Buddhist Monasteries Towards Urbanism in Southern Sri Lanka

Description

Buddhist Monasteries Towards Urbanism in Southern Sri Lanka

Introduction

• The importance of the Research

Architectural remains of Buddhist monasteries, when seen at terms of their size and number, constitute the most prominent branch of archaeology in Sri Lanka. It cannot be ignored as a mere historical and archaeological phenomenon when considering the cultural history of the island. It would be appropriate to state, that the relationships between rulers, laymen and the Buddhist monks along with the environment, were the key factors in developing the ideologies for the monastic organizations from the very incept.

It was widely agreed that Buddhist monasteries were established in the Third Century BC in Sri Lanka (Bandaranayake, 1974:6, 1989:179ff, 1992:15ff, Basnayake, 1983:25ff, 1988:35, 1990:95ff, Coningham, 1999:28, Prematillake, 1989:197ff, Silva, 1988:23ff, Wijesuriya, 1998:12ff). It is also generally accepted that the Buddhist monasteries of the early era had no more than a unit of society for support (Postgate, 1977:12) suggesting that a village community was accustomed to worship and offer alms to the monks in the same monastic unit from the very beginning. However, this characteristic has rapidly changed in Sri Lanka. The evidence of early Brahmi inscriptions, incised below the drip-ledges of the rock shelters and other such surviving monastic structures and ground plans of individual units suggest that Buddhism had spread all over the country. In these sense, these features demonstrate a great deal about the technology, planning mathematics, architectural symbolism and social meaning of the Buddhist monasteries of the past (Bandaranayake, 1974:10,Basnayake, 1988:56, Coningham, 2001:28, Silva, 1990a:221ff). Some writers like, Dark (1995:17) comment that the buildings and functions of archaeological sites have also been considered in relation to the way, they functioned within it. It is evident from the technological development of monastic architecture that the complexity of management and the socio-economic environment of society vastly improved.