Dictionary of Pali Proper Names v1.c24.315

v1.c24.315

**1. Dhammaruci.**—One of the heterodox sects of Ceylon which branched off from the Theravāda.¹ According to the Nikāya Saṅgraha² this secession took place four hundred and fifty-four years after the death of the Buddha, and in the fifteenth year of the reign of Vaṭṭagāmaṇi Abhaya. The Nikāya Saṅgraha gives an account of the origin of this sect. A monk called Mahā-Tissa, incumbent of Abhayagiri, was convicted of living in domestic intercourse and expelled by the Mahāvihāra fraternity. He thereupon left with his followers and lived apart at Abhayagiri. They were strengthened by the arrival of some monks from Pallarārāma in South India, descendants of the Vajjiputtakas. Their teacher was Dhammaruci, and when they joined the Abhayagiri monks, Mahā-Tissa himself took the name of Dhammaruci and his followers became known as Dhammarucikas. The Mahāvaṃsa Ṭīkā³ says that Dhammarucika was the name given to the monks of Abhayagiri when they seceded from the Mahāvihāra, and gives elsewhere⁴ the points on which they differed from the Theravādins. These points concerned minor teachings of the Vinaya. The Dhammarucikas became active in the time of Meghavaṇṇābhaya, and the king, after an enquiry into the matter, sent sixty of them into exile. They again became powerful in the time of Mahāsena, through the influence of Saṅghamitta, and almost succeeded in destroying the Mahāvihāra. But this disaster was averted by the intervention of the king's friend and counsellor, Meghavaṇṇābhaya, and Saṅghamitta was killed by one of the queens.⁵