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Sunday, 1 May 2016

Lord Buddha Mantra

http://www.awaken.com/2013/03/how-bodhidharma-and-his-buddhism-disappeared-from-tamil-nadu-2/

How Bodhidharma and his Buddhism disappeared from Tamil Nadu?

One Response to How Bodhidharma and his Buddhism disappeared from Tamil Nadu?

1. Nalliah Thayabharan says:

   South India boasted of outstanding
   Buddhist monks, who had made remarkable contributions to Buddhist
   thought and learning. Three of the greatest Pali scholars of this period
   were Buddhaghosa, Buddhadatta, and Dhammapala and all three of them
   were associated with Buddhist establishments in South India..

   South Indian Buddhist monk Thera Buddhaatta lived during the time of
   Accyutarikkanta, the Kalabra ruler of the Cola-Nadu; was a senior
   contemporary of Buddhaghosa. He was born in the Chola kingdom and lived
   in the 5th Century AD. Under the patronage of this ruler, Buddhadatta
   wrote many books. Among his best known Pali writings are the
   Vinaya-Vinicchaya, the Uttara-Vinicchaya and the Jinalankara-Kavya.
   Among the commentaries written by him are the Madhurattha-Vilasini and
   the Abhidhammavatara. In the Abhidhammaratara he gives a glowing account
   at Kaveripattinum, Uragapuram, Bhutamangalam and Kanchipuram and the
   Mahavihara at Anuradapura, (Sri Lanka). While he was at Sri Lanka, he
   composed many Buddhist works such as Uttara-viniccaya Ruparupa Vibhaga
   Jinalankara etc. Buddhaghosha, contemporary of Buddhadatta also composed
   many Buddhist commentaries.

   Buddhaghosha is a South Indian monk, who made a remarkable
   contribution to Buddhism in Sri Lanka. He stayed and studied Buddhist
   precepts at Mahavihara in Anuradhapura. The Visuddhimagga was the first
   work of Buddhaghosha which was written while he was in Sri Lanka.

   After Buddhaghosha, the important Theravada monk from South India was
   Dhammapala. Dhammapala lived in the Mahavihara at Anuradhapura. He
   composed Paramathadipani which was a commentary on Buddhaghosha’s work
   on Khuddaka Nikaya and Paramathamanjusa, which was a commentary on
   Buddhaghosha’s Visuddhimagga. A close study of the three Buddhist monks
   viz Buddhadatta, Buddhaghosha and Dhammapala shows that South Indian
   Buddhists were closely associated with the Sri Lankan Buddhists around
   the 5th century AD.

   The author of Nettipakarana is another Dhammapala who was a resident
   of a monastery in Nagapattinam, another important Buddhist centre from
   ancient times. One more example is the Chola monk Kassapa, in his Pali
   work, Vimatti-Vinodani, this South Indian monk provides interesting
   information about the rise of heretical views in the Chola Sangha and
   the consequent purification that took place. There are so many other
   South Indian monks who are attributed to the Pali works some of them
   were resident at Mayura-rupa-pattana (Mylapore, Madras) along with
   Buddhagosha.

   The South Indian Buddhist monks used Pali languages because the
   Buddha spoke in Magadi Prakrit (Pali). Sanskrit is the sacred language
   of the Hindus, and similarly Pali is considered as the sacred language
   of the Buddhists.

   On the other hand, the well known Tamil Buddhist epics found were
   Manimekalai, Silappadhikaram, Valaiyapathi, Kundalakesi, and Jivaka
   Cintamani. The lost Tamil Buddhist works include the grammar
   Virasoliyam, the Abhidhamma work Siddhantattokai, the panegyric
   Tiruppadigam, and the biography Bimbisara Kada. Manimekalai, a purely
   Buddhist work of the 3rd Sangam period in Tamil literature is the most
   supreme and famous among the Buddhist work done in Tamil. It is a work
   expounding the doctrines and propagating the values of Buddhism.It also
   talks about the South Indian Buddhists in the island/Nagadipa even
   though Manimekalai and Silappathikaram were considered as Tamil literary
   work and not as historical work.

