Part III
* * * * *
THE SINGHALESE CHRONICLES.
Chapter I
SOURCES OF SINGHALESE HISTORY.--THE MAHAWANSO AND OTHER NATIVE ANNALS.
It was long affirmed by Europeans that the Singhalese annals, like those of the Hindus, were devoid of interest or value as historical material; that, as religious disquisitions, they were the ravings of fanaticism, and that myths and romances had been reduced to the semblance of national chronicles. Such was the opinion of the Portuguese writers DE BARROS and DE COUTO; and VALENTYN, who, about the year 1725, published his great work on the Dutch possessions in India, states his conviction that no reliance can be placed on such of the Singhalese books as profess to record the ancient condition of the country. These he held to be even of less authority than the traditions of the same events which had descended from father to son. On the information of learned Singhalese, drawn apparently from the Rajavali, he inserted an account of the native sovereigns, from the earliest times to the arrival of the Portuguese; but, wearied by the monotonous inanity of the story, he omitted every reign between the fifth and fifteenth centuries of the Christian era.[1]
[Footnote 1: VALENTYN, Oud en Nieuw Oost-Indien, &c., Landbeschryving van t' Eyland Ceylon, ch iv. p. 60.]
A writer, who, under the signature of PHILALETHES, published, in 1816, A History of Ceylon from the earliest period, adopted the dictum of Valentyn, and contented himself with still further condensing the "account," which the latter had given "of the ancient Emperors and Kings" of the island. Dr. DAVY compiled that portion of his excellent narrative which has reference to the early history of Kandy, chiefly from the recitals of the most intelligent natives, borrowed, as in the case of the informants of Valentyn, from the perusal of the popular legends; and he and every other author unacquainted with the native language, who wrote on Ceylon previous to 1833, assumed without inquiry the nonexistence of historic data.[1]
[Footnote 1: DAVY's Ceylon, ch. x. p. 293. See also PERCIVAL'S Ceylon, p. 4.]
It was not till about the year 1826 that the discovery was made and communicated to Europe, that whilst the history of India was only to be conjectured from myths and elaborated from the dates on copper grants, or fading inscriptions on rocks and columns[1], Ceylon was in possession of continuous written chronicles, rich in authentic facts, and not only presenting a connected history of the island itself, but also yielding valuable materials for elucidating that of India. At the moment when Prinsep was deciphering the mysterious Buddhist inscriptions, which are scattered over Hindustan and Western India, and when Csoma de Körös was unrolling the Buddhist records of Thibet, and Hodgson those of Nepaul, a fellow labourer of kindred genius was successfully exploring the Pali manuscripts of Ceylon, and developing results not less remarkable nor less conducive to the illustration of the early history of Southern Asia. Mr. Turnour, a civil officer of the Ceylon service[2], was then administering the government of the district of Saffragam, and being resident at Ratnapoora near the foot of Adam's Peak, he was enabled to pursue his studies under the guidance of Gallé, a learned priest, through whose instrumentality he obtained from the Wihara, at Mulgiri-galla, near Tangalle (a temple founded about 130 years before the Christian era), some rare and important manuscripts, the perusal of which gave an impulse and direction to the investigations which occupied the rest of his life.
[Footnote 1: REINAUD, Mémoire sur l' Inde, p. 3.]
[Footnote 2: GEORGE TURNOUR was the eldest son of the Hon. George Turnour, son of the first Earl of Winterton; his mother being Emilie, niece to the Cardinal Due de Beausset. He was born in Ceylon in 1799 and having been educated in England under the guardianship of the Right Hon. Sir Thomas Maitland, then governor of the island, he entered the Civil Service in 1818, in which he rose to the highest rank. He was distinguished equally by his abilities and his modest display of them. Interpreting in its largest sense the duty enjoined on him, as a public officer, of acquiring a knowledge of the native languages, he extended his studies, from the vernacular and written Singhalese to Pali, the great root and original of both, known only to the Buddhist priesthood, and imperfectly and even rarely amongst them. No dictionaries then existed to assist in defining the meaning of Pali terms which no teacher could be found capable of rendering into English, so that Mr. Turnour was entirely dependent on his knowledge of Singhalese as a medium for translating them. To an ordinary mind such obstructions would have proved insurmountable, aggravated as they were by discouragements arising from the assumed barrenness of the field, and the absence of all sympathy with his pursuits, on the part of those around him, who reserved their applause and encouragement till success had rendered him indifferent to either. To this apathy of the government officers, Major Forbes, who was then the resident at Matelle, formed an honourable exception; and his narrative of Eleven Years in Ceylon shows with what ardour and success he shared the tastes and cultivated the studies to which he had been directed by the genius and example of Turnour. So zealous and unobtrusive were the pursuits of the latter, that even his immediate connexions and relatives were unaware of the value and extent of his acquirements till apprised of their importance and profundity by the acclamation with which his discoveries and translations from the Pali were received by the savans of Europe. Major Forbes, in a private letter, which I have been permitted to see, speaking of the difficulty of doing justice to the literary character of Turnour, and the ability, energy, and perseverance which he exhibited in his historical investigations, says, "his Epitome of the History of Ceylon was from the first correct; I saw it seven years before it was published, and it scarcely required an alteration afterwards." Whilst engaged in his translation of the Mahawanso, TURNOUR, amongst other able papers on Buddist History and Indian Chronology in the Journal of the Bengal Asiatic Society, v. 521, vi. 299, 790, 1049, contributed a series of essays on the Pali-Buddhistical Annals, which were published in 1836, 1837, 1838.--Journ. Asiatic Soc. Bengal, vi. 501, 714, vii. 686, 789, 919. At various times he published in the same journal an account of the Tooth Relic of Ceylon, Ib. vi. 856, and notes on the inscriptions on the columns of Delhi, Allahabad, and Betiah, &c. &c.; and frequent notices of Ceylon coins and inscriptions. He had likewise planned another undertaking of signal importance, the translation into English of a Pali version of the Buddhist scriptures, an ancient copy of which he had discovered, unencumbered by the ignorant commentaries of later writers, and the fables with which they have defaced the plain and simple doctrines of the early faith. He announced his intention in the Introduction to the Mahawanso to expedite the publication, as "the least tardy means of effecting a comparison of the Pali with the Sanskrit version" (p. cx.). His correspondence with Prinsep, which I have been permitted by his family to inspect, abounds with the evidence of inchoate inquiries in which their congenial spirits had a common interest, but which were abruptly ended by the premature decease of both. Turnour, with shattered health, returned to Europe in 1842, and died at Naples on the 10th of April in the following year, The first volume of his translation of the Mahawanso, which contains thirty-eight chapters out of the hundred which form the original work, was published at Colombo in 1837; and apprehensive that scepticism might assail the authenticity of a discovery so important, he accompanied his English version with a reprint of the original Pali in Roman characters with diacritical points.
He did not live to conclude the task he had so nobly begun; he died while engaged on the second volume of his translation, and only a few chapters, executed with his characteristic accuracy, remain in manuscript in the possession of his surviving relatives. It diminishes, though in a slight degree, our regret for the interruption of his literary labours to know that the section of the Mahawanso which he left unfinished is inferior both in authority and value to the earlier portion of the work, and that being composed at a period when literature was at its lowest ebb in Ceylon, it differs little if at all from other chronicles written during the decline of the native dynasty.]
It is necessary to premise, that the most renowned of the Singhalese books is the Mahawanso, a metrical chronicle, containing a dynastic history of the island for twenty-three centuries from B.C. 543 to A.D. 1758. But being written in Pali verse its existence in modern times was only known to the priests, and owing to the obscurity of its diction it had ceased to be studied by even the learned amongst them.
To relieve the obscurity of their writings, and supply the omissions, occasioned by the fetters of rhythm and the necessity of permutations and elisions, required to accommodate their phraseology to the obligations of verse; the Pali authors of antiquity were accustomed to accompany their metrical compositions with a tika or running commentary, which contained a literal version of the mystical text, and supplied illustrations of its more abstruse passages. Such a tika on the Mahawanso was generally known to have been written; but so utter was the neglect into which both it and the original text had been permitted to fall, that Turnour till 1826 had never met with an individual who had critically read the one, or more than casually heard of the existence of the other.[1] At length, amongst the books which, were procured for him by the high, priest of Saffragam, was one which proved to be this neglected commentary on the mystic and otherwise unintelligible Mahawanso; and by the assistance of this precious document he undertook, with confidence, a translation into English of the long lost chronicle, and thus vindicated the claim of Ceylon to the possession of an authentic and unrivalled record of its national history.
[Footnote 1: TURNOUR's Mahawanso, introduction, vol. i. p. ii.]
The title "Mahawanso," which means literally the "Genealogy of the Great," properly belongs only to the first section of the work, extending from B.C. 543 to A.D. 301,[1] and containing the history of the early kings, from Wijayo to Maha Sen, with whom the Singhalese consider the "Great Dynasty" to end. The author of this portion was Mahanamo, uncle of the king Dhatu Sena, in whose reign it was compiled, between the years A.D. 459 and 477, from annals in the vernacular language then existing at Anarajapoora.[2]
[Footnote 1: Although the Mahawanso must be regarded as containing the earliest historical notices of Ceylon, the island, under its Sanskrit name of Lanka, occupies a prominent place in the mythical poems of the Hindus, and its conquest by Rama is the theme of the Ramayana, one of the oldest epics in existence. In the Raja-Tarangini also, an historical chronicle which may be regarded as the Mahawanso of Kashmir, very early accounts of Ceylon are contained, and the historian records that the King Megavahana, who, according to the chronology of Troyer, reigned A.D. 24, made an expedition to Ceylon for the purpose of extending Buddhism, and visited Adam's Peak, where he had an interview with the native sovereign.--Raja-Tarangini, Book iii. sl. 71-79. Ib. vol. ii. p. 364.]
[Footnote 2: Mahawanso, ch. i. The Arabian travellers in Ceylon mention the official historiographers employed by order of the kings. See Vol. I Pt. III. ch. viii. p. 387, note.]
The sovereigns who succeeded Maha Sen are distinguished as the "Sulu-wanse," the "lower race," and the story of their line occupies the continuation of this extraordinary chronicle, the second portion of which was written by order of the illustrious king Prakrama Bahu, about the year A.D. 1266, and the narrative was carried on, under subsequent sovereigns, down to the year A.D. 1758, the latest chapters having been compiled by command of the King of Kandy, Kirti-Sri, partly from Singhalese works brought back to the island from Siam (whither they had been carried at former periods by priests dispatched upon missions), and partly from native histories, which had escaped the general destruction of such records in the reign of Raja Singha I., an apostate from Buddhism, who, about the year A.D. 1590, during the period when the Portuguese were in occupation of the low country, exterminated the priests of Buddha, and transferred the care of the shrine on Adam's Peak to Hindu Fakirs.
But the Mahawanso, although the most authentic, and probably the most ancient, is by no means the only existing Singhalese chronicle. Between the 14th and 18th centuries several historians recorded passing events; and as these corroborate and supplement the narrative of the greater work, they present an uninterrupted Historical Record of the highest authenticity, comprising the events of nearly twenty-four centuries.[1]
[Footnote 1: In 1833 Upham published, under the title of The Sacred and Historical Books of Ceylon, translations of what professed to be authentic copies of the Mahawanso, the Rajaratnacari, and Rajavali; prepared for the use of Sir Alexander Johnston when Chief-Justice of the island. But Turnour, in the introduction to his masterly translation of the Mahawanso; has shown that Sir Alexander had been imposed upon, and that the alleged transcripts supplied to him are imperfect as regards the original text and unfaithful as translations. Of the Mahawanso in particular, Mr. Turnour says, in a private letter which I have seen, that the early part of Upham's volume "is not a translation but a compendium of several works, and the subsequent portions a mutilated abridgment." The Rajavali, which is the most valuable of these volumes, was translated for Sir Alexander Johnston by Mr. Dionysius Lambertus Pereira, who was then Interpreter-Moodliar to the Cutchery at Matura. These English versions, though discredited as independent authorities, are not without value in so far as they afford corroborative support to the genuine text of the Mahawanso, and on this account I have occasionally cited them.]
From the data furnished by these, and from corroborative sources,[1] Turnour, in addition to many elaborate contributions drawn from the recesses of Pali learning in elucidation of the chronology of India, was enabled to prepare an Epitome of the History of Ceylon, in which he has exhibited the succession and genealogy of one hundred and sixty-five kings, who filled the throne during 2341 years, extending from the invasion of the island from Bengal, by Wijayo, in the year B.C. 543 to its conquest by the British in 1798. In this work, after infinite labour, he has succeeded in condensing the events of each reign, commemorating the founders of the chief cities, and noting the erection of the great temples and Buddhist monuments, and the construction of some of those gigantic reservoirs and works for irrigation, which, though in ruins, arrest the traveller in astonishment at their stupendous dimensions. He thus effectually demonstrated the misconceptions of those who previously believed the literature of Ceylon to be destitute of historic materials.[2]
[Footnote 1: Besides the Mahawanso, Rajaratnacari, and Rajavali, the other native chronicles relied on by Turnour in compiling his epitome were the Pujavali, composed in the thirteenth century, the Neekaasangraha, written A.D. 1347, and the Account of the Embassy to Siam in the reign of Raja Singha II., A.D. 1739-47, by WILBAAGEDERE MUDIANSE.]
[Footnote 2: By the help of TURNOUR'S translation of the Mahawanso and the versions of the Rajaratnacari and Rajavali, published by Upham, two authors have since expanded the Epitome of the former into something like a connected narrative, and those who wish to pursue the investigation of the early story of the island, will find facilities in the History of Ceylon, published by KNIGHTON in 1845, and in the first volume of Ceylon and its Dependencies, by PRIDHAM, London, 1849. To facilitate reference I have appended a Chronological List of Singhalese Sovereigns, compiled from the historical epitome of Turnour. See Note B. at the end of this chapter.]
