From the Living Fountains of Buddhism

228 Pages·2016·1.68 MB·English

the INTRODUCTION to
FROM THE LIVING FOUNTAINS
OF
BUDDHISM

Sri Lankan Support to Pioneering Western Orientalists
by
ANANDA W. P. GURUGE

originally published by
The Ministry of Cultural Affairs
Colombo 7, Sri Lanka

cover photograph:
Ven Hikkaḍuwe Śrī Sumaṅgala
holding a class at Vidyodaya College
circa 1900s
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“We Europeans must, of course, stand in need of such help
as we are so far from the living fountains of Buddhism
and so scantily furnished with materials.”

– Viggo Fausböll
in his letter to
Ven. Waskaḍuwe Subhūti Nāyaka Thera
on 14th March 1877.
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“The Western World discovered Pali, and the Buddhist scriptures
barely a hundred years ago; Sri Lanka again provided the most
material. It was George Turnour’s discovery and translation of the
Mahā Vansa, in 1837, which helped scholars working in India to
identify King Piyadassi of the inscriptions, which they were trying to
decipher, with King Asoka of history. Subsequent advance was made
comparatively easy.

‘Vincent Fausböll translated the Dhammapada in 1855 and Robert
Caesar Childers, a member of the Ceylon Civil Service as was
Turnour, published a Pali-English Dictionary in 1870. They were
given considerable help by the Sinhalese Bhikkhus, especially
Subhūti and Dhammarama.

Dr. Rhys Davids, another member of the Ceylon Civil Service,
founded the Pali Text Society in 1881, and with the help of his wife,
gradually unveiled to the Western World, the unique and original
literature contained in the Buddhist scriptures.”

His Excellency J. R. Jayewardene – President of the Democratic
Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka: BUDDHIST ESSAYS (First Edition
1942) Fifth Revised Edition 1983: Chapter VI. Page 39.
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Table of Contents

I - The Background
1. An Untapped Source of Historical Information
2. The Theme and the Title
3. Structure and Synopsis
4. Leading Lights of the Golden Age of Buddhist and Oriental Scholarship
5. The Need to Fill Lacunae in our Knowledge of National Figures

II – Ven. Waskaḍuwe Śrī Subhūti
1. What Little We Knew
2. An Acknowledged Friend of the Pioneering Orientalists
3. Charming Vignettes of a Scholar-Monk’s Life
4. Contribution as Author, Teacher and Researcher
5. Social and Human Relations

III – Ven. Weligama Śrī Sumaṅgala
1. Meagre Information
2. Close Co-operation with Anagārika Dharmapāla
3. Mission and Achievements

IV – Illustrious Contemporaries
1. Ven. Hikkaḍuwe Śrī Sumaṅgala
2. Remarkable Teacher-Pupil Dyad of Sarasvati-maṇḍapa
3. Ven. Yātrāmulle Śrī Dhammārāma Thera
4. The Supporting Intellectual Base
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V – Ven. Polwatte Ambalangoḍa Śrī Buddhadatta
1. Unique Background and Early Start
2. Ven. Buddhadatta as I knew him
3. The End of a Golden Era

VI – “The Glories of the Ceylon Civil Service”
1. The Tradition of Scholarship
2. Beginnings of Western Interest in Pali and Buddhist Studies

VII. Prof. Robert Childers
1. All too brief a life
2. The First Ever Pali Dictionary in Europe
3. A Pali Dictionary or An Encyclopaedia of Buddhism?
4. Childer’s Efforts in Pali Composition
5. Childers and his Critics

VIII – The Rhys Davids of Indomitable Courage
1. “We grow by all such”
2. Mrs. Caroline A. F. Rhys Davids
3. Pali Text Society and the Buddhist Saṅgha of Sri Lanka

