The dispute regarding the legal validity of the Buddhist monastic boundary (sima) of Balapitiya in 19th century Sri Lanka

• Applicant: Dr. Petra Kieffer-Pülz
• Subject Area: Asian Studies
• Term: from 2014 to 2022
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 258312734

The Buddhist monastic boundary (sīmā) of Balapiṭiya of the Amarapuranikāya in Sri Lanka is a monastic boundary determined by throwing water all around from a platform within a river (udakukkhepasīmā). The actual boundary consists in the line formed by the water dropping on the surface of the river. To ensure such a sīmā to be flawless the enclosed area must not be connected with any other area, even not with the bank of the river which per se counts as a village district, and thus is included within a village boundary (gāmasīmā). In the middle of the 19th century the monastic communities of Välitara and Daḍalla were united with the sīmā of Balapiṭiya as their common boundary. The platform was enlarged in 1845, and, to facilitate the walking to the platform, a bridge was erected, stretching from the bank of the river to just shortly before the platform, to prevent connection. The remaining gap was covered by a mobile plank, removed during the legal acts. When throwing water all around from the edge of the platform the end of the bridge lay within the sīmā indicated by this water throw. The bridge thus led to a confusion of the udakukkhepasīmā with the gāmasīmā according to the opinion of Laṅkāgoḍa Dhīrānanda (1808-1871). Such a condition implies the invalidity of all ordinations carried out within such a sīmā. Laṅkāgoḍa and his followers were called "confusionists" (saṅkaravādin), while those stating that there was no confusion were called „non-confusionists“ (asaṅkaravādin). The confusionists sent a delegation to the highest authority of the Burmese Buddhist community, the saṅgharāja (1858). His judgement (Sīmāvivādavinicchayakathā) was in conformity with the opinion of the "confusionists", but was rejected by the "non-confusionists". The attempts of the non-confusionists to receive support from Burma failed. In 1878 the Sudhamma monk Jāgara Thera travelled to Sri Lanka with the mission to conciliate the parties, but without success. All attempts have been to no avail. The asaṅkaravādin Vimalasāra published a "treatise regarding the characteristics of the sīmā" (Sīmālakkhaṇadīpanī, 1880), in which he voted for the validity of the Balapiṭiya sīmā. The confusionists replied to that with Randombe Dhammālaṅkāra‘s "A mirror of the system of consecrated boundaries" (Sīmānayadappana, 1884), in which the Sīmālakkhaṇādīpanī is refuted point by point. The dispute was never solved, but led to a split of the community into the Saddhammavaṃsa (saṅkaravādin) and the Mūlavaṃsa (asaṅkaravādin), both existing till today. The present project focuses on the edition, translation and analysis of the scriptures in Pāli connected to that case: Ñeyyadhamma‘s Sīmāvivādavinicchayakathā (1858), Dhīrānanda’s letter to Ñeyyadhamma (1860), Jāgara’s Sīmāsaṅkharavivādacchedanī (1878?), Vimalasāra‘s Sīmālakkhaṇadīpanī (1880) and Dhammālaṅkāra‘s Sīmānayadappana (1885). The results of these investigations shall flow in a study of the sīmā aspects of this sīmā dispute.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants