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By the time the Mah膩vih膩rins struggled to maintain what they regarded as the true words of the Buddha, Buddhism entered a slow but steady decline in its Indian homeland; a process that would eventually see it disappear almost completely from its place of origin. This process鈥搕he outcome of which was by no means predetermined鈥搘as complex, drawn out, and aff ected various regions of India to a diff ering degree. Its major component was the revival of Hinduism through individual devotion to a Hindu god (bhakti). The bhakti movement started around the seventh century in South India, from where it expanded across the subcon-tinent.^[1] As the people and more so the ruling families of India opted for this new form of Hinduism, support for Buddhist monasteries and monks waned, leading to their gradual disappearance. By 1200 ce, Buddhist communities and institutions in India either existed as pockets within a predominantly Hinduist environment or had been pushed into peripheral regions of India such as Ladakh or East Bengal. The latter region suffered further from the Islamic conquerors who invaded the Ganges valley and established the sultanates of Delhi.

Around 1000 ce, the future of Buddhism in Sri Lanka came into danger as well, as the South Indian 颁艒岣籥蝉 under the kings 搁腻箩补谤腻箩补 and R膩jendra set out to not only conquer the island and its capital 础苍耻谤腻诲丑补辫耻谤补, but also made it a province of the 颁艒岣籥 Empire for most of the eleventh century. Despite being separated from the mainland, the 础苍耻谤腻诲丑补辫耻谤补 kingdom had always been part of the political structure of South India and had experienced invasions from the mainland on sev-eral occasions. The latest 颁艒岣籥 conquest was a particular disaster, as it first resulted in the plunder and destruction of the capital and then the integration of the island into the 颁艒岣籥 empire, with Po岣穙nnaruva becoming the capital of the new prov ince.^[2] More importantly, the destruction and plundering of the capital terminated the hitherto uninterrupted lineage of the 惭补丑腻惫颈丑腻谤补. Never again mentioned in the chronicles, it continued to exist only as a notion, while relics (and especially the Tooth Relic) took the monastery鈥檚 place as a central religious site.^[3] The relics were salvaged by monks, who had managed to escape to Rohana, the island鈥檚 southern region.^[4] It also was in Rohana that a resistance movement formed under Vijaya 叠腻丑耻 I, which eventually succeeded to restore the former Sinhala kingdom in the north and push the 颁艒岣籥蝉 back to India. But before this, by the mid-eleventh century, 罢丑别谤补惫腻诲补 Buddhism seemed set to become extinguished on the island.

At that moment, the Burmese ruler Anawrahta (Aniruddha) unintentionally saved the 罢丑别谤补惫腻诲补 tradition by making it the 鈥榮tate religion鈥� of the nascent Bagan kingdom. The reason for this royal measure is anything but clear as the available evidence comes from Burmese chronicles and records written long after the actual event.^[5] According to them, the king carried out the reform in two steps, the first being his conquest of the city of Thaton in Lower Burma, from where he abducted the royal family and the leading members of the Sangha headed by Shin Arahan. With the help of that monk, the king then purged the Sangha at Bagan of monks who disobeyed the Vinaya, notably the Aris.^[6] The royal purification of the Sangha cemented the leading role of the 罢丑别谤补惫腻诲补 tradition over all competing Buddhist (and other religious) groups and set Bagan on the path to become its foremost intellectual and ceremonial centre.

This new status became manifest soon after, when the Sinhalese king Vijaya 叠腻丑耻 I (r. 1070鈥�1112), the liberator of the island, required the help of monks from Bagan to restore the Sangha of Lanka.^[7] This event initiated a series of encounters between the Buddhists of Lanka and Burma, which comprised royal missions and individual pilgrimages and included the exchange of canonical texts and relics as well as holding joint recitations (蝉补峁単墨迟颈) and ordination ceremo nies.^[8] The encounters at Bagan intensified after 1200, when the Buddhist institutions and sites of India were overrun by the troops of the sultan of Delhi and Sri Lanka entered another phase of civil war and outside invasions.^[9] Po岣穙nnaruva, which had replaced 础苍耻谤腻诲丑补辫耻谤补 as capital, had to be evacuated twice and was ultimately abandoned in favour of Gampola in the 1270s.^[10] Amid this overall political instability, however, Buddhism continued to flourish on the island, as attested by both a substantial number of religious treatises,^[11] although frequent religious convocations resulting in royal edicts to regulate the behaviour of monks also illustrate a degree of decay aff ecting the Sangha.^[12]