IX – Popularizers of Buddhism in the West
1. Friends and Admirers of Buddhism
Henry Steele Olcott
Paul Carus
Count Angelo Gubernatis
Bhikkhu Ānanda Metteyya, Earnest Rost and Francis J. Payne
2. Sir Edwin Arnold (1832–1904)
3. Henry Clarke Warren (1854–1899)
4. Frank Lee Woodward (1871–1952)
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X – Beyond Buddhism to a Wider Concept of Oriental Learning
1. Catholicity of Oriental Learning
2. Wilhelm Geiger (1856–1943)
3. A Dictionary of the Sinhalese Language

XI – State Patronage to Oriental Studies
1. Institutional Arrangements to Foster the Study of Ancient Culture
2. Sir Robert (later Lord) Chalmers (1858–1938)
3. Since 1942
4. Buddha Jayanti and its aftermath

XII – Conclusion
1. The Message
2. Apologies
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Note to the Digital Edition

One of the real untold stories in the development of Buddhism in the
West has been the immense help that the early Western scholars
received from their Eastern counterparts, who were nearly all members
of the Saṅgha, which has been preserving and passing on the teaching of
the Buddha for the past 2,500 years.

Prof. Guruge has done a veritable service to us all, not least his
countrymen and the Saṅgha in making this material available, and it
deserves a much wider reading public than it has received so far, which
is the reason behind preparing this digital edition.

For now I reproduce here just the Introduction of this book, which in
itself amounts to well over 200 pages. The letters, which included
facsimiles, took up more than 450 pages, but most of the information
that can be gleaned from them was summarised in the Introduction.

The first half of the Introduction throws light on some of the main Sri
Lankan scholars who were the source of much of the information and
even interpretation of early Buddhism received by these pioneer
workers in the field, and provides short biographies or vignettes of their
lives.

The second half does the same for the Western scholars themselves,
giving short biographies and bibiliographies of their major works,
which has gone so far in introducing Buddhism to a Western public.

In preparing the work, noting what Prof. Guruge himself says about
presentation towards the end of the Introduction, I have made some
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small changes that mainly affect consistency and the way diacritics are
used in the text.

I have also occasionally added explanatory notes and other materials
when they serve to better illustrate the texts presented, and in this
regard I have also transliterated the Sinhala text, when it occurs, so as
make it intelligible to a non-Sinhala reading audience.

The text was first scanned and then a rather poor quality OCR was
made of it. This was passed to Donny Hacker who did the major work
of correcting the text. I have then read the whole thing through myself,
making final corrections, and whatever editorial decisions were
necessary.

I hope this work will go some way to helping people understand the
dedicated work of generations of monks and scholars who remained
quietly in the background preparing the way for the introduction of
Buddhism to a Western public so that we in the future could benefit
from their endeavour.

Ānandajoti Bhikkhu
June 2016
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Introduction

I - The Background

1. An Untapped Source of Historical Information

[xiii] Much against the advice of his departmental superiors and amidst
many administrative obstacles placed in his way by them, the young and
enthusiastic Member-Secretary of the Historical Manuscripts
Commission – Amarawaṁsa Dewarāja – undertook, nearly two decades
ago, a self-imposed assignment, whose significance was not very clear
to many people at that time. He ransacked the temple libraries and
private collections for letters and documents which, he was convinced,
could add to our knowledge and understanding of the socio-political
and cultural evolution of Sri Lanka in recent times. He was particularly
interested in ascertaining the role of number of leading scholar-monks,
who, during the last one hundred years, had contributed not only to the
renaissance of Sinhala Buddhist culture within the shores of our Island
but, equally importantly, to the promotion of the development of
Buddhist and Oriental studies abroad.

The Saṅgha of Sri Lanka has been renowned for this dual function
throughout our history. The Saṅgha had, in each epoch, produced some
of the greatest national heroes and their service had been in a triple role
of scholar-missionary-educator. Would this be true of the monks of the
recent past, Dewarāja wished to find out.

He was very pleased with what he found. But all he could do was to
have the vast collection of private letters carefully photocopied, neatly