Their story
Saraṇaṃkara was born in 1698 in the Kandyan kingdom, the last independent kingdom of Sri Lanka, and became a novice monk at sixteen. At that time there were no fully ordained monks left on the island; the line of ordination had lapsed amid war and colonial rule on the coasts.
He gathered a movement of devout novices, known as the Silvat Samāgama, who studied Pāli and lived by the discipline, and he won the support of the Kandyan kings. At his urging, King Kīrti Śrī Rājasiṃha sent an embassy to Ayutthaya in Siam.
In 1753 a delegation of Thai monks led by Upāli Thera arrived and performed full ordinations at Kandy. Saraṇaṃkara was ordained and appointed Saṅgharāja, head of the island's monastic community, a position he held until his death in 1778.
The world they lived in
Sri Lanka's coasts were ruled by the Dutch East India Company, while the inland kingdom of Kandy, under kings of South Indian origin, presented itself as the protector of Buddhism. Theravāda countries had long helped each other restore ordination: centuries earlier, Sri Lankan monks had helped reform Buddhism in Burma and Siam.
Their contribution
He restored full ordination to Sri Lanka and led a revival of Pāli learning, teaching and writing, laying the foundations of modern Sri Lankan monasticism.
Teachings and works
Works in Pāli and Sinhala
Including handbooks and devotional texts for monks and lay people.
Related teachings
Their legacy
The ordination lineage he helped found became the Siyam Nikāya, the 'Siamese fraternity'. Because it admitted only men of the highest agricultural caste, other lineages were later brought from Burma, founding the Amarapura and Rāmañña fraternities in the 19th century.
History and tradition
What history can establish
His life is well documented in Sri Lankan and Thai sources, including records of the embassies between Kandy and Ayutthaya.