   The Chinese traveller, Tsuan Tsang, wrote that there were around 300
   Sri Lankan monks in the monastery at the Southern sector of Kanchipuram.
   Ancient Kanchipuram, the capital of Tondaimandalam, ruled by the South
   Indian Pallava dynasty, an offshoot of Chola rulers was the major seat
   of Tamil learning and is also known as the city of thousand temples.
   Even Thirukkural, the ancient Tamil couplets/aphorisms celebrated by
   Tamils is based on Buddhist principals. Although Buddhism has become
   almost extinct from South India, it has contributed a great deal to the
   enrichment of South Indian culture and has exerted a significant
   influence, both directly and indirectly, on the South Indian religious
   and spiritual consciousness, present as well as past.

   It is also believed that Bodhidharma who lived during the 5th/6th
   century AD was a South Indian Buddhist monk and the son of a Pallava
   king from Kanchipuram. Bodhidharma had travelled from South India by sea
   to the Far East for the purpose of spreading the Mahayana doctrine,
   transmitting his knowledge of Buddhism and martial arts. According to
   Chinese legend, he also began the physical training of the Shaolin monks
   that led to the creation of Shaolinquan.

   As Buddhism was one of the dominant religions in both South India and
   Sri Lanka, naturally there were very close relations between the two
   regions. The monks from Sri Lanka, too, went across to the South India
   and stayed in the monasteries. The co-operation between the Buddhist
   Sangha of South India and Sri Lanka produced important results which are
   evident in the Pali works of this period`.South Indian Buddhist monks
   were more orthodox than their counterparts in Sri Lanka.

   In Sri Lanka, the Tamil Buddhists who followed Theravada Buddhism
   shared the common places of worship with the Sinhalese, but there were
   also Tamil Buddhists who were following the Mahayana Buddhism and they
   had their own Mahayana temples. There are still some Tamil Mahayana
   Buddhist establishments (Palli) in the east and possibly in the Jaffna
   peninsula. The best known was Velgam Vehera which was renamed
   Rajaraja-perumpalli after the Chola emperor. Another was the
   Vikkirama-Kalamekan-perumpalli.

   It is a historical fact that among the many ancient Buddhist shrines
   in Sri Lanka Velgam Vehera which was renamed Rajaraja-perumpalli, also
   called Natanar Kovil by the present day Tamils stands out as the only
   known example of a `Tamil Vihare or Buddhist Palli` or as an `Ancient
   Buddhist shrine of the Tamil people`. Some of the Tamil inscriptions
   found at the site record donations to this shrine and are dated in the
   reigns of the Chola Kings, Rajaraja and Rajendradeva. The date of the
   original foundation of the vihare was no doubt considerably earlier than
   the reign of King Bhatika Tissa II.

   The situation in South India, however, began to change towards the
   beginning of the 7th Century AD when the rise of Vaishnavism and Saivism
   posed a serious challenge to Buddhism and Jainism. There was a
   significant increase in Hindu/Brahmanical influence and soon the worship
   of Siva and Visnu began to gain prominence. The Buddhist and Jaina
   institutions in South India came under attack when they began to lose
   popular support and the patronage from the rulers.

   Even though today there are no Tamil Buddhists in Sri Lanka, the
   majority of the early Tamils of Sri Lanka (before the 10th century Chola
   invasion) were Buddhists. The ancient Buddhist remains in the North and
   East of Sri Lanka are the remnants left by the Tamil Buddhists and not
   anybody else. They are part of the heritage of Sri Lankan Tamils. Only
   the Buddhist temples, statues and structures build in the recent past
   and present in the North and East can be considered as Sinhala-Buddhist.

   Why does the Sri Lankans believe that the Buddhist sites in Sri Lanka
   belong only to the Sinhalese (Sinhala heritage) and not to the Tamils?
   Why are the Sri Lankans ignorant about the early Tamil Buddhists of Sri
   Lanka and South India? Why do the Sri Lankans think, in Sri Lanka a
   Buddhist should be a Sinhalese and a Hindu should be a Tamil even though
   the Sinhalese worship most of the Hindu/Brahmanical Gods

   Unfortunately, the majority of Sri Lankans are ignorant of their
   ancient past. They think of the ancient past in today’s context.

