If the Mahāvihara of Anuradhapura Has Been More Tolerant Towards Other Sects, the History of Sri Lanka Would Have been Written in a Different Way: a Critical Essay.

Abstract

It is quite fair to name the arrival of Arhant Mahinda from India as the first major turning point in the civilization of the Island. The Sri Lankan Buddhist background up to today retains an inseparable relationship in the history of the Island. The Mahāvihāra of Anuradhapura, which has been accepted as the foremost cultural center in the history of Sri Lanka, and as the major the Theravada Buddhist country in South Asia, religious features in the history of island may have been the pivotal factors. Similarly, the credit for naming Sri Lanka as the center of the Theravada Buddhism for over a period of 2000 years also should go to the lineage of Theravada monks of the Mahāvihāra. If not, history of the Island may have depicted a mixed and distorted Buddhist philosophy mixed with elements borrowed from the Northern Buddhism. In this paper I will focus on the stability of the Mahāvihāra.