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Samantakūta, Samantagiri, Sumanakūta, Sumanagiri,
Sumanācala
A mountain peak in Ceylon. It was the residence of the
Deva Mahāsumana (Mhv.i.33) and when the Buddha visited the Island for the third
time, he left on the mountain the mark of his footprint (Mhv.i.77; cf. Nammadā,
and Saccabaddha). Owing to this, the mountain became a sacred place of
pilgrimage. In later times many kings of Ceylon paid the shrine great honour.
Vijayabāhu I. gifted the village of Gilīmalaya for the feeding of pilgrims, and
set up rest-houses for them on the different routes, for the maintenance of
which he provided. (Cv.ix.64f)
Kittinissanka made a special pilgrimage to Sumanakūta and
mentioned it in his inscriptions (Cv.lxxx.24; Cv.Trs.ii.128, n.4). Parakkamabāhu
II. did likewise, and also gave ten gāvutas of rich land for the shrine on the
top of the peak (Cv.lxxxv.118). He further gave orders to his pious minister,
Devappatirāja, to make the roads leading to the mountain easy of access. The
minister repaired the roads, and built bridges at Bodhitala over the
Khajjotanadī, at Ullapanaggāma, and at Ambaggāma. He constructed rest houses at
suitable spots, and placed stepping stones on the way to the summit. Then the
king himself visited the peak and held a great festival there lasting for three
days (Cv.lxxxvi.9, 18 ff). Vijayabāhu IV., too, made a pilgrimage to the sacred
mountain (Cv.lxxxviii.48).
King Vīravikkama also went there and lit a lamp, fifteen
cubits in girth and five cubits high (Cv.xcii.17). Rājasūha I., in his desire to
take revenge on the Buddhist monks, handed the shrine over to Hindu priests
(Cv.xciii.12), but Vimaladhammasūriya II. restored to it all honours and held a
great festival, lasting for seven days, at the peak (Cv.xcvii.16f). His son,
Narindasīha, made two pilgrimages there (Cv.xcvii.31), while Vijayarājasīha had
a feast of lamps celebrated there (Cv.xcviii.84). Kittisirirājasīha had a
mandapa built round the footprint surmounted by a parasol, and assigned the
revenues from the village of Kuttāpiti to the monks who looked after the shrine
(Cv.c.221).
The districts round Samantakūta were, in early times, the
habitation of the Pulindas. It was believed (Mhv.vii.67) that, when Vijaya
forsook Kuvenī, her children fled thither and that their descendants were the
Pulindas. In later times, too, mention is made (E.g., Cv.lxi.70) of the fact
that the people dwelling in the neighbourhood of Samantakūtta refused to pay
taxes to the king. From very early times the mountain was the dwelling of
numerous monks. Thus, in the time of Dutthagāmanī, there were nine hundred monks
there, under Malayamahādeva Thera (Mhv.Xxxii.49). The Tamil Dīghajantu offered
a red robe to the Ākāsacetiya in Samantagiri vihāra, and, as a result, won
heaven, because he remembered the gift at the moment of his death (AA.i.376;
MA.ii.955). The rivers Mahāvāluka and Kalyāni rise in Sumanakūta.

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