the goddess of Prosperity,was takenas the consort of102 Lakrmi-Laksmana-ndma devapataye. Ceylon Antiquary and Literary Register, vol. II, p. 44. With regard to the nameLaksmana, see ante,pp. 27-28.103 Visnor lalatat kamalam sauvarnamabbavat tada

?rii sambhb7tdyatodevipatin Dharmasya dhimatabSriyah sakildd Arthai ca jdto Dharmena PandavaAtha Dharmas tathaivirthab Sri ca rajyepratisthitJ.Mahdbharata, XII, 59 vv. I32-I34.

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Yama. The SinhaleseJdtakaof the fourteenthcenturyidentifies Samanwith Yama; thus, thegod of Adam's Peak is entitled to the epithetof "Sripati".

The extractfrom the Mahdbhdrata,uoted above, is at variancewith the accountsgiven inthe same epic, the Rdmdyapa,urd-as and the classical Sanskrit iterature,of the birth of Srand her marriage.Hopkins, however, has pointed out that Sri or Laksmiwas, in the earlierstrataof the Sanskrit pics,not the exclusivewife of Visnu.1o0Apparently, he religiousthinkersof ancientIndia were not unanimous n the decision with regardto a suitablehusbandfor thisimportantgoddess, and there were some who actuallysolemnisedthe marriagebetweenRight-eousness (Dharma)and Prosperity (Sri). But this union does not appearto have been cele-brated with great rejoicings by the multitudein the sameway as divine marriageshave beencelebratedn antiquity,even though it is said to have lastedlong enough to resultin one issue,a son named Artha, of whom more would be said in the sequel. The femalepartner n thisdivine union, who is proverbialfor her fickleness,has found a consort more to her liking,with whom she has remained onger thanwith Dharma.A knowledgeabout the earlierunionof Sri with Dharmaseems, however, to havepersisted n Ceylonwhen it was forgottenin Indiaitself. It is fervently to be hoped that the religiousrevivalistsof our own day would succeedinresuscitating he formerunion of Prosperitywith Righteousness,and making it more enduringthan it had been in the hands of the ancientsages.

The reference o the god of Adam'sPeak,Yama Saman,by the epithetof "Sripati" ndi-cates that religious beliefs of a period earlier han that of the Purdnasersisted n Ceylon,withregard to the gods worshipped by the Sinhaleseup to a comparatively ate date. This is alsowhat we have seen in our studyof Upulvan (Varuna).Ios he Brahminwho was responsible orthe inscriptionat Dharmarija-gala,whereinSaman s apparentlycalledSripati,claims to havebelongedto a familycalled Girimahall. In thisname,Giri(Mountain)probablyrefers o Adam'sPeak;mabaldan be equatedwith Sanskritmahd-lekhaka,106chiefsecretary".The familyof thisBrahminappears o have held the hereditaryoffice of ChiefSecretarywith regardto affairsper-taining to the Peak, i. e. the stewardshipof its propertyand the managementof the servicesconnectedwith it. A personage belonging to such a familycan be trustedas an authoritywithregard o the traditionsrelating o the Peak,and the nameappropriate o the divinity believed toreside thereon.

The evidence detailedabove, establishingSamanas a god of Wealth and Prosperity,alsoexplainsan epithet of this god which has hitherto remained obscure in meaning. I refer to"BoksVJ" hich, for example,is compoundedwith "Saman" n the Nikaya-saigrahaIo7f thefourteenthcentury,and in the Hatksa-sandesaf the fifteenth century.'08With the above evi-dence beforeus, we arejustified n equating"Boksdl"with SanskritBhoga-idlin, abounding nWealthor Prosperity".Thefull name"SamanBoksil" is thusequivalent o "SamiddhiSumana".The unknown personwho narrated o Uphamthe legends connected with SamiddhiSumanaabout the god of Adam's Peak, therefore,appears o have followed a genuine tradition.104 Hopkins, Epic Mythology,. 2o8.105 Paranavitana,TheShrineof Upulvan t Devundara, p. 9iff. and 52ff.106 The usual equivalent of Skt. /ekhaka n Sinhaleseis le. But, the final e in Sinhalesewords often changes to a; see SigiriGraffiti,Introduction, p. xxxix ff.107 Edited by D. M. de Z. Wickrenasingha,Colombo, i890, p. z6.108 Verse I98 of BhadantaDharmdrdma Ndyaka Thera's edition, Colombo, i926.

