Arankale - ruins of an ancient Buddhist forest monastery
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Arankale not far from Kurunegala is a rarely visited heritage site in a sylvan surrounding, inviting to enjoy a small hike on an ancient meditation path. In the early Anuradhapura period, it was the forest hermitage of a famous Buddhist saint, the Arhat Maliyadewa. In the late Anuradhapura period, it became a typical monastery of the enigmatic group of Pamsukulika monks. This is why Arankale's ruins are similar to those of Ritigala. The predominant features are the double platforms called Padhanagara, which are typical of Pandukulika architecture. Today, Arankale serves as secluded meditation centre again.
Location
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Arankale in Kurunegala District of the North West Province is located about 26 km (16 miles) north of Kurunegala and 51 km (32 miles) southwest of Dambulla in a lush green forest area at the foot of the long mountain ridge known as Dolukanda.
Arankale can be reached by taking the main road A6 via Kurunegala to Dambulla and turning left at Ibbagamuwa village. From this road to the north you have to turn left again at Godagala junction. |
Name
The ending "-kale" of Sinhalese place names stands for "forest". "Aran" is said to be the short form for "Arahant", Hence, "Arankale" (or "Arankele", as it is also spelled) has the meaning of „saint’s forest). However, "Aran" can just as well stand for "Aranya", which in Sanskrit and very similarly in Pali means "forest" and "wilderness", but can also mean "distant, outland". In this case “Arankale” would literally mean “Remote Forest” or simply “Forest Wilderness”.
Forest Monastery
Arankale meditation monastery
Arankale is the classic example of a so-called forest monastery from the Anuradhapura period. Those monks who found monastic life in the large monasteries of urban settlements to be too secular retreated into such forest refuges.
Even today, Arankale is a lonesome place; hardly any tourists get lost here. In the early 21st century, around 20 forest monks lived in the new buildings in the west of the area. There is also a meditation center for monks in the entrance area. In meditation centers, which are set up as branches by urban or rural in tranquil locations, the monks, who are otherwise heavily involved in ceremonial and organizational and social tasks, retreat to seminars lasting several days, for courses and for meditation. In this way they become temporary forest monks, so to speak.
The monks of antiquity who settled here permanently also used the stone buildings that can now be found widely scattered throughout the archaeological area, namely double platforms, primarily for meditation purposes.
Even today, Arankale is a lonesome place; hardly any tourists get lost here. In the early 21st century, around 20 forest monks lived in the new buildings in the west of the area. There is also a meditation center for monks in the entrance area. In meditation centers, which are set up as branches by urban or rural in tranquil locations, the monks, who are otherwise heavily involved in ceremonial and organizational and social tasks, retreat to seminars lasting several days, for courses and for meditation. In this way they become temporary forest monks, so to speak.
The monks of antiquity who settled here permanently also used the stone buildings that can now be found widely scattered throughout the archaeological area, namely double platforms, primarily for meditation purposes.
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History
Not much is known about Arankale, except that it was a Pansukulika complex and probably only received its current buildings in the late Anuradhapura period (7th to 10th century). Not even the ancient name is known. On-site inscriptions as well as clear references to this place in the chronicles are missing. The identification of today's Dolukanda mountain with the Dolupabbata mentioned in the Chulavansa must also remain questionable.
The summit of Mount Dolukanda has supposedly served as a fortress built be King Silameghavanna, when he was still crown prince and had to flee from his father, King Moggalana III. According to the Chulavansa, the father marched against the rebellious son and his allies with a large army from Anuradhapura. However, the army of the king was severely weakened, when a fever broke out while they were camping in the area of Arankale. The royal army had to retreat from the rebellious son and finally the heir to the throne defeated them at Sigiriya.
Though not refered to in the ancient chronicles and inscriptions, Arankale was certainly not insignificant. In terms of its sheer dimensions, it is a facility that is hardly inferior to the better documented Ritigala. Like Ritigala in the Cultural Triangle, Arankale extends over a wide area that is crossed by a so-called meditation path.
The summit of Mount Dolukanda has supposedly served as a fortress built be King Silameghavanna, when he was still crown prince and had to flee from his father, King Moggalana III. According to the Chulavansa, the father marched against the rebellious son and his allies with a large army from Anuradhapura. However, the army of the king was severely weakened, when a fever broke out while they were camping in the area of Arankale. The royal army had to retreat from the rebellious son and finally the heir to the throne defeated them at Sigiriya.
Though not refered to in the ancient chronicles and inscriptions, Arankale was certainly not insignificant. In terms of its sheer dimensions, it is a facility that is hardly inferior to the better documented Ritigala. Like Ritigala in the Cultural Triangle, Arankale extends over a wide area that is crossed by a so-called meditation path.
Pansukulika Monastery
Located at the foot of a mountain like Ritigala and Manakanda, Arankale is a typical monastery complex of the Pansukulikas. Other common spellings of "Pansukulika" are "Pansakulika" or "Pamsukulika". The name Pansukulika means rag-robe wearers and refers to their code of conduct not to receive their clothing as a gift from laypeople, but rather to collect it themselves from the rags left behind at cremation sites. This austerity rule is exemplary of their efforts to strictly adhere to an even severe lifestyle than that prescribed by the order's rule as laid down in the Vinaya corpus of the Holy Scriptures. The Pansukulikas were a monastic reform movement, but they initially did not split off from the order. They only formed a branch of the order that specialized in meditation. Administrationally, they remained affiliated with one of the major monasteries in Anuradhapura. In addition to numerous village temples that as landowners were engaged in agriculture, each of the large orders also operated their own forest monasteries as branches. The largest monastery in Anuradhapura, the Abhayagiri Vihara, stood out in this regard.
The Pansukulika forest monasteries of the late Anuradhapura period differ from earlier hermit settlements in the greater importance of stone buildings. While the older forest monasteries were primarily collections of inhabited natural caves in rock formations, Pansukulika monasteries are also found in flat terrain and have brick foundations for their functional buildings. The landmarks of the Pansukulika monasteries are - instead of stupas, bodhigaras or cave temples - the meditation platforms called Padhanagara. The most important excavation sites of Pansukulika monasteries, which are called "Padhanagara Parivenas" after their characteristic meditation terraces, are the western monasteries near Anuradhapura, Ritigala at the highest mountain of the Cultural Triangle region, Manakanda not far from Ritigala, Veherabandigala between Anuradhapura and Trincomalee, and Arankale on the edge of the wet region. But individual Padhanagara terraces can also be found elsewhere, for example in Hatthikucchi and Mihintale and Thiriyai. However, there are no comparable structures outside Sri Lanka.
The Pansukulika forest monasteries of the late Anuradhapura period differ from earlier hermit settlements in the greater importance of stone buildings. While the older forest monasteries were primarily collections of inhabited natural caves in rock formations, Pansukulika monasteries are also found in flat terrain and have brick foundations for their functional buildings. The landmarks of the Pansukulika monasteries are - instead of stupas, bodhigaras or cave temples - the meditation platforms called Padhanagara. The most important excavation sites of Pansukulika monasteries, which are called "Padhanagara Parivenas" after their characteristic meditation terraces, are the western monasteries near Anuradhapura, Ritigala at the highest mountain of the Cultural Triangle region, Manakanda not far from Ritigala, Veherabandigala between Anuradhapura and Trincomalee, and Arankale on the edge of the wet region. But individual Padhanagara terraces can also be found elsewhere, for example in Hatthikucchi and Mihintale and Thiriyai. However, there are no comparable structures outside Sri Lanka.
for historical background information about the Pansukulikas click here...
There is no epigraphic evidence that Arankale was a monastery of the Pansukulikas, but it can be seen from the many meditation platforms, as we know them from other Pansukulika monasteries, especially from Ritigala, of which the chronicles report that they were inhabited by Pansukulikas.
Pansukulikas are first mentioned as a faction in the island's sangha for the first century BC. This is the same period in which the Tipitaka canon of the Theravada was written down and in which the first schism of the Buddhist Order occurred, namely through the founding of the king-sponsored Abhayagiri monastery, which is reported in the Mahavansa Chronicle. The early dispute over the Pansukulikas, on the other hand, is known less from the Dipavansa or Mahavansa chronicles than from the commentaries on the Tipitaka canon, most of which are attributed to Buddhaghosa. Buddhaghosa's main systematic work Visuddhimagga also mentions the Pansukulikas. The Anguttaranikaya Atthakatha reports that after the same famine, which occurred at the time of the expulsion of Vattagamani Abhaya from Anuradhapura, and which was the occasion for gathering the surviving monks to write the canon, there was another large gathering of monks in a monastery called Mandalarama in Kallagama, at which the theological issue was discussed as to which was the more important foundation for religion, the practice (patipatti) or the study (pariyatti) of the Buddha's teachings (dhamma), i.e. meditation or scriptural scholarship? The representatives of the former view are called "Pansukulikas" in this Atthakatha (commentary), whereas the proponaents of literary studies as the basis of the religious community are called "Dhammakathikas". The latter prevailed. This may come as a surprise, since the Holy Scriptures themselves clearly give preference to meditation practice over any kind of literalism or scribal scholarship. But it’s understandable due to a changed historical task of the Sangha (the Buddhost Order): The question of what is more fundamental to Buddhism must be answered in the spirit of the Pansukulikas if one keeps in mind the Buddha's genuine focus, what is important for salvation. The way to salvation the topic of the canonical texts. But the issue in Sri Lanka in the first century BC, after organized Buddhism had almost died out, was a completely different one. A more urgent task was the maintenance and continuation of the Buddhist tradition, the survival of Dharma and Sangha. In this cultural context, knowledge of scripture was more relevant indeed than instruction in meditation techniques.
The Pansukulikas mentioned in connection with this ancient dispute are not necessarily identical to the group of the same name in the 6th or 7th century, of which the chronicles report. But there may be an indirect connection. The forest monks of the 6th century also placed greater emphasis on meditation practice over scriptural studies. And there will always have been a part of the Sangha that appreciated meditation - in accordance with the content of the texts themselves - as of higher priority and study of the text as only secondary.
Groups of monks leaving the busy city and village monasteries for forest solitude to concentrate their lives on meditation practice have existed in Sri Lanka since the earliest days of Buddhism, when Mahinda preferred to live in a cave in Mihintale insted of the Mahavihara monastery he had founded. Forest monks exist even today, as organized groups like in Salgala or even as individual hermits, like on an hill in Alawwa.
The ealiest excavated meditation platforms of the a new type of monasteries mostly date from the 6th century, i.e. from the time that the Chulavansa Chronicle in particular reports on the beginning of the new Pansukulika movement. They appear in the period of King Manavamma, the founder of the second Lambakanna dynasty, who, with the help of the South Indian Pallavas, came to the throne after a period of crisis. Manavamma managed to restore the Anuradhapura Empire. During his long reign, the re-emergence of Sinhalese culture also seems to have led to a new wealth not only of the secular landlords around the royal family, but also of the sacred landowners, namely the three large monasteries of Anuradhapura, which adminstered lands and irrigation systems scattered throughout the country. The increasing secularization of the lifestyle in Sri Lanka’s monasteries during those peaceful and prosperous times seems to have repelled some monks who wanted to live their lives more closely to the original Vinaya rules or even stricter than that. Significantly, this countermovement seems to have begun in the Abhayagiri, which at that point in time was the by far largest and richest monastery.
For a century and a half, the Pansukulikas remained to be sub-communities of the three large religious communities of Mahavihara and Abhayagiri and Jetavanarama. By far most of the Pansukulikas remained to be affiliated with the Abhayagiri. In Buddhism, a schism is not a doctrinal disagreement, but a refusal of monks to perform their ceremonies with the other monks of the same place. Most often, such schisms are related to disagreements over questions of the correct interpretation of the order's rule (rather than doctrine). In this respect, the Pansukulikas' insistence on stricter observance of rules fundamentally harboured the seeds of a schism in the order. But it did not mean an actual seperations or splitting, as long as they did not refuse fellowship with the monks of the city monastery during their stays in Anuradhapura. As long as they simply separated spatially, by withdrawing into more secluded forest monasteries, in order to devote themselves more to the Vinaya-compliant life of meditation, a schism was far from complete. A schism existed within Anuradhapura indeed, but not because of the Pansukulikas. Rather, that the three major monasteries in the capital held their ceremonies separately, although they were located in the same town, meant an actual schism.
In Sri Lanka there is a long tradition that each of the separate religious orders covers several traditions in parallel: Central administration and scribes can be found in the urban headquarters of the orders and at their teaching institutes for monastic training. Social commitment in the service of the local population is the task of the vast majority of monks in village monasteries. All these groups together were called "Gamavasins" in the medieval period, i.e. village monks. And those who devoted themselves to advancement on the path of salvation were the "Aranyavasins", i.e. the forest monks. The two main branches of what is now the largest order in Sri Lanka, the Syam-Nikaya, namely Malwatta and Asgiriya, emerged from the Gamavasins and Aranyavasins, respectively. The fact that the division into village or forest monks does not mark an organizational division, but rather a spatial distribution, is also clear from the name for the two traditional lines in a monastic order: Since the late Middle Ages, the two branches have been called "Ubhaya-Vasa", i.e. "two Residences”. But as I said, two residences do not mean a schism. Only two monasteries in one place of residence not holding their ceremonial meetings together, mean a schism in the order.
A formal split of Pansukulukas from the Abhayagiri only occurred under Sena II (851-885). This reign also meant a long period of peace after a phase of great unrest triggered by an invasion of the southern Indian Pandyas. Sena II is one of the kings of Sri Lanka who, following the example of the Indian emperor Ashokas, took the right to intervene in the order's affairs. He "purifiedd" the three orders of Anuradhapura. This means, he ordered to disrobe some of the monks. Both events, the complete secession of the Pansukulikas and the royal order reform, may have had the same background, namely dissatisfaction because of neglected Vinaya rules and traditions in the monasteries of the capital. The Pansukulikas habe been a separate religious order only since then.
