Two factions were involved in the dispute about the legal validity of the monastic boundary (sīmā) of Balapiṭiya in 19th c. Sri Lanka: the confusionists (saṅkaravādin) and the nonconfusionists (asaṅkaravādin). The first group considered the Balapiṭiya sīmā, a ‘watersplashing boundary’ (udakukkhepasīmā), legally invalid, because there was a confusion between it and the adjacent ‘village boundary’; the second group did not accept this, and considered the Balapiṭiya sīmā legally valid. In his Sāsanavaṃsadīpo, written in 1879 and published in 1880, Aṁbagahapiṭyē Vimalasāratissa, a representative of the non-confusionists (asaṅkaravādin), also briefly discusses this chapter of the history of Buddhism on the island. In keeping with the work as a whole, he does not discuss in detail these events that occurred during his lifetime. Nevertheless, these stanzas reveal quite a bit. In the present article I give the relevant section of the Sāsanavaṃsadīpa (stanzas 1604–1659) together with an English translation, and a discussion of its contents.
目次
Introduction 77 Text and Translation of stanzas 1604–1659 79 Conclusion 94
