33-506: The Mirisaweti Stupa ( Sinhala : මිරිසවැටිය , Mirisavæṭiya ) is a memorial building, a stupa , situated in the ancient city of Anuradhapura , Sri Lanka. King Dutugamunu (161 BC to 137 BC) built the Mirisaveti Stupa after defeating King Elara . After placing the Buddha's relics in the sceptre , he had gone to Tissa Wewa for a bath leaving the sceptre. After the bath, he returned to
66-783: A supposed former abundance of lions on the island. According to the chronicle Mahāvaṃsa , written in Pali, Prince Vijaya of the Vanga Kingdom and his entourage merged in Sri Lanka with later settlers from the Pandya kingdom . In the following centuries, there was substantial immigration from Eastern India, including additional migration from the Vanga Kingdom (Bengal), as well as Kalinga and Magadha . This influx led to an admixture of features of Eastern Prakrits. The development of Sinhala
99-653: A Dravidian origin for this word. ), dola for pig in Vedda and offering in Sinhala. Other common words are rera for wild duck, and gala for stones (in toponyms used throughout the island, although others have also suggested a Dravidian origin). There are also high frequency words denoting body parts in Sinhala, such as olluva for head, kakula for leg, bella for neck and kalava for thighs, that are derived from pre-Sinhalese languages of Sri Lanka. The oldest Sinhala grammar, Sidatsan̆garavā , written in
132-433: A building or structure in Sri Lanka is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . Sinhala language Sinhala ( / ˈ s ɪ n h ə l ə , ˈ s ɪ ŋ ə l ə / SIN -hə-lə, SING -ə-lə ; Sinhala: සිංහල , siṁhala , [ˈsiŋɦələ] ), sometimes called Sinhalese ( / ˌ s ɪ n ( h ) ə ˈ l iː z , ˌ s ɪ ŋ ( ɡ ) ə ˈ l iː z / SIN -(h)ə- LEEZ , SING -(g)ə- LEEZ ),
165-525: A large dāgäba despite the warnings recorded in the Mahāvaṃsa : " If our king shall begin to build so great a stupa, death will come upon him ere the stupa be finished; moreover, so great a stupa will be hard to repair ". ( Mhv . 29.52–53). The oldest reference to restoration works about two hundred fifty years after the initial construction of the Mirisavetiya refers to Gajabāhu I ( c. 114 –136 AD) who
198-582: A new dāgäba with bricks and layers of reinforced cement began at the spot where the Mirisavetiya Dāgäba used to be, again supervised by Roland Silva, the Archaeological Commissioner. The new dāgäba , that represented the fourth attempt at restoration, was ceremonially unveiled on 4 June 1993, the Poson full moon day. Although the archaeologists had wished not to plaster the newly built Stūpa, it
231-722: A period of prior bilingualism: "The earliest type of contact in Sri Lanka, not considering the aboriginal Vedda languages, was that which occurred between South Dravidian and Sinhala. It seems plausible to assume prolonged contact between these two populations as well as a high degree of bilingualism. This explains why Sinhala looks deeply South Dravidian for an Indo-Aryan language. There is corroboration in genetic findings." In addition to many Tamil loanwords , several phonetic and grammatical features also present in neighbouring Dravidian languages set modern spoken Sinhala apart from its Northern Indo-Aryan relatives. These features are evidence of close interactions with Dravidian speakers. Some of
264-465: A third attempt was undertaken to renovate the Mirisavetiya Dāgäba. It was done through the efforts of a Stūpa Development Society with the help of the Department of Archaeology under the supervision of Roland Silva (1933–2020), Archaeological Commissioner and Director-General, Cultural Triangle. The restoration attempt ended with the sudden collapse of the newly renovated Mirisavetiya Dāgäba on 24 June 1987,
297-413: A variety of factors, such as lack of maintenance and defective building materials. The Mirisavetiya Dāgäba shared the same fate of being totally overgrown. As already mentioned above, dāgäba s needs to be restored at regular intervals. Henry Parker visited Anurādhapura for the first time in 1873 and recorded that the Mirisavetiya was little more than a conical mound covered with large trees and bushes, all
330-473: Is a conspicuous example of the linguistic phenomenon known as diglossia . Sinhala ( Siṁhala ) is a Sanskrit term; the corresponding Middle Indo-Aryan ( Eḷu ) word is Sīhala . The name is a derivative of [[[:wikt:सिंह|siṁha]]] Error: {{Transliteration}}: transliteration text not Latin script ( help ) , the Sanskrit word for 'lion'. The name is sometimes glossed as 'abode of lions', and attributed to
363-584: Is an Indo-Aryan language primarily spoken by the Sinhalese people of Sri Lanka , who make up the largest ethnic group on the island, numbering about 16 million. Sinhala is also spoken as the first language by other ethnic groups in Sri Lanka, totalling about 2 million speakers as of 2001. It is written using the Sinhala script , which is a Brahmic script closely related to the Grantha script of South India. Sinhala