It should also be noted that not all forest monks were Pansukulikas. Buddhaghosa's Visuddhimagga already mentions 13 so-called Dhutangas, i.e. groups with their own rule traditions. More precisely: Each group particularly emphasizes a certain rule. The 12 Dhutanga rules in North India and 13 in South India and Sri Lanka are a very old summary of the basic rules of the order that concern housing, clothing, food, medicine and their acquisition. However, they are not entirely identical to the corresponding provisions of the Pratimoksha rules, which form the canonical summary of the entire Vinaya rules. The Dhutangas appear to be an extension of the four basic ancient Indian Nisraya rules, the second of which is called "Pansukulacivaram" and is identical to the first Dhutanga rule "Pansukulikangam". It states that clothing may only consist of pieces of fabric that have been collected by oneself, preferably from cemeteries, and it prohibits accepting clothing as a gift. This rule was a pre-Buddhist principle of ascetic groups in ancient India. The Buddha initially simply adopted it for his group of disciples, but later explicitly modified it so that gifts of clothing could also be accepted. Other strict Dhutanga rules were also deliberately weakened by the Buddha. Strictly speaking, this means that Buddhist monks who still adhere to the Dhutanga rules do not adhere to the order's rules more strictly, but rather follow more rules than those given by the Buddha. Those ascetics who practice the Dhutangas today are also fully aware of this. They see them as voluntary additional exercises.
In ancient Sri Lanka, there is said to have been a special group for each Dhutanga rule who practiced it as an ascetic exercise. Of these, the Pansukulikas are only the first, but the only one that later plays a role in the chronicles and that also left clear archaeological traces. As already mentioned, their characteristic feature is that they do not accept clothing as a gift from laypeople, but instead look for clothes themselves that have been discarded by laypeople.
The term “forest monk” refers to another Dhutanga rule, namely the ninth one called “Rukkhamulikangam”. It corresponds to the third Nisraya rule called "Rukkhamulasenasanam" and reads: sit at the foot of a tree. This didn't just mean meditating under the protection of a tree found instead of under a specially made roof. Rather, it was interpreted as a general ban on monks living under a roof. The Buddha weakened this ancient Indian ascetic rule by providing monks with a permanent refuge under a roof during the rainy season and a life without a permanent home only during the remaining months of the year. Later, the Buddha even allowed permanent residence in a monastery and prescribed staying in the monastery during the rainy season even for those monks who otherwise wanted to go on a journey like the other Indian ascetic groups. The Buddha disciples were probably the first group of ascetics to deliberately break with the old practice of forest solitude in order to take up residence in cities or their surroundings. This means that the Buddhists were probably the first monastically organized religious community in ancient India. Later Buddhist monks, who in turn preferred the solitude of the forest, also, like the Pansukulikas, tightened the order's rules.
The forest monasteries of the Pansukulikas by no means correspond exactly to this strict forest monk rule, which, as mentioned, prohibits meditation in an artificially created shelter. Despite the forest solitude, Pansukulika monks even built very elaborate stone buildings for meditation purposes in Arankale and elsewhere: meditation platforms, some of which were probably even covered, had their own paved forest paths and even walled halls for rituals.
The names "Pansukulika" and "Aranyavasin" are also not identical in that there were some Pansukulikas who continued to live in urban monasteries, though only according to the stricter rules of the Pansukulikas. Aranyavasins as a separate group of monks seem to have originally emerged from the Mahavihara monastery, just as the Pansukulikas from the Abhayagiri monastery. The Aranyavasins in the narrow sense therefore placed more emphasis on the seclusion of their dwelling for the purposes of meditation, the Pansukulikas in the narrow sense placed greater emphasis on conformity to the rules wherever they stayed. Many monks who were formally Aranyavasins, i.e. lived in the forest, later took part in the scholarly work and also took on pastoral and social tasks for farming communities near their forest hermitages. Today's Asgiriya branch also includes many typical village temples. The background to this development is that monks are always dependent on the support of lay people living nearby. Also in the deepest solitude of the forest they need donors of food and helpers to maintain their buildings. Even when it comes to protecting their natural forest environment, forest monks depend on the cooperation of villages in their wider neighborhood. In order to prevent poaching or deforestation, forest monks not only offered the villagers in the area pastoral services, they also provided real benefits, especially in the form of medical care with medicinal plants and, above all, Ayurveda, the healing knowledge of the correct use of the plants for treatments.
Although the "Aranyavasins" and the "Pansukulikas" are originally two different reform groups and although elements of the urban and village way of life soon found their way into both groups, no subtle distinction is made between them in the following main text, because in Arankale as in almost all excavations of important forest monasteries from the Anuradhapura period, it was probably Pansukulikas who founded the meditation complexes and lived in the species-rich forest areas. In the main text below they are simply called “forest monks” in “forest monasteries”.
Pansukulikas are first mentioned as a faction in the island's sangha for the first century BC. This is the same period in which the Tipitaka canon of the Theravada was written down and in which the first schism of the Buddhist Order occurred, namely through the founding of the king-sponsored Abhayagiri monastery, which is reported in the Mahavansa Chronicle. The early dispute over the Pansukulikas, on the other hand, is known less from the Dipavansa or Mahavansa chronicles than from the commentaries on the Tipitaka canon, most of which are attributed to Buddhaghosa. Buddhaghosa's main systematic work Visuddhimagga also mentions the Pansukulikas. The Anguttaranikaya Atthakatha reports that after the same famine, which occurred at the time of the expulsion of Vattagamani Abhaya from Anuradhapura, and which was the occasion for gathering the surviving monks to write the canon, there was another large gathering of monks in a monastery called Mandalarama in Kallagama, at which the theological issue was discussed as to which was the more important foundation for religion, the practice (patipatti) or the study (pariyatti) of the Buddha's teachings (dhamma), i.e. meditation or scriptural scholarship? The representatives of the former view are called "Pansukulikas" in this Atthakatha (commentary), whereas the proponaents of literary studies as the basis of the religious community are called "Dhammakathikas". The latter prevailed. This may come as a surprise, since the Holy Scriptures themselves clearly give preference to meditation practice over any kind of literalism or scribal scholarship. But it’s understandable due to a changed historical task of the Sangha (the Buddhost Order): The question of what is more fundamental to Buddhism must be answered in the spirit of the Pansukulikas if one keeps in mind the Buddha's genuine focus, what is important for salvation. The way to salvation the topic of the canonical texts. But the issue in Sri Lanka in the first century BC, after organized Buddhism had almost died out, was a completely different one. A more urgent task was the maintenance and continuation of the Buddhist tradition, the survival of Dharma and Sangha. In this cultural context, knowledge of scripture was more relevant indeed than instruction in meditation techniques.
The Pansukulikas mentioned in connection with this ancient dispute are not necessarily identical to the group of the same name in the 6th or 7th century, of which the chronicles report. But there may be an indirect connection. The forest monks of the 6th century also placed greater emphasis on meditation practice over scriptural studies. And there will always have been a part of the Sangha that appreciated meditation - in accordance with the content of the texts themselves - as of higher priority and study of the text as only secondary.
