century when, during the reign of Para ̄kramaba ̄hu I, a major
reform and reorganization of the sangha was implemented.
Para ̄kramaba ̄hu I requested the Maha ̄viha ̄ra-oriented
a ̄raññikas, who had begun to appear on the scene two to
three centuries earlier, to preside over a council. The goal of
the council, not dissimilar from the goals of previous but less
successful royal policies, was to purify and unify the Sri Lan-
kan sangha. This time a number of factors contributed to
success. On one hand, the nika ̄yas had been weakened by the
recent confiscation of monastic property by King
Vikramaba ̄hu I (r. 1111–1132) and, on the other, there was
a respite in the warring between Sinhala and South Indian
groups.
The council “purified” the sangha, which meant that the
code of proper monastic conduct was ascertained and monks
who refused to comply were expelled. The reforms then uni-
fied the sangha by bringing all the remaining factions (and
it is clear there were many) together into a single communal
order. In so doing, the reforms provided the basis for a new
structure of ecclesiastical organization that was established ei-
ther at that time or shortly thereafter. The new system in-
volved the appointment, by the king, of a maha ̄svami or
sanghara ̄ja to act as the monastic head of the sangha as a
whole, and also the appointment (under him) of two
maha ̄sthaviras to supervise the ga ̄mava ̄sin, or village-dwelling
monks, and the vanava ̄sin, or forest-dwelling monks (also
called a ̄raññikas), respectively.
The reform movement that the council expressed and
abetted also generated a tremendous burst of literary creativi-
ty that matched and perhaps even exceeded the literary
achievements of Buddhaghosa and others some seven centu-
ries earlier. This new literary efflorescence had two very im-
portant dimensions. The first was the production, primarily
by a monk named Sa ̄riputta—a leading figure at the council
who later seems to have held the position of
maha ̄svami—and his disciples, of a whole new strata of Pali
literature. The new Pali compositions included a series of
subcommentaries on the commentaries of Buddhaghosa, es-
pecially on Vinaya; also included were a number of very im-
portant texts dealing with the lineages or histories (vam:sa)
of various relics of the Buddha and monuments to him, as
well as the more wide-ranging historical chronicles that
brought the narrative of the Maha ̄vam:sa up to date. This new
literary dynamism also generated new genres of Pali and Sin-
hala literature that were often permeated with devotional
themes. This literature vividly expressed the new reformist
concern to convey the Therava ̄da message in linguistic and
religious idioms acceptable both to monastic and lay constit-
uencies in the countryside as well as in the urban centers.
This reformed tradition by and large remained preemi-
nent and creative in Sri Lanka up to the coming of the Portu-
guese in the fifteenth century, and persisted for some centu-
ries thereafter. The sangha retained its symbiotic relationship
with the Sinhala kings, and the monasteries acquired new
lands and wealth. However, during the period after 1500,
when the authority of the indigenous Buddhist kingdom was
increasingly confined to the inland highlands, the sangha suf-
fered a serious erosion of standards. By the early eighteenth
century, the level of monastic scholarship and discipline had
reached a very low level indeed.
Burma. In Southeast Asia, the resurgence of Therava ̄da
proceeded rather differently. At the time King Aniruddha
came to the throne in Pagan (eleventh century) the Mon in
Lower Burma preserved a very ancient Therava ̄da tradition
associated with the A ́sokan missionaries Son:a and Uttara.
Through the reforms initiated by Aniruddha and his monas-
tic preceptor, Shin Arahan, and renewed by his successor,
King Kyanzittha, a strong Therava ̄da tradition was estab-
lished in Upper Burma and given powerful royal support. In
the twelfth century a further reformist element was intro-
duced at Pagan by a monk named Chapat:a, who had gone
to Sri Lanka during the reign of Para ̄kramaba ̄hu I and had
been reordained in the newly purified and unified Sri Lankan
sangha. Thus, by the end of the twelfth century, when the
Pagan dynasty was still a very powerful force, the Therava ̄da
tradition had become firmly established as the preeminent
religion in Burma. What is more, the three major subtradi-
tions that were to coexist and compete with one another
through the entire premodern period—those associated with
Lower Burma, Upper Burma, and Sri Lanka—were all more
or less firmly in place.
The Burmese monastic reforms, which in some respects
corresponded to those that had been implemented in
twelfth-century Sri Lanka, took place when the fifteenth-
century Mon king named Dhammaceti assumed the throne
in Lower Burma. Formerly a monk, King Dhammaceti
sponsored a delegation of eighteen monks to be reordained
in Sri Lanka. When these monks returned, Dhammaceti in-
sisted that all those within his realm who wished to remain
in the sangha be reordained by the new fraternity. Following
this “purification” and unification process, the king pro-
ceeded to establish a monastic hierarchy whose responsibility
it was to maintain strict adherence to the Vinaya rules. King
Dhammaceti’s efforts served to emphasize the influence of
Sinhala monastic traditions in Burma. Moreover, his activi-
ties gave impetus to a new tradition of Pali Abhidhamma
scholarship and commentaries that has been a hallmark of
Burmese Buddhism ever since.Thailand, Cambodia, and Laos. Farther to the east,
the Therava ̄da resurgence developed later than it had in
Burma. The first hint that an expansion of Therava ̄da influ-
ence might be in the offing came from the report that one
of the five monks who accompanied Chapat:a on his journey
to Sri Lanka in the late twelfth century was a member of the
royal court of Angkor. However, it is not until the latter part
of the thirteenth century that hard evidence becomes avail-
able. Based on the report of a Chinese visitor,
Therava ̄da—possibly with connections both to Mon and
Sinhala traditions—had become one of the major factors in
the religious life at the Khmer/Cambodian capital at Angkor.THERAVA ̄DA 9149