Besides evidence of a less definite character, there is one remarkable coincidence which affords grounds for confidence in the faithfulness of the purely historic portion of the Singhalese chronicles; due allowance being made for that exaggeration of style which is apparently inseparable from oriental recital. The circumstance alluded to is the mention in the Mahawanso of the Chandragupta[1], so often alluded to by the Sanskrit writers, who, as Sir William Jones was the first to discover, is identical with Sandracottus or Sandracoptus, the King of the Prasii, to whose court, on the banks of the Ganges, Megasthenes was accredited as an ambassador from Seleucus Nicator, about 323 years before Christ. Along with a multitude of facts relating to Ceylon, the Mahawanso contains a chronologically connected history of Buddhism in India from B.C. 590 to B.C. 307, a period signalized in classical story by the Indian expedition of Alexander the Great, and by the Embassy of Megasthenes to Palibothra,--events which in their results form the great link connecting the histories of the West and East, but which have been omitted or perverted in the scanty and perplexed annals of the Hindus, because they tended to the exaltation of Buddhism, a religion loathed by the Brahmans.
[Footnote 1: The era and identity of Sandracottus and Chandragupta have been accurately traced in MAX MÜLLER'S History of Sanskrit Literature, p. 298, &c.]
The Prasii, or people of Megadha, occupy a prominent place in the history of Ceylon, inasmuch as Gotama Buddha, the great founder of the faith of its people, was a prince of that country, and Mahindo, who finally established the Buddhist religion amongst them, was the great-grandson of Chandagutto, a prince whose name thus recorded in the Mahawanso[1] (notwithstanding a chronological discrepancy of about sixty years), may with little difficulty be identified with the "Chandragupta" of the Hindu Purána, and the "Sandracottus" of Megasthenes.
[Footnote 1: Mahawanso, ch. v. p. 21. See also WILSON'S Notes to the Vishnu Purána, p. 468.]
This is one out of the many coincidences which demonstrate the authenticity of the ancient annals of Ceylon; and from sources so venerable, and materials so abundant, I propose to select a few of the leading events, sufficient to illustrate the origin, and explain the influence of institutions and customs which exist at the present day in Ceylon, and which, from time immemorial, have characterised the inhabitants of the island.
NOTE (A.)
ANCIENT MAP OF CEYLON.
So far as I am aware, no map has ever been produced, exhibiting the comparative geography of Ceylon, and placing its modern names in juxtaposition with their Sanskrit and Pali.
NOTE (B.)
NATIVE SOVEREIGNS OF CEYLON.
N.B. The names of subordinate or cotemporary Princes are printed in Italics.
Names and Relationship of each succeeding Sovereign. Capital. Accession
B.C 1. Wejaya, founder of the Wejayan dynasty Tamananeuera 543 2. Upatissa 1st, minister--regent Upatissaneuera 505 3. Panduwása, paternal nephew of Wejaya ditto 504 Ráma Rámagona Rohuna Rohuna Diggaina Diggámadulla Urawelli Mahawelligama Anurádha Anurádhapoora Wijitta Wijittapoora [these six are brothers-in-law] 4. Abhaya, son of Paduwása, dethroned Upatissaneuera 474 Interregnum 454 5. Pandukábhaya, maternal grandson of Panduwása Anurádhapoora 437 6. Mutasiwa, paternal grandson ditto 367 7. Devenipiatissa, second son ditto 307 Mahanága, brother Mágama Yatálatissa, son Kellania Gotábhaya, son Mágama Kellani-tissa, not specified Kellania Káwan-tissa, son of Gotábhaya Mágama 8. Uttiya, fourth son of Mutasiwa Anurádhapoora 267 9. Mahasiwa, fifth do. ditto 257 10. Suratissa, sixth do. put to death ditto 247 11. Séna and Guttika, foreign usurpers--put to death ditto 237 12. Aséla, ninth son of Mutasiwa--deposed ditto 215 13. Elála, foreign usurper--killed in battle ditto 205 14. Dutugaimunu, son of Káwantissa ditto 161 15. Saidaitissa, brother ditto 137 16. Tuhl or Thullathanaka, younger son--deposed ditto 119 17. Laiminitissa 1st or Lajjitissa, elder brother ditto 119 18. Kalunna or Khallátanága, brother--put to death ditto 109 19. Walagambáhu 1st or Wattagamini, brother--deposed ditto 104 20. [Five foreign usurpers--successively deposed and put to death] Pulahattha ditto 103 Báyiha ditto 100 Panayamárá ditto 98 Peliyamárá ditto 91 Dáthiya ditto 90 21. Walagambáhu 1st, reconquered the kingdom ditto 88 22. Mahadailitissa or Mahachula, son ditto 76 23. Chora Nága, son--put to death ditto 62 24. Kudá Tissa, son--poisoned by his wife ditto 50 25. Anulá, widow ditto 47 26. Makalantissa or Kallakanni Tissa, second son of Kudátissa ditto 41 27. Bátiyatissa 1st or Bátikábhaya, son ditto 19
Names and Relationship of Capital. Accession. each succeeding Sovereign. A.D. 28. Maha Dailiya Mána or Dáthika, brother Anurádhapoora 9 29. Addagaimunu or Amanda Gámini, son--put to death ditto 21 30. Kinibirridaila or Kanijáni Tissa, brother ditto 30 31. Kudá Abhá or Chulábhaya, son ditto 33 32. Singhawallí or Síwalli, sister--put to death ditto 34 Interregnum 35 33. Elluná or Ha Nága, maternal nephew of Addagaimunu ditto 38 34. Sanda Muhuna or Chanda Mukha Siwa, son ditto 44 35. Yasa Silo or Yatálakatissa, brother--put to death ditto 52 36. Subha, usurper--put to death ditto 60 37. Wahapp or Wasahba, descendant of Laiminitissa ditto 66 38. Waknais or Wanka Násica, son ditto 110 39. Gajábáhu 1st or Gámini, son ditto 113 40. Mahalumáná or Mallaka Nága, maternal cousin ditto 125 41. Bátiya Tissa 2nd or Bhátika Tissa, son ditto 131 42. Chula Tissa or Kanittbatissa, brother ditto 155 43. Kuhuna or Chudda Nága, son--murdered ditto 173 44. Kudanáma or Kuda Nága, nephew--deposed ditto 183 45. Kuda Siriná or Siri Nága 1st, brother-in-law ditto 184 46. Waiwahairatissa or Wairatissa, son--murdered ditto 209 47. Abhá Sen or Abhá Tissa, brother ditto 231 48. Siri Nága 2nd, son ditto 239 49. Weja Indu or Wejaya 2nd, son--put to death ditto 241 50. Sangatissa 1st, descendant of Laiminitissa--poisoned ditto 242 51. Dahama Sirisanga Bo or Sirisanga Bodhi 1st, do do.--deposed ditto 245 52. Golu Abhá, Gothábhaya or Megha warna Abhay, do. do. ditto 248 53. Makalan Detu Tissa 1st, son ditto 261 54. Maha Sen, brother ditto 275 55. Kitsiri Maiwan 1st or Kirtisri Megha warna, son ditto 302 56. Detu Tissa 2nd, brother ditto 330 57. Bujas or Budha Dása, son ditto 339 58. Upatissa 2nd, son ditto 368 59. Maha Náma, brother ditto 410 60. Senghot or Sotthi Sena, son--poisoned ditto 432 61. Laimini Tissa 2nd or Chatagáhaka, descendant of Laiminitissa ditto 432 62. Mitta Sena or Karalsora, not specified--put to death ditto 433 63. Pándu 24.9. Foreign usurpers ditto 434 Párinda Kuda 24.9. Foreign usurpers ditto 439 Khudda Párinda 24.9. Foreign usurpers ditto 455 Dátthiya 24.9. Foreign usurpers ditto 455 Pitthiya 24.9. Foreign usurpers ditto 458 64. Dásenkelleya or Dhátu Séna, descendant of the original royal family--put to death ditto 459 65. Sígiri Kasumbu or Kásyapa 1st, son--committed suicide Sigiri Galla Neuera 477
Names and Relationship of each succeeding Sovereign. Capital. Accession. A.D.
66. Mugallána 1st, brother Anurádhapoora 495 67. Kumára Dás or Kumára Dhátu Séna, son-immolated himself ditto 513 68. Kirti Séna, son-murdered ditto 522 69. Maidi Síwu or Síwaka, maternal uncle-murdered ditto 531 70. Laimini Upátissa 3rd, brother-in-law ditto 531 71. Ambaherra Salamaiwan or Silákála, son-in-law ditto 534 72. Dápulu 1st or Dátthápa Bhodhi, second son--committed suicide ditto 547 73. Dalamagalan or Mugallána 2nd, elder brother ditto 547 74. Kuda Kitsiri Maiwan 1st or Kirtisri Meg-hawarna, son-put to death ditto 567 75. Senewi or Maha Nága, descendant of the Okáka branch ditto 586 76. Aggrabodhi 1st or Akbo, maternal nephew ditto 589 77. Aggrabodhi 2nd or Sula Akbo, son-in-law ditto 623 78. Sanghatissa, brother-decapitated ditto 633 79. Buna Mugalan or Laimini Bunáya, usurper-put to death ditto 633 80. Abhasiggáhaka or Asiggáhaka, maternal grandson ditto 639 81. Siri Sangabo 2nd, son-deposed ditto 648 82. Kaluna Detutissa or Laimina Katuriya, descendant of Laiminitissa-committed Dewuneura suicide or Dondera 648 Siri Sangabo 2nd, restored, and again deposed Anurádhapoora 649 83. Dalupiatissa 1st or Dhatthopatissa, Laimini branch-killed in battle ditto 665 84. Paisulu Kasumbu or Kásyapa 2nd, brother of Sirisangabo ditto 677 85. Dapulu 2nd, Okáka branch-deposed ditto 686 86. Dalupiatissa 2nd or Hattha-Datthopatissa, son of Dalupiatissa 1st ditto 693 87. Paisulu Siri Sanga Bo 3rd or Aggrabodhi, brother ditto 702 88. Walpitti Wasidata or Dantanáma, Okáka branch ditto 718 89. Hununaru Riandalu or Hatthadátha, original royal family-decapitated ditto 720 90. Máhalaipánu or Mánawamma, do. do. ditto 720 91. Kásiyappa 3rd o Kasumbu, son ditto 726 92. Aggrabodhi 3rd or Akbo, nephew Pollonnarrua 729 93. Aggrabodhi 4th or Kudá Akbo, son ditto 769 94. Mahindu 1st or Salamaiwan, original royal family ditto 775 95. Dappula 2nd, son ditto 795 96. Mahindu 2nd or Dharmika-Sîlámaiga, son ditto 800 97. Aggrabodhi 5th or Akbo, brother ditto 804 98. Dappula 3rd or Kudá Dappula, son ditto 815 99. Aggrabodhi 6th, cousin ditto 831 100. Mitwella Sen or Silámaiga, son ditto 838 101. Kásiyappa 4th or Máganyin Séna or Mihindu, grandson ditto 858 102. Udaya 1st, brother ditto 891
Names and Relationship of Capital. Accession. each succeeding Sovereign. A.D. 103. Udaya 2nd, son Pollonnarrua 926 104. Kásiyappa 5th, nephew and son-in-law ditto 937 105. Kásiyappa 6th, son-in-law ditto 954 106. Dappula 4th, son ditto 964 107, Dappula 5th, not specified ditto 964 108. Udaya 3rd, brother ditto 974 109. Séna 2nd, not specified ditto 977 110. Udaya 4th, do. do. ditto 986 111. Séna 3rd, do. do. ditto 994 112. Mihindu 3rd, do. do ditto 997 113. Sèna 4th, son--minor ditto 1013 114. Mihindu 4th, brother--carried captive to Anurádhapoora 1023 India during the Sollean conquest Interregnum Sollean viceroyalty Pollonnarrua 1059 Maha Lai or Maha } { Lála Kirti } { Rohuna Wikrama Pándi } Subordinate { Kalutotta Jagat Pándi or Jagati } native kings { Pála } during the { Rohuna Prákrama Pándi or } Sollean { Prákhrama Báhu } vice-royalty. { ditto Lokaiswara } { Kácharagama 115. Wejayabáhu 1st or Sirisangabo 4th, grandson of Mihindu 4th Pollonnarrua 1071 116. Jayabáhu 1st, brother ditto 1126 117. Wikramabáhu 1st } ditto } _ Mánábarana } A disputed Rohuna } 118. Gajábáhu 2nd } succession Pollonnarrua } 1127 Siriwallaba or} } Kitsiri Maiwan} Rohuna } 119. Prákrama Báhu 1st, son of Mánábárana Pollonuarrua 1153 120. Wejayabáhu 2nd, nephew--murdered ditto 1186 121. Mihindu 5th or Kitsen Kisdas, usurper--put to death ditto 1187 122. Kirti Nissanga, a prince of Kálinga ditto 1187 Wírabáhu, son--put to death ditto 1196 123. Wikramabáhu 2nd, brother of Kirti Nissanga--put to death ditto 1196 124. Chondakanga, nephew--deposed ditto 1196 125. Lálawátí, widow of Prákramabáhu--deposed ditto 1197 126. Sáhasamallawa, Okáka branch--deposed ditto 1200 127. Kalyánawati, sister of Kirti Nissanga ditto 1202 128. Dharmásóka, not specified--a minor ditto 1208 129. Nayaanga or Nikanga, minister--put to death ditto 1209 Lílawatí, restored, and again deposed ditto 1209 130. Lokaiswera 1st, usurper--deposed ditto 1210 Lílawatí, again restored, and deposed a third time ditto 1211 131. Pandi Prákrama Báhu 2nd, usurper--deposed ditto 1211 132. Mágha, foreign usurper ditto 1214 133. Wejayabáhu 3rd, descendant of Sirisangabo 1st Dambadenia 1235 134. Kalikála Sahitya Sargwajnya or Pandita Prakrama Báhu 3rd, son ditto 1266 135. Bosat Wejaya Báhu 4th, son Pollonnarrua 1301
Names and Relationship of each succeeding Sovereign. Capital. Accession. A.D. Bhuwaneka Báhu _Yapahu or Subbapabatto_ 136. Bhuwaneka Báhu 1st, brother ditto 1303 137. Prákrama Báhu 3rd, son of Bosat Wejayabáhu Pollonnarrua 1314 138. Bhuwaneka Báhu 2nd, son of Bhuwaneka Kurunaigalla or 1319 Báhu Hastisailapoora 139. Pandita Prákrama Báhu 4th, not specified ditto 140. Wanny Bhuwaneka Báhu 3rd, do. ditto 141. Wejaya Báhu 5th, do. ditto 142. Bhuwaneka Báhu 4th, do. Gampola or Gangásiripoora 1347 143. Prákrama Báhu 5th, do. ditto 1361 144. Wikram Báhu 3rd, cousin Partly at Kandy or Sengadagalla Neuera 1371 145. Bhuwaneka Báhu 5th, not specified Gampola or Gangásiripoora 1378 146. Wejaya Báhu 5th, or Wíra Báhu, do ditto 1398 147. Sri Prákrama Bahu 6th, do. Kotta or Jayawardanapoora 1410 148. Jayabáhu 2nd, maternal grandson--put to death ditto 1462 149. Bhuwaneka Báhu 6th, not specified ditto 1464 150. Pandita Prákrama Báhu 7th, adopted son ditto 1471 151. Wíra Prákrama Báhu 8th, brother of Bhuwaneka Báhu 6th ditto 1485 152. Dharma Prákrama Báhu 9th, son ditto 1505 153. Wejaya Báhu 7th, brother--murdered ditto 1527 Jayawíra Bandára Gampola 154. Bhuwaneka Báhu 7th, son Kotta 1534 Máyádunnai Setawacca Raygam Bandára Raygam Jayawíra Bandára Kandy 155. Don Juan Dharmapála Kotta 1542 A Malabar Yapahu Portuguese Colombo Wídiye Rája Pailainda Neuera Rája Singha Aiwissáwelle Idirimáné Suriya Seven Korles Wikrama Báhu descendant of Sirisangabo 1st Kandy 156. Rája Singha 1st, son of Máyádunnai Setawacca 1581 Jaya Suriya Setawacca Wídiye Rája's queen ditto 157. Wimala Dharma, original royal family Khandy 1592 158. Senáraana or Senarat, brother ditto 1604 159. Rája-singha 2nd, son ditto 1637 Kumára-singa, brother Ouvah Wejaya Pála, brother Matelle 160. Wimala Dharma Suriya 2nd, son of Rájasingha Khandy 1687 161. Sriwíra Prákrama Narendrasingha or Kundasála ditto 1707 162. Sriwejaya Rája Singha or Hanguranketta, brother-in-law ditto 1739 163. Kirtisri Rája Singha, brother-in-law ditto 1747 164. Rajádhi Rája Singha, brother ditto 1781 165. Sri Wikrema Rája Singha, son of the late king's wife's sister, deposed by the English in 1815, and died in captivity in 1832 ditto 1798
NOTE.--The Singhalese vowels a, e, i, o, u are to be pronounced as in French or Italian.