   Today, the Buddhism in Sri Lanka is monopolized by the Sinhalese and
   they call it Sinhala-Buddhism. The fusion of Sinhala and Buddhism into
   Sinhala-Buddhism took place only in the early 20th century by
   revivalists such as Anagarika Dharmapala. Unfortunately today the Sri
   Lankan Tamils also believe that Buddhism is a Sinhala religion and is
   alien to them, but this was not the case in the early past. Unlike
   today, the Ancient Buddhist/Hindu civilization in Sri Lanka and the
   ancient Pali/Sanskrit place names has nothing to do with the
   ethnicity.In otherwords, the Ancient Buddhist/Hindu heritage and the
   ancient Pali/Sanskrit place names in the North and East of Sri Lanka has
   nothing to do with Sinhala.

   The Tamil politicians, scholars, intellects and the Tamil media
   should take every effort to educate the Sri Lankan Tamils to be aware
   and to understand that Buddhism was a part of Tamil civilization in the
   ancient past. The Tamil politicians should engage in preserving the
   `Tamil heritage’ of North & East of Sri Lanka. The most important
   part of the Tamil Heritage of North & East is its Buddhist and Hindu
   civilization.

   The lost Tamil Buddhism should be restored back in the North &
   East. The erection of new Buddha statues in the North & East should
   be welcomed and the Tamils should consider Buddha also as a part of
   their religion. Just like in Sri Lanka where in every Buddhist temple
   you find Hindu Gods, if you go to India, especially the North, in every
   Hindu temple there is a Buddha statue. There is nothing wrong in having a
   Buddha statue in the Hindu temples. Also, Tamil Buddhist temples should
   come up; Tamils should embrace Buddhist monkhood; Buddhism must be
   taught in Tamil; preaching and worshipping Buddhism in Tamil; Tamil
   Buddhist monks and a Tamil Buddhist Maha Sangam should be formed.

   If there are Tamil speaking Hindus, Christians, and Muslims in Sri
   Lanka today, why cannot there be Tamil speaking Buddhists also? After
   all, we were all Buddhists once upon a time. It all depends on how the
   Tamil leaders and the Tamil media can enlighten the Sri Lankan Tamils to
   understand their ancient past and convince, inspire and persuade them
   to accept Buddhism and the Buddha statues with an open heart and make
   them a part of their belief system.

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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buddhism_amongst_Tamils

Buddhism amongst Tamils

Buddhism amongst Tamils was historically found in Tamilakam and the Jaffna Peninsula.

Contents

• 1 India
  • 1.1 Tamil Nadu
• 2 Sri Lanka
  • 2.1 Jaffna peninsula
  • 2.2 Trincomalee
• 3 See also
• 4 Notes
• 5 References
• 6 Sources
• 7 External links

India

Tamil Nadu

The ancient Tamil Buddhist poem Manimekalai by the poet Chithalai Chathanar is set in the town of Kaveripattanam.^[1][2]

Ancient ruins of a 4th-5th century Buddhist monastery, a Buddha
statue, and a Buddhapada (footprint of the Buddha) were found in another
section of the ancient city, now at Pallavanesvaram.^[3]

The heritage of the town of Nākappaṭṭinam is found in the Burmese historical text of the 3rd century BCE, and gives evidences of a Budha Vihar built by the great Ashoka.

Nākappaṭṭinam was a Buddhist centre of the 4th-5th century CE. Its stupa
dates from this era. Buddhism disappeared from this city as of an
unknown date, but was revided as of the 9th century. (H.P.Ray, The Winds
of Change, Delhi 1994, p. 142) In the 11th century, Chudamani Vihara was built by the Javanese king Sri Vijaya Soolamanivarman with the patronage of Raja Raja Chola I.^[4]
The “Animangalam Copperplate” of Kulothungachola notes that “Kasiba
Thera” [Buddhist Monk] renovated the Buddhist temple in the 6th century
with the help of Buddhist monks of “Naga Nadu“.
This “nagar annam vihar” later came to be known as “Nagananavihar.
Buddhism flourished until the 15th century and the buildings of the
vihara survived until the 18th century.

