Diyasena

Diyasena is a Sinhala Buddist mythological figure, said to be a great king to be born in Sri Lanka after a lapse of 2500 years from the birth of Buddha, to preserve the culture and Buddhism of Sri Lanka.

One of the earliest known records of Prince Diyasena comes in the Parakumba Siritha of the Kotte era. The foretelling by God Sumana, to an ascetic - of The Reincarnation of King Parakumba, as a great King whose birth is to usher in all possible wealth, prosperity and good health to Sri Lanka - marks the origin of this folk lore. After the 2550 Buddha Jayanthi, since no such saviours turned up, the concept of a Prince Diyasena seemed to ebb. However it was not allowed to totally erase from the minds of the people because of a certain ola leaf that has provided vital evidence to support this theory, that exists in the National Museum to this day. This ola leaf containing the Sumana sutta was found from a temple in Algamuwa.
The ola leaf contains a history spanning from the arrival of the Lord Buddha to the Dutch invasion. The Sumana sutta, containing many folklore, was said to have been preached by the Lord Buddha, when he came to Divaguha. But nowhere in the Tripitaka is such a sutta mentioned. It's believed to have been written during the Dutch invasion, when Buddhism and the country itself was in decay.
Kotagama Wachissara Thero, in his book AbOUT the Saranankara Sangharaja Era, states that the intension of the monk in proclaiming that the Sumana Sutta was preached by the Lord Buddha himself, may have been to pacify the lay and the ordained alike, at a time when Buddhism as well as state affairs were subject to great deterioration. The myth about Prince Diyasena surfaces and subsides with the times. Whenever political instability effected the wellbeing of the people, they start praying for a Prince Diyasena to deliver them.
The myth became prevalent amongst peasants under British rule in the 19th century, and the last period in which it was popular was the late 1950s, when some identified Prime Minister S.W.R.D. Bandaranaike with Diyasena.

Whenever a great change took place people tend to refer to the trend setter as Prince Diyasena.
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