CHAP. II.
THE ABORIGINAL INHABITANTS OF CEYLON.
Divested of the insipid details which overlay them, the annals of Ceylon present comparatively few stirring incidents, and still fewer events of historic importance to repay the toil of their perusal. They profess to record no occurrence anterior to the advent of the last Buddha, the great founder of the national faith, who was born on the borders of Nepaul in the seventh century before Christ.
In the theoretic doctrines of Buddhism "Buddhas"[1] are beings who appear after intervals of inconceivable extent; they undergo transmigrations extending over vast spaces of time, accumulating in each stage of existence an increased degree of merit, till, in their last incarnation as men, they attain to a degree of purity so immaculate as to entitle them to the final exaltation of "Buddha-hood," a state approaching to incarnate divinity, in which they are endowed with wisdom so supreme as to be competent to teach mankind the path to ultimate bliss.
[Footnote 1: A sketch of the Buddhist religion may be seen in Sir J. EMERSON TENNENT'S History of Christianity in Ceylon, ch. v. London, 1850. But the most profound and learned dissertations on Buddhism as it exists in Ceylon, will be found in the works of the Rev. R. SPENCE HARDY, Eastern Monachism, Lond. 1850, and A Manual of Buddhism, Lond. 1853.]
Their precepts, preserved orally or committed to writing, are cherished as bana or the "word;" their doctrines are incorporated in the system of dharma or "truth;" and, at their death, instead of entering on a new form of being, either corporeal or spiritual, they are absorbed into Nirwana, that state of blissful unconsciousness akin to annihilation which is regarded by Buddhists as the consummation of eternal felicity.
Gotama, who is represented as the last of the series of Buddhas[1], promulgated a religious system in India which has exercised a wider influence over the Eastern world than the doctrines of any other uninspired teacher in any age or country.[2] He was born B.C. 624 at Kapila-Vastu (a city which has no place in the geography of the Hindus, but which appears to have been on the borders of Nepaul); he attained his superior Buddha-hood B.C. 588, under a bo-tree[3] in the forest of Urawela, the site of the present Buddha Gaya in Bahar; and, at the age of eighty, he died at Kusinara, a doubtful locality, which it has been sought to identify with the widely separated positions of Delhi, Assam, and Cochin China.[4]
[Footnote 1: There were twenty-four Buddhas previous to the advent of Gotama, who is the fourth in the present Kalpa or chronological period. His system of doctrine is to endure for 5000 years, when it will be superseded by the appearance and preaching of his successor.--Rajaratnacari, ch. i. p. 42.]
[Footnote 2: HARDY'S Eastern Monachism, ch. i. p. 1. There is evidence of the widely-spread worship of Buddha in the remotely separated individuals with whom it has been sought at various times to identify him. "Thus it has been attempted to show that Buddha was the same as Thoth of the Egyptians, and Turm of the Etruscans, that he was Mercury, Zoroaster, Pythagoras, the Woden of the Scandinavians, the Manes of the Manichæans, the prophet Daniel, and even the divine author of Christianity." (PROFESSOR WILSON, Journ. Asiat. Soc., vol. xvi. p. 233.) Another curious illustration of the prevalence of his doctrines may be discovered in the endless variations of his name in the numerous countries over which his influence has extended: Buddha, Budda, Bud, Bot, Baoth, Buto, Budsdo, Bdho, Pout, Pote, Fo, Fod, Fohi, Fuh, Pet, Pta, Poot, Phthi, Phut, Pht, &c.--POCOCKE'S India in Greece, appendix, 397. HARDY'S Buddhism, ch. vii. p. 355. HARDY in his Eastern Monachism says, "There is no country in either Europe or Asia, except those that are Buddhist, in which the same religion is now professed that was there existent at the time of the Redeemer's death," ch. xxii. p. 327.]
[Footnote 3: The Pippul, Ficus religiosa.]
[Footnote 4: Professor H.H. WILSON has identified Kusinara or Kusinagara with Kusia in Gorakhpur, Journ. Roy. Asiat. Soc., vol xvi. p. 246.]
In the course of his ministrations Gotarna is said to have thrice landed in Ceylon. Prior to his first coming amongst them, the inhabitants of the island appear to have been living in the simplest and most primitive manner, supported on the almost spontaneous products of the soil. Gotama in person undertook their conversion, and alighted on the first occasion at Bintenne, where there exists to the present day the remains of a monument erected two thousand years ago[1] to commemorate his arrival. His second visit was to Nagadipo in the north of the island, at a place whose position yet remains to be determined; and the "sacred foot-print" on Adam's Peak is still worshipped by his devotees as the miraculous evidence of his third and last farewell.
[Footnote 1: By Dutugaimunu, B.C. 164. For an account of the present condition of this Dagoba at Bintenne, see Vol. II. Pt. IX. ch. ii.]
To the question as to what particular race the inhabitants of Ceylon at that time belonged, and whence or at what period the island was originally peopled, the Buddhist chronicles furnish no reply. And no memorials of the aborigines themselves, no monuments or inscriptions, now remain to afford ground for speculation. Conjectures have been hazarded, based on no sufficient data, that the Malayan type, which extends from Polynesia to Madagascar, and from Chin-India to Taheite, may still be traced in the configuration, and in some of the immemorial customs, of the people of Ceylon.[1]
[Footnote 1: Amongst the incidents ingeniously pressed into the support of this conjecture is the use by the natives of Ceylon of those double canoes and boats with outriggers, which are never used on the Arabian side of India, but which are peculiar to the Malayan race in almost every country to which they have migrated; Madagascar and the Comoro islands, Sooloo, Luzon, the Society Islands, and Tonga. PRITCHARD'S Races of Man, ch. iv. p. 17. For a sketch of this peculiar canoe, see Vol. II. Pt. VII. ch. i.
There is a dim tradition that the first settlers in Ceylon arrived from the coasts of China. It is stated in the introduction to RIBEYRO'S History of Ceylon, but rejected by VALENTYN, ch, iv. p. 61.
The legend prefixed to RIBEYRO is as follows. "Si nous en croyons les historiens Portugais, les Chinois out été les premiers qui ont habité cette isle, et cela arriva de cette manière. Ces peuples étoient les maîtres du commerce de tout l'orient; quelques unes de leurs vaisseaux furent portéz sur les basses qui sont près du lieu, que depuis on appelle Chilao par corruption au lieu de Cinilao. Les équipages se sauvèrent à terre, et trouvant le pais bon et fertile ils s'y établirent: bientôt après ils s'allièrent avec les Malabares, et les Malabares y envoyoient ceux qu'ils exiloient et qu'ils nominoient Galas. Ces exiles s'étant confondus avec les Chinois, de deux noms n'en out fait qu'un, et se sont appellés Chin-galas et ensuite Chingalais."--RIBEYRO, Hist. de Ceylan, pref. du trad.
It is only necessary to observe in reference to this hypothesis that it is at variance with the structure of the Singhalese alphabet, in which n and g form but one letter. DE BARROS and DE COUTO likewise adhere to the theory of a mixed race, originating in the settlement of Chinese in the south of Ceylon, but they refer the event to a period subsequent to the seizure of the Singhalese king and his deportation to China in the fifteenth century. DE BARROS, Dec. iii. ch. i.; DE COUTO, Dec. v. ch. 5.]
But the greater probability is, that a branch of the same stock which originally colonised the Dekkan extended its migrations to Ceylon. All the records and traditions of the peninsula point to a time when its nations were not Hindu; and in numerous localities[1], in the forests and mountains of the peninsula, there are still to be found the remnants of tribes who undoubtedly represent the aboriginal race.
[Footnote 1: LASSEN, Indische Alterthumskunde, vol. i. p. 199, 362.]
The early inhabitants of India before their comparative civilisation under the influence of the Aryan invaders, like the aborigines of Ceylon before the arrival of their Bengal conquerors, are described as mountaineers and foresters who were "rakshas" or demon worshippers; a religion, the traces of which are to be found to the present day amongst the hill tribes in the Concan and Canara, as well as in Guzerat and Cutch. In addition to other evidences of the community of origin of these continental tribes and the first inhabitants of Ceylon, there is a manifest identity, not alone in their popular superstitions at a very early period, but in the structure of the national dialects, which are still prevalent both in Ceylon and Southern India. Singhalese, as it is spoken at the present day, and, still more strikingly, as it exists as a written language in the literature of the island, presents unequivocal proofs of an affinity with the group of languages still in use in the Dekkan; Tamil, Telingu, and Malayalim. But with these its identification is dependent on analogy rather than on structure, and all existing evidence goes to show that the period at which a vernacular dialect could have been common to the two countries must have been extremely remote.[1]
[Footnote 1: The Mahawanso (ch. xiv.) attests that at the period of Wijayo's conquest of Ceylon, B.C. 543, the language of the natives was different from that spoken by himself and his companions, which, as they came from Bengal, was in all probability Pali. Several centuries afterwards, A.D. 339, the dialect of the two races was still different; and some of the sacred writings were obliged to be translated from Pali into the Sihala language.--Mahawanso, ch. xxxvii. xxxviii. p. 247. At a still later period, A.D. 410; a learned priest from Magadha translated the Attah-Katha from Singhalese into Pali.--Ib. p. 253. See also DE ALWIS, Sidath-Sangara, p. 19.]
Though not based directly on either Sanskrit or Pali, Singhalese at various times has been greatly enriched from both sources, and especially from the former; and it is corroborative of the inference that the admixture was comparatively recent; and chiefly due to association with domiciliated strangers, that the further we go back in point of time the proportion of amalgamation diminishes, and the dialect is found to be purer and less alloyed. Singhalese seems to bear towards Sanskrit and Pali a relation similar to that which the English of the present day bears to the combination of Latin, Anglo-Saxon, and Norman French, which serves to form the basis of the language. As in our own tongue the words applicable to objects connected with rural life are Anglo-Saxon, whilst those indicative of domestic refinement belong to the French, and those pertaining to religion and science are borrowed from Latin[1]; so, in the language of Ceylon, the terms applicable to the national religion are taken from Pali, those of science and art from Sanskrit, whilst to pure Singhalese belong whatever expressions were required to denote the ordinary wants of mankind before society had attained organisation.[2]
[Footnote 1: See TRENCH on the Study of Words.]
[Footnote 2: See DE ALWIS, Sidath-Sangara, p. xlviii.]
[Sidenote: B.C. 543.]
Whatever momentary success may have attended the preaching of Buddha, no traces of his pious labours long survived him in Ceylon. The mass of its inhabitants were still aliens to his religion, when, on the day of his decease, B.C. 543, Wijayo[1], the discarded son of one of the petty sovereigns in the valley of the Ganges[2] effected a landing with a handful of followers in the vicinity of the modern Putlam.[3] Here he married the daughter of one of the native chiefs, and having speedily made himself master of the island by her influence, he established his capital at Tamana Neuera[4], and founded a dynasty, which, for nearly eight centuries, retained supreme authority in Ceylon.
[Footnote 1: Sometimes spelled Wejaya. TURNOUR has demonstrated that the alleged concurrence of the death of Buddha and the landing of Wijayo is a device of the sacred annalists, in order to give a pious interest to the latter event, which took place about sixty years later.--Introd Mahawanso, p. liii.]