Kanchipuram is one of the oldest cities in South India, and was a city of learning for Tamil, Sanskrit, and Pali and was believed to be visited by Xuanzang.
He visited the city in the 7th century and said that this city was 6
miles in circumference and that its people were famous for bravery and
piety as well as for their love of justice and veneration for learning.
He further recorded that Gautama Buddha had visited the place. It was during the reign of the Pallava dynasty from the 4th to the 9th centuries that Kanchipuram
attained its limelight. The city served as the Pallava capital, and
many of the known temples were built during their reign. According to
Tamil tradition, the founder of Zen, Bodhidharma was born here,^{[5][6][note 1]}. Great Buddhist scholars such as Dignāga, Buddhaghosa, and Dhammapala lived here too.

Sri Lanka

Jaffna peninsula

Jaffna Naga Vihara

9th Century Buddhist Stupas^[9] of Kadurugoda Vihara in Kandarodai, Jaffna Peninsula.

The Ancient Nagadeepa Purana Viharaya,^[10] near the Nagapooshani Amman Kovil, Nainativu

Nāka Tivu/ Nāka Natu was the name of the whole Jaffna Peninsula
in some historical documents. There are number of Buddhist myths
associated with the interactions of people of this historical place with
Buddha.^[11] This Nagadeepa Purana Viharaya was located close to the ancient Nainativu Nagapooshani Amman Temple of Nainativu, one of the Shakti Peethas.^[12][13]
The word Naga was sometimes written in early inscriptions as Nāya, as
in Nāganika - this occurs in the Nanaghat inscription of 150 BCE.

The famous Vallipuram Buddha statue built with Dravidian sculptural traditions from Amaravathi village, Guntur district
(Amaravati school) was found in excavations below the Hindu Temple. The
language of the inscription is Tamil-Prakrit, which shares several
similarities with script inscriptions used in Andhra at the time, when
the Telugu Satavahana dynasty was at the height of its power and its 17th monarch Hāla (20-24 CE) married a princess from the island.^[14][15]
Peter Schalk writes, “Vallipuram has very rich archaeological remains
that point at an early settlement. It was probably an emporium in the
first centuries AD. […] From already dated stones with which we compare
this Vallipuram statue, we can conclude that it falls in the period 3-4
century AD. During that period, the typical Amaravati-Buddha sculpture
was developed.”^[16] The Buddha statue found here was given to King of Thailand by the then British Governor Henry Blake in 1906.^{[citation needed]}

Indrapala argued for a flourishing pre-Christian buddhist
civilization in Jaffna, in agreement with Paranavithana, and Mudliyar C.
Rasanayakam, Ancient Jaffna in an earlier work, 1965.

This place is similar to Nagapatnam
where all Asian vessels used it as a stopover point and the Buddhist
and Hindu Dagobas are just a resting and worshipping places for the
sailors and international traders.^{[citation needed]} .

A group of Dagobas situated close together at the Kadurugoda Vihara site in Kandarodai served as a monastery for Tamil monks^{[citation needed]} and reflect the rise in popularity of Mahayana Buddhism amongst Jaffna Tamils and the Tamils of the ancient Tamil country in the first few centuries of the common era before the revivalism of Hinduism amongst the population.^[9]

Trincomalee

Thiriyai is referred to as Thalakori in the 2nd century AD map of Ptolemy. Pre-Christian-Buddhist Tamil Brahmi^{[citation needed]}
inscriptions have been found in the area, the oldest belonging to the
2nd century BCE. Thiriyai formed a prominent village of Jaffna’s Vannimai
districts in the medieval period. The site is home to Mahayana Buddhist
vatadage ruins worshipped by the locals during the rise of Tamil
Buddhism^{[citation needed]} in the area. During Paramesvaravarman I’s reign, the famous Tiriyai Pallava Grantha inscriptions of 7th-8th century Tamilakkam were recorded in the village.^{[citation needed]} The inscription refers to Tamil merchant mariners from Tamil Nadu,^{[citation needed]} their seafaring and commerce to Trincomalee.^{[17][better source needed]} It details their endowment of this shrine dedicated to the Buddhist deity Avalokitesvara and his consort Tara.^{[citation needed]} Dvarapala sculptures found at the ruins are early contributions of the Pallava school of art to the island.^{[citation needed]}

The Chola Dynasty
patronised several religions amongst Tamils, including Saivism,
Vaishnavism and Buddhism. They built Buddhist temples known as
“Perrumpallis”.^{[citation needed]} In the eleventh century the Velgam Vehera of Periyakulam was renovated and renamed by the Cholas as Rajarajaperumpalli after they conquered the Anuradhapura and established their rule in Polonnaruwa.^[18] Tamil inscriptions excavated from this site point to the attention the Cholas paid to the development of Trincomalee District
as a strong Saiva Tamil principality and for their contributions to the
upkeep of several shrines including the monumental Shiva Koneswaram temple of Trincomalee.^[19]

See also

• Manimekalai
• Kundalakesi

Notes

1. 
   

