by Dr D. Chandraratna

The important historical fact about the Colonial narrative of Buddhism in Sri Lanka was the ability of Buddhist ideals to survive even when the external political circumstances were highly unfavourable. The Panadura Vadaya signifies in many ways that dogged determination on the part of the educated sangha fraternity to persevere with the struggle, and more importantly in that struggle to delve deeper into scriptures to challenge Christianity at a scholastic level.

When Christianity had state backing it was not surprising for the colonialists to harbour an apocalyptic vision of the eventual triumph of Christianity. Therefore it was not unusual for the Colonial secretary Tennent to assert that the dissociation of the State from Buddhism will only expedite its inevitable decay as Spence Hardy, the Wesleyen missionary, had predicted in his book, The British Government and the Idolatry of Ceylon in 1839.

The educated sangha, on the other hand were acutely aware of the protection that Buddhism needed State patronage to arrest its decline but their pleas to honour the promises made in the Kandyan Convention of 1815 fell on deaf ears. By the middle of the 19th century British authors were cautiously optimistic that ‘Buddhism, shorn of its splendour, unaided by authority, will fall into disuse before Christianity is able to step into its place’ (Forbes, 1839).

The elite Sinhalese Christians like James Alwis while appreciating the colonial powers for propagating Christianity nonetheless lamented that Buddhist decline will erode the language and literature of the Sinhalese which he said is the heritage of Ceylon, maintained mostly by the sangha under whose tutelage even J Alwis acquired his punditry. He wrote that the ‘names of Batuantudawe, Hikkaduwe, Lankagoda, Dodanpahala, Valane, Bentota, Kahave and Weligama amongst a host of others have produced compositions by no means inferior to to those of a Buddhaghosa or a Parakkrama‘. Contrary to the missionary statements and the colonialist assumptions, erudition in Buddhist scriptures and knowledge of Pali, Sanskrit and Sinhalese was no less lacking among the sangha who were many, not the exception.

Monastic (Pirivena) and Missionary education

It was no secret that without state patronage monastic education, which was the mainstay of local knowledge and intelligence, waned drastically. Colebrooke’s insistence on English education with its declared outcomes such as the civilizing potential, secular advantage through state employment, and the pathway to redemption through the Christianizing intent was a blow to vernaculars. It discouraged many to receive the monastic pirivena which was the provider of indigenous language and religious knowledge. Major Davy was correct in his observation in 1815, that in the Kandyan provinces reading and writing is far from the uncommon acquirements and is as general as in England’ (Forbes 1839). But Colebrooke dismissed monastic learning curtly in one sentence. He said, ‘monastic education scarcely merits any notice’. A sub committee of the Legislative Council reported in 1867 that ‘whatever taught is intertwined with error and superstition and if left in the hands of Buddhist and Hindu priests will defeat the aims and objects of all of primary education’.

There was another reason for the neglect and virtual abandonment of Pirivena education in the Kandyan provinces. The Temple Lands Ordinance of 1856 contributed in no small measure to the use of monastic wealth, which earlier was used for pirivena schools, diverted for personal advantage of the incumbent monks. In most places usufruct of the lands became assets to individual monks and not to the institutions that they were in charge. It was noted in the Report of the Commission on the Administration of Buddhist Temporalities that, ‘The Kandyan priesthood lead a life of the careless and sensual…, and the offerings and produce of the lands are devoted for personal enjoyment. C. B Dunuvile, the Diyawadana Nilame and grandson of the Disave of Walapane who signed the Kandyan Convention complained that monks have abandoned their priestly duties and are engaged in temporal pursuits and all but a few are even ignorant of Pali. This statement was given before the Commission by Rambukwelle Sonuttara Thera of the Malwatta Chapter.

The British continued with state assistance to missionary education, as much as the Dutch, right from the beginning with Governor North taking the initiative. A few years into his tenure he wrote to the Colonial Secretary for missionary assistance to education. The Baptists arrived in 1812 and the Wesleyans (1814) and Church of England (1818) and the Americans followed by the London Missionary Society thereafter. In addition the government employed its own colonial chaplains, preachers and catechists in the State Ecclesiastical establishment.

Education no doubt was tied up with diffusion of Christianity and the Schools Commission, the important instrumentality was in the control of the Anglicans. The missionary effort extended beyond mere education for their evangelical zeal was not limited to, ‘making the natives learned men’ but in fact leading them to the Redeemer, i.e., conversion to Christianity. Their greater aim was directed to the larger multitude of ‘heathens’ outside the school, to whom they had to go by taking on the role of the itinerant preacher. John Murdoch set the example by resigning his position as Headmaster of the Government Central School in Kandy. His personal journal reads, ‘I shall require to travel on foot and shelter at night wherever I can; I shall be following the example of the Apostles, yea, of the Saviour Himself’.

Preachers: Christian and Buddhist Styles

The Christians had to face stiff competition from the Buddhists who were skilled preachers from yore. The latter had enduring contacts with the villagers and the missionaries even with state patronage, were handicapped from the start. Their English competency was of no use here. Proficiency in Sinhalese was an absolute necessity. It was an impediment to the foreigner competing with the Buddhist monk who was clearly in a class of his own. The missionary was at times offensive in the use of language and idiom, made worse by the novelty of the Buddhist scriptural content, which he only mastered after arrival in the island.

The complex system of word usage in Sinhala proved virtually an insurmountable hurdle to the foreign missionary. The use of pronouns conjoined with status differentials baffled them no end and often ended up offending the audience. An English author wrote in the preface to the English-Sinhalese dictionary that one Sinhalese singular person equivalent of the term you had fourteen different terms, each in the measure of the status of the person. The missionaries were so confused and virtually gave up by sticking to just one or two, which were less than polite. The word you in addressing a gathering became tho and umbala and the aristocrats in the audience were offended to be addressed as umba or tho in the presence of their subordinates seated alongside. Tho, thopi (you), Varella (come), palayalla (go), karapalla (do) did not please many in the audience. The Buddhist monks consciously avoided all status differentials by the use of the endearing term pinvathni flattering everyone.

To make matters worse the Sinhala translation of the Bible sponsored by the Church missionaries arbitrarily used one simplified term in translating the Sinhala equivalent of you as tho and thopi (meaning thou) was highly offensive to all and sundry. It was on the premise that it followed the simplicity that God had intended. On the use of the pronoun tho, wrote the chief translator Lambrick, ‘to apply tho to a man of respectable class is an actionable offence… a native professor of the Christian community admitted that he shudders whenever he reads that passage where the Devil using the derogatory term tho to our blessed Saviour’. They still retained it in the hope with time it will be weakened and diminished by the ‘mighty power of simplicity and truth’ of the Bible. But after much controversy and ill feeling the church missionaries back tracked and gave into Sinhalese Christians like James Alwis and John Pereira, and a new acceptable version of the Bible appeared in the 1860’s.

The Missionary preachers faced an uphill battle from the outset. Their countenance was problematic. Their unfriendly attitude of superiority, appearance and even personal aloofness were very much unfamiliar to the villager. Most Buddhist villagers therefore refused to attend. The preachers felt it and they complained to the Missions that that they are often taunted, cajoled and met with contempt, opprobrium and laughter. The villagers at times ridiculed the missionaries in demanding payment for attendance or arrack to sit till the end, in the knowledge that Europeans levied heavy taxes on arrack and had a penchant for liquor.

The arrival of the Print word

Religious controversy, proselytization debate and preaching received a boost with the introduction of the printing press. The Dutch firstly established a printing press in 1736 and the Wesleyans under a trained printer Mr. Harvard revived the printing press. They were followed by the Christian Church Mission and Baptists few years later. The Sinhalese Tract Society was organized under John Murdoch in 1849. The missionaries used the press to instruct the Christian believer and furthermore to convert the nominal believer into a devout disciple and in so doing, ‘save the deluded heathen from idolatrous superstition’ of the local faith, seen by the Europeans as ‘a massive evil structure’.

Gogerly, the manager of the Wesleyan Press was convinced that ‘it is by the press that our principal attacks must be made upon this wretched system’. The missionary tracts and pamphlets had an extensive circulation, helped by the fascination of Buddhists to read the printed word. This same development was to assist the Buddhists to counter the Christian effort and retaliate, but with the added benefit of scholarly dialogue and debate for which they were superior to the foreigner. Ultimately it played a major role in the revival of Buddhism and nationalism in the country.

The activities of the missionaries were not taken as a serious matter by the many. The Buddhists in the low country were interested in halting the decline of their religion than competing with the missionaries. Tennent wrote that ‘Active hostility was scarcely visible’ except the enthusiasm to propagate their own religion by erecting ‘banamaduwa’s and holding pinkam’. In fact the low country Sinhalese were quite comfortable with both Buddhism and Christianity having lived through the foreigner and their different faiths for centuries. It was not uncommon for the Sinhala Christians to be tutored by Buddhist monks for whom they showed the greatest respect. In fact many Sinhalese were willing to get their children baptised, with ‘no regard to their worthiness’ as Christians for legalities and secular advancement and also in the hope they become closet Buddhists. The clergy also did not mind fake baptisms in order to bolster the statistics to enhance the incomes to their missions.

(To be continued)