NEW DELHI, INDIA, July 4, 2005: Buddhism, which is the predominant religion in Sri Lanka, is atheistic. The Buddha was against the worship of Gods and deities, and had exhorted his followers to seek salvation through self-control and right conduct, without taking recourse to the worship of Gods and deities to achieve it. But despite this injunction, theism has been a major part of Sri Lankan Buddhism for a large part of its long history. Deity worship is so strong now that most Buddhist temples in Sri Lanka have shrines for Hindu Gods like Ganesha, Vishnu, Murugan, and indigenous Gods like Sakra, Saman, Natha and Upulvan. There are also popular shrines for lesser divinities like Pitiye Deviyo and Panam Bandara. Buddhists flock to these shrines after paying obeisance to the Buddha, because, unlike the Buddha, the Gods dispense favors and boons. They accept material offerings, unlike the Buddha who accepts only flowers, begins this lengthy article by PK Balachandran.
However, there is a vital difference between Hindu theism and Sri Lankan Buddhist theism. While in Hindu theism, the Gods are supreme, in Sri Lankan Buddhist theism, Gods and deities (including powerful ones of Hindu origin like Brahma, Vishnu and Siva) are subordinate to the Buddha. The deities have temporal power, but no spiritual attributes, which only the Buddha, the Dhamma (the Buddhist doctrine) and the Sangha (the order of monks) have. But the deities are part of Buddhism in so far as they function as the accredited guardians of the Buddha, Buddhism and the island of Sri Lanka. The position and role of deities in Sri Lankan Buddhism, their origins, and their links with Southern India, were explained in the Third Vesak Commemoration Lecture organized by the Sri Lankan Deputy High commission in Chennai recently. The speaker was Prof KNO. Dharmadasa, the Editor-in-Chief of the Sinhala Encyclopedia and former Professor of Sinhala at the University of Peradeniya.
Early Buddhism in Sri Lanka was not theistic, Prof Dharmadasa maintains. The Attakatha commentaries of this early period had nothing on deity worship. It is believed that the Buddhists at the time were very puritanical, believing only in venerating the “Triple Gem,” which comprised the Buddha, the Damma, and the Sangha. It is in the 7th century AD that one hears of deity worship. The famous Buddhist chronicle, Mahawamsa, mentions King Dappula of the Ruhuna region in South Sri Lanka, worshiping a local deity called Upulvan, although he was a devout Buddhist. The 7th century AD also saw the worship of the Hindu God, Skanda, known among the Tamils as Murugan. The Mahawamsa gives a detailed description of King Manavamma worshipping Skanda. By the 12th century AD, deity worship had come to stay in Sri Lanka and was becoming a noticeable feature of Buddhism in the island, Prof Dharmadasa observes.