1. Little contemporary biographical information on Bodhidharma is extant, and subsequent accounts became layered with legend.^[7] There are three principal sources for Bodhidharma’s biography.^[8]None of them mentions specifically Tamil Nadu, only “the western regions” and “Souther India”. See Bodhidharma#Birthplace sources for an extensive overview of possible origins, and the reliability of the sources provided for these possible origins.

References

1. 
   

Rao Bahadur Krishnaswāmi Aiyangar, Maṇimekhalai in its Historical Setting, London, 1928. Available at www.archive.org [1]

Hisselle Dhammaratana,Buddhism in South India, Buddhist Publication Society, Kandy, 1964. Available on Buddhist Publication Society Online Library [2]

Marine archaeological explorations of Tranquebar-Poompuhar region on Tamil Nadu coast., Rao, S.R.. Journal of Marine Archaeology, Vol. II, July 1991, pp. 6. Available online at [3]

“Archived copy” (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 8 February 2007. Retrieved 2006-10-16.

Kambe & year unknown.

Zvelebil 1987, p. 125-126.

McRae 2003.

Dumoulin 2005, p. 85-90.

Schalk, Peter (2002). Buddhism among Tamils in pre-colonial Tamilakam and Īlam: Prologue. The Pre-Pallava and the Pallava period, Uppsala: Upplala Universitet; pp. 1

http://www.buddhanet.net/sacred-island/nagadipa.html

Malalasekera, G.P. (2003). Dictionary of Pali Proper Names: Pali-English. Asian Educational Services. p. 42. ISBN 81-206-1823-8.

Laura
Smid (2003). South Asian folklore: an encyclopedia: Afghanistan,
Bangladesh, India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka. Great Britain: Routledge. 429.

Chelvadurai
Manogaran (1987). Ethnic conflict and reconciliation in Sri Lanka.
United States of America: University of Hawaii Press. 21.

Ponnampalam Ragupathy. (1987). Early settlements in Jaffna: an archaeological survey. pp. 183

Schalk, Peter (2002). Buddhism among Tamils in pre-colonial Tamilakam and Īlam: Prologue. The Pre-Pallava and the Pallava period. pp.151

Schalk, Peter. “The Vallipuram Buddha Image”. Tamilnation.org. Retrieved 2013-01-10. Vallipuram
has very rich archaeological remains that point at an early settlement.
It was probably an emporium in the first centuries AD. […] From already
dated stones with which we compare this Vallipuram statue, we can
conclude that it falls in the period 3-4 century AD. During that period,
the typical Amaravati-Buddha sculpture was developed.

Meera Abraham (1988). Two medieval merchant guilds of south India. Manohar Publications. pp. 136

“Velgamvehera”. Department of Archaeology. Retrieved 17 April 2017.

19. Peter
    Schalk, Ālvāppillai Vēluppillai. Buddhism among Tamils in pre-colonial
    Tamilakam and Īlam: Prologue. The Pre-Pallava and the Pallava period,
    Page 157-159.

Sources

• Kambe, Tstuomu, Bodhidharma. A collection of stories from Chinese literature (PDF)
• McRae, John R. (2000), “The Antecedents of Encounter Dialogue in Chinese Ch’an Buddhism”, in Heine, Steven; Wright, Dale S., The Kōan: Texts and Contexts in Zen Buddhism, Oxford University Press
• Zvelebil, Kamil V. (1987), “The Sound of the One Hand”, Journal of the American Oriental Society, Journal of the American Oriental Society, Vol. 107, No. 1, 107 (1): 125–126, doi:10.2307/602960, JSTOR 602960

External links

• THE VALLIPURAM BUDDHA IMAGE

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