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IV. THE CHARACTERISTICS AND ICONOGRAPHY OFSAMAN COMPARED WITH THOSE OF YAMA

The god appears o have been adopted by the Buddhists of Ceylonafterdivesting him ofmuch of his mythological traits. In TheravddaBuddhism, gods are cast in the same mould.They are born in heaven as a result of good deeds performedby them as humanbeings, andenjoy the pleasuresof heaven while the effect of the good deeds remainsoperative. They aregenerallyon the side of virtue,and areprepared o help humanbeingsin distress,so far as it iswithin their power accordingto the operationof the law of karma.As such, we do not finddata in the Pali Buddhist literatureof Ceylon, for example in the Samantakkta-vayvand,hatwould berelevant o the identificationof Samanwith Yama. Thepriestswho officiatedatshrinesdedicatedto Samanmust have had their traditions;but, if they createda special literature,nospecimenof it datingfrom a periodbeforethe arrivalof the Portuguesehas come down to ourtimes. The balladsandtractsdealingwith this god that arenow availablehave beenwritteninrecenttimes,afterthe oldertraditionshad been entirelyor partlyforgotten,due to the interrup-tion of the ritesandpracticesunder the rule of the Portugueseand the Dutch, or intentionallytamperedwith by the Brahmins rom South India.In spiteof theseunfavourable ircumstancespreventingus fromgaininganidea of the individualcharacteristicsf the god Saman,ashe wasknownin ancientdays,therearea few detailssignificant or our presentpurpose, which we cangather about this deityfrom references n Sinhalese iterature, romthe writings of Englishmenin earlyBritishtimes, and from currenttraditionsand practices.

The only Sinhalese iterarywork which gives prominence to this deity is the poem Savul-asnaor -sandtsa, lreadymentioned.The poet, aftertaking the bird to the shrine, and describ-ing the danceof the nautch-girls,devotes a number of stanzas to the appearance f the deityas manifested o the devotees. The description s highly conventional,but no reference s madeto a multiplicityof hands or otherabnormal eatures n the person of the deity, who is depictedas an ideally perfecthuman form. In a number of stanzas, he complexion of the god Saman sreferred o as darkblue or green., 9 In stanza 47, for instance,the effulgenceof the ornamentalarchesof indra-nilatonesin the city of Sabaragamus compared o the rays emanating rom thedarkbluebody of the deity.The crown on the headof the god is compared o a golden peacockon the top of a mountainof collyrium(v. i 8 ). Agreeing with this descriptionby Alagiyavanna,in the painting of Saman reproduced n the plate facing page 52 of E. Upham's HistoryandDoctrineof Buddhism,he deity's body is green (see Frontispiece). This is in accord with thedescriptionsof Yama in Sanskrit iterature.In the Mahdbhdrata,or instance,when Yama camein personto takeaway the life of Satyavan,he appeared o the latter'sdevoted wife, Sdvitr1, s amancladin yellow garments,with hair tied into a top-knot, beautiful,glorious like the Sun, ofdazzlinggreen colour, having redeyes, holding a noose in the hand, and of terrifyingaspect.,,oIn Indian Silpasastras, oo, Yama is of dark colour."I' It appears, however, that there were109 The word used in Sinhalese is nil (Skt. ni/a) which may denote "green" or "darkblue".I O Mubhrtadva cdpaiyat urufam ita-vasasamBaddha-mauli*apusamantamdioya-sama-tejasamSyJmdvaddta*aktdksam dia-hastam haydvaham.

Mahdbharata,III,8i, 8-9."I GopinathaRao,Elementsof HinduIconography,ol. II, p. 526.

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imagesof Samanwhich differed n colour from the representation f that deity in the sixteenthcenturyshrineat Sabaragamu.Accordingto Forbes,the colour of Saman s yellow, and Davysaysthat this deity, like Ndtha,is white. Imagesof Saman o be seen in Buddhisttemplesat thepresentdayaregenerallypaintedyellow. The CeylonBuddhists, n depictingthe deity as whiteor yellow, as well as dark blue (or green), agreewith their co-religionists n Tibet, Mongoliaand China,whereYamamaybe either dark blue, red, white or yellow.II2 The colour of Saman,therefore,supportshis identitywith Yama.

In the paintingof Samanreproducedby Upham,alreadyreferred o, the god holds a bowin one hand. Accordingto Hopkins,Yama as a god of war carriesa bow (Ydmyath

the god of adam's peak

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