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#1732855074605396-435: Is credited with the making of a mantling for the dāgäba . About one hundred years later the chattrāvalī was restored by Vohārikatissa ( c. 209 –231 AD). Kassapa V (914–923 AD) restored the dāgäba and the vihāra . During the 11th century the Mirisavetiya and all other stūpa s and monasteries were ransacked by Cholas from South India. Among numerous other renovation projects, Parākramabāhu I (1153–1186 AD) enlarged
429-479: Is divided into four epochs: The most important phonetic developments of Sinhala include: According to Wilhelm Geiger , an example of a possible Western feature in Sinhala is the retention of initial /v/ which developed into /b/ in the Eastern languages (e.g. Sanskrit viṁśati "twenty", Sinhala visi- , Hindi bīs ). This is disputed by Muhammad Shahidullah who says that Sinhala Prakrit branched off from
462-412: Is one of the official and national languages of Sri Lanka, alongside Tamil . Along with Pali , it played a major role in the development of Theravada Buddhist literature. Early forms of the Sinhala language are attested as early as the 3rd century BCE. The language of these inscriptions, still retaining long vowels and aspirated consonants, is a Prakrit similar to Magadhi , a regional associate of
495-652: The Middle Indian Prakrits that had been used during the time of the Buddha . The most closely related languages are the Vedda language (an endangered, indigenous creole still spoken by a minority of Sri Lankans, mixing Sinhala with an isolate of unknown origin and from which Old Sinhala borrowed various aspects into its main Indo-Aryan substrate), and the Maldivian language . It has two main varieties, written and spoken, and
528-576: The UNESCO National Commission of Ceylon According to Wilhelm Geiger , Sinhala has features that set it apart from other Indo-Aryan languages. Some of the differences can be explained by the substrate influence of the parent stock of the Vedda language . Sinhala has many words that are only found in Sinhala, or shared between Sinhala and Vedda and not etymologically derivable from Middle or Old Indo-Aryan. Possible examples include kola for leaf in Sinhala and Vedda (although others suggest
561-464: The 13th century CE, recognised a category of words that exclusively belonged to early Sinhala. The grammar lists naram̆ba (to see) and koḷom̆ba (fort or harbour) as belonging to an indigenous source. Koḷom̆ba is the source of the name of the commercial capital Colombo . The consistent left branching syntax and the loss of aspirated stops in Sinhala is attributed to a probable South Dravidian substratum effect. This has been explained by
594-700: The Eastern Prakrits prior to this change. He cites the edicts of Ashoka , no copy of which shows this sound change. An example of an Eastern feature is the ending -e for masculine nominative singular (instead of Western -o ) in Sinhalese Prakrit. There are several cases of vocabulary doublets , one example being the words mæssā ("fly") and mækkā ("flea"), which both correspond to Sanskrit makṣikā but stem from two regionally different Prakrit words macchiā (Western Prakrits) and makkhikā (as in Eastern Prakrits like Pali ). In 1815,
627-424: The Mirisavetiya Dāgäba to a height of about 36.5 metres. Restorations were resumed again by Niśśaṅkamalla (1187–1196 AD). For the next seven hundred years, the dāgäba s and Buddhist monasteries of Anurādhapura lay mostly in ruins. It seems reasonable to assume that by the beginning of the 19th century, almost all formerly intact ancient dāgäba s and temples had fallen into a state of partial or total disrepair due to
660-579: The damaged dolomite marble originals. At present, after the fourth restoration, the last two times by the Archaeological Department of Sri Lanka under the supervision of Roland Silva, only the West Vahālkaḍa remains intact. However, it had to be restored after having been destroyed when the renovated dāgäba collapsed on 9 June 1987. Of the other three Vahālkaḍas that were in a perfect condition one hundred years ago, only damaged remains of one of
693-504: The day before the Poson Poya Day. The collapse, which also destroyed the only surviving Vahālkaḍa, occurred immediately as the chanting started in the all-night Pirith Ceremony, triggering theories of a "curse of the gods". Large segments of the new brickwork of the Stūpa separated and fell off due to the several vertical cracks that already earlier had been noticed on the dome. This happened in
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#1732855074605726-494: The direction of the public works department utilising a grant from the King of Siam, but the work could not be completed. According to H.C.P. Bell, the Archaeological Commissioner, by 1890 the ground around the Mirisavetiya had been cleared for a considerable time, and all ruins that existed above the surface were known. Bell added that a description of the Mirisavetiya entourage would not be possible at present. Sixteen years later, by 1906,