[Footnote 2: To facilitate reference to the ancient divisions of India, a small map is subjoined, chiefly taken from Lassen's Indische Alterthumskunde.
[Footnote 3: BURNOUF conjectures that the point from which Wijayo set sail for Ceylon was the Godavery, where the name of Bandar-maha-lanka (the Port of the Great Lanka), still commemorates the event.--Journ. Asiat. vol. xviii. p. 134. DE COUTO, recording the Singhalese tradition as collected by the Portuguese, he landed at Preaturé (Pereatorre), between Trincomalie and Jaffna-patam, and that the first city founded by him was Mantotte.--Decade v. l. 1. c. 5.]
[Footnote 4: See a note at the end of this chapter, on the landing of Wijayo in Ceylon, as described in the Mahawanso.]
[Sidenote: B.C. 543.]
The people whom he mastered with so much facility are described in the sacred books as Yakkhos or "demons,"[1] and Nagas[2], or "snakes;" designations which the Buddhist historians are supposed to have employed in order to mark their contempt for the uncivilised aborigines[3], in the same manner that the aborigines in the Dekkan were denominated goblins and demons by the Hindus[4], from the fact that, like the Yakkhos of Ceylon, they too were demon worshippers. The Nagas, another section of the same superstition, worshipped the cobra de capello as an emblem of the destroying power. These appear to have chiefly inhabited the northern and western coasts of Ceylon, and the Yakkhos the interior[5]; and, notwithstanding their alleged barbarism, both had organised some form of government, however rude.[6] The Yakkhos had a capital which they called Lankapura, and the Nagas a king, the possession of whose "throne of gems"[7] was disputed by the rival sovereign of a neighbouring kingdom. So numerous were the followers of this gloomy idolatry of that time in Ceylon, that they gave the name of Nagadipo[8], the Island of Serpents, to the portion of the country which they held, in the same manner that Rhodes and Cyprus severally acquired the ancient designation of Ophiusa, from the fact of their being the residence of the Ophites, who introduced serpent-worship into Greece.[9]
[Footnote 1: Mahawanso, ch. vii.; FA HIAN, Fo[)e]-kou[)e]-ki, ch. xxxvii.]
[Footnote 2: Rajavali, p. 169.]
[Footnote 3: REINAUD, Introd. to Abouldfeda, vol. i. sec. iii. p. ccxvi. See also CLOUGH'S Singhalese Dictionary, vol. ii. p. 2.]
[Footnote 4: MOUNTSTUART ELPHINSTONE'S, History of India, b. iv. ch. xi. p. 216.]
[Footnote 5: The first descent of Gotama Buddha in Ceylon was amongst the Yakkhos at Bintenne; in his second visit he converted the "Naga King of Kalany," near Colombo, Mahawanso, ch. i. p. 5.]
[Footnote 6: FABER, Origin of Idolatry, b. ii ch. vii. p. 440.]
[Footnote 7: Mahawanso, ch. i.]
[Footnote 8: TURNOUR was unable to determine the position on the modern map of the ancient territory of Nagadipo.--Introd. p. xxxiv. CASIE CHITTY, in a paper in the Journal of the Ceylon Asiatic Society, 1848, p. 71, endeavours to identify it with Jaffna, The Rajaratnacari places it at the present Kalany, on the river of that name near Colombo (vol. ii. p. 22). The Mahawanso in many passages alludes to the existence of Naga kingdoms on the continent of India, showing that at that time serpent-worship had not been entirely extinguished by Brahmanism in the Dekkan, and affording an additional ground for conjecture that the first inhabitants of Ceylon were a colony from the opposite coast of Calinga.]
[Footnote 9: BRYANT'S Analysis of Mythology, chapter on Ophiolatria, vol. i p. 480, "Euboea means Oub-aia, and signifies the serpent island." (Ib.)
But STRABO affords us a still more striking illustration of the Mahawanso, in calling the serpent worshippers of Ceylon "Serpents," since he states that in Phrygia and on the Hellespont the people who were styled [Greek: ophiogeneis], or the Serpent races, actually retained a physical affinity with the snakes with whom they were popularly identified, [Greek: "entautha mytheuousi tous Ophiogeneis syngenneian tina echein pros tous oseis."]--STRABO, lib. xiii. c. 588.
PLINY alludes to the same fable (lib. vii.). And OVID, from the incident of Cadmus' having sown the dragon's teeth (that is, implanted Ophiolatria in Greece), calls the Athenians Serpentigenæ.]
But whatever were the peculiarities of religion which distinguished the aborigines from their conquerors, the attention of Wijayo was not diverted from his projects of colonisation by any anxiety to make converts to his own religious belief. The earliest cares of himself and his followers were directed to implant civilisation, and two centuries were permitted to elapse before the first effort was made to supersede the popular worship by the inculcation of a more intellectual faith.
* * * * *
NOTE.
DESCRIPTION IN THE MAHAWANSO OF THE LANDING OF WIJAYO.
The landing of Wijayo in Ceylon is related in the 7th chapter of the Mahawanso, and Mr. TURNOUR has noticed the strong similarity between this story and Homer's account of the landing of Ulysses in the island of Circe. The resemblance is so striking that it is difficult to conceive that the Singhalese historian of the 5th century was entirely ignorant of the works of the Father of Poetry. Wijayo and his followers, having made good their landing, are met by a "devo" (a divine spirit), who blesses them and ties a sacred thread as a charm on the arm of each. One of the band presently discovers the princess in the person of a devotee, seated near a tank, and she being a magician (Yakkhini) imprisons him and eventually the rest of his companions in a cave. The Mahawanso then proceeds: "all these persons not returning, Wijayo, becoming alarmed, equipping himself with the five weapons of war, proceeded after them, and examined the delightful pond: he could perceive no footsteps but those leading down into it, and there he saw the princess. It occurred to him his retinue must surely have been seized by her, and he exclaimed, 'Pray, why dost not thou produce my attendants?' 'Prince,' she replied, 'from attendants what pleasure canst thou derive? drink and bathe ere thou departest.' Seizing her by the hair with his left hand, whilst with his right he raised his sword, he exclaimed, 'Slave, deliver my followers or die.' The Yakkhini terrified, implored for her life; 'Spare me, prince, and on thee will I bestow sovereignty, my love, and my service.' In order that he might not again be involved in difficulty he forced her to swear[1], and when he again demanded the liberation of his attendants she brought them forth, and declaring 'these men must be famishing,' she distributed to them rice and other articles procured from the wrecked ships of mariners, who had fallen a prey to her. A feast follows, and Wijayo and the princess retire to pass the night in an apartment which she causes to spring up at the foot of a tree, curtained as with a wall and fragrant with incense." It is impossible not to be struck with a curious resemblance between this description and that in the 10th book of the Odyssey, where Eurylochus, after landing, returns to Ulysses to recount the fate of his companions, who, having wandered towards the palace of Circe, had been imprisoned after undergoing transformation into swine. Ulysses hastens to their relief, and having been provided by Mercury with antidotes, which enabled him to resist the poisons of the sorceress, whom he discovers in her retreat, the story proceeds:--
[Greek:
Ôs phat egô d aor oxu eryssamenos para mêrou Kirkêepêixa hôste ktameuai meneainôn. k. t. l.]
[Footnote 1: [Greek:
Ei mê moi tlaiês ge, thea, megan horkon homossai Mêti moi autps pêma kakon bouleusemen allo.]--Odys. x. l. 343.]
"She spake, I, drawing from beside my thigh The faulchion keen, with death denouncing looks, Rush'd on her,--she, with a shrill scream of fear, Ran under my raised arm, seized fast my knees, And in winged accents plaintive thus began:-- 'Who, whence thy city, and thy birth declare,-- Amazed I see thee with that potion drenched, Yet unenchanted: never man before Once passed it through his lips and lived the same. * * * * Sheath again Thy sword, and let us on my bed recline, Mutual embrace, that we may trust henceforth Each other without jealousy or fear.' The goddess spake, to whom I thus replied: 'Oh Circe, canst thou bid me meek become, And gentle, who beneath thy roof detain'st My fellow-voyagers. * * * No, trust me, never will I share thy bed, Till first, oh goddess, thou consent to swear That dread, all-binding oath, that other harm Against myself, thou wilt imagine none.' I spake, she, swearing as I bade, renounced All evil purpose, and her solemn oath Concluded, I ascended next her bed."[1]
[Footnote 1: COWPER's Odyssey, B. x, p. 392.]
The story of Wijayo's interview with Kuweni is told in nearly the same terms as it appeared in the Mahawanso in the Rajavali, p. 172.
Another classical coincidence is curious: we are strongly reminded of Homer's description of the Syrens by the following passage, relative to the female Rakshasis, or demons, by whom Ceylon was originally inhabited, which is given in the memoirs of HIOUEN-THSANG, the Chinese traveller in the 7th century, as extracted by him from the Buddhist Chronicles. "Elles épiaient constamment les marchands qui abordaient dans l'isle, et se changeant en femmes d'une grande beauté elles venaient au-devant d'eux avec des fleurs odorantes et au son des instruments de musique, leur adressaient des paroles bienveillantes et les attiraient dans la ville de fer. Alors elles leur offraient un joyeux festin et se livraient au plaisir avec eux: puis elles les enfermaient dans un prison de fer et les mangeaient l'un après l'autre."[1]
[Footnote 1: HIOUEN-THSANG, Mém. des Péler. Boudd. 1. xi. p. 131.]
CHAP. III
THE CONQUEST OF CEYLON BY WIJAYO, B.C. 543, AND THE ESTABLISHMENT OF BUDDHISM, B.C. 307.
[Sidenote: B.C. 543.]
The sacred historians of Ceylon affect to believe in the assertion of some mysterious connection between the landing of Wijayo, and the conversion of Ceylon to Buddhism, one hundred and fifty years afterwards; and imply that the first event was but a pre-ordained precursor of the second.[1] The Singhalese narrative, however, admits that Wijayo was but a "lawless adventurer," who being expelled from his own country, was refused a settlement on the coast of India before he attempted Ceylon, which had previously attracted the attention of other adventurers. This story is in no way inconsistent with that told by the Chinese Buddhists, who visited the island in the fifth and seventh centuries. FA HIAN states, that even before the advent of Buddha, Ceylon was the resort of merchants, who repaired there to exchange their commodities for gems, which the "demons" and "serpents," who never appeared in person, deposited on the shore, with a specified value attached to each, and in lieu of them the strangers substituted certain indicated articles, and took their departure.[2]
[Footnote 1: Mahawanso, ch. vii.]
[Footnote 2: FA HIAN, Fo[)e]-Kou[)e]-ki, ch. xxxviii. See a notice of this story of FA HIAN, as it applies to the still existing habits of the Veddahs, Vol. I. Pt III. ch. vii.]
[Sidenote: B.C. 543.]
HIOUEN-THSANG, at a later period, disposes of the fables of Wijayo's descent from a lion[1], and of his divine mission to Ceylon, by intimating, that, according to certain authorities, he was the son of a merchant (meaning a sea-faring trader), who, having appeased the enmity of the Yakkhos, succeeded by his discretion in eventually making himself their king.[2]
[Footnote 1: The legend of Wijayo's descent from a lion, probably originated from his father being the son of an outlaw named "Singha."]
[Footnote 2: "Suivant certains auteurs, Sengkia-lo (Wijayo) serait le nom du fils d'un marchand, qui, par sa prudence, ayant échappé à la fureur homicide des Lo-tsa" (demons) "réussit ensuite à se faire Roi."--HIOUEN THSANG, Voyages &c. l. iv. p. 198.]
Whatever may have been his first intentions, his subsequent policy was rather that of an agriculturist than an apostle. Finding the country rich and fertile, he invited merchants to bring their families, and take possession of it.[1] He dispersed his followers to form settlements over the island, and having given to his kingdom his patrimonial name of Sihala[2], he addressed himself to render his dominions "habitable for men."[3] He treated the subjugated race of Yakkhos with a despotic disdain, referable less to pride of caste than to contempt for the rude habits of the native tribes. He repudiated the Yakkho princess whom he had married, because her unequal rank rendered her unfit to remain the consort of a king[4]; and though she had borne him children, he drove her out before his second marriage with the daughter of an Indian sovereign, on the ground that the latter would be too timid to bear the presence of a being so inferior.[5]
[Footnote 1: HIOUEN THSANG, ch iv.]
[Footnote 2: Whence Singhala (and Singhalese) Silan, Seylan, and Ceylon.]
[Footnote 3: Mahawanso, ch. vii p. 49. Rajaratnacari, ch. i.]
[Footnote 4: Mahawanso, ch. vii. p. 51.]
[Footnote 5: Ibid., p. 52.]
[Sidenote: B.C. 504.]
Leaving no issue to inherit the throne, he was succeeded by his nephew[1], who selected a relation of Gotama Buddha for his queen; and her brothers having dispersed themselves over the island, increased the number of petty kingdoms, which they were permitted to form in various districts[2], a policy which was freely encouraged by all the early kings, and which, though it served to accelerate colonisation and to extend the knowledge of agriculture, led in after years to dissensions, civil war, and disaster. It was at this period that Ceylon was resolved into the three geographical divisions, which, down to a very late period, are habitually referred to by the native historians. All to the north of the Mahawelli-ganga was comprised in the denomination Pihiti, or the Raja-ratta, from its containing the ancient capital and the residence of royalty; south of this was Rohano or Rahuna, bounded on the east and south by the sea, and by the Mahawelli-ganga and Kalu-ganga, on the north and west; a portion of this division near Tangalle still retains the name of Roona.[3] The third was the Maya-ratta, which lay between the mountains, the two great rivers and the sea, having the Dedera-oya to the north, and the Kalu-ganga as its southern limit.
[Footnote 1: B.C. 504.]
[Footnote 2: Mahawanso, ch. vii. p. 51, ix. p. 57; Rajavali, part i. p. 177, 186; and TURNOUR'S Epitome, p. 12, 14.]
