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Buddha and the Seven Gods: The Dual Organization of a Temple in Central Ceylon

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 March 2011

Hans-Dieter Evers
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Extract

Theravāda Buddhism has during the past century been an annoyance to scholars who tried to find a general and crossculturally valid definition of religion. Durkheim refuted Frazer's minimal definition of religion being “the belief in Spiritual Beings” solely on the grounds of the notable exception of Theravāda Buddhism. He based his argument that “the idea of gods is absent, or at least, … plays only a secondary and minor role” mainly on the now classic work of Oldenberg, “Buddha, his Life, his Doctrine, his Community,” published originally in 1881. The same book was also used extensively by Max Weber who asked himself whether a system of “ethics without God” and “with absolute indifference towards the question whether gods do exist or not and how they exist” could be called a “religion.”

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Articles
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The Journal of Asian Studies , Volume 27 , Issue 3 , May 1968 , pp. 541 - 550
Copyright
Copyright © Association for Asian Studies, Inc. 1968

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References

1 Durkheim, Emile, The Elementary Forms of Religious Life, New York: Collier, 1961, p. 451.Google Scholar

2 Weber, Max, Gesammelte Aufsaetze zur Religionssoziologie, Vol. 2, Tuebingen: J.C.B. Mohr, 1963, 220.Google Scholar

3 The Tripitaka of course abounds with references to gods, demons and ghosts. Connections with the present religious system in Theravāda countries could easily be established.

4 Sarkisyanz, E., Buddhist Backgrounds of the Burmese Revolution, The Hague: Martinus Nijhoff, 1965, p. XI.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

5 Spiro, Melford E., “Religion: Problems of Definition and Explanation,” in Anthropological Approaches to the study of Religion, Banton, M., ed., A.S.A. Monographs Vol. 3, London: Travistock 1966, 94Google Scholar. For the case of Burma see Mendelson, E. Michael, “Observations on a Tour in the Region of Mount Popa, Central Burma,” France-Asie, No. 179 (1963) 780–807Google Scholar; Nash, Manning, The Golden Road to Modernity, New York: John Wiley, 1965Google Scholar, Chapters 4 and 5; for Thailand see Wales, H. G. Quaritch, Siamese State Ceremonies, London: Bernard Quaritch, 1931Google Scholar; for Leclére, Cambodia Adhemard, Le Buddhisme au Cambodge, Paris: Ernest Leroux, 1899Google Scholar; for LeBar, Laos Frank M. and Suddard, Adrienne (eds.), Laos, Its People, Its Society, Its Culture, New Haven: HRAF Press, 1960, pp. 44–46.Google Scholar

6 Ames, Michael M., “Magical Animism and Buddhism: A Structural Analysis of the Sinhalese Religious System,” Journal of Asian Studies, XXIII (1964), 21–51CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Bechert, Heinz, Buddhismus, Staat und Gesellschaft in den Laendern des Theravāda-Buddhismus, Vol. 1, Frankfurt a.M.: Alfred Metzner Verlag, 1966Google Scholar; Evers, Hans-Dieter, “Die soziale Organisation der singhalesischen Religion,” Koelner Zeitschrift fuer Soziologie und Sozialpsychologie, 16 (1964), 314–26Google Scholar; Evers, Hans-Dieter, “Sinhalese Religious Organization in Central Ceylon,”Google Scholar Paper read at the International Conference on Ceylon, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, 1967Google Scholar (Mimeographed); Obeyesekere, Gananath, “The Buddhist Pantheon in Ceylon and Its Extensions,” in Anthropological Studies in Theravāda Buddhism, Manning Nash et. al., New Haven: Yale Southeast Asia Studies, Cultural Report Series No. 13, 1966, pp. 1–26.Google Scholar

7 Translation of the inscriptions and land grant-copperplates according to Paranavitana, S., “Lankātilaka Inscriptions,” University of Ceylon Review, 18 (1960), 1–45Google Scholar. For further historical details see Hocart, A. M., “The Kandy Laṅkātilaka,” Memoirs of the Archaeological Survey of Ceylon, Vol. 2, Colombo: Government Printer, 1926, 18–21Google Scholar and S. Paranavitana's paragraph on Laṅkātilaka in Ray, H. C. (ed.), History of Ceylon, Vol. I, Part II, Colombo: Ceylon University Press, 1960, 782–784.Google Scholar