759-590: The island of Ceylon came under British rule . During the career of Christopher Reynolds as a Sinhalese lecturer at the School of African and Oriental Studies, University of London , he extensively researched the Sinhalese language and its pre-1815 literature. The Sri Lankan government awarded him the Sri Lanka Ranjana medal for his work. He wrote the 377-page An anthology of Sinhalese literature up to 1815 , selected by
792-486: The large dāgäba s started to crumble and were overgrown by tropical vegetation. The roots of trees would penetrate the layers of brick and cause cracks thus further increasing damage. According to the Mahāvaṃsa , the Mirisavetiya (Maricavaṭṭī) Dāgäba was built on the spot where the kunta (royal standard) of Duṭṭhagāmaṇī (c. BC 161–137) had been stuck in the earth and could not be removed. ( Mhv . 26.11–19). Duṭṭhagāmaṇī built
825-553: The place where the sceptre was placed, and it is said that it could not be moved. The stupa was built in the place where the sceptre stood. It is also said that he remembered that he partook in a chilly curry without offering it to the Sangha . In order to punish himself he built the Mirisavetiya Dagaba. The extent of this land is about 50 acres (20 ha). Although the king Kasyapa I and Kasyapa V renovated this, from time to time it
858-402: The planned pinnacle unveiling ceremony and enshrinement of relics on Poson Poya Day. Instead, the collapsed dāgäba had to be demolished. This was achieved by using pneumatic hammers and took almost three years to be accomplished. After the low-quality bricks of the third attempted restoration had been removed, only the weak inner core of the original Stūpa survived. In 1990, the reconstruction of
891-522: The presence of the assembly of monks presided over by Sirimalwatte Sri Ananda Thero (1973–1989). Among the distinguished guests present were President Ranasinghe Premadasa, ministers, ambassadors as well as the whole press corps and countless onlookers. The wide media exposure led to a public outcry and was a big embarrassment for the government as well as the Archaeological Department and the UNESCO Cultural Triangle project. This calamity prevented
924-539: The second attempt of restoration of the Mirisavetiya Dāgäba was much advanced and the paved platform on which the dāgäba stands had been unearthed. The Archaeological Department tried to repair the Stūpa by mantling the remaining mound with bricks, but this work was abandoned by them later when the height of the new dome stood at 60 feet. All four Vahālkaḍas, also known as frontispieces, described H. C. P. Bell as Mandapaya and formerly partly hidden under tons of debris, were freed by 1906. The North Mandapaya, excavated in 1903,
957-399: The three others survive. During the 20th century, various renovation works of the Mirisavetiya Dāgäba were carried out, although some were without detailed written records. An anonymous photograph documents restoration works in the 1920s. It likely appears to document the second attempt by the Archaeological Department of Sri Lanka to encase the Mirisavetiya Dāgäba with bricks. From 1980 onward,
990-423: The upper part having slipped down in a talus around its base. Anurādhapura’s first government agent J.F. Dixon, with the help of James G. Smither, first cleared the area surrounding the dāgäba . Excavations of the Mirisavetiya were resumed in 1883 and the ruins of two image houses on the northern and southern sides of the dāgäba were discovered. In 1888 the first attempt of renovation began using prison labour under
1023-696: Was described as being in a perfect condition. The East Mandapaya had little damage, the South Mandapaya was in a wonderful state of preservation, and the West Mandapaya was as perfect as the North Mandapaya. Today only one Vahālkaḍa survives more or less intact. According to A. M. Hocart, in 1928 all four cardinal points of the Mirisavetiya Dāgäba Vahālkaḍa structures were built of gneiss. It has been proposed that these represent later copies of
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1056-419: Was dilapidated. More than two thousand years ago – during the second and first centuries BC – the first monumental stūpa s locally known as dāgäba s were built in Sri Lanka. Such dome-shaped monuments were containing relics of the historical Buddha or of Buddhist saints. And like all man-made structures, these dāgäba s built of brick needed to be conserved and restored at regular intervals. In times of neglect
1089-714: Was nevertheless done at the request of the Buddhist council. The covering of the newly built dāgäba with white plaster was finished in 1996. The present monument that encloses the remnants of the original dāgäba has lost all characteristics of the original edifice. The present Mirisavetiya Dāgäba is 192 feet (59 metres) in height and 141 feet (43 metres) in diameter. Collapse of the Mirisavetiya Dāgäba On 24 June 1987 at Anurādhapura, Sri Lanka 8°20′42″N 80°23′20″E / 8.34500°N 80.38889°E / 8.34500; 80.38889 This article about
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