Splitting the Jain and Buddhist Relationships in History with Reference to the Dāṭhāvaṃsa

Abstract

The Dāṭhāvaṃsa, which represents the Vaṃsa literature, was written by elder Dhammakitti, who was known with the title “Rājaguru” and became a pupil of the sub-commentator elder Sāriputta. This chronicle describes the history of the left sacred tooth relic of the Buddha within 415 verses. The book itself evidences that this was composed in the Polonnaru period in 1210 A.C.,at the time queen Līlāvatī was ruling the Ceylon. The text brings out vital information on the Nigaṇṭhā-s on the tale of the second chapter and at the beginning of the third chapter. The King Guhasīva, who became a Buddhist after perceiving the miracle powers of the sacred tooth relic, took over the authority of the relic. Consequently, the Nigaṇṭhā-s were against the practice of the King since they lost the support of the royal family. According to the text, the Nigaṇṭhā-s believed gods like Brahma, Śiva and Viṣṇu and once the sacred tooth relic displayed miracle powers, they pretended that it was a body part of the Viṣṇu. According to the religious history, Jainism presented anti-Brahmanic teachings and rejected Creationism. Nonetheless, as the Dāṭhāvaṃsa attests, the Nigaṇṭhā-s had practiced violence to be extremists without following their principles: non-violence. The research problem in this research is what the exact reason for the transformed practices of Jains in post Buddha’s period was. Since it is hard to say that the author made such a negative image in the poetical way, the paper expects to examine cultural, social and religious historical background behind the splitting of the relationship between the Jains and Buddhists in the ancient time. Particularly, the comparative methodology will be the key method applied throughout the research.