[Footnote 3: The district of Rohuna included the mountain zone of Ceylon, and hence probably its name, rohuno meaning the "act or instrument of ascending, as steps or a ladder." Adam's Peak was in the Maya division; but Edrisi, who wrote in the twelfth century, says, that it was then called "El Rahoun."--Géographie, &c. viii, JAUBERT'S Transl. vol. ii. p. 71. Rahu is an ordinary name for it amongst Mahometan writers, and in the Raja Tarangini, it is called "Rohanam," b. iii. 56, 72.]
[Sidenote: B.C. 504.]
The patriarchal village system, which from time immemorial has been one of the characteristics of the Dekkan, and which still prevails throughout Ceylon in a modified form, was one of the first institutions organised by the successors of Wijayo. "They fixed the boundaries of every village throughout Lanka;"[1] they "caused the whole island to be divided into fields and gardens;"[2] and so uniformly were the rites of these rural municipalities respected in after times, that one of the Singhalese monarchs, on learning that merit attached to alms given from the fruit of the donor's own exertions, undertook to sow a field of rice, and "from the portion derived by him as the cultivator's share," to bestow an offering on a "thero."[3]
[Footnote 1: It was established by Pandukabhaya, A.D. 437.--Mahawanso, ch. x. p. 67, Rajaratnacari, ch. i.]
[Footnote 2: Rajaratnacari, ch. ii., Rajavali, b. i. p. 185.]
[Footnote 3: The king was Mahachula, 77 B.C.--Mahawanso, ch. xxxiv.]
From the necessity of providing food for their followers, the earliest attention of the Bengal conquerors was directed to the introduction and extension of agriculture. A passage in the Mahawanso would seem to imply, that previous to the landing of Wijayo, rice was imported for consumption[1], and upwards of two centuries later the same authority specifies "one hundred and sixty loads of hill-paddi,"[2] among the presents which were sent to the island from Bengal.
[Footnote 1: Kuweni distributed to the companions of Wijayo; "rice and other articles, procured from the wrecked ships of mariners." (Mahawanso, ch. vii. p. 49.) A tank is mentioned as then existing near the residence of Kuweni; but it was only to be used as a bath. (Ib. c. vii. p. 48.) The Rajaratnacari also mentions that, in the fabulous age of the second Buddha, of the present Kalpa, there was a famine in Ceylon, which dried up the cisterns and fountains of the inland. But there is no evidence of the existence of systematic tillage anterior to the reign of Wijayo.]
[Footnote 2: Mahawanso, ch. xi. p. 70. Paddi is rice before it has been freed from the husk.]
[Sidenote: B.C. 504.]
In a low and level country like the north of Ceylon, where the chief subsistence of the people is rice, a grain which can only be successfully cultivated under water, the first requisites of society are reservoirs and canals. The Buddhist historians extol the father of Wijayo for his judgment and skill "in forming villages in situations favourable for irrigation;"[1] his own attention was fully engrossed with the cares attendant on the consolidation of his newly acquired power; but the earliest public work undertaken by his successor Panduwasa, B.C. 504, was a tank, which he caused to be formed in the vicinity of his new capital Anarajapoora, the Anurogrammum of Ptolemy, originally a village founded by one of the followers of Wijayo.[2]
[Footnote 1: Mahawanso, ch. vi. p. 46.]
[Footnote 2: The first tank recorded in Ceylon is the Abayaweva, made by Panduwasa, B.C. 505 (Mahawanso, ch. ix. p. 57). The second was the Jayaweva, formed by Pandukabhaya, B.C. 437. (Ib. ch. x. p. 65.) The third, the Gamini tank, made by the same king at the same place, Anarajapoora.--Ib. ch. x. p. 66.]
[Sidenote: B.C. 307.]
The continual recurrence of records of similar constructions amongst the civil exploits of nearly every succeeding sovereign, together with the prodigious number formed, alike attests the unimproved condition of Ceylon, prior to the arrival of the Bengal invaders, and the indolence or ignorance of the original inhabitants, as contrasted with the energy and skill of their first conquerors.
[Sidenote: B.C. 307.]
Upwards of two hundred years were spent in initiatory measures for the organisation of the new state. Colonists from the continent of India were encouraged by the facilities held out to settlers, and carriage roads were formed in the vicinity of the towns.[1] Village communities were duly organised, gardens were planted, flowers and fruit-bearing trees introduced,[2] and the production of food secured by the construction of canals,[3] and public works for irrigation. Moreover, the kings and petty princes attested the interest which they felt in the promotion of agriculture, by giving personal attention to the formation of tanks and to the labours of cultivation.[4]
[Footnote 1: Mahawanso, ch. xiv. xv. xvi.]
[Footnote 2: Mahawanso, ch. xi. p. 60 (367 B.C.), ch. xxxiv. p. 211 (B.C. 20), ch. xxxv. p. 215 (A.D. 20). Rajaratnacari, ch. ii. p. 29. Rajavali, p. 185, 227.]
[Footnote 3: Mahawanso, ch. xxxiv. p. 210 (B.C. 42), ch. xxxv. p. 221, 222 (A.D. 275), ch. xxxvii. p. 238. Rajaratnacari, ch. ii. p. 49, and Rajavali, p. 223, &c.]
[Footnote 4: Mahawanso, ch. x. p. 61, xxii. p. 130, xxiv. p. 149. Rajavali, p. 185, 186. The Buddhist kings of Burmah, at the present day, in imitation of the ancient sovereigns of Ceylon, rest their highest claims to renown on the number of works for irrigation which they have either formed or repaired. See Yule's Narrative of the British mission, to Ava in 1855, p. 106.]
[Sidenote: B.C. 307.]
Meantime, the effects of Gotama's early visits had been obliterated, and the sacred trees which he planted were dead; and although the bulk of the settlers had come from countries where Buddhism was the dominant faith, no measures appear to have been taken by the immigrants to revive or extend it throughout Ceylon. Wijayo was, in all probability, a Brahman, but so indifferent to his own faith, that his first alliance in Ceylon was with a demon worshipper.[1] His immediate successors were so eager to encourage immigration, that they treated all religions with a perfect equality of royal favour. Yakkho temples were not only respected, but "annual demon offerings were provided" for them; halls were built for the worshippers of Brahma, and residences were provided at the public cost, for "five hundred persons of various foreign religious faiths;"[2] but no mention is made in the Mahawanso of a single edifice having been then raised for the worshippers of Buddha, whether resident in the island, or arriving amongst the colonists from India.
[Footnote 1: According to the Mahawanso, Vishnu, in order to protect Wijayo and his followers from the sorceries of the Yakkhos, met them on their landing in Ceylon, and "tied threads on their arms," ch. vii.; and at a later period, when the king Panduwasa, B.C. 504, was afflicted with temporary insanity, as a punishment in his person of the crime of perjury, committed by his predecessor Wijayo, Iswara was supplicated to interpose, and by his mediation the king was restored to his right mind.--Rajavali, p. 181.]
[Footnote 2: Mahawanso, ch. x. p. 67; ch, xxxiii, p. 203.]
It was not till the year B.C. 307, in the reign of Tissa, that the preacher Mahindo ventured to visit Ceylon, under the auspices of the king, whom he succeeded in inducing to abstain from Brahmanical rites, and to profess faith in the doctrines of Buddha. From the prominent part thus taken by Tissa in establishing the national faith of Ceylon, the sacred writers honour his name with the prefix of Déwánan-pia, or "beloved of the saints."
[Sidenote: B.C. 307.]
The Mahawanso exhausts the vocabulary of ecstacy in describing the advent of Mahindo, a prince of Magadha, and a lineal descendant of Chandragutto. It records the visions by which he was divinely directed to "depart on his mission for the conversion of Lanka;" it describes his aërial flight, and his descent on Ambatthalo, the loftiest peak of Mihintala, the mountain which, rising suddenly from the plain, overlooks the sacred city of Anarajapoora. The story proceeds to explain, how the king, who was hunting the elk, was miraculously allured by the fleeing game to approach the spot where Mahindo was seated[1]; and how the latter forthwith propounded the Divine doctrine "to the ruler of the land; who, at the conclusion of his discourse, together with his forty thousand followers, obtained the salvation of the faith."[2]
[Footnote 1: The story, as related in the Mahawanso, bears a resemblance to the legend of St. Hubert and the stag, in the forest of Ardennes, and to that of St. Eustace, who, when hunting, was led by a deer of singular beauty towards a rock, where it displayed to him the crucifix upon its forehead; whence an appeal was addressed which effected his conversion. "The king Dewananpiyatissa departed for an elk hunt, taking with him a retinue; and in the course of the pursuit of the game on foot, he came to the Missa mountain. A certain devo, assuming the form of an elk, stationed himself there, grazing; the sovereign descried him, and saying 'it is not fair to shoot him standing,' sounded his bowstring, on which the elk fled to the mountain. The king gave chase to the flying animal, and, on reaching the spot where the priests were, the thero Mahindo came within sight of the monarch; but the metamorphosed deer vanished."--Mahawanso, c. xiv.]
[Footnote 2: Mahawanso, ch. xiv. p. 80.]
Then follows the approach of Mahindo to the capital; the conversion of the queen and her attendants, and the reception of Buddhism by the nation, under the preaching of its great Apostle, who "thus became the luminary which shed the light of religion over the land." He and his sister Sanghamitta thenceforth devoted their lives to the organisation of Buddhist communities throughout Ceylon, and died in the odour of sanctity, in the reign of King Uttiya, B.C. 267.
[Sidenote: B.C. 289.]
But the grand achievement which consummated the establishment of the national faith, was the arrival from Magadha of a branch of the sacred Bo-tree. Every ancient race has had its sacred tree; the Chaldeans, the Hebrews[1], the Greeks, the Romans and the Druids, had each their groves, their elms and their oaks, under which to worship. Like them, the Brahmans have their Kalpa tree in Paradise, and the Banyan in the vicinity of their temples; and the Buddhists, in conformity with immemorial practice, selected as their sacred tree the Pippul, which is closely allied to the Banyan, yet sufficiently distinguished from it, to serve as the emblem of a new and peculiar worship.[2] It was whilst reclining under the shade of this tree in Uruwela, that Gotama received Buddhahood; hence its adoption as an object of reverence by his followers, and in all probability its adoration preceded the use of images and temples in Ceylon.[3]
[Footnote 1: "They sacrifice upon the tops of mountains, and burn incense under oaks, and poplars, and elms, because the shadow thereof is good."--Hosea, iv. 13.]
[Footnote 2: The Bo-tree (Ficus religiosa) is the "pippul" of India. It differs from the Banyan (F. indica), by sending down no roots from its branches. Its heart-shaped leaves, with long attenuated points, are attached to the stem by so slender a stalk, that they appear in the profoundest calm to be ever in motion, and thus, like the leaves of the aspen, which, from the tradition that the cross was made of that wood, the Syrians believe to tremble in recollection of the events of the crucifixion, those of the Bo-tree are supposed by the Buddhists to exhibit a tremulous veneration, associated with the sacred scene of which they were the witnesses.]
[Footnote 3: Previous Buddhas had each his Bo-tree or Buddha-tree. The pippul had been before assumed by the first recorded Buddha; others had the iron-tree, the champac, the nipa, &c.--Mahawanso, TURNOUR'S Introd. p. xxxii.]
[Sidenote: B.C. 289.]
In order that his kingdom might possess a sacred tree of the supremest sanctity, king Tissa solicited a branch of the identical tree under which Gotama reclined, from Asoca, who then reigned in Magadha. The difficulty of severing a portion without the sacrilegious offence of "lopping it with any weapon," was overcome by the miracle of the branch detaching itself spontaneously, and descending with its roots into the fragrant earth prepared for it in a golden vase, in which it was transported by sea to Ceylon[1], and planted by king Tissa in the spot at Anarajapoora, where, after the lapse of more than 2000 years, it still continues to flourish and to receive the profound veneration of all Buddhist nations.[2]
[Footnote 1: The ceremonial of the mysterious severance of the sacred branch "amid the din of music, the clamours of men, the howling of the elements, the roar of animals, the screams of birds, the yells of demons, and the crash of earthquakes," is minutely described in an elaborate passage of the Mahawanso. And its landing in Ceylon, the retinue of its attendants, the homage paid to it, its progress to the capital, its arrival at the Northern-gate "at the hour when shadows are most extended," its reception by princes "adorned with the insignia of royalty," and its final deposition in the earth, under the auspices of Mahindo and his sister Sanghamitta, form one of the most striking episodes in that very singular book.--Mahawanso, ch. xviii. xix.]
[Footnote 2: The planting of the Bo-tree took place in the eighteenth year of the reign of King Devenipiatissa, B.C. 288; it is consequently at the present time 2147 years old.]
CHAP. IV.
THE EARLY BUDDHIST MONUMENTS.
[Sidenote: B.C. 289.]
Almost simultaneously with the establishment of the Buddhist religion was commenced the erection of those stupendous ecclesiastical structures, the number and magnitude of whose remains form a remarkable characteristic in the present aspect of the country.
The architectural history of continental India dates from the third century before Christ; not a single building or sculptured stone having as yet been discovered there, of an age anterior to the reign of Asoca[1], who was the first of his dynasty to abandon the religion of Brahma for that of Buddha. In like manner the earliest existing monuments of Ceylon belong to the same period; they owe their construction to Devenipiatissa, and the historical annals of the island record with pious gratitude the series of dagobas, wiharas, and temples erected by him and his successors.
[Footnote 1: FERGUSON, Handbook of Architecture, b. i. c. i. p. 5.]
Of these the most remarkable are the Dagobas, piles of brickwork of dimensions so extraordinary that they suggest comparison with the pyramids of Memphis[1], the barrow of Halyattys[2], or the mounds in the valleys of the Tigris and Euphrates.
[Footnote 1: So vast did the dagobas appear to the Singhalese that the author of the Mahawanso, in describing the construction of that called the Ruanwelle at Anarajapoora, states that each of the lower courses contained ten kotis (a koti being equal to 100 lacs) or 10,000,000 bricks.--Mahawanso, ch. xxx, p. 179.]
