Dictionary of Pali Proper Names v1.c16.1149

v1.c16.1149

Cetiyapabbata.—Also called Cetiyagiri. The later name of the Missaka mountain given on account of its many shrines.¹ Devānampiyatissa built a vihāra there—the second vihāra in Ceylon—for Mahinda and those ordained under him.² The relics, obtained by Sumanasāmaṇera from Asoka and from Sakka, were deposited there until they were needed. According to the Mahāvaṃsa³ this fact was the occasion for the name. One of the eight saplings of the Sacred Bodhi-tree at Anurādhapura was planted in the ārāma on Cetiyagiri.⁴ Mahinda spent the last years of his life on Cetiyagiri and died there, and there his relics were enshrined.⁵ Near the mountain was the village of Dvāramaṇḍala.⁶ Kuṭakaṇṇatissa built an uposatha-hall on the mountain and planted a Bodhi-tree, while Bhātikhābhaya supplied food daily to one thousand monks dwelling there,⁷ and Lañjakatissa had the vihāra paved at a cost of one hundred thousand.⁸ Mahādāṭhikamahānāga made four gateways and a road round the mountain, and held the Giribhaṇḍapūjā with great pomp and ceremony; it is said that in order that the people might approach the mountain with clean feet he spread carpets right up to it from the Kadamba River.⁹ Kanirajānutissa had sixty monks of Cetiyapabbata put to death as traitors by flinging them into the cave called Kaṇira.¹⁰ Vasabha provided four thousand lamps to be lighted on Cetiyagiri,¹¹ while Jeṭṭhatissa gave to the vihāra the income derived from the Kālamattika Taṅk.¹²