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| The 'ruins of the 'Alms Hall'. |
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| The representation of foot-prints on stone which was the focal point of the assembly of monks in the hall. |
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| The stylized 'foot-print' with an umbrella over it, chiseled in stone formed the center of worship in the alms hall. |
Since Lord Buddha attained 'Nibbana' - nothingness, followers of Lord Buddha's teaching did not have a statue of him in early Buddhism. He was represented by a figure of a 'Bo tree', foot-prints, an umbrella, an empty chair or a 'chamara'. The statue or 'Pratima' came into use after the second century AD. Thus you see this symbol being used in the Mahavihara 'Alms Hall'.
The city of Anuradha was founded in the 5th century BCE and
remained the capital of Sri Lanka for 1400 years. The city is surrounded by
four large reservoirs the largest of which is the Nuvaravava. The Tissavava now
provides the modern city of Anuradhapura with its drinking water. All the
reservoirs are fed by a channel constructed in the 4th century CE which leads
water from the Kalavapi River about 50 miles from the city. Like Lhasa, Kyoto,
Xian and several other ancient Buddhist capitals, Anuradhapura was a city
surrounded by and to some degree dwarfed by a number of huge monasteries and
several other smaller ones. The history of Buddhism in Sri Lanka up to the 13th
century is to a very large extent the history of Anuradhapura's three great
monasteries: the Mahavihara, the Abhayagiri and the Jetavana. The Mahavihara or
Great Monastery was founded by Venerable Mahinda himself and Theravadins in Sri
Lanka, Burma, Thailand, Laos and Cambodia even today subscribe to the
Mahavihara's interpretation of the Pali Tipitaka.
The ruins of the Mahavihara
consist of a collection of 13 complexes covering a wide area. Unfortunately in
the 19th century the town of Anuradhapura was built mainly over these ruins and
many of them were damaged. In about the year 249 a new teaching from India
called the Vetullavada was being enthusiastically advocated at the Abhayagiri.
Some 300 of its monks disagreed so strongly with certain of the principles of
this new teaching that they broke away and formed themselves into a new sect
called the Sagalikas after their leader Sagala, a renowned scholar. King
Mahasena appropriated some land owned by the Mahavihara and built these monks a
monastery which was named Jetavana after the famous monastery in Savatthi where
the Buddha used to live. The Jetavana stupa was the biggest ever built anywhere
and their image house was the most impressive ever built in Sri Lanka. It seems
that the Sagalikas were more liberal that the Mahaviharans but not as radical
as the Abhayagiri.
The Refectory
Leaving the Brazen Palace and proceeding north along the path the pilgrim will
see the foundations of a building off to the right. This is the remains of one
of the Mahavihara's several refectories. With so many monks around Anuradhapura
it was simply impossible for them all to be sustained by begging for alms so
each monastery usually had huge dining rooms like this one below. Monks who
were entitled to eat in such places were issued with wooden ration tickets.
A rice boat in the
refectory
The main entrance leads to a
large paved rectangular courtyard which was originally surrounded by a pillared
verandah under which monks used to sit, probably on mats on the floor or on
wooden benches. Note the drains where there would have been facilities for the
monks to wash their bowls and their hands after their meals. Against the east
wall of the refectory is a huge stone trough made of several pieces of stone so
finally finished that they fit together perfectly. In the Mahavamsa such
troughs are called rice boats. Steaming rice was tipped into these troughs and
then doled out to monks as they lined up and walked passed with their bowls. It
has been calculated that this particular trough would have held enough rice to
fill 3,800 bowls.