[Footnote 2: "The ancient edifices of Chi-Chen in Central America bear a striking resemblance to the topes of India. The shape of one of the domes, its apparent size, the small tower on the summit, the trees growing on the sides, the appearance of masonry here and there, the shape of the ornaments, and the small doorway at the base, are so exactly similar to what I had seen at Anarajapoora that when my eyes first fell on the engravings of these remarkable ruins I supposed that they were presented in illustration of the dagobas of Ceylon."--HARDY's Eastern Monachism, c. xix. p. 222.]
[Sidenote: B.C. 289.]
A dagoba (from datu, a relic, and gabbhan, a shrine[1]) is a monument raised to preserve one of the relics of Gotama, which were collected after the cremation of his body at Kusinara, and it is candidly admitted in the Mahawanso that the intention in erecting them was to provide "objects to which offerings could be made."[2]
[Footnote 1: Deha, "the body," and gopa, "what preserves;" because they enshrine hair, teeth, nails, &c. of Buddha.--WILSON'S Asiat. Res. vol. xvii. p. 605.]
[Footnote 2: Mahawanso, ch. xvii. p. 104.]
[Sidenote: B.C. 289.]
Ceylon contains but one class of these structures, and boasts no tall monolithic pillars like the lats of Delhi and Allahabad, and no regularly built columns similar to the minars of Cabul; but the fragments of the bones of Gotama, and locks of his hair, are enclosed in enormous masses of hemispherical masonry, modifications of which may be traced in every Buddhist country of Asia, in the topes of Affghanistan and the Punjaub, in the pagodas of Pegu, and in the Boro-Buddor of Java. Those of Ceylon consist of a bell-shaped dome of brick-work surmounted by a terminal or tee (generally in the form of a cube supporting a pointed spire), and resting on a square platform approached by flights of stone steps. Those, the ruins of which have been explored in modern times, have been found to be almost solid, enclosing a hollow vessel of metal or stone which had once contained the relic, but of which the ornament alone and a few gems or discoloured pearls set in gold, are usually all that is now discoverable.
Their outline exhibits but little of ingenuity or of art, and their construction is only remarkable for the vast amount of labour which must necessarily have been expended upon them. But, independently of this, the first dagoba erected at Anarajapoora, the Thuparamaya, which exists to the present day, "as nearly as may be in the same form in which it was originally designed, is possessed of a peculiar interest from the fact that it is in all probability the oldest architectural monument now extant in India."[1] It was raised by King Tissa, at the close of the third century before Christ, over the collar-bone of Buddha, which Mahindo had procured for the king.[2] In dimensions this monument is inferior to those built at a later period by the successors of Tissa, some of which are scarcely exceeded in diameter and altitude by the dome of St. Peter's[3]; but in elegance of outline it immeasurably surpassed all the other dagobas, and the beauty of its design is still perceptible in its ruins after the lapse of two thousand years.
[Footnote 1: FERGUSON'S Handbook of Architecture, b. i. c. iii. p. 43.]
[Footnote 2: Mahawanso, ch. xvii. The Rajavali calls it the jaw-bone, p. 184.]
[Footnote 3: The Abhayagiri dagoba at Anarajapoora, built B.C. 89, was originally 180 cubits high, which, taking the Ceylon cubit at 2 feet 3 inches, would be equal to 405 feet. The dome was hemispherical, and described with a radius of 180 feet, giving a circumference of 1130 feet. The summit of this stupendous work was therefore fifty feet higher than St. Paul's, and fifty feet lower than St. Peter's.]
The king, in addition to this, built a number of others in various parts of Ceylon[1], and his name has been perpetuated as the founder of temples, for the rites of the new religion, and of Wiharas or monasteries for the residence of its priesthood. The former were of the simplest design, for an atheistical system, which substitutes meditation for worship, dispenses with splendour in its edifices and pomp in its ceremonial.
[Footnote 1: TURNOUR'S Epitome, p. 15.]
[Sidenote: B.C. 289.]
The images of Grotama, which in time became objects of veneration, were but a late innovation[1], and a doubt even been expressed whether the religion of Buddha in its primitive constitution, rejecting as it does the doctrine of a mediatorial priesthood, contemplated the existence of any organised ministry.
[Footnote 1: The precise date of their introduction is unknown, but the first mention of a statue occurs in an inscription on the rock at Mihintala, bearing date A.D. 246, and referring to the house constructed over a figure of Buddha.]
Caves, or insulated apartments in imitation of their gloom and retirement, were in all probability the first resort of devotees in Ceylon, and hence amongst the deeds of King Tissa, the most conspicuous and munificent were the construction of rock temples, on Mihintala, and of apartments for the priests in all parts of his dominions.[1]
[Footnote 1: TURNOUR's Epitome, p. 15.]
The directions of Gotama as to the residence of his votaries are characterised by the severest simplicity, and the term "pansala," literally "a dwelling of leaves,"[1] by which the house of a priest is described to the present day, serves to illustrate the original intention that persons dedicated to his service should cultivate solitude and meditation by withdrawing into the forest, but within such a convenient distance as would not estrange them from the villagers, on whose bounty and alms they were to be dependent for subsistence.
[Footnote 1: It is questionable whether the Sarmanai, mentioned by Megasthenes, were Buddhists or Brahmans; but the account which he gives of the class of them whom he styles the Hylobii, would seem to identify them with the Sramanas of Buddhism, "passing their lives in the woods, [Greek: zôntes en tais ulais], living on fruits and seeds, and clothed with the bark of trees."--MEGASTHENES' Indica, &c., Fragm. xlii.]
[Sidenote: B.C. 289.]
In one of the rock inscriptions deciphered by Prinsep, King Asoca, in addressing himself to his Buddhist subjects, distinguishes them as "ascetics and house-holders." In the sacred books a laic is called a "graha pali," meaning "the ruler of a house;" and in contra-distinction Fa Hian, the Chinese Buddhist, speaks of the priests of Ceylon under the designation of "the house-less," to mark their abandonment of social enjoyments.[1] Anticipating the probable necessity of their eventually resorting to houses for accommodation, Buddha directed that, if built for an individual, the internal measurement of a cell should be twelve spans in length by seven in breadth[2]; and, if restricted to such dimensions, the assertions of the Singhalese chronicles become intelligible as to the prodigious number of such dwellings said to have been raised by the early kings.[3]
[Footnote 1: "Les hommes hors de leur maisons."--FA HIAN, Fo[)e] Kou[)e] Ki, ch. xxxix. This is the equivalent of the Singhalese term for the same class, agariyan-pubbajito, used in the Pittakas.]
[Footnote 2: HARDY'S Eastern Monachism, ch. xiii. p. 122.]
[Footnote 3: The Rajaratnacari says that Devenipiatissa caused eighty-four thousand temples to be built during his reign, p. 35.]
But the multitudes who were thus attracted to a life of indolent devotion became in a short time so excessive that recourse was had to other devices for combining economy with accommodation, and groups of such cells were gradually formed into wiharas and monasteries, the inmates of which have uniformly preserved their organisation and order. Still the edifices thus constructed have never exhibited any tendency to depart from the primitive simplicity so strongly enjoined by their founder; and, down to the present time, the homes of the Buddhist priesthood are modest and humble structures generally reared of mud and thatch, with no pretension to external beauty and no attempt at internal decoration.
[Sidenote: B.C. 289.]
To supply to the ascetics the means of seclusion and exercise, the early kings commenced the erection of ambulance-halls; and gardens were set apart for the use of the great temple communities. The Mahawanso describes, with all the pomp of Oriental diction, the ceremony observed by King Tissa on the occasion of setting apart a portion of ground as a site for the first wihara at his capital; the monarch in person, attended by standard bearers and guards with golden staves, having come to mark out the boundary with a plough drawn by elephants.[1] A second monastery was erected by him on the summit of Mihintala[2]; a third was attached to the dagoba of the Thuparamaya, and others were rapidly founded in every quarter of the island.[3]
[Footnote 1: Mahawanso, ch. xv. p. 99.]
[Footnote 2: Mahawanso, ch. xx. p. 123.]
[Footnote 3: Five hundred were built by one king alone, the third in succession from Devenipiatissa, B.C. 246 (Mahawanso, ch. xxi, p. 127). About the same period the petty chiefs of Rohuna and Mahagam were equally zealous in their devout labours, the one having erected sixty-four wiharas in the east of the island, and the other sixty-eight in the south.--Mahawanso, ch. xxiv. p. 145, 148.]
It was in all probability owing to the growth of these institutions, and the establishment of colleges in connection with them, that halls were eventually appropriated for the reception of statues; and that apartments so consecrated were devoted to the ceremonies and worship of Buddha. Hence, at a very early period, the dwellings of the priests were identified with the chaityas and sacred edifices, and the name of the Wihara came to designate indifferently both the temple and the monastery.
But the hall which contains the figures of Buddha, and which constitutes the "temple" proper, is always detached from the domestic buildings, and is frequently placed on an eminence from which the view is commanding. The interior is painted in the style of Egyptian chambers, and is filled with figures and illustrations of the legends of Gotama, whose statue, with hand uplifted in the attitude of admonition, or reclining in repose emblematic of the blissful state of Nirwana, is placed in the dimmest recess of the edifice. Here lamps cast a feeble light, and the air is heavy with the perfume of flowers, which are daily renewed by fresh offerings from the worshippers at the shrines.
[Sidenote: B.C. 289.]
In no other system of idolatry, ancient or modern, have the rites been administered by such a multitude of priests as assist in the passionless ceremonial of Buddhism. Fa Hian, in the fourth century, was assured by the people of Ceylon that at that period the priests numbered between fifty and sixty thousand, of whom two thousand were attached to one wihara at Anarajapoora, and three thousand to another.[1]
[Footnote 1: FA HIAN, Fo[)e] Kou[)e] Ki, ch. xxxviii. p. 336, 350. At the present day the number in the whole island does not probably exceed 2500 (HARDY'S Eastern Monachism, p. 57, 309). But this is far below the proportion of the Buddhist priesthood in other countries; in Siam nearly every adult male becomes a priest for a certain portion of his life; a similar practice prevails in Ava; and in Burmah so common is it to assume the yellow robe, that the popular expedient for effecting divorce is for the parties to make a profession of the priesthood, the ceremonial of which is sufficient to dissolve the marriage vow, and after an interval of a few months, they can throw off the yellow robe and are then at liberty to marry again.]
As the vow which devotes the priests of Buddha to religion binds them at the same time to a life of poverty and mendicancy, the extension of the faith entailed in great part on the crown the duty of supporting the vast crowds who withdrew themselves from industry to embrace devotion and indigence. They were provided with food by the royal bounty, and hence the historical books make perpetual reference to the priests "going to the king's house to eat,"[1] when the monarch himself set the example to his subjects of "serving them with rice broth, cakes, and dressed rice."[2] Rice in all its varieties is the diet described in the Mahawanso as being provided for the priesthood by the munificence of the kings; "rice prepared with sugar and honey, rice with clarified butter, and rice in its ordinary form."[3] In addition to the enjoyment of a life of idleness, another powerful incentive conspired to swell the numbers of these devotees. The followers and successors of Wijayo preserved intact the institution of caste, which they had brought with them from the valley of the Ganges; and, although caste was not abolished by the teachers of Buddhism, who retained and respected it as a social institution, it was practically annulled and absorbed in the religious character;--all who embraced the ascetic life being simultaneously absolved from all conventional disabilities, and received as members of the sacred community with all its exalted prerogatives.[4]
[Footnote 1: Rajavali, p. 198. Hiouen Thsang, the Chinese pilgrim, describing Anarajapoora in the seventh century, says: "A côté du palais du roi; on a construit une vaste cuisine où l'on prépare chaque jour des aliments pour dix-huit mille religieux. A l'heure de repas, les religieux viennent, un pot à la main, pour recevoir leur nourriture. Après l'avoir obtenue ils s'en retournent chacun dans leur chambre."--HIOUEN THSANG, Transl. M. JULIEN, lib. xi. tom. ii. p. 143.]
[Footnote 2: Mahawanso, ch. xiv. p. 82.]
[Footnote 3: Mahawanso, ch. xxxii.; Rajaratnacari, ch. i. p. 37, ch. ii. p. 56, 60, 62.]
[Footnote 4: Professor Wilson, Journ. Roy. Asiat. Soc. vol. xvi. p. 249.]
Along with food, clothing consisting of three garments to complete the sacerdotal robes, as enjoined by the Buddhist ritual[1], was distributed at certain seasons; and in later times a practice obtained of providing robes for the priests by "causing the cotton to be picked from the tree at sunrise, cleaned, spun, woven, dyed yellow, and made into garments and presented before sunset."[2] The condition of the priesthood was thus reduced to a state of absolute dependency on alms, and at the earliest period of their history the vow of poverty, by which their order is bound, would seem to have been righteously observed.
[Footnote 1: To avoid the vanity of dress or the temptation to acquire property, no Buddhist priest is allowed to have more than one set of robes, consisting of three pieces, and if an extra one be bestowed on him it must be surrendered to the chapter of his wihara within ten days. The dimensions must not exceed a specified length, and when obtained new the cloth must be disfigured with mud or otherwise before he puts it on. A magnificent robe having been given to Gotama, his attendant Ananda, in order to destroy its intrinsic value, cut it into thirty pieces and sewed them together in four divisions, so that the robe resembled the patches of a rice-field divided by embankments. And in conformity with this precedent the robes of every priest are similarly dissected and reunited.--Hardy's Eastern Monachism, c. xii. p. 117; Rajaratnacari, ch. ii. pp. 60, 66.]
[Footnote 2: Rajaratnacari, pp. 104, 109, 112. The custom which is still observed in Ceylon, of weaving robes between sunrise and sunset is called Catina dhwana (Rajavali, p. 261). The work is performed chiefly by women, and the practice is identical with that mentioned by Herodotus, as observed by the priests of Egypt, who celebrated a festival in honour of the return of Rhampsinitus, after playing at dice with Ceres in Ilades, by investing one of their body with a cloak made in a single day, [Greek: pharos autêmeron exyphênantes], Euterpe, cxxii. Gray, in his ode of The Fatal Sisters, has embodied the Scandinavian myth in which the twelve weird sisters, the Valkiriur, weave "the crimson web of war" between the rising and setting of the sun.]
