The respective reigns of king Mahinda IV and Mahinda V who was also known by the name of Mihindu V are the best
example as to how being a strong, and a considerate ruler can be resulted in
the independence of the state and its prosperity while on the other hand, how
being a fragile ruler with a backward conduct can lead the kingdom towards
destruction and make an object of subordination to an outside power. In ancient
Sri Lanka where the monarchical form of rule prevailed, it was the conduct of
the monarch which decided both the progress or the destruction of the whole
community. It is important to note that king Mahinda IV was preceded by Sena
IV and succeeded by his son Sena V
and the last king of Anuradhapura
was his remaining son Mahinda V.
To begin with the reign of the father, the
reign of Mahinda IV of Anuradhapura is
noted as favorable for the poor as well as for the Buddha Sasana especially
owing to the welfare work carried out by him which took both a social and a
religious form. The king said to have enlighten the Sasana who was used to take
the trouble of gathering the monks and request them to arrive at his palace,
make them be seated properly and by offering alms. The king was accustomed to
often offer them a variety of cleanly prepared food. His noble character is
shown through his provisions to send doctors immediately for the sick ascetics
and made proper treatments for them while providing medicine to the monks not
to mention the provisions of new robes. The king once rock inscribed “the
future kings should not profit at the expense of the Sangha." As such, he
carried out welfare work ranging from his arrangements of alms giving to the
construction of Buddhist premises for the benefit of Buddhist followers. For instance,
he offered food to the beggars while providing them with places to dwell.
The Mahavamsa
depicts king Mahinda IV as a house
for mercy which seem to be much applicable considering the king’s provisions of
meal for the thieves in the prison. He is an embodiment of compassion which is
revealed through his noble actions such as providing meals even for animals
such as monkeys, pigs, deer and dogs as much as they want. In this regard he
even holds resemblance to king Dharmashoka
of India whose welfare work extended
to benefit both humans and animals as king Mahinda
IV did. The latter stored paddy
in the four temples and granted the beggars the opportunity to take as much as
they want. These testify that his mercy found no limitation but equally
extended both to humans, animals, the wrong doers, the bhikkhus with no discrimination
on any basis. This even point to the fact that he was a true Buddhist by the
very sense of the word, Buddhism being a religion which didn’t discriminate
anyone on the basis of wealth, gender, good or bad. The king is further noted
for his various processions in devotion to the wise bhikkhus from whom he
learnt discipline. As the Mahavamsa
mentions, he arranged discourses by
the forest dwelling thero. Even his ministers followed the king’s path which
led four of his ministers to build four piriven within Jethawanaya. His conduct was much favorable to Buddhism which
prompted him to do good deeds. The Mahavamsa
has it that he was transferred to heaven as a result of his noble deeds.
In contrast, the reign of king Mahinda V, was marked in history as a
time of degeneration and an invitation to foreign conquests. This reign is much
talked about due to the Chola
occupation of Anuradhapura which appeared
to be a great blow to Sri Lankan autonomy at the time. Mahinda V was a king who didn’t have the potentiality to control
both his people and his army the latter comprised of mercenary soldiers and
neither subordinated to his orders. In the case of the common people, they
avoided paying taxes to the king which subsequently made the king unable to pay
wages to his army who being the mercenary soldiers worked as long as the due
money is paid owing to the fact that they didn’t possess any other regard whatsoever
for the king. As a consequence of his weak rule the king became an object of unpopularity
both among the public and the army which even exposed the kingdom to foreign
conquests the result being the withdrawal of the king to Ruhuna.
As the Mahavamsa
mentions it was in the 10th year of his reign that his treasure was
exhausted and turned the army against him whom armored, occupied before the
palace door while engaging in cruel acts which caused the king to make off to Ruhuna through a canal. Afterwards he
settled himself in the village called Sidu
Pabbatha. By taking note of the chaos in the Anuradhapura kingdom which was
made vulnerable followed by the escape of the king, a horse trader who came
here from overseas made known this situation prevalent in the country to his Chola king who upon hearing this sent a
vast army in order to take the land. As
the Mahavamsa mentions, after landing
ashore the mighty army overcoming the native people progressively reached Ruhuna where Mahinda V was taking refuge. The Mahavamsa describes that the army took away the essence of the land
by exploiting the territory, sending the plundered treasure to the Chola king not to mention destroying
Buddhist premises without any exception. The Mahavmsa makes the Chola army
equal to angered devils. It further mentions that the Chola army fed on Rajarata
who also said to have given rise to confusions in Ruhuna. King Mihindu V
was captured and taken to India who
after living there for 12 years had died in the very place.
This is the instance in which the seat of
the kingdom was transferred from Anuradhapura
to Polonnaruwa and the latter
came to play an important role thus overshadowing the importance of the
Anuradhapura kingdom. After the Chola rule,
the native kings continued to rule using Polonnaruwa
as the capital provided that it can hardly be expected for Anuradhapura to
remain in a good condition as the Chola army
exploited and destroyed the territory. It was clearly due to the weakness of
the last king of Anuradhapura that the Chola
emperor grabbed a chance to take hold of Sri Lanka which was marked by
peace and prosperity during his father’s reign.
Mrs. Karunarathne,
University of Peradeniya,
Sri Lanka
References
Wimalajothi, Ven., (ed.), Mahavamsa,
Buddhist cultural center, Boralasgamuwa, 2003
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