Groups of monks leaving the busy city and village monasteries for forest solitude to concentrate their lives on meditation practice have existed in Sri Lanka since the earliest days of Buddhism, when Mahinda preferred to live in a cave in Mihintale insted of the Mahavihara monastery he had founded. Forest monks exist even today, as organized groups like in Salgala or even as individual hermits, like on an hill in Alawwa.
The ealiest excavated meditation platforms of the a new type of monasteries mostly date from the 6th century, i.e. from the time that the Chulavansa Chronicle in particular reports on the beginning of the new Pansukulika movement. They appear in the period of King Manavamma, the founder of the second Lambakanna dynasty, who, with the help of the South Indian Pallavas, came to the throne after a period of crisis. Manavamma managed to restore the Anuradhapura Empire. During his long reign, the re-emergence of Sinhalese culture also seems to have led to a new wealth not only of the secular landlords around the royal family, but also of the sacred landowners, namely the three large monasteries of Anuradhapura, which adminstered lands and irrigation systems scattered throughout the country. The increasing secularization of the lifestyle in Sri Lanka’s monasteries during those peaceful and prosperous times seems to have repelled some monks who wanted to live their lives more closely to the original Vinaya rules or even stricter than that. Significantly, this countermovement seems to have begun in the Abhayagiri, which at that point in time was the by far largest and richest monastery.
For a century and a half, the Pansukulikas remained to be sub-communities of the three large religious communities of Mahavihara and Abhayagiri and Jetavanarama. By far most of the Pansukulikas remained to be affiliated with the Abhayagiri. In Buddhism, a schism is not a doctrinal disagreement, but a refusal of monks to perform their ceremonies with the other monks of the same place. Most often, such schisms are related to disagreements over questions of the correct interpretation of the order's rule (rather than doctrine). In this respect, the Pansukulikas' insistence on stricter observance of rules fundamentally harboured the seeds of a schism in the order. But it did not mean an actual seperations or splitting, as long as they did not refuse fellowship with the monks of the city monastery during their stays in Anuradhapura. As long as they simply separated spatially, by withdrawing into more secluded forest monasteries, in order to devote themselves more to the Vinaya-compliant life of meditation, a schism was far from complete. A schism existed within Anuradhapura indeed, but not because of the Pansukulikas. Rather, that the three major monasteries in the capital held their ceremonies separately, although they were located in the same town, meant an actual schism.
In Sri Lanka there is a long tradition that each of the separate religious orders covers several traditions in parallel: Central administration and scribes can be found in the urban headquarters of the orders and at their teaching institutes for monastic training. Social commitment in the service of the local population is the task of the vast majority of monks in village monasteries. All these groups together were called "Gamavasins" in the medieval period, i.e. village monks. And those who devoted themselves to advancement on the path of salvation were the "Aranyavasins", i.e. the forest monks. The two main branches of what is now the largest order in Sri Lanka, the Syam-Nikaya, namely Malwatta and Asgiriya, emerged from the Gamavasins and Aranyavasins, respectively. The fact that the division into village or forest monks does not mark an organizational division, but rather a spatial distribution, is also clear from the name for the two traditional lines in a monastic order: Since the late Middle Ages, the two branches have been called "Ubhaya-Vasa", i.e. "two Residences”. But as I said, two residences do not mean a schism. Only two monasteries in one place of residence not holding their ceremonial meetings together, mean a schism in the order.
A formal split of Pansukulukas from the Abhayagiri only occurred under Sena II (851-885). This reign also meant a long period of peace after a phase of great unrest triggered by an invasion of the southern Indian Pandyas. Sena II is one of the kings of Sri Lanka who, following the example of the Indian emperor Ashokas, took the right to intervene in the order's affairs. He "purifiedd" the three orders of Anuradhapura. This means, he ordered to disrobe some of the monks. Both events, the complete secession of the Pansukulikas and the royal order reform, may have had the same background, namely dissatisfaction because of neglected Vinaya rules and traditions in the monasteries of the capital. The Pansukulikas habe been a separate religious order only since then.
It should also be noted that not all forest monks were Pansukulikas. Buddhaghosa's Visuddhimagga already mentions 13 so-called Dhutangas, i.e. groups with their own rule traditions. More precisely: Each group particularly emphasizes a certain rule. The 12 Dhutanga rules in North India and 13 in South India and Sri Lanka are a very old summary of the basic rules of the order that concern housing, clothing, food, medicine and their acquisition. However, they are not entirely identical to the corresponding provisions of the Pratimoksha rules, which form the canonical summary of the entire Vinaya rules. The Dhutangas appear to be an extension of the four basic ancient Indian Nisraya rules, the second of which is called "Pansukulacivaram" and is identical to the first Dhutanga rule "Pansukulikangam". It states that clothing may only consist of pieces of fabric that have been collected by oneself, preferably from cemeteries, and it prohibits accepting clothing as a gift. This rule was a pre-Buddhist principle of ascetic groups in ancient India. The Buddha initially simply adopted it for his group of disciples, but later explicitly modified it so that gifts of clothing could also be accepted. Other strict Dhutanga rules were also deliberately weakened by the Buddha. Strictly speaking, this means that Buddhist monks who still adhere to the Dhutanga rules do not adhere to the order's rules more strictly, but rather follow more rules than those given by the Buddha. Those ascetics who practice the Dhutangas today are also fully aware of this. They see them as voluntary additional exercises.
In ancient Sri Lanka, there is said to have been a special group for each Dhutanga rule who practiced it as an ascetic exercise. Of these, the Pansukulikas are only the first, but the only one that later plays a role in the chronicles and that also left clear archaeological traces. As already mentioned, their characteristic feature is that they do not accept clothing as a gift from laypeople, but instead look for clothes themselves that have been discarded by laypeople.
The term “forest monk” refers to another Dhutanga rule, namely the ninth one called “Rukkhamulikangam”. It corresponds to the third Nisraya rule called "Rukkhamulasenasanam" and reads: sit at the foot of a tree. This didn't just mean meditating under the protection of a tree found instead of under a specially made roof. Rather, it was interpreted as a general ban on monks living under a roof. The Buddha weakened this ancient Indian ascetic rule by providing monks with a permanent refuge under a roof during the rainy season and a life without a permanent home only during the remaining months of the year. Later, the Buddha even allowed permanent residence in a monastery and prescribed staying in the monastery during the rainy season even for those monks who otherwise wanted to go on a journey like the other Indian ascetic groups. The Buddha disciples were probably the first group of ascetics to deliberately break with the old practice of forest solitude in order to take up residence in cities or their surroundings. This means that the Buddhists were probably the first monastically organized religious community in ancient India. Later Buddhist monks, who in turn preferred the solitude of the forest, also, like the Pansukulikas, tightened the order's rules.
The forest monasteries of the Pansukulikas by no means correspond exactly to this strict forest monk rule, which, as mentioned, prohibits meditation in an artificially created shelter. Despite the forest solitude, Pansukulika monks even built very elaborate stone buildings for meditation purposes in Arankale and elsewhere: meditation platforms, some of which were probably even covered, had their own paved forest paths and even walled halls for rituals.