CHAP V.
SINGHALESE CHIVALRY.--ELALA AND DUTUGAIMUNU.
[Sidenote: B.C. 289.]
[Sidenote: B.C. 266.]
For nearly a century after the accession of Devenipiatissa, the religion and the social development of Ceylon thus exhibited an equally steady advancement. The cousins of the king, three of whom ascended the throne in succession, seem to have vied with each other in works of piety and utility. Wiharas were built in all parts of the island, both north and south of the Maha-welli-ganga. Dagobas were raised in various places, and cultivation was urged forward by the formation of tanks and canals. But, during this period, from the fact of the Bengal immigrants being employed in more congenial or more profitable occupations (possibly also from the numbers who were annually devoting themselves to the service of the temples), and from the ascertained inaptitude of the native Singhalese to bear arms, a practice was commenced of retaining foreign mercenaries, which, even at that early period, was productive of animosity and bloodshed, and in process of time led to the overthrow of the Wijayan dynasty and the gradual decay of the Sinhala sovereignty.
[Sidenote: B.C. 266.]
[Sidenote: B.C. 237.]
[Sidenote: B.C. 205.]
The genius of the Gangetic race, which had taken possession of Ceylon, was essentially adapted to agricultural pursuits--in which, to the present day, their superiority is apparent over the less energetic tribes of the Dekkan. Busied with such employments, the early colonists had no leisure for military service; besides, whilst Devenipiatissa and his successors were earnestly engaged in the formation of religious communities, and the erection of sacred edifices in the northern portion of the island, various princes of the same family occupied themselves in forming settlements in the south and west; and hence, whilst their people were zealously devoted to the service and furtherance of religion, the sovereign at Anarajapoora was compelled, through a combination of causes, to take into his pay a body of Malabars[1] for the protection both of the coast and the interior. Of the foreigners thus confided in, "two youths, powerful in their cavalry and navy, named Sena and Gottika,"[2] proved unfaithful to their trust, and after causing the death of the king Suratissa (B.C. 237), retained the supreme power for upwards of twenty years, till overthrown in their turn and put to death by the adherents of the legitimate line.[3] Ten years, however, had barely elapsed when the attempt to establish a Tamil sovereign was renewed by Elala, "a Malabar of the illustrious Uju tribe, who invaded the island from the Chola[4] country, killed the reigning king Asela, and ruled the kingdom for forty years, administering justice impartially to friends and foes."
[Footnote 1: The term "Malabar" is used throughout the following pages in the comprehensive sense in which it is applied in the Singhalese chronicles to the continental invaders of Ceylon; but it must be observed that the adventurers in these expeditions, who are styled in the Mahawanso, "damilos" or Tamils, came not only from the south-western tract of the Dekkan, known in modern geography as "Malabar," but also from all parts of the peninsula, as far north as Cuttack and Orissa.]
[Footnote 2: Mahawanso, ch. xxi. p. 127.]
[Footnote 3: Mahawanso, xxi.; Rajaratnacari, ch. ii.]
[Footnote 4: Chola, or Solee, was the ancient name of Tanjore, and the country traversed by the river Caveri.]
[Sidenote: B.C. 161.]
Such is the encomium which the Mahawanso passes on an infidel usurper, because Elala offered his protection to the priesthood; but the orthodox annalist closes his notice of his reign by the moral reflection that "even he who was an heretic, and doomed by his creed to perdition, obtained an exalted extent of supernatural power from having eschewed impiety and injustice."[1]
[Footnote 1: Mahawanso, xxi. p. 129. The other historical books, the Rajavali, and Rajaratnacari, give a totally different character of Elala, and represent him as the desecrator of monuments and the overthrower of temples. The traditional estimation which has followed his memory is the best attestation of the superior accuracy of the Mahawanso.]
[Sidenote: B.C. 161.]
But it was not the priests alone who were captivated by the generosity of Elala. In the final struggle for the throne, in which the Malabars were worsted by the gallantry of Dutugaimunu, a prince of the excluded family, the deeds of bravery displayed by him were the admiration of his enemies. The contest between the rival chiefs is the solitary tale of Ceylon chivalry, in which Elala is the Saladin and Dutugaimunu the Coeur-de-lion. So genuine was the admiration of Elala's bravery that his rival erected a monument in his honour, on the spot where he fell; its ruins remain to the present day, and the Singhalese still regard it with respect and veneration. "On reaching the quarter of the city in which it stands," says the Mahawanso[1], "it has been the custom for the monarchs of Lanka to silence their music, whatsoever cession they may be heading;" and so uniformly was the homage continued down to the most recent period, that so lately as 1818, on the suppression of an attempted rebellion, when the defeated aspirant to the throne was making his escape by Anarajapoora, he alighted from his litter, on approaching the quarter in which the monument was known to exist, "and although weary and almost incapable of exertion, not knowing the precise spot, he continued on foot till assured that he had passed far beyond the ancient memorial."[2]
[Footnote 1: Mahawanso, ch. xxi.]
[Footnote 2: FORBES' Eleven Years in Ceylon, vol. i. p. 233.]
[Sidenote: B.C. 161.]
Dutugaimunu, in the epics of Buddhism, enjoys a renown, second only to that of King Tissa, as the champion of the faith. On the recovery of his kingdom he addressed himself with energy to remove the effects produced in the northern portions of the island by forty years of neglect and inaction under the sway of Elala. During that monarch's protracted usurpation the minor sovereignties, which had been formed in various parts of the island prior to his seizure of the crown, were little impeded in their social progress by the forty-four years' residence of the Malabars at Anarajapoora. Although the petty kings of Rohuna and Maya submitted to pay tribute to Elala, his personal rule did not extend south of the Mahawelli-ganga[1], and whilst the strangers in the north of the island were plundering the temples of Buddha, the feudal chiefs in the south and west were emulating the munificence of Tissa in the number of wiharas which they constructed.
[Footnote 1: Mahawanso, ch. xxii., Rajavali, p. 188, Rajaratnacari, p. 36. The Mahawanso has a story of Dutugaimunu, when a boy, illustrative of his early impatience to rid the island of the Malabars. His father seeing him lying on his bed, with his hands and feet gathered up, inquired, "My boy, why not stretch thyself at length on thy bed?" "Confined by the Damilos," he replied, "beyond the river on the one side, and by the unyielding ocean on the other, how can I lie with outstretched limbs?"]
Eager to conciliate his subjects by a similar display of regard for religion, Dutugaimunu signalised his victory and restoration by commencing the erection of the Ruanwellé dagoba, the most stupendous as well as the most venerated of those at Anarajapoora, as it enclosed a more imposing assemblage of relics than were ever enshrined in any other in Ceylon.
The mass of the population was liable to render compulsory labour to the crown; but wisely reflecting that it was not only derogatory to the sacredness of the object, but impolitic to exact any avoidable sacrifices from a people so recently suffering from internal warfare, Dutugaimunu came to the resolution of employing hired workmen only, and according to the Mahawanso vast numbers of the Yakkhos became converts to Buddhism during the progress of the building[1], which the king did not live to complete.
[Footnote 1: Mahawanso, ch. xxviii. xxix. xxx. xxxi.]
[Sidenote: B.C. 161.]
But the most remarkable of the edifices which he erected at the capital was the Maha-Lowa-paya, a monastery which obtained the name of the Brazen Palace from the fact of its being roofed with plates of that metal. It was elevated on sixteen hundred monolithic columns of granite twelve feet high, and arranged in lines of forty, so as to cover an area of upwards of two hundred and twenty feet square. On these rested the building nine stories in height, which, in addition to a thousand dormitories for priests, contained halls and other apartments for their exercise and accommodation.
The Mahawanso relates with peculiar unction the munificence of Dutugaimunu in remunerating those employed upon this edifice; he deposited clothing for that purpose as well as "vessels filled with sugar, buffalo butter and honey;" he announced that on this occasion it was not fitting to exact unpaid labour, and, "placing high value on the work to be performed, he paid the workmen with money."[1]
[Footnote 1: Mahawanso, ch. xxvii. p. 163.]
The structure, when completed, far exceeded in splendour anything recorded in the sacred books. All its apartments were embellished with "beads, resplendent like gems;" the great hall was supported by golden pillars resting on lions and other animals, and the walls were ornamented with festoons of pearls and of flowers formed of jewels; in the centre was an ivory throne, with an emblem on one side of a golden sun, and on the other of the moon in silver, and above all glittered the imperial "chatta," the white canopy of dominion. The palace, says the Mahawanso, was provided with rich carpets and couches, and "even the ladle of the rice boiler was of gold."
[Sidenote: B.C. 161.]
The vicissitudes and transformations of the Brazen Palace are subjects of frequent mention in the history of the sacred city. As originally planned by Dutugaimunu, it did not endure through the reign of his successor Saidaitissa, at whose expense it was reconstructed, B.C. 140, but the number of stories was lowered to seven.[1] More than two centuries later, A.D. 182, these were again reduced to five[2], and the entire building must have been taken down in A.D. 240, as the king who was then reigning caused "the pillars of the Lowa Pasado to be arranged in a different form."
[Footnote 1: Mahawanso, ch. xxxvi.]
[Footnote 2: Mahawanso, ch. xxxiii.]
The edifice erected on its site was pulled to the ground by the apostate Maha Sen, A.D. 301[1]; but penitently reconstructed by him on his recantation of his errors. Its last recorded restoration took place in the reign of Prakrama-bahu, towards the close of the twelfth century, when "the king rebuilt the Lowa-Maha-paya, and raised up the 1600 pillars of rock."
[Footnote 1: Mahawanso, ch. xxxvii.]
[Sidenote: B.C. 161.]
Thus exposed to spoliation by its splendour, and obnoxious to infidel invaders from the religious uses to which it was dedicated, it was subjected to violence on every commotion, whether civil or external, which disturbed the repose of the capital; and at the present day, no traces of it remain except the indestructible monoliths on which it stood. A "world of stone columns," to use the quaint expression of Knox, still marks the site of the Brazen Palace of Dutugaimunu, and attests the accuracy of the chronicles which describe its former magnificence.
[Sidenote: B.C. 137.]
The character of Dutugaimunu is succinctly expressed in his dying avowal, that he had lived "a slave to the priesthood."[1] Before partaking of food, it was his practice to present a portion for their use; and recollecting in maturer age, that on one occasion, when a child, he had so far forgotten this invariable rule, as to eat a chilly without sharing it with the priest, he submitted himself to a penance in expiation of this youthful impiety.[2] His death scene, as described in the Mahawanso, contains an enumeration of the deeds of piety by which his reign had been signalised.[3] Extended on his couch in front of the great dagoba which he had erected, he thus addressed one of his military companions who had embraced the priesthood: "In times past, supported by my ten warriors, I engaged in battles; now, single-handed, I commence my last conflict, with death; and it is not permitted to me to overcome my antagonist." "Ruler of men," replied the thero, "without subduing the dominion of sin, the power of death is invincible; but call to recollection thy acts of piety performed, and from these you will derive consolation." The secretary then "read from the register of deeds of piety," that "one hundred wiharas, less one, had been constructed by the Maharaja, that he had built two great dagobas and the Brazen Palace at Anarajapoora; that in famines he had given his jewels to support the pious; that on three several occasions he had clothed the whole priesthood throughout the island, giving three garments to each; that five times he had conferred the sovereignty of the land for the space of seven days on the National Church; that he had founded hospitals for the infirm, and distributed rice to the indigent; bestowed lamps on innumerable temples, and maintained preachers, in the various wiharas, in all parts of his dominions. 'All these acts,' said the dying king, 'done in my days of prosperity, afford no comfort to my mind; but two offerings which I made when in affliction and in adversity, disregardful of my own fate, are those which alone administer solace to me now.[4] After this, the pre-eminently wise Maharaja expired, stretched on his bed, in the act of gazing on the Mahatupo."[5]
[Footnote 1: Mahawanso, ch. xxxii.]
[Footnote 2: Mahawanso, ch. xxiv, xxv.]
[Footnote 3: Mahawanso, ch. xxxii.]
[Footnote 4: Mahawanso, ch. xxxii.]
[Footnote 5: Another name for the Ruanwellé dagoba, which he had built.]
CHAP. VI.
THE INFLUENCE OF BUDDHISM ON CIVILISATION.
[Sidenote: B.C. 137.]
After the reign of Dutugaimunu there is little in the pages of the native historians to sustain interest in the story of the Singhalese monarchs. The long line of sovereigns is divided into two distinct classes; the kings of the Maha-wanse or "superior dynasty" of the uncontaminated blood of Wijayo, who occupied the throne from his death, B.C. 505, to that of Maha Sen, A.D. 302;--and the Sulu-wanse or "inferior race," whose descent was less pure, but who, amidst invasions, revolutions, and decline, continued, with unsteady hand, to hold the government clown to the occupation of the island by Europeans in the beginning of the sixteenth century.
[Sidenote: B.C. 137.]
To the great dynasty, and more especially to its earliest members, the inhabitants were indebted for the first rudiments of civilisation, for the arts of agricultural life, for an organised government, and for a system of national worship. But neither the piety of the kings nor their munificence sufficed to conciliate the personal attachment of their subjects, or to strengthen their throne by national attachment such as would have fortified its occupant against the fatalities incident to despotism. Of fifty-one sovereigns who formed the pure Wijayan dynasty, two were deposed by their subjects, and nineteen put to death by their successors.[1] Excepting the rare instances in which a reign was marked by some occurrence, such as an invasion and repulse of the Malabars, there is hardly a sovereign of the "Solar race" whose name is associated with a higher achievement than the erection of a dagoba or the formation of a tank, nor one whose story is enlivened by an event more exciting than the murder through which he mounted the throne or the conspiracy by which he was driven from it.[2]
[Footnote 1: There is something very striking in the facility with which aspirants to the throne obtained the instant acquiescence of the people, so soon as assassination had put them in possession of power. And this is the more remarkable, where the usurpers were of the lower grade, as in the instance of Subho, a gate porter, who murdered King Yasa Silo, A.D. 60, and reigned for six years (Mahaw. ch. xxxv. p. 218). A carpenter, and a carrier of fire-wood, were each accepted in succession as sovereigns, A.D. 47; whilst the "great dynasty" was still in the plenitude of its popularity. The mystery is perhaps referable to the dominant necessity of securing tranquillity at any cost, in the state of society where the means of cultivation were directly dependent on the village organisation, and famine and desolation would have been the instant and inevitable consequences of any commotions which interfered with the conservancy and repair of the tanks and means of irrigation, and the prompt application of labour to the raising and saving of produce at the instant when the fall of the rains or the ripening of the crops demanded its employment with the utmost vigour.]