8 Copperplate B1, Sinhalese rock inscription of Bhuvanaikabāhu, IV, line 4.

9 Copperplate B 4–5.

10 S. Paranavitana discusses the religious history of god Upulvan in his The Shrine of Upulvan at Devundara, Memoirs of the Archaeological Survey of Ceylon, Vol. VI, Colombo: Ceylon Government, 1953.Google Scholar

11 Legal aspects are discussed in Woodhouse, G. W., “‘Sissiyánu Sissia Paramparáwa’ and other laws relating to Buddhist Priests in Ceylon,” Ceylon Antiquary and Literary Register, 3 (1917–1918), pp. 174–86, 281–90Google Scholar, and in Bechert, , op. cit.Google Scholar, Chapter 25. For a sociological analysis of the system based on field research see Evers, Hans-Dieter, “Kinship and Property Rights in a Buddhist Monastery in Central Ceylon,” American Anthropologist,—69 (December 1967)Google Scholar; Evers, Hans-Dieter, “Some Comparative Notes on the Organization of the Sangha in Ceylon and Siam,” Social Science Review, Bangkok, 4, Special issue (1966), 95–99Google Scholar; and Evers, Hans-Dieter, “The Buddhist Sangha in Ceylon and Thailand—A Comparative Study of Large-Scale Organizations in Two Non-industrial Societies,” Sociologus, Berlin, 18 (1968).Google Scholar

12 Sinhalese rock inscription of Bhuvanaikabāhu IV, line 20.

13 Bechert, op. cit., p. 232Google Scholar, Evers, Hans-Dieter, “Buddhism and British Colonial Policy, in Ceylon, 1815–1875,” Asian Studies, Quezon City, 2 (1964) 321–333.Google Scholar

14 The rājakāriya and land tenure system in the Kandyan period of Ceylonese history is discussed in Pieris, Ralph, Sinhalese Social Organisation, Colombo: Ceylon University Press Board, 1956.Google Scholar

15 Religious beliefs can lead to the formation of groups in some areas. This is, however, not due to differences between Buddhism and its complimentary religion. See Yalman, Nur, “Dual Organization in Central Ceylon,” in: Anthropological Studies in Theravāda Buddhism, op. cit., pp. 197–223Google Scholar. The impact of Western education and Buddhist modernism has tended to transform Sinhalese society into a “dual society” with different religious cultures. The political events have tended to bridge the split, at least temporarily. This point is further discussed in H. N. Weiler, Hans-Dieter Evers, Th. Hanf, D. Bernstorff, Erxiehungswesen im sozialen Wandel, Freiburg: Verlag Rombach, 1962.Google Scholar

16 Sinhalese rituals have been analyzed recently by Ames, Michael, “Ritual Prestations and the Structure of the Sinhalese Pantheon,” in Anthropological Studies in Theravāda Buddhism, op. cit., pp. 27–50Google Scholar; Gombrich, Richard, “The Consecration of a Buddhist Image,” Journal of Asian Studies, XXVI (1966), pp. 23–36CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Obeyesekere, G., “The Structure of a Sinhalese Ritual,” Ceylon Journal of Historical and Social Studies, 1 (1958)Google Scholar, Seneviratne, H. L., “The Äsala Perahära in Kandy,” Ceylon Journal of Historical and Social Studies, 6 (1963), 169–80Google Scholar; Yalman, Nur, “The Structure of Sinhalese Healing Rituals,” Journal of Asian Studies, XXIII (1964), 115–50.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

17 A Buddha pujāva at the Dāḷada Māḷigāva is described by Hocart, A.M., Temple of the Tooth in Kandy, London: Lusac, 1931, pp. 18–31.Google Scholar

18 This term was suggested to me by Wolfram Eberhard.

19 A sophisticated discussion of this point with emphasis on symbols and myths is found in Leach, E. R., “Pulleyar and the Lord Buddha: An Aspect of Religious Syncretism in Ceylon,” Psychoanalysis and Psychoanalytic Review, 49 (1962) 80–102Google ScholarPubMed. See also Ames, Michael M., “Buddha and the Dancing Goblins: A Theory of Magic and Religion,” American Anthropologist, 66 (1963), 75–82.CrossRefGoogle Scholar