Page 254 - Proceedings book

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Buddhism. This found symbolic expression even in the organization of the ritual of

consecration. The rituals of consecration introduced from the neighboring
subcontinent underwent a process of reformulation in Sri Lanka. According to this

reformulated version, ceremonial objects used in the ritual were to be made from
materials obtained from several specified Buddhist shrines at Anuradhapura.

Results
The close association between the king and the sangha led to the emergence of

several politically significant beliefs and ideas. One was the claim that the ruling
dynasty descended from the lineage of the Buddha. This claim was supported by the

sangha and incorporated into the chronicles they wrote. From the tenth century

onwards the claim was systematically propagated by the kings. It is not difficult to
believe that such a claim would have helped to strengthen the position of the ruling

dynasty at a time when Buddhism had emerged as the religion of the dominant
majority of people in the island.

When militant forms of Saivism and Vaisnavism gained in ascendancy in South India

and won the support of the rulers of the three main South Indian kingdoms at the time,

the association of Sri Lankan kingship with Buddhism began to be given increasing
emphasis. From about the eighth century the position of Sri Lankan kings as well as

the independence of their kingdom was being threatened by the rising power of the
Pallavas, Pandyas and the Colas. It was in this context that the idea that the king of

the island should be a Buddhist began to be emphasized. This emphasis on the

Buddhist identity would have been useful for the kings in order to mobilize popular
support to meet the threat from South Indian dynasties. There are several indications

from this period pointing to a growing tendency to vest the institutions with a
religious aura. Terms usually reserved in the Sinhala language to denote the death of

the Buddha and Arahants were sometimes used to refer to the demise of a king. When

a tenth-century king decided to erect a Buddha-image at the Abhayagiri monastery, he
had the image made to physically resemble himself. In other words, the image

worshipped by the people and, presumably, by monks as well, was a portrait-statue of
the king in the form of a Buddha. (Cûlavamsa, 1953) The culmination of this trend is

to be seen in the claim that every individual who became king in Sri Lanka was a
Bodhisattva. Thus, kings of Sri Lanka were claiming not only to be descendants of the

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