1956 දඹදිව පුණ්‍ය චාරිකාව - බණ්ඩාර මනතුංග 1998.pdf

Tour of Piety to India in 1956 (1956 දඹදිව පුණ්‍ය චාරිකාව) යනු 1956 වසරේ සම්බුද්ධත්ව ජයන්තිය නිමිත්තෙන් දඹදිව ගොස් තාවකාලිකව පැවිදි දිවියට ඇතුළත් වූ බණ්ඩාර මනතුංග මහතාගේ දිනපොත හා මතක සටහන් ඇසුරින් සකස් වූ කෘතියකි.

නුවරඑළිය බඹරකැලේ ශ්‍රී මහා විහාරවාසීව වැඩවිසූ විදුරුපොල පියතිස්ස මහානායක හිමියන් සහ බෙංගාලි ජාතික බුද්ධරක්ඛිත හිමියන්ගේ ඇසුර ලබමින් දඹදිව සංචාරය කරමින් ලත් අත්දැකීම් මෙහි විස්තර කෙරේ. මෙහි මුල් කටුසටහන ඉංග්‍රීසි බසට පරිවර්තනය කොට සංස්කරණය කරන ලද්දේ මහාචාර්ය අනුර මනතුංග මහතා විසිනි.

දඹදිව බෞද්ධ පුනරුදය හා ශ්‍රී ලාංකික තරුණයකුගේ තාවකාලික පැවිදිභාවය පිළිබඳ ඓතිහාසික හා සමාජවිද්‍යාත්මක තොරතුරු ගවේෂණයට මෙම දිනපොත් සටහන් උපකාරී වේ.

Introduction

It is a pleasant privilege for me to write this short introduction to my father’s work, which attracted my attention for several reasons. His ‘Tour of Piety to India in 1956’ coincided with the revival of Indian Buddhism in 1956 which is a stimulating research topic of the Indologists. The phenomenon of temporary monkhood is being researched by sociologists and students of contemporary Buddhism. This well-documented diary would be a good source material for them as this contains firsthand experience of the practice.

As a student of Indian history, I am familiar with some itineraries and have an idea of their value in historiography. Each of them contained a volume of information on a certain period, a territory, or a subject and enhanced the knowledge of the past to a great extent.

My father was a bachelor of 27 years when he undertook this expedition. Some thirty years later, at the same age, I was in India as a student at Deccan College, Pune. My own experience in India is much more different from that of my father, but I could perceive the value of his work through my studies and understanding of Indian society.

This diary had originally been written in Sinhala except for a page or two. A half of it was translated into English by Ms. Amy de Silva on my request and the remaining pages were translated by the writer himself. Prof. Kamani Jayasekera, at the Department of Western Classics, and Mr. M.A. Buddhadasa, Instructor in English, at the University of Kelaniya, were kind enough to do some editorial work. A limited number of copies of the English translation were published with the title “Tour of Piety” in 1998 when my father was still alive. Prof. A. Atugala and Mr. H.M. Nandasena helped with the preparation of it in the form of photocopies and it was circulated among friends and close associates only. The forward written for it by my father is retained here in this publication. The original Sinhala text was published posthumously as “Nalanda Natabun Athara” [Among Nalanda ruins] by Samanthi published in 2003.

Prof. Sunanda Mahendra and Prof. Hema Goonathilake took a keen interest in this diary and reviewed it for two different publications. I did two research papers based on this diary, one in Rajgir at the Dharma Dhamma conference in 2019 and one at Buddha Gaya in February 2023 at the conference organized by the Bihar Heritage Preservation Society. Dr. Rajat Sanyal of the Department of Archaeology, University of Calcutta whom I met at the Buddha Gaya conference kindly supported me by translating the legend inscribed on the Buddha statue which was brought to Sri Lanka by my father when he returned.

For editing both Sinhala and English versions of the present publication, my daughter Medhavi helped me, and typesetting was done by Miss. Navodi Madhubhashini of the Department of Archaeology. Mr. Rumal Vindula did the final layout of the book. I would like to thank them all, on behalf of my father, who left this diary at my disposal.

Anura Manatunga,
Department of Archaeology,
University of Kelaniya.
02nd May 2024

Foreward

In my hometown Nuwara Eliya, there is a famous temple called Bambarakele Sri Maha Vihara, where the most venerable Vidurupola Piyatissa Maha Nayaka Thero lived. He was then the Maha Nayaka or the chief of the Udarata Amarapura Nikaya, the Kandyan fraternity of the Amarapura Chapter. As a learned and pious monk, his reputation spread far and wide. Hence various people from all over the Island and even from foreign countries often called on him. Rev. Buddharakkhita, an Indian monk of Bengali origin was one of them who stayed there nearly for two years as a pupil of the Maha Nayaka Thera.

I closely associated with both these learned monks as dayaka (lay -custodian) of the temple. Therefore, I had the opportunity to discuss various matters with them and widen my knowledge of Buddhism. On one such occasion, Rev. Buddharakkhita pointed out to me the value of being a monk, even for a short period as it was practiced in Burma and some other countries.

Though this practice is alien to Sri Lanka, I was motivated and induced to enter the order for some time. Rev. Buddharakkhita made some arrangements after he returned to India. He invited me to India to get my intention fulfilled. It coincided with the Buddha Jayanthi, the 2500 years of Lord Buddha’s passing away, which was celebrated by Buddhists all over the world in 1956.

This is a personal diary where I noted down my day-to-day experiences when I was in India. It was not intended to be published and consequently neglected with some other documents for the last four decades. If not for the timely intervention of my son Anura, natural destruction or an eventual disappearance would have been inevitable. He took a keen interest in this and asked me to get it published. My daughter Dhammika is also constantly encouraging me to do so. I would like to take this opportunity to thank them and all the others who persuaded and helped me to get this printed. May the Triple Gem bless them all.

Bandara Mantunga,
National Housing Scheme,
Raddolugama.
15th March 1998