[Footnote 2: In theory the Singhalese monarchy was elective in the descendants of the Solar race: in practice, primogeniture had a preference, and the crown was either hereditary or became the prize of those who claimed to be of royal lineage. On reviewing the succession of kings from B.C. 307 to A.D. 1815, thirty-nine eldest sons (or nearly one fourth), succeeded to their fathers: and twenty-nine kings (or more than one fifth), were succeeded by brothers. Fifteen reigned for a period less than one year, and thirty for more than one year, and less than four. Of the Singhalese kings who died by violence, twenty-two were murdered by their successors; six were killed by other individuals; thirteen fell in feuds and war, and four committed suicide; eleven were dethroned, and their subsequent fate is unknown. Not more than two-thirds of the Singhalese kings retained sovereign authority to their decease, or reached the funeral pile without a violent death.--FORBES' Eleven Years in Ceylon, vol. i. ch. iv. p. 80, 97; JOINVILLE, Religion and Manners of the People of Ceylon; Asiat. Res. vol. vii. p. 423. See also Mahawanso, ch. xxiii. p. 201.]
[Sidenote: B.C. 119.]
One source of royal contention arose on the death of Dutugaimunu; his son, having forfeited his birthright by an alliance with a wife of lower caste, was set aside from the succession; Saidaitissa, a brother of the deceased king, being raised to the throne in his stead. The priests, on the death of Saidaitissa, B.C. 119, hastened to proclaim his youngest son Thullatthanako[1], to the prejudice of his elder brother Laiminitissa, but the latter established his just claim by the sword, and hence arose two rival lines, which for centuries afterwards were prompt on every opportunity to advance adverse pretensions to the throne, and assert them by force of arms.
[Footnote 1: Mahawanso, ch. xxxiii. p. 201.]
In such contests the priesthood brought a preponderant influence to whatever side they inclined [1]; and thus the royal authority, though not strictly sacerdotal, became so closely identified with the hierarchy, and so guided by its will, that each sovereign's attention was chiefly devoted to forwarding such measures as most conduced to the exaltation of Buddhism and the maintenance of its monasteries and temples.
[Footnote 1: It was the dying boast of Dutugaimunu that he had lived "a slave to the priesthood." The expression was figurative in his case; but so abject did the subserviency of the kings become, and so rapid was its growth, that Bhatiya Tissa, who reigned A.D. 8, rendered it literal, and "dedicated himself, his queen, and two sons, as well as his charger, and state elephant, as slaves to the priesthood." The Mahawanso intimates that the priests themselves protested against this debasement, ch. xxxiv. p. 214.]
[Sidenote: B.C. 119.]
[Sidenote: B.C. 104.]
A signal effect of this regal policy, and of the growing diffusion of Buddhism, is to be traced in the impulse which it communicated to the reclamation of lands and the extension of cultivation. For more than three hundred years no mention is made in the Singhalese annals of any mode of maintaining the priesthood other than the royal distribution of clothing and voluntary offerings of food. They resorted for the "royal alms" either to the residence of the authorities or to halls specially built for their accommodation [1], to which they were summoned by "the shout of refection;" [2] the ordinary priests receiving rice, "those endowed with the gift of preaching, clarified butter, sugar, and honey."[3] Hospitals and medicines for their use, and rest houses on their journeys, were also provided at the public charge.[4] These expedients were available so long as the numbers of the priesthood were limited; but such were the multitudes who were tempted to withdraw from the world and its pursuits, in order to devote themselves to meditation and the diffusion of Buddhism, that the difficulty became practical of maintaining them by personal gifts, and the alternative suggested itself of setting apart lands for their support. This innovation was first resorted to during an interregnum. The Singhalese king Walagam Bahu, being expelled from his capital by a Malabar usurpation B.C. 104, was unable to continue the accustomed regal bounty to the priesthood; dedicated certain lands while in exile in Rohuna, for the support of a fraternity "who had sheltered him there."[5] The precedent thus established, was speedily seized upon and extended; lands were everywhere set apart for the repair of the sacred edifices[6], and eventually, about the beginning of the Christian era, the priesthood acquired such an increase of influence as sufficed to convert their precarious eleemosynary dependency into a permanent territorial endowment; and the practice became universal of conveying estates in mortmain on the construction of a wihara or the dedication of a temple.[7]
[Footnote 1: Mahawanso, ch. xx. p. 123; xxii. p. 132,135.]
[Footnote 2: Mahawanso, ch. xxviii. p. 167.]
[Footnote 3: Mahawanso, ch. xxxii. p. 196-7.]
[Footnote 4: Mahawanso, ch. xxxii. p. 196 xxxvii. p. 244; Rajaratnacari, p. 39, 41.]
[Footnote 5: Mahawanso, ch, xxxiii. p. 203. Previous to this date a king of Rohuna, during the usurpation of Elala, B.C. 205, had appropriated lands near Kalany, for the repairs of the dagoba.--Rajaratnacari, p. 37.]
[Footnote 6: In the reign of Batiya Tissa, B.C. 20. Mahawanso,, ch. xxxiv. p. 212; Rajaratnacari, p. 51.]
[Footnote 7: Mahawanso, ch. xxxiv. p. 214.]
[Sidenote: B.C. 104.]
The corporate character of the recipients served to neutralise the obligations by which they were severally bound; the vow of poverty, though compulsory on an individual priest, ceased to be binding on the community of which he was a member; and whilst, on his own behalf, he was constrained to abjure the possession of property, even to the extent of one superfluous cloth, the wihara to which he was attached, in addition to its ecclesiastical buildings, and its offerings in gems and gold, was held competent to become the proprietor of broad and fertile lands.[1] These were so bountifully bestowed by royal piety, by private munificence, and by mortuary gifts, that ere many centuries had elapsed the temples of Ceylon absorbed a large proportion of the landed property of the kingdom, and their possessions were not only exempted from taxation, but accompanied by a right to the compulsory labour of the temple tenants.[2]
[Footnote 1: HARDY'S Eastern Monachism, ch. viii. p. 68.]
[Footnote 2: The Rajaratnacari mentions an instance, A.D. 62, of eight thousand rice fields bestowed in one grant; and similar munificence is recorded in numerous instances prior, to A.D. 204.--Rajaratnacari, p. 57, 59, 64, 74, 113, &c. Mahawanso, ch. xxxv. p. 223, 224; ch. xxxvi. p. 233.]
As the estates so made over to religious uses lay for the most part in waste districts, the quantity of land which was thus brought under cultivation necessarily involved large extensions of the means of irrigation. To supply these, reservoirs were formed on such a scale as to justify the term "consecrated lakes," by which they are described in the Singhalese annals.[1]
[Footnote 1: Rajaratnacari, ch. ii. p. 37; Rajavali, p. 237.]
Where the circumstances of the ground permitted, their formation was effected by drawing an embankment across the embouchure of a valley so as to arrest and retain the waters by which it was traversed, and so vast were the dimensions of some of these gigantic tanks that many yet in existence still cover an area of from fifteen to twenty miles in circumference. The ruins of that at Kalaweva, to the north-west of Dambool, show that its original circuit could not have been less than forty miles, its retaining bund being upwards of twelve miles long. The spill-water of stone, which remains to the present time, is "perhaps one of the most stupendous monuments of misapplied human labour in the island."[1]
[Footnote 1: TURNOUR, Mahawanso, p. 12. The tank of Kalaweva was formed by Dhatu Sena, A.D. 459.--Mahawanso, ch. xxxviii. p. 257.]
[Sidenote: B.C. 104.]
The number of these stupendous works, which were formed by the early sovereigns of Ceylon, almost exceeds credibility. Kings are named in the native annals, each of whom made from fifteen to thirty[1], together with canals and all the appurtenances for irrigation. Originally these vast undertakings were completed "for the benefit of the country," and "out of compassion for living creatures;"[2] but so early as the first century of the Christian era, the custom became prevalent of forming tanks with the pious intention of conferring the lands which they enriched on the church. Wide districts, rendered fertile by the interception of a river and the formation of suitable canals, were appropriated to the maintenance of the local priesthood[3]; a tank and the thousands of acres which it fertilised were sometimes assigned for the perpetual repairs of a dagoba[4], and the revenues of whole villages and their surrounding rice fields were devoted to the support of a single wihara.[5]
[Footnote 1: Rajaratnacari, p. 41, 45, 54, 55; King Saidaitissa B.C. 137, made "eighteen lakes" (Rajavali, p. 233). King Wasabha, who ascended the throne A.D. 62, "caused sixteen large lakes to be enclosed" (Rajaratnacari, p. 57). Detu Tissa, A.D. 253, excavated six (Rajavali, p. 237), and King Maha Sen, A.D. 275, seventeen (Mahawanso, ch, xxxviii. p. 236).]
[Footnote 2: Mahawanso, ch, xxxvii. p. 242.]
[Footnote 3: Mahawanso, ch. xxxiv. p. 210; xxxv. p. 221; xxxviii. p. 237, Rajaratnacari, ch. ii. p. 57, 59, 64, 69, 74.]
[Footnote 4: Mahawanso, ch. xxxv. p. 215, 218, 223; ch. xxxvii. p. 234; Rajaratnacari, ch. ii. p. 51. TURNOUR'S Epitome, p. 21.]
[Footnote 5: Mahawanso, ch. xxxv. p. 218, 221; Rajaratnacari, ch. ii. p. 51; Rajaviai, p. 241.]
So lavish were these endowments, that one king, who signalised his reign by such extravagances as laying a carpet seven miles in length, "in order that pilgrims might proceed with unsoiled feet all the way from the Kadambo river (the Malwatté oya) to the mountain Chetiyo (Mihintala)," awarded a priest who had presented him with a draught of water during the construction of a wihara, "land within the circumference of half a yoyana (eight miles) for the maintenance of the temple."[1]
[Footnote 1: Mahawanso, ch. xxxiv, p. 3.]
[Sidenote: B.C. 104.]
It was in this manner that the beautiful tank at Mineri, one of the most lovely of these artificial lakes, was enclosed by Maha Sen, A.D. 275; and, together with the 80,000 amonams of ground which it waters, was conferred on the Jeytawana Wihara which the king had just erected at Anarajapoora.[1]
[Footnote 1: Rajaratnacari, ch. ii. p. 69.]
To identify the crown still more closely with the interests of agriculture, some of the kings superintended public works for irrigating the lands of the temples[1]; and one more enthusiastic than the rest toiled in the rice fields to enhance the merit of conferring their produce on the priesthood.[2]
[Footnote 1: TURNOUR'S Epitome, p. 33.]
[Footnote 2: Mahawanso, ch. xxxiv. The Buddhist kings of Burmah are still accustomed to boast, almost in the terms of the Mahawanso, of the distinction which they have earned, by the multitudes of tanks they have constructed or restored. See YULE'S Narrative of the Mission to Ava in 1855, p. 106.]
These broad possessions, the church, under all vicissitudes and revolutions, has succeeded in retaining to the present day. Their territories, it is true, have been diminished in extent by national decay; the destruction of works for irrigation has converted into wilderness and jungle plains once teeming with fertility; and the mild policy of the British government, by abolishing raja-kariya[1], has emancipated the peasantry, who are no longer the serfs either of the temples or the chiefs. But in every district of the island the priests are in the enjoyment of the most fertile lands, over which the crown exercises no right of taxation; and such is the extent of their possessions that, although their precise limits have not been ascertained by the local government, they have been conjectured with probability to be equal to one-third of the cultivated land of the island.
[Footnote 1: Compulsory labour.]
[Sidenote: B.C. 104.]
One peculiarity in the Buddhist ceremonial served at all times to give a singular impulse to the progress of horticulture. Flowers and garlands are introduced in its religious rites to the utmost excess. The atmosphere of the wiharas and temples is rendered oppressive with the perfume of champac and jessamine, and the shrine of the deity, the pedestals of his image, and the steps leading to the temple are strewn thickly with blossoms of the nagaha and the lotus. At an earlier period the profusion in which these beautiful emblems were employed in sacred decorations appears almost incredible; the Mahawanso relates that the Ruanwellé dagoba, which was 270 feet in height, was on one occasion "festooned with garlands from pedestal to pinnacle till it resembled one uniform bouquet;" and at another time, it and the lofty dagoba at Mihintala were buried under heaps of jessamine from the ground to the summit.[1] Fa Hian, in describing his visit to Anarajapoora in the fourth century, dwells with admiration and wonder on the perfumes and flowers lavished on their worship by the Singhalese[2]; and the native historians constantly allude as familiar incidents to the profusion in which they were employed on ordinary occasions, and to the formation by successive kings of innumerable gardens for the floral requirements of the temples. The capital was surrounded on all sides[3] by flower gardens, and these were multiplied so extensively that, according to the Rajaratnacari, one was to be found within a distance of four leagues in any part of Ceylon.[4] Amongst the regulations of the temple built at Dambedinia, in the thirteenth century, was "every day an offering of 100,000 flowers, and each day a different flower."[5]
[Footnote 1: Mahawanso, ch. xxxiv.; Rajaratnacari, p. 52, 53.]
[Footnote 2: FA HIAN. Foè Kouè Ki, ch. xxxviii. p. 335.]
[Footnote 3: Rajavali, p. 227; Mahawanso, ch. xi. p. 67