BUDDHISM IN SRI LANKA AND SOUTHEAST ASIA 147tries. Ironically, although Sri Lanka was originally on the receiving end of the
help, it came to dominate the exchange of texts. Elements of Sri Lankan his-
tory and mythology, together with the Sri Lankan recension of the Pali Canon,
came more and more to dominate the murals in Pagan.
Sri Lankan dominance further increased under the reign of King
Parakramabahu I (1153-86). By his time, remnants ofthe Dharmaruci sect
had surfaced in the ordination lineage founded at the time of King Vijayabahu
and had begun another split. Taking as his adviser a Venerable Mahakassapa-
an elder dwelling in a forest monastery outside of Polonnaruwa-and con-
sciously following King Asoka's example, King Parakramabahu forcibly united
all the monks in Sri Lanka into the Mahavihara sect. Recalcitrant Mahayanists
were persuaded to change their views, voluntarily disrobe, or be forcibly ex-
pelled from the monkhood. All remaining monks were subjected to a strin-
gent code of conduct, based on the Pali Vinaya, but with a few interesting
modifications (Strong EB, sec. 6.4).
These developments were interrupted in the early thirteenth century when
a foreign invasion destroyed Polonnaruwa, but they resumed under the rule of
Parakramabahu II, who took the throne in 1236, again reviving the
Theravadin ordination line-this time by importing monks from Kancipu-
ram, which was the last time a "Further Indian" state obtained help from India
in Buddhist matters. He also established a system for governing the Bhikkhu
Sangha, divided into village dwellers and forest dwellers, that was to provide
the norm for monastic governance in Southeast Asia up to the early twentieth
century.
The thirteenth century also saw the beginning of Pagan's political decline,
which was accelere:ted when Mongol forces looted the capital in 1287. By the
beginning of the fOllowing century, a Mon kingdom in Lower Burma had
split away, and by the middle of the century, Pagan was no longer an impor-
tant power. Nevertheless, the connection between Sri Lanka and Burma re-
mained, and the events of the eleventh to thirteenth centuries-the forging of
this connection concurrent with the demise of Buddhism in India-shaped
perceptions in Southeast Asia in a way that influenced events up to the recent
past: (1) The connection established Sri Lanka as a prime center ofTheravadin
orthodoxy and Pali scholarship, so the destruction of the Buddhist homeland
in northern India was less damaging for Southeast Asian Buddhists than it oth-
erwise might have been; (2) the connection kept the traditions surrounding
the Pali Canon alive, so the canon and its commentaries became prime sources
of inspiration, not only for the religious life of the area, but also for such as-
pects of secular culture as law and popular literature; and (3) in tying the
example of King Asoka firmly to the furtherance ofPali studies and the main-
tenance of orthodox Theravadin ordination lines, the connection created a
model that rulers in Burma, Sri Lanka, and Thailand (which joined the con-
nection in the fourteenth century after winning independence from the
Khmers) followed up through the twentieth century. Kings in these countries
who founded new dynasties or expanded their empires often came to see the
reestablishment of Theravadin orthodoxy in their kingdoms as one of their