Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 04.djvu/528

* CEYLON. 450 CEYLON. Religiok. The prevailing relifjion of Ceylon within historic times has been Buddhism; it is still the faith of almost the entire southern and eentral portions, or two-thirds of the island. Hinduism, or the sects of Brahnianism, is cou- lined chiefly to the north. Christianity and Mohammedanism have a eousiderable representa- tion throughout the land. Tlie census of I8U1 {lives the following statistics: Buddhism, 1,877.- 043; Hinduism, 61,i.!12ii; Christianity, 302,1-27; Mohammedanism, 211,05,5. Singhalese Buddhism is the principal representative of Southern Bud- dhism, which includes also Siam and Burma, in contrast to the Northern Buddhism of China, .Japan, and Tibet. All have tlicir origin, of course, in India. (S<'e BfODiiisM and India.) The history of the faith as a national religion in Ceylon is reserved in the Pali chronicles of Ceylon, the ilahiirniinn and the Dipavaiisa. Tradition claims that Buddha himself visited the island (Lanka) on three different occasions. His sacred footprint, the srlpadti, on Adam's Peak (q.v.), is still a place of hallowed pilgrimage for the faithful. The real introduction of Bud- dhism into Ceylon, however, dates from the Third Centurj' B.C., when JIahinda came from India and established the faith under the patron- age of King Tissa of Ceylon, a contemporary of the great Asoka (q.v.). Mahinda's own sister, the Princess Sanghamitta, brought from Buddha Gayfi a branch of the sacred Bo-tree, or Ficus leligiosa, from which the famous tree at Anurfi- dhapura is directly descended. (See Bo-Tree.) The faith thus established entered upon its histors' in the island. In the Fourth Century ..n. the great Buddhist scholar and commentator, Buddhaghosa, came from India to Ceylon, and by his admirable treatise on the Buddhist doc- trines, the Tis^iiddhi-innnpa, or Wtiy of Purity, set up a standard of interpretation of the sacred texts which has been authoritative since his time. Under Parkakrama Bahu I., the greatest Bud- dhist of Ceylon, e. 1200 ..D., was the time of the highest prosperity of the faith : hut a depres- sion, more or less great, followed later, and Brahmanism, which had contributed more than one admixture from the earliest Tamil invasion-s and the rule of the -Malabar kings, proved a formidable rival. In spite, however, of all oppos- ing claims, including Mohammedanism and Christianity, the title of Buddhism is still para- mount, and it has been kept practically free from sects. Three divisions or societies, however, are recognizable. The largest of these in point of numbers, some 50 per cent., and the earliest to develop, is a division due to the influence of Siamese monks ho were imported into the Kandvan territory-, about A.». 1750, to restore decadent Buddhism. The second, or Amarapura society, was founded about a.d. 1800, when Bud- dhist missionaries from Burma were intro- dficed. The third, or Ramany branch, repre- sents a somewhat reactionary movement or ten- dency to stricter conformity to the faith of the ancient books. Only the Siamese society culti- vates caste; the other two reject it as foreign to Buddhism, although of ancient origin. There
 * (re some other slight points of distinction be-

tween the three. In this connection it may be worth noting that Christianity has taken hold largely among the fishermen class, who are re- garded as among the lowest orders nf the com- munity. Hinduism, or Brahmanism, for the most part is the faith of the Tamil or Malabar population of Ceylon ; the Moormen are .Moham- medans. The first Protestant missionaries that went to Ceylon after the Portuguese and the Dutch supremacies had given place to the Brit- ish, were sent by the Baptists in 1813; the W'esleyan JMethodists followed in 1814; the American missionaries ent<rcd the field in 1810; and the Church of England <aine in 1818. The progress of Christianity among tlu- people has been very considerable; schools have been estab- lished; female seminaries endowed; and col- legiate institutions founded, especially under the guidance of missionaries. AxTiQtnTlES. The buried cities and ruins of massive monuments in Ceylon make its anti- quities a subject of importance to the student of art, archa'ology, and history. These vestiges of early civilization are directly connected with Buddhism as the national faith of the island. In all Buddhist countries the sacred buildings present, with certain modifications, the same gen- eral character (see articles Buduiiism ; Burma, etc.), and in Ceylon we find the usual three classes represented by temples (pansalas), mon- asteries {rihuras), and relic shrines (dagabas). The latter, from da, dhulu, relic, and quba, gorhha, receptacle, denotes a casket, and then a large structure erected to contain some sacred relic of Buddha. The form of these is bell-shaped, on a square base. They answer in general to the pagodas of Burma and the topes of Afghanistan. The most famous of the dagabas in Ceylon is the Balada Maligava, the Temple of the Tooth, at Kandy, containing a tooth of (.iautama Buddha brought from India to Ceylon a!)out a.d. 300. The original relic was destroyed by the Portu- guese, but its substftute, a piece of discolored ivory resembling a crix'odile's tooth, is jealously guarded in a sacred shrine and shown only to royal personages or on the rarest occasions. The labor which must have been bestowed upon some of these shrines and edifices in the early ages of the Singhalese monarchy is astonishing. Some of the ruined structures in the half-buried cities of the north of the island almost rival the pyra- mids of Kgypt or other monuments of antiquity in their desolate grandeur. The architectural remains of 2000 years ago, as seen at Anurad- hapura, Polonnaruwa, Dambulla, Kalavewa, Ma- hintale, and Sigiri are of the greatest interest alike to the traveler and to the antiquarian. The rock-hewn temple of Gal-vihaira at Polonnaruwa, the capital of ancient Ceylon, is nuicli the same to-day as it was when described in the Mahi'i- I'dHSo. The massive pile of the Rankot Dagaba and the .Tetavanarama Temple, in the same re- gion, with the colossal statues of Biddha here and elsewhere, well repay a visit after Anuradba- pura, with its famous Bo-tree alluded tn aliovc. -Smong the antiquities of Ceylon the ruined tanks must also be mentioned, as they are wonderful monuments: .30 enormous reservoirs and about 700 smaller tanks still exist, though for the most part in ruins. Something has been done toward restoring these magnificent works of ir- rigation. History. There are abundant allusions to Ceylon in ancient writers, and the island appears in early Sanskrit works imder the name of Lanka ; but no direct knowledge concerning its history was accessible in Kuropc until about the year 1826. The opening up of the records of