Korea Journal of Buddhist Studies ISSN:1598-0642(Print) 불교학연구

This article examines the origin of the Abhayagiri monastery in ancient Sri Lanka. According to the Mahāvaṃsa, which has been transmitted by the Mahāvihāra fraternity, the Abhayagiri Monastery was built by the king Vaṭṭagāmani Abhaya, and is where a Jain ascetic named Giri dwelt. Since then, for over a thousand years, the dwellers of Abhayagiri Monastery had been a main rival to those of Mahāvihāra. The verses described in the Dīpavaṃsa, however, have quite different information from that of Mahāvaṃsa. While the Mahāvaṃsa is a Mahāvihāra-centred chronicle, the Dīpavaṃsa, the oldest chronicle among the extant Pāli texts, is a collection of unofficial history. Therefore, the descriptions from the latter possibly illuminate the origin of a fascinating monastery, rather than the advent of an evil monastery of the Mahāvihāra fraternity. Chapter 19 of Dīpavaṃsa describes not only the origin of the name for (paññatti, vohāro), but also the stone stupa (silāthūpa) of Abhayagiri. Nevertheless, the origin of Abhayagiri Monastery is still ambiguous since the verses are awkward in Pāli grammar and structure. Hermann Oldenberg, who edited and translated the Dīpavaṃsa in 1879, tried to understand the problematic passages by comparing them to the Mahāvaṃsa. Lance Cousins criticised the Oldenberg interpretation, and suggested alternative understandings for them. This article, in order to reveal the actual evidence of the origin of the Abhayagiri Monastery, scrutinizes the relevant verses of chapter 19 in the Dīpavaṃsa by critically examining the understandings of Oldenberg and Cousins.