Monk’s 1956 diary illuminates post-Independence Indian Buddhism

Bandara Manatunga’s account of “temporary monkhood” offers rare insights into Buddhist practices during a transformative period for the religion.

Bandara Manatunga holding the Patra at Rajgir. His diary chronicles his month-and-half-long experience in India as a “temporary monk”.  | Photo Credit: By Special Arrangement

On March 29, 1956, 27-year-old Bandara Manatunga left his hometown of Nuwara Eliya in Sri Lanka and embarked on a singular expedition to India. His destination was Nalanda, where he would be ordained as a “temporary” monk in the Buddhist monastery there. During his two-month stay in India, Manatunga maintained a diary, in which he meticulously recorded his day-to-day experiences, providing invaluable information not only on Indian Buddhism soon after Independence, but also throwing light on the prevalent socio-political situation in the country.

In May this year, the diary was published in its entirety in a book form, titled Tour of Piety to India in 1956, and is being seen as an important historical and sociological document for Buddhist scholars and sociologists alike.

Bandara Manatunga’s son, Anura Manatunga, an eminent archaeologist based in Sri Lanka, felt the book’s academic importance prompted him to publish it in a bilingual format (English and Sinhala) so it could reach a wider audience across the world. Speaking to Frontline from Sri Lanka, Manatunga says, “This was a private diary, and my father never meant to publish it. However, I felt that what he had noted in his diary would be of great importance in academic research in the days to come, particularly for those specialising in Buddhist history, and so I wanted it to get a bigger audience.” Temporary monkhood itself is very rare in Sri Lanka, adds Anura, “it is practised more in Thailand”. So, this account of him getting ordained as a “temporary monk” is very important for researchers, he notes. “1956 is also a very important year for Buddhism in India. B.R. Ambedkar had died that year, and the country was also seeing a revival of Buddhism.”

Anura points out that earlier, excerpts of his father’s diary, which was written almost entirely in Sinhala, were circulated in small social circles among friends. “What we have published now is the entire diary, and I am personally looking forward to doing around 15 research papers on it,” Manatunga, professor of Archaeology, University of Kelaniya, and former director general of Archaeology department, government of Sri Lanka, says.

The book provides fascinating insights into life inside a Buddhist monastery in the 1950s. In his diary entry dated April 13, 1956, Bandara Manatunga describes his ordination ceremony: “About 7.30 this morning my head was shaved. I think it was a Cambodian monk who did this. Later in the presence of monks from several other countries, i.e. Cambodia, Siam, Burma, Tibet, and twelve monks from Ceylon, I recited the text “Sabba Dukkha Nissarana” with fervent anticipation. I donned the yellow robe usually enrobed by monks near the Cetiya of Arahant Sariputta at Nalanda. It took about one hour to perform these ceremonies.”

Bandara Manatunga continues: “All this time I experienced such joy that as a result trembling overtook me. During the ceremonies, an Indian who had come to witness the event observed pansil (Five precepts) and he was converted to Buddhism. Mr. Tosaki, a Japanese national present, and another foreigner photographed the event. Later when I returned to my lodgings, a Sinhalese monk made me a cup of tea and reminded me that today is the New Year Day celebrated in Ceylon.”

Bandara Manatunga’s teacher Rev Budharakkhita of Bengal. | Photo Credit: By Special Arrangement

Rajat Sanyal, one of the foremost scholars of the archaeology of Indian Buddhism, tells Frontline that “this kind of narrative of the ordination cannot be found anywhere else.” He pointed out that one of the “unique” aspects of this diary is that there is no available account of a Buddhist monk travelling in India in the post-Independence scenario.

“From the fifth century onward, we have a large number of monks, mostly from China, travelling in India and they have left behind various accounts; but here is a monk coming from Sri Lanka, soon after India’s Independence... To the best of my knowledge, such a diary of a monk has never been published before in India, and that is what makes this book so important. He adds that his interactions with the practising Buddhist communities in India are of tremendous academic value, and also throw light on the socio-political scenario in India at that time,” says Sanyal, who is a professor of Archaeology at Calcutta University. 

Bandara Manatunga’s visit coincided with the 2,500th year of Buddha Jayanti, and the diary entry on May 23, 1956 provides a deeply personal account of the celebration. However, the book is not just about a monk’s life in a monastery, but also an account of a young man’s experience in a foreign land, his interactions with the people there, and his reaction to the society around him. Just as he was moved by the kindness of strangers, he was sometimes shocked by the poverty and the casual brutality around him too. In an entry dated May 15, 1956, he wrote:

“Today while we were walking, we saw a few persons carrying a dead body tied between two poles. On enquiry, they said that it was a woman, and she had been stabbed during an altercation about two hours before. It was being carried to be cremated near the river using some dried cow dung and a few pieces of dried wood. How strange it was. If it had happened in Ceylon, it would have taken several days for various inquiries and so on. I learnt that here they do not have that embarrassment and the cremation does not cost anything at all.” On another occasion, he talks of a “danger” hovering about him. In an entry made on April 20, 1956, he wrote: 

A Chinese delegations tour of Nalanda. | Photo Credit: By Special Arrangement

Bandara Manatunga’s ordination ceremony at Nalanda | Photo Credit: By Special Arrangement

“Due to a certain incident that happened at the Nalanda Institute and which had nothing to do with me, the whole night was spent in tremendous fear that there was a threat to my life. Therefore, I performed a ‘Satya kriya’. During my lifetime, up to this point, I have not harmed even an insect, suffice to say that I have never harmed any living human being either. On many occasions, I have come to their aid to overcome their fears. So, under this fact, I should not undergo this sort of fear that affronted me at this juncture. Eventually, the danger vanished, and things returned to normal.” However, what that danger was is never made clear. Anura Manatunga shed some light on it, saying it was a contractor who had threatened his father’s Buddhist teacher. “The contractor had some problems with my father’s teachers and some of the other monks in Nalanda. At that time there were some anti-Buddhist feelings around that area, and I think some of these contractors wanted to drive away the monks from Nalanda,” said Anura Manatunga.

After spending one and half months as a “temporary” monk, on June 1, 1956, Bandara Manatunga gave up his robes and left for home. When he arrived at his hometown of Nuwara Eliya on June 7, he was surprised by a “rousing welcome unexpectedly by a very large crowd”. The diary ends with his final entry on June 7, describing his homecoming: “The Mayor greeted me by handing me a sheaf of Betel. I was taken to the Mayor’s bungalow at Nuwara Eliya and was given refreshments. Then I was taken to the Bambarakele temple where a special Buddha puja was held for me. Finally, when I reached home a large crowd had gathered there as well. It was not until 11.00 p.m. that I was able to rest.”