The names "Pansukulika" and "Aranyavasin" are also not identical in that there were some Pansukulikas who continued to live in urban monasteries, though only according to the stricter rules of the Pansukulikas. Aranyavasins as a separate group of monks seem to have originally emerged from the Mahavihara monastery, just as the Pansukulikas from the Abhayagiri monastery. The Aranyavasins in the narrow sense therefore placed more emphasis on the seclusion of their dwelling for the purposes of meditation, the Pansukulikas in the narrow sense placed greater emphasis on conformity to the rules wherever they stayed. Many monks who were formally Aranyavasins, i.e. lived in the forest, later took part in the scholarly work and also took on pastoral and social tasks for farming communities near their forest hermitages. Today's Asgiriya branch also includes many typical village temples. The background to this development is that monks are always dependent on the support of lay people living nearby. Also in the deepest solitude of the forest they need donors of food and helpers to maintain their buildings. Even when it comes to protecting their natural forest environment, forest monks depend on the cooperation of villages in their wider neighborhood. In order to prevent poaching or deforestation, forest monks not only offered the villagers in the area pastoral services, they also provided real benefits, especially in the form of medical care with medicinal plants and, above all, Ayurveda, the healing knowledge of the correct use of the plants for treatments.
Although the "Aranyavasins" and the "Pansukulikas" are originally two different reform groups and although elements of the urban and village way of life soon found their way into both groups, no subtle distinction is made between them in the following main text, because in Arankale as in almost all excavations of important forest monasteries from the Anuradhapura period, it was probably Pansukulikas who founded the meditation complexes and lived in the species-rich forest areas. In the main text below they are simply called “forest monks” in “forest monasteries”.
Maliyadeva Cave
If you follow the covered corridor from the entrance area with the parking lot at the new tree temple to the new meditation center, you can ask for a guide there and should at least leave a small donation if no ticket is issued. Behind the meditation center you can easily find the pleasantly shaded path to the ancient ruins. After a few hundred meters a small clearing opens up and you stand in front of Arankale's landmark, the rock cave of Maliyadeva. It’s a small temple under an overhanging gneiss rock. The walls consist of carefully crafted large stone blocks, a kind of material only used for religious buildings. The picturesque Maliyadeva cave is the best-preserved example of such a cave temple, half natural, half masonry. Originally, before the beautiful stone wall was constructed, this was certainly one of the typical forest shelters for monks in the Anuradhapura period. The overhanging rock shows clear traces of a so-called drip ledges. Rainwater drips off this sharp edge, which was always carved above the entrances to inhabited caves. Drip ledges prevented water from running down the stone into the interior of the cave, providing that the cave room does not become too damp.
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The aforementioned wall was only later built under the overhanging rock to create a real interior space. This is also typical of cave abodes in Sri Lanka. However, walls were originally not intended for monks' accommodation, but only for sanctuaries; they turned half-open shelters into closed interior rooms and thereby former dwellings usually became image houses, for example sheltering a reclining Buddha. The Maliyadeva cave of Arankale, which remained abandoned for a long time, is a good examle of a completely preserved construction of such a typical cave sanctuary created by adding a protective stone wall. In front of the wall there is a small decorative balustrade to delimit the sacred area. The latter was also protected by small, unadorned guardian stones. The state of preservation of the cave shrine and the layout of the rooms are unique in Sri Lanka. The door leads into a narrow corridor from which two slightly larger rooms can be reached. Both have narrow window slits in the front wall, through which they are dimly lit.
Maliyadeva - Sri Lanka's "Last Saint"
Legend has it that the saint Maliyadeva meditated in the left chamber. Maliyadeva is considered the last arahant of Sri Lanka, i.e. the last islander to achieve Nirvana. He is a widely known and a highly revered saintly figure in Sri Lanka. One of the first Buddhist schools founded on the island, which was intended to stand up to the Christian mission schools at the time, was named after him in nearby Kurunegala. Maliyadeva College is now one of the most prestigious boarding schools in Sri Lanka.
for background information about Maliyadeva click here...
Other names for Maliyadeva are Malayadeva, Malayavasi Mahadeva or Mahamaliya. The word "Malaya" means a mountainous region. “Deva” means “God” or “Divine”. So Maliyadeva is a kind of honorary name for a sage from the mountains. Some websites declare him to be a figure who lived eight hundred years ago, i.e. in the Polonnaruwa period. This is related to Maliyadeva's reputation for being the last inhabitant of the Buddhist island to attain arahantship. And it is assumed that there were no more arahants after the Polonnaruwa period at the latest. However, Maliyadeva is usually seen as a figure from Dutthagamani's time, i.e. the second century BC. One explanation for such drastical differences in dating Maliyadeva’s lifetime may be that there were different very respected Buddhist teachers with the same honorary name. But in Sri Lanka people only worship one Maliyadeva and not several. The dating to the 12th century is probably simply a mistake and Maliyadeva is a contemporary of Dutthagamani. This Maliyadeva is known from the commentaries on the Holy Scriptures. Such commentaries are called Atthakathas. Each part of the canon has its own commentary, most of these Attakathas are attributed to Buddhaghosa, a figure from the middle of the first millennium AD. But according to his own statements, Buddhaghosa used older commentary literature in the language of the islanders, which he only critically reviewed and summarized or presented more systematically and which he primarily translated into the sacred language Pali. Buddhaghosa's commentaries on the Tipitaka soon became so respected that the older Sinhalese commentary literature was no longer passed down. Those older commentaries were probably mainly composed in pre-Christian centuries and most likely completed in the second century AD at the latest. Their content can still be found in the younger Pali versions. The classic Pali commentaries of Theravada Buddhism on the Tipitaka scriptures contain numerous interspersed teachings and stories from the earliest times of Buddhism in Sri Lanka. In particular, old Sinhalese-Buddhist teachers are mentioned often. Some of whom were so highly regarded that they are viewed as arahants. One of them is a Maliyadeva in the time of Dutthagamani.
But he is by no means the last saint reported by the Atthakathas. For the two centuries after Dutthagamani and Maliyadeva, Arahants are still mentioned by name in the old Pali texts. And the Chinese pilgrim Faxian reports in the early 5th century AD that he attended a mourning ceremony in Sri Lanka at which a monk who was believed to be an arahant was cremated. How then could Maliyadeva have been the very last Arahant more than five hundred years earlier?
Well, this might be due to a misunderstanding of a certain such ancient commentary text: An Atthakatha commentary on the Jataka stories (Jatakatthakatha IV,30) reports that Maliyadeva gave up his domestic life in a previous life during one of the Buddha's earlier existences to become an itinerant monk. And when he died he said that he would be the last of the people to achieve Parinibbana, that is, the last of them to become an Arahant. But what is meant by „people“ in this context are the contemporaries of Maliyadeva in his former life according to this Jataka story, i.e. the people of the Mughapakka Jataka, not the inhabitants of Sri Lanka, where Maliyadeva finally became an Arahant. The phrase about "the last Arahant among his contemporaries", which Maliyadeva is said to have spoken to his fellow human beings in a previous life, appears to have been later wrongly reinterpreted as "the last Arahant among the Sinhalese".
