The Antiquities of Orissa v2.c17.s1.151

v2.c17.s1.151

Turnour,¹¹ and the whole of which has since been published along with a close English translation by Sir Mutu Comara Swamy, of Ceylon. It is a work of the 12th century (A.D. 1197), written by one Dhammakitti Thera during the reign of Queen Līlāvatī. Its leading facts occur in the Siamese *Phrā’Pat’hom* of which Col. James Low has given an abstract,¹² and they may therefore be accepted as embodying the substance of the oldest tradition on the subject. Now, according to this *Dāṭhāvaṃsa*, Khema, one of the disciples of Buddha, took the tooth-relic from the funeral pile of Buddha, and gave it to Brahmadatta, king of Kaliṅga, in Dantapura. The king caused to be made for it ‘a temple inlaid with gold, adorned with hanging pearl-necklaces, abounding in hundreds of rooms at the top, difficult, like the early sun, to look at, owing to the radiance of various gems dazzling the eye—a vehicle to heaven and to Nibbāna, which produces excessive delight; he also made for the relic, in the same place, a seat resplendent with gems. Placing there the tooth-relic of the great sage he honoured it unweariedly, night and day, with all the requisites of worship’.¹³ This description does not at all indicate a *dagoba*, and the first element in Mr. Fergusson’s arguments, the memorial mound, cannot be supported by it. The successors of Brahmadatta, for several generations, continued to worship the relic until the time of Guhaśīva, (A.D. 370 to 390) who was young and heedless, and well disposed towards the Niganthas or Brāhmaṇs, on whom he conferred favours. This influence of the Brāhmaṇs, however, was short-lived; a general rejoicing in the town on account of some festival in honour of the tooth-relic attracted the king’s attention, and a miracle converted him to the true path. He became a staunch worshipper of the relic like the bulk of his people, and expelled the Brāhmaṇs from the country. The Brāhmaṇs, thereupon, repaired to the court of Pāṇḍu, Lord of Jambudvīpa, at Pāṭaliputra, and, praising him for his devotion to the true gods Śiva, Brahmā and others, accused Guhaśīva of ‘reviling such gods, and worshipping **[106]** the bone of a dead body’. Pāṇḍu was greatly scandalised at the news of a petty king so offending the religion of his country, and deputed a valiant and tributary king, named Cittayāna, to bring to Pāṭaliputra Guhaśīva and the bone he worshipped. The lieutenant went to Dantapura, and ‘saw the relic-temple, resplendent with door-posts and the like, made of the sandal wood of Mount Hari, with rows (of images) in coral, of tigers with pendant pearl-strings, with emerald windows, with tinkling bells of gems, with golden (suspended) garlands at its angles; having a spire of gems, (and) a roof lofty and shining with lapis-lazuli; abounding in paintings of sea-monsters—(and) a seat radiant with gems for the relic’.¹⁴ Here again the description is that of a temple, and not of a *dagoba*. Cittayāna beheld the relic with great astonishment and joy, and a miracle immediately after following, became a Buddhist. He nevertheless insisted in obedience to the commands of his master, upon taking the relic and the king to Pāṭaliputra, and Guhaśīva was too weak to oppose him. At Pāṭaliputra the tooth wrought a number of miracles, which the Niganthas attempted to explain by saying, ‘O King! there were in the world various incarnations of Janārdana, such as Rāma and the like; this bone is a part of him. If not, whence such influence as this?’¹⁵ But other miracles followed, and the king, convinced of its divine attributes, became its worshipper.