In the light of all this, Po岣穙nnaruva fell back behind Bagan, which at the same time attracted Buddhist scholars from all over Asia. This can be seen in the city鈥檚 composite settlement pattern and population as well as the widespread use of 笔腻濒颈 as a lingua franca. As mentioned, numerous Mons from Lower Burma had been resettled there in the mid-eleventh century, and thereafter Bagan provided a safe haven for Bengali artists and Sinhalese monks who fled the turmoil of their respective countries. Recent research has also shown that the presence of Cambodians at the city increased markedly after around 1230. A Cambodian monk even participated in a purification of the Sangha (蝉补峁単丑补惫颈蝉耻诲诲丑颈) held around 1248.^[13] The various foreign communities at Bagan seem to have preferred to stay together in clusters sometimes centred on a Buddhist temple or monastery. The Mons brought in from Lower Burma were apparently resettled in the Myinkaba village south of the citadel of Bagan, where a temple still bears the name of their ruler, Manuha. The village may also have catered for the small South Indian com-munity, as the only Tamil/ Sanskrit inscription of the period was found there,^[14] and more recently an inscription mentioning a 鈥榟eadman of the 办补濒颈帽帽鈥�, prob ably Kalingans, has been retrieved from a mound south of the village.^[15] Further south towards the Dhammayazika 蝉迟奴辫补 were the monasteries of the Sinhalese, of which the Tamani complex was the most important. Its image house鈥揳 temple curiously shaped like a 蝉迟奴辫补鈥�houses a statue of the seated Buddha in the medi-tation gesture (诲丑测腻苍补 mudra), which is very common for images from the island but exceptional at Bagan.^[16] Although the outer enclosure of the Tamani complex cannot be established precisely any more, it appears to have been an extensive institution, including several monastic dwellings, buildings for the study and a tank, providing space for a sizeable number of monks.^[17] Still further south, now in the middle of New Bagan Town, is another small compound where Bodhiramsi Thera 鈥榝rom Sinhala鈥� resided with his two disciples.^[18] This set of monasteries with links to Lanka may have stretched as far south as the Setana 蝉迟奴辫补, one of the largest 蝉迟奴辫补s at Bagan with unmistakeably Sinhalese features such as a semi-global dome and a square harmika above it. Sculpted elephants in frontal view bear the platform on which the 蝉迟奴辫补 is erected.^[19]

This cosmopolitan cohabitation and interaction of monks whose mother tongues included Burmese, Mon, Sinhala, Bengali (or others of the emerging regional languages of India), Cambodian and perhaps even Chinese or Tibetan required a lingua franca to communicate in. That this language was in all likeli-hood 笔腻濒颈 becomes clear from the numerous 笔腻濒颈 inscriptions that record donations made to or involving foreign monks as well as events important for the Bagan Sangha as a whole. Bagan has produced a relatively large number of 笔腻濒颈 inscriptions ranging from brief prayers scribbled on the back of a clay votive tablet to at least twelve stone inscriptions of ten or more lines. The use of 笔腻濒颈 began under king Anawrahta (Aniruddha), who signed the tables he left at Buddhist sites across the country with the declaration that he had made the image with his own hands,^[20] while the writing of long inscriptions in 笔腻濒颈 began in the early twelfth century. These include Prince R膩jakum膩r鈥檚 Myazedi inscription (which is written in Pyu, Mon and Burmese as well as 笔腻濒颈), King Alaungsithu鈥檚 poetic Shwegugyi inscrip tion, and a fragmentary record possibly attributable to King Saw Lu.^[21]

More importantly, there is now a set of three inscriptions (two of them discovered quite recently), which sheds further light on the cooperation of the monks staying at the 笔腻濒颈 cosmopolis of Bagan. Around 1248, they assembled for a joint ceremony which resulted in a 鈥榩urification鈥� (蝉补峁単丑补m visodhayi). The lead-ing monk on that occasion was Subhuticanda, who had Cambodian roots.^[22] One of the newly found inscriptions, probably dating from the 1270s, singles out the monk Ananda, who had been to Cambodia and northern Malaya before coming to Bagan.^[23] He was very likely the same person who was praised in a 笔腻濒颈 verse as the thera 鈥榳ho had sprung from the line of Mahinda and constantly strove to stay true to it鈥�.^[24] The donor of the former record was a certain Ama峁単a鈥揷learly not a Burmese name鈥搘ho also gave a bronze bell to the monk Tamalinda, the monk from whom the Tamani monastery derived its name.^[25] This brief selection of examples shows that 笔腻濒颈 was used at Bagan whenever non-Burmese-speaking monks were concerned or involved in donations and religious activities. Turned the other way, we may also assume that whenever 笔腻濒颈 was used for an inscription (which sometimes was only a short passage), the record was addressed to a monk from outside the Burmese heartland.