That new interpretation was not far to seek when many centuries after Maliyadeva the teaching became increasingly widespread that there were no longer any arahants in Sri Lanka. The historical Buddha had been living too long ago. Due to unfavorable historical circumstances the ability to achieve Nirvana had been decreasing since the lifetime og the Buddha and finally vanished. This view, that achieving Nirvana has not been possible for many centuries, at least since the Polonnaruwa period, and can therefore only be hoped for in a later life after the appearance of the next Buddha, is today the orthodox teaching of most Buddhist scholars and monks Sri Lanka.
Back to the historical Maliyadeva. The most commonly told story about him is that after he began his life as a monk, he mastered all three parts of the Tipitaka canon by heart and was able to interpret them within just three years and achieved Arahantship in the same short period of time. During this time he received his food donated by a woman who at first did not notice what a perfect Buddhist sage she was caring for because she only knew him as a needy mendicant monk. Only when she experienced him giving a teaching sermon to others through which these others could also achieve Arahantship, did she realize that he himself had long been such a saint, and through his teaching she herself took the first step, once in a later life to achieve arahantship. This story can be found in Manorathapurani I, 38f.
The Papanca Sudani reports on Maliyadeva's great success in helping many hundreds of his disciples achieve arahantship. Almost a dozen sermons from Maliyadeva are listed there, in all parts of the island, in each of which 60 listeners are said to have awakened to Nirvana. Among other things, the famous copper palace Lohapasada in the Mahavihara in Anuradhapura is said to have been the setting of such an enlightening discourse, as well as the hill of Mihintale and many sites that can no longer be identified today. Doesn't this statement of so many younger Arahants contradict the famous claim Maliyadeva to be the last Arahant?
Well, just as there is a difference between Buddhas and Pratyaka Buddhas, so too in the later conceptions there is a difference between two types of Arahants. Those who can actively help others to attain Nirvana, too, are the principal revered saints of Theravada Buddhists, not those who have also been passively helped to attain Nirvana. Strictly speaking, Maliyadeva, as such a successful preacher, would not be the last Arahant, because his disciples also became Arahants. But Maliyadeva according to this concet was the last "Great Arahant", the last so-called Sivpilisimbiapath Maha Arahant.
Unfortunately, the attribution of the cave hermitage to that Maha Arahant Maliyadeva also belongs to the realm of legend. Apart from popular belief, there is nothing to suggest that a sage of this name from Dutthagamani's time used to live in this cave dwelling. Moreover, Arankale must compete with another place for the honour of being the home of the last saint. The megalithic dolmen of Guharamaya (Gal Messa) in Padavigampola south of Kurunegala is also considered to be Maliyadeva's dwelling cave. To do justice to both places, it is said that the latter was Maliyadeva's abode and Arankale was Maliyadeva's meditation cave. But further sites lay claim to Maliyadeva, such as the monastic cave of Ganekanda near Polpithigama.
But he is by no means the last saint reported by the Atthakathas. For the two centuries after Dutthagamani and Maliyadeva, Arahants are still mentioned by name in the old Pali texts. And the Chinese pilgrim Faxian reports in the early 5th century AD that he attended a mourning ceremony in Sri Lanka at which a monk who was believed to be an arahant was cremated. How then could Maliyadeva have been the very last Arahant more than five hundred years earlier?
Well, this might be due to a misunderstanding of a certain such ancient commentary text: An Atthakatha commentary on the Jataka stories (Jatakatthakatha IV,30) reports that Maliyadeva gave up his domestic life in a previous life during one of the Buddha's earlier existences to become an itinerant monk. And when he died he said that he would be the last of the people to achieve Parinibbana, that is, the last of them to become an Arahant. But what is meant by „people“ in this context are the contemporaries of Maliyadeva in his former life according to this Jataka story, i.e. the people of the Mughapakka Jataka, not the inhabitants of Sri Lanka, where Maliyadeva finally became an Arahant. The phrase about "the last Arahant among his contemporaries", which Maliyadeva is said to have spoken to his fellow human beings in a previous life, appears to have been later wrongly reinterpreted as "the last Arahant among the Sinhalese".
That new interpretation was not far to seek when many centuries after Maliyadeva the teaching became increasingly widespread that there were no longer any arahants in Sri Lanka. The historical Buddha had been living too long ago. Due to unfavorable historical circumstances the ability to achieve Nirvana had been decreasing since the lifetime og the Buddha and finally vanished. This view, that achieving Nirvana has not been possible for many centuries, at least since the Polonnaruwa period, and can therefore only be hoped for in a later life after the appearance of the next Buddha, is today the orthodox teaching of most Buddhist scholars and monks Sri Lanka.
Back to the historical Maliyadeva. The most commonly told story about him is that after he began his life as a monk, he mastered all three parts of the Tipitaka canon by heart and was able to interpret them within just three years and achieved Arahantship in the same short period of time. During this time he received his food donated by a woman who at first did not notice what a perfect Buddhist sage she was caring for because she only knew him as a needy mendicant monk. Only when she experienced him giving a teaching sermon to others through which these others could also achieve Arahantship, did she realize that he himself had long been such a saint, and through his teaching she herself took the first step, once in a later life to achieve arahantship. This story can be found in Manorathapurani I, 38f.
The Papanca Sudani reports on Maliyadeva's great success in helping many hundreds of his disciples achieve arahantship. Almost a dozen sermons from Maliyadeva are listed there, in all parts of the island, in each of which 60 listeners are said to have awakened to Nirvana. Among other things, the famous copper palace Lohapasada in the Mahavihara in Anuradhapura is said to have been the setting of such an enlightening discourse, as well as the hill of Mihintale and many sites that can no longer be identified today. Doesn't this statement of so many younger Arahants contradict the famous claim Maliyadeva to be the last Arahant?
Well, just as there is a difference between Buddhas and Pratyaka Buddhas, so too in the later conceptions there is a difference between two types of Arahants. Those who can actively help others to attain Nirvana, too, are the principal revered saints of Theravada Buddhists, not those who have also been passively helped to attain Nirvana. Strictly speaking, Maliyadeva, as such a successful preacher, would not be the last Arahant, because his disciples also became Arahants. But Maliyadeva according to this concet was the last "Great Arahant", the last so-called Sivpilisimbiapath Maha Arahant.
Unfortunately, the attribution of the cave hermitage to that Maha Arahant Maliyadeva also belongs to the realm of legend. Apart from popular belief, there is nothing to suggest that a sage of this name from Dutthagamani's time used to live in this cave dwelling. Moreover, Arankale must compete with another place for the honour of being the home of the last saint. The megalithic dolmen of Guharamaya (Gal Messa) in Padavigampola south of Kurunegala is also considered to be Maliyadeva's dwelling cave. To do justice to both places, it is said that the latter was Maliyadeva's abode and Arankale was Maliyadeva's meditation cave. But further sites lay claim to Maliyadeva, such as the monastic cave of Ganekanda near Polpithigama.