What this brief survey of religious activities and exchanges at Bagan also illustrates is that the intellectual and ceremonial centre of 罢丑别谤补惫腻诲补 Buddhism was gradually shifting towards Southeast Asia, particularly to Bagan. This does not mean that the earlier centres in Lanka (which in the twelfth鈥搕hirteenth cen-turies would have been at Po岣穙nnaruva and probably in the region of Rohana) ceased to function entirely: the leading chronicle, the 颁奴岣穉惫补峁僺补, notes that in the thirteenth-century kings sponsored the copying of the 笔腻濒颈 canon and oversaw purifications of the Sangha,^[26] and the literary production of the period was still impressive.^[27] But Bagan was catching up, notably in the area of 笔腻濒颈 studies and literary production. Obviously, many of the works produced at the Bagan period were grammatical studies and aids, which helped monks to solidify their know-ledge of the 笔腻濒颈 language as a prerequisite for further studies and compositions.^[28]

But at the same time, full sets of the Tipitaka were frequently listed in donative inscriptions,^[29] and some monasteries had substantial holdings. One of the largest libraries on record was given in 1223 and consisted of more than 30 volumes of grammatical works, chronicles and of course canonical works.^[30] These compre-hensive literary activities illustrate that the Buddhists at Bagan were increasingly able to reproduce, comment on and interpret the Buddha鈥檚 teachings without external input. Rather than their reconfirming the accuracy of their versions of the canon by obtaining 鈥榓pproved鈥� texts from Lanka, they attracted monks from the island and other parts of the 罢丑别谤补惫腻诲补 ecumene to come to Bagan and share their knowledge there. The perception of Sinhalese monks being the ultimate authority for the correct wording of the canon and therefore dominating the activities within the 罢丑别谤补惫腻诲补 cosmopolis, which is still current in the works of scholars representing a Sinhala nationalist school of interpretation,^[31] will have to be replaced with a notion of Sri Lankan monks playing a less dominant and prominent role.^[32]

However, this shift of the centre from South to Southeast Asia, from Po岣穙nnaruva to Bagan, remained unfinished, as the invasion of the Mongols and their occupation of Bagan at the end of the thirteenth century brought the transition to an abrupt halt. The royal court and many monks fled the city, and when the Mongols withdrew, both its political status and its sanctity had gone. In fact, some of the larger monastic complexes at Bagan continued to exist and receive donations well into the fourteenth century,^[33] but the city鈥檚 outreach and attractiveness had decreased in dramatic fashion. When the polities of the Mon and Thai rulers of modern-day Thailand began to establish themselves, they also adhered to 罢丑别谤补惫腻诲补 Buddhism but validated their ordination lineages through missions sent to Lanka rather than to Bagan.

Footnotes and references:

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[1]:

As Verardi has shown, this was by no means a peaceful process: Giovanni Verardi, Hardships and Downfall of Buddhism in India (Singapore: Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, 2011).

[2]:

Frasch, 鈥楤uddhismus im Jahr 1000鈥�, 62鈥�3.

[3]:

Frasch, 鈥楤uddha鈥檚 Tooth Relic鈥�, 655鈥�6. But see H. B. Ilangasinha, Buddhism in Medieval Sri Lanka (Delhi: Sri Satguru, 1992), 55ff., who claims that after 笔补谤腻办谤补尘补产腻丑耻鈥檚 I unification all monks on the island would trace their origins to the 惭补丑腻惫颈丑腻谤补.

[4]:

颁奴岣穉惫补峁僺补, 57. 259

[5]:

The two major sources are the 碍补濒测腻峁嚹� Inscriptions from Pegu (late fifteenth century) and the earliest Burmese chronicle to have survived, U Kala鈥檚 鈥楪reat Chronicle鈥� (惭补丑腻谤腻箩补惫补峁�-办谤墨:), finished around 1720, which depends on the report of that inscription. So far, scholarly studies have been content with highlighting Anawrahta鈥檚 role as a champion of 罢丑别谤补惫腻诲补 to explain the rise of 罢丑别谤补惫腻诲补 in eleventh-century Burma (and, by extension, for its rise elsewhere in Southeast Asia), see for example Goh Geok-y ian, The Wheel-Turner and his House: Kingship in a Buddhist Ecumene (DeKalb, IL: Northern Illinois University Press, 2015). But in his study of the 鈥槺誓灞艟� imaginaire鈥�, Collins has argued that 罢丑别谤补惫腻诲补 as an ideology could pacify people and make them accept rulers and tax ation. Steven Collins, 鈥榃hat is Literature in 笔腻濒颈?,鈥� in Literary Cultures in History, ed. Sheldon Pollock (Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 2003), 680鈥�1.

[6]:

The Aris (补谤补帽帽) were portrayed as a counter-model to the true Buddhist monk, consuming alcohol, having intercourse with women and practising black magic. In reality, the Aris (if derived from 补谤补帽帽av膩si or 鈥�forest-dwellers鈥�) were a group within the 蝉补峁単丑补 who took upon themselves a higher degree of asceticism by dwelling at a certain distance from the settlements of the laymen. See Tilman Frasch, Pagan. Stadt und Staat (Stuttgart: Steiner, 1996), 288.

[7]:

颁奴岣穉惫补峁僺补, 60.4鈥�8.

[8]:

For more details, see Tilman Frasch, 鈥楢 Buddhist Network in the Bay of Bengal: Relations between Bodhgaya, Burma and Sri Lanka, c. 300鈥�1300,鈥� in From the Mediterranean to the China Sea. Miscellaneous Notes, ed. Claude Guillot et al. (Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz, 1998), 69鈥�93.

[9]:

These include the struggle for the throne among members of the Sinhalese royal family after the death of both Vijaya 叠腻丑耻 I and 笔补谤腻办谤补尘补产腻丑耻 I and again in the early thirteenth century, when the island was twice invaded by 惭腻驳丑补 and 颁补苍诲谤补产丑腻苍耻. 颁奴岣穉惫补峁僺补, 80. 51鈥�89 and 83.36鈥�51.

[10]:

Amaradasa Liyanagamage, The Decline of Polonnaruwa and the Rise of Dambadeniya (Colombo: Department of Cultural Affairs and Government Press, 1968).

[11]:

For this, see G. P. Malalasekera, The 笔腻濒颈 Literature of Ceylon (Kandy: Buddhist Publication Society, 1994).

[12]:

Reforms are mentioned for example in 颁奴岣穉惫补峁僺补, 81.40鈥�52 and 84.7鈥�8. For the royal orders, see The Katik膩vatas, ed. and trans. Nandasena Ratnapala (Munich: Kitzinger, 1971).

[13]:

Tilman Frasch, 鈥楰ontakte, Konzile, Kontroversen: Begegnungen in der Theravada-Kosmopolis, ca. 1000鈥�1300 ce鈥�, in Begegnungen in den Religionen Asiens, ed. Oliver Freiberger et al. (G枚ttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, forthcoming).

[14]:

E. Hultzsch, 鈥楢 Vaishnava Inscription from Pagan,鈥� Epigraphia Indica 7 (1902鈥�3), 197鈥�8.

[15]:

U Than Tun, Hnaung-dwe Kyauksa-mya (Yangon: Myanmar Historical Commission, 2005), no. 10, 26.

[16]:

Close-ups of the image and its hands are shown in Pierre Pichard, Inventory of the Monuments at Pagan, Vol. 4 (Paris: UNESCO, 1994), 396, catalogue number 1133 (figures e and f).

[17]:

Frasch, 鈥楰ontakte, Konzile, Kontroversen鈥�.

[18]:

The inscription in situ (Pl. IV 373c) states that it had been endowed with three sets of articles of daily use such as cups and bed-stands. For the monastery, which has meanwhile been restored, see Pichard, Inventory, Vol. 4, 374鈥�97, catalogue numbers 1115鈥�18.

[19]:

Pichard, Inventory, Vol. 4, 206鈥�9, catalogue number 987. Another example of a stupa on an elephant-born platform is the Mahakassapa stupa (Pierre Pichard, Inventory of the Monuments at Pagan, Vol. 2 (Paris: UNESCO, 1993), catalogue number 545). 惭补丑腻办补蝉蝉补辫补 is said to have travelled to Lanka and was very likely the recipient of the Manavulu Sandesa, a 笔腻濒颈 letter from the thirteenth century sent from Po岣穙nnaruva to Bagan: Lionel D. Barnett, 鈥楾he Manavulu Sandesaya,鈥� Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society (1905), 265鈥�83.

[20]:

Gordon H. Luce, Old Burma鈥揈arly Pagan, Vol. 2 (Locust Valley, NY: Augustine, 1969).

[21]:

Gordon H. Luce and U Pe Maung Tin, 鈥業nscriptions of Burma, Edited and Translated,鈥� Bulletin of the Burma Historical Commission 1 (1960), 1鈥�28; The Myazedi Inscription in Four Languages, ed. Cultural Institute (Rangoon: Government Press, 1960); Luce, Old Burma, Vol. 1, 46.

[22]:

Inscriptions of Burma, comp. G. H. Luce and U Pe Maung Tin, Vol. 3 (Oxford: University Press, 1939), pl. 302.

[23]:

This inscription is still unedited. For a summary, see Frasch, 鈥楰ontakte, Konzile, Kontroversen鈥�.

[24]:

Inscriptions of Burma, Vol. 3, pl. 226.

[25]:

Luce, Old Burma, Vol. 2, 208鈥�9, figure 449d.

[26]:

颁奴岣穉惫补峁僺补, 81.43鈥�5 and 84.7鈥�10.

[27]:

G. P. Malalasekera, The 笔腻濒颈 Literature of Ceylon (London: Royal Asiatic Society, 1928), 221鈥�37.

[28]:

The most famous example of a grammar is the 厂补诲诲补苍墨迟颈, which was allegedly composed in the mid-twelfth century. Other examples include the Saddbindu, which is ascribed to king Kyazwa 260 (r. 1235鈥�48): Friedgard Lottermoser, 鈥楳inor 笔腻濒颈 Grammar Texts: The Saddabindu and its 鈥淣ew鈥� Commentary,鈥� Journal of the Pali Text Society 11 (1987), 79鈥�1 09. For an attempt to identify some of the 笔腻濒颈 scholars from Bagan see Frasch, Pagan, 328鈥�32.

[29]:

U Than Tun, 鈥楬istory of Buddhism in Burma, AD 1000鈥�1300,鈥� Journal of the Burma Research Society 51 (1978), 77鈥�87, and U Tin Htway, 鈥楢 Preliminary Note on the Vinayadharas of Pagan Period in Burma,鈥� in Festschrift f眉r Prof. Manuel Sarkisyanz, ed. Barbara Diehl-Eli et al. (Frankfurt: Peter Lang, 1987), 411鈥�58.

[30]:

U Than Tun, 鈥楢n Original Inscription Dated 10 September 1223, that King Badon Copied on 27 October 1785,鈥� in 脡tudes birmanes en hommage 脿 Denise Bernot, ed. Pierre Pichard and Fran莽ois Robinne (Paris: 脡cole Fran莽aise d鈥橢xtr锚me-Orient, 1998), 37鈥�42. Also see Mabel Bode, The 笔腻濒颈 Literature of Burma (London: Royal Asiatic Society, 1909).

[31]:

Besides Senarat Paranavitana (passim), W. M. Sirisena, Sri Lanka and Southeast Asia (Leiden: Brill, 1978), and now Hema Goonatilake, 鈥楽ri Lanka鈥揗yanmar Historical Relations in Religion, Culture and Polity,鈥� Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society of Sri Lanka 55 (2009), 80鈥�104, these include (curiously enough) Gunawardena, Robe and Plough, who would otherwise not appear to fit any kind of 鈥榥ationalist鈥� bill.

[32]:

Another example for this is the spread of the position of a 鈥榩rimate鈥� or chief monk of the 蝉补峁単丑补 (蝉补峁単丑补r膩ja, 尘补丑腻蝉腻尘颈). This office was the outcome of the unification of the Sri Lankan 蝉补峁単丑补 by King 笔补谤腻办谤补尘补产腻丑耻 I in 1165 ce, but was never copied at Bagan, see Frasch, 鈥楰ontakte, Konzile, Kontroversen鈥�.

[33]:

Frasch, Pagan, 343鈥�4.