Meditation Path
Like Ritigala in the Cultural Triangle, Arankale extends over a wide area that is crossed by a so-called meditation path.
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This elaborately worked stone path connects the various building complexes. The ancient mediation path of Arankale begins at the Maliyadeva cave-hermitage and then leads about half a kilometer to the main complex of the monastery, with side paths branching off to meditation platforms along the way. Unlike in Ritigala, the meditation path in Arankale runs largely at ground level, along the foot of the mountain. The complexity of the construction of this meditation path is remarkable. It runs over a brick substructure that rises up to 2m above the surrounding ground level. In some places it is slightly widened. It is believed that these often circular widenings were intended to allow monks at crosspoints to comfortably walk past each other without disturbing each other during meditation.
Padhanagara Buildings - Double Platforms for Meditation
Halfway there is a meditation platform on the right. This type of double platform called is typical of forest monasteries of the Pansukulikas. At first glance it appears to be a megalithic building with a trilithic portal, but this first impression is deceptive. The carefully placed large stones do not form a gateway, but rather a bridge between two platforms. Not all double structures had a bridge connecting the two terraces, but many had.
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The double-platform type of building is only found in Sri Lanka. They are called Padhanagaras, or “meditation houses”. Because this type of building is so characteristic of the monasteries of the Pansukulikas, their monasteries are sometimes called "Padhanagara Parivenas". It is believed that the actual meditation platform in the rear was separated by the bridge from an anteroom where laypeople could approach the monks to bring them gifts or seek advice without having to enter the actual meditation area. But other explanations for this form of architecture are possible. For example, the front terrace (insted of the one in the rear) may have served as open-air meditation platform and the other as a base for covered monks' quarters. This is supported by the fact that you often find stumps of columns on Padhinagaras, but usually only on one of the two platforms, namely the one in the rear.
The double platform which is clearly visible from the meditation path is the only one along the path facing away from the slope. All of the other 20 or so meditation platforms are located on the mountainside itself, accessible via stairways.
The double platform which is clearly visible from the meditation path is the only one along the path facing away from the slope. All of the other 20 or so meditation platforms are located on the mountainside itself, accessible via stairways.
Excursus: Pansukulika Concept of Comfortable Privacy ... on click
It should be remembered that the Buddha offered his teachings as a "middle way", rejecting the excessive asceticism of his contemporaries as a hindrance to meditation. The Pansukulika monasteries remain committed to this basic concept in that they do not strive for increased loneliness and poverty as much as possible, but rather just a certain amount of privacy. The Pansukulika monks should remain undisturbed even by annoying inconveniences. This includes not only hordes of pilgrims, but also wild animals, which is why protectibe elevated meditation platforms have been created. Possible distracting disruptive factors also include the consequences of poor hygiene, which is why a sophisticated irrigation system for cool swimming ponds, hot water baths and toilets was set up, as well as medical care. In addition, the monks remained aware of their dependence on donations from laypeople and therefore settled in the solitude of the forest, but not too far away from the nearest villages.
All of these components in the service of a contemplative life, that is neither too secular nor too ascetic, are already laid down in the original rule of the order, the Vinaya corpus.
Remarkably, a few centuries before the appearance of the monastic architecturre of the Panskulikas, the great Theravada scholar Buddhaghosa re-emphasized in his main work Visuddhimagga that monks should live in tranqulility, but not too far away from the laity. Only the comnination of both aspects avoids both troubling favtors, disturbances and distress. Monks should live in peace with the animals of the forest, without being harmed or distracted by them, and above all they should not suffer from a lack of clean water. The Pansukulika monastery architecture is designed to meet these exact requirements in a tropical environment. That's why it is a special feature of Sri Lanka, i.e. different from China or Japan with their temperate climate or from Tibet with its continental mountainous cool and dry climate. Arankale is, so to speak, the most lushly tropical of all the Pansukulika reform monasteries, and in this respect it is also a model example.
All of these components in the service of a contemplative life, that is neither too secular nor too ascetic, are already laid down in the original rule of the order, the Vinaya corpus.
Remarkably, a few centuries before the appearance of the monastic architecturre of the Panskulikas, the great Theravada scholar Buddhaghosa re-emphasized in his main work Visuddhimagga that monks should live in tranqulility, but not too far away from the laity. Only the comnination of both aspects avoids both troubling favtors, disturbances and distress. Monks should live in peace with the animals of the forest, without being harmed or distracted by them, and above all they should not suffer from a lack of clean water. The Pansukulika monastery architecture is designed to meet these exact requirements in a tropical environment. That's why it is a special feature of Sri Lanka, i.e. different from China or Japan with their temperate climate or from Tibet with its continental mountainous cool and dry climate. Arankale is, so to speak, the most lushly tropical of all the Pansukulika reform monasteries, and in this respect it is also a model example.
Padhanagara in Arankale
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Pokuna - elaborate Bathing Pond
The meditation path leads to a T-junction. The uphill path to the left arrives at a group of Padhanagaras. If you follow the path to the right at this fork, you come to the main group of buildings of the former forest monastery. First you arrive near a large rectangular bathing pond that is carefully bordered. You can clearly see the rows of stone seats for the different water levels. At the cardinal points, stairs lead down into the pool. Many very beautiful blue water lilies bloom in this well-restored Pokuna. In addition to the Padhanagaras, such stone-edged bathing ponds, of which there were at least three in Arankale alone, are a main feature of Pansukulika monasteries.
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Excursus: Role of Lay People in Forest Monasteries ... on click
The largest such Pokuna complex was excavated in Mandakanda. To operate the bathing ponds as well as the comparatively luxurious toilets, a sophisticated irrigation and sewer system was required. Such irrigation systems - as well as the carefully built stone terraces - could only be implemented in the forests with the help of laypeople who specialized in them, and that means indirectly: with royal support. In a sense, the Pansukulika monasteries form a striking contrast to the older forest monasteries: the early forest refuges were founded on their own initiative by monks who had emigrated to remote mountain ranges; they consisted of poorly prepared and primitively equipped cave dwellings that where prepared and donated by important lay people. The reform movement of the Pansukulikas enjoyed royal protection from the beginning and was supported by the laity on a much larger scale. The establishment of new monasteries with such elaborate structures required much more involvement of lay helpers than the preparation of caves.
The newly founded Pansukulika monasteries, of course, were constructed in an austere style. The buildings were carefully crafted but sparsely decorated. And from the beginning, arrangements were made so that the peace of the Pansukulikas would not be disturbed. The older forest monasteries such as Dimbulagala or Medirigiriya, on the other hand, underwent the opposite development. Although they were originally hermit settlements, they soon became places of pilgrimage for laypeople because of the holiness of their monks and they were therefore lavishly furnished by the kings afterwards, with stupas, bo trees and picture houses, along with all the decorative adornments of the big city monasteries, so that in the end their style differed not much from the that of the busy urban monasteries. They just copied the style of the latter in the rural countryside or in forests. After the monasteries had become pilgrimage sites, they dwere not only developed with the same kind of architecture as the urban temples, also the way of life of the monks became similar, some of the forest monks were even involved in court politics. In contrast, in the founding of Pansukulika kings or local princes were involved much more in the beginning, but they created a form of monastery that was entirely geared towards meditation purposes and remained free from the hustle and bustle of pilgrims around Buddha statues or stupas or Bo-trees. Sculptures and relic shrines and sacred trees remained absent in Pansukulika monasteries. Rather, the elaborate structural design reinforced the idea of an undisturbed complementary monastic life in a natural environment. This sustainability is another remarkable aspect of this type of monastery, which, as said, only existed in Sri Lanka.
The newly founded Pansukulika monasteries, of course, were constructed in an austere style. The buildings were carefully crafted but sparsely decorated. And from the beginning, arrangements were made so that the peace of the Pansukulikas would not be disturbed. The older forest monasteries such as Dimbulagala or Medirigiriya, on the other hand, underwent the opposite development. Although they were originally hermit settlements, they soon became places of pilgrimage for laypeople because of the holiness of their monks and they were therefore lavishly furnished by the kings afterwards, with stupas, bo trees and picture houses, along with all the decorative adornments of the big city monasteries, so that in the end their style differed not much from the that of the busy urban monasteries. They just copied the style of the latter in the rural countryside or in forests. After the monasteries had become pilgrimage sites, they dwere not only developed with the same kind of architecture as the urban temples, also the way of life of the monks became similar, some of the forest monks were even involved in court politics. In contrast, in the founding of Pansukulika kings or local princes were involved much more in the beginning, but they created a form of monastery that was entirely geared towards meditation purposes and remained free from the hustle and bustle of pilgrims around Buddha statues or stupas or Bo-trees. Sculptures and relic shrines and sacred trees remained absent in Pansukulika monasteries. Rather, the elaborate structural design reinforced the idea of an undisturbed complementary monastic life in a natural environment. This sustainability is another remarkable aspect of this type of monastery, which, as said, only existed in Sri Lanka.
Small Image House
Between the path and the pond there is a former small image house, the stone corner and side posts of which are still upright. However, no statue was found here. Image houses are typical parts of other monastic complexes, but for the Pansukulikas they played a subordinate role as they were distanced from image cult. The background for this disdain for images is not so much a religious ban on images, but rather an undesirable side effect of image veneration, viz. that it attracts lay people in particular, who then disturb the peace of the monks in the monastic precincts. However, despite the poverty of sculptures, there was no strict ban on images in the forest refuges of the Pansukulikas, which can be seen from small image houses like this one, which can be found in almost all Pansukulika monasteries. Also stupas are not completely absent in Pansukulika monasteries, but they are rare and only of modest dimensions or in a peripheral location, mostly outside the sacred monastic compound.
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Congregational Area
The path ends in front of the main building of Arankale, which probably formed the Sima area, the Uposathaghara hall for ordination ceremonies and the monastic rituals on full moon days. This single platform is partly bricked, but lies mainly on a natural rocky ridge that slopes steeply outwards to a ditch. This construction method of using a natural rocky ridge as a terrace is typical of the Pansukulika monasteries. The meditation platforms are also mostly located on fairly horizontal granite ridges, which have been somewhat leveled and formed into rectangular terraces with additional masonry on the sides, surrounded by ditches, just like this Sima area of Arankale. Rainwater often collects in parts of this ditch, giving the impression that the Sima is on a small island. This is often found in recent Sima constructions. But as early as the Anuradhapura period there were Sima areas for higher ceremonies surrounded by water, such as at the Kaludiya Pokuna of Mihintale. Last but not least, many of the double platforms are also surrounded by such moats, including some in Arankale. The moat is not only intended to represent a symbolic separation of the sanctuary, but is also intended as real protection against uninvited visitors. As mentioned above, the monastic rule of the old Vinaya corpus already mentions the need for monks to be undisturbed by animals in order to be able to concentrate better. Another explanation of the function could be the cooling effect of the water.
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To the left of the Sima Terrace there is another platform that is considered a foyer where the monks could walk under the protection of walls. Parts of the platform were probably covered. This type of promenade is called Chankamana or Chankamanagara. There is also such a Chankama terrace in Bodhgaya, the holiest place of Buddhism in India, where the Buddha's enlightenment occurred. He spent the third week after enlightenment in the meditation form of walking on this terrace. Chankamanagaras are typical parts of the Pansukulika monasteries.
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There are two toilets at the back of the Chankamana terrace. They are not as demonstratively opulently decorated as in the case of other Pansukulika monasteries, but they were quite luxurious stone constructions of their own; apart from the urination stone, stone columns have been preserved. The very high walls under the toilet contained a septic tank.
Janthagara - Ayurvedic Sanatorium
If you leave this group of buildings in a south-westerly direction, after just 100m, under a group of trees, you will come across another building with massive stone walls. It is much larger than the double platforms and has a slightly sunken paved central courtyard. This might have been a refectory or, more likely, an ancient hospital, similar to those known from Ritigala or Medirigiriya. If this is a hospital, it can be considered one of the best preserved in Sri Lanka. It has a rectangular floor plan 26m long and 12m wide. Like the more famous examples known from Mihintale and Medirigiriya, it was shielded from the outside by a wall and received light and air from a rectangular inner courtyard, which may also have had an additional cooling water basin.
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But the hospital buildings found in Pansukulika monasteies differed from the other ancient Ayurvedic hospitals that had more rooms. The hospital building of Arankale was most probably a so-called Janthagara, a house with a hot water bath. The hot water was heated on specially designed stoves. A human-shaped stone trough for herbal or oil baths has not been found here in Arankale, but the usual millstones and mortars for grinding Ayurvedic medicinal plants can still be seen. The several dozen small stoves that were found here also indicate that the local medicine production was probably intended not only for the monks themselves, but for the farmers in the entire area. The Arankale Hospital is therefore considered to be the best archaeological evidence of medical care of Pansukulikas for the rural population. Medical care id reported in the historical chronicles of the Anuradhapura period. So it is not surprising that the legendary doctor on the Sinhalese royal throne, Buddhadasa, is also associated with Arankale.
Like the even more famous Pansukulika Monastery of Ritigala, this one of Arankale is located at the foot of a mountain. And as in the case of Ritigala, the local jungle is also a reservoir for a wide variety of medicinal herbs. The diversity of the flora is explained with exactly the same myth as in Ritigala, namely that it is a part of the Himalayas that was brought to Sri Lanka because of its wound-soothing herbs, when the hero Rama and his brother Lakshmana were injured in battle. In addition to its flora, Arankale is also known for its wealth of insect species, some of which are otherwise very rare.
Like the even more famous Pansukulika Monastery of Ritigala, this one of Arankale is located at the foot of a mountain. And as in the case of Ritigala, the local jungle is also a reservoir for a wide variety of medicinal herbs. The diversity of the flora is explained with exactly the same myth as in Ritigala, namely that it is a part of the Himalayas that was brought to Sri Lanka because of its wound-soothing herbs, when the hero Rama and his brother Lakshmana were injured in battle. In addition to its flora, Arankale is also known for its wealth of insect species, some of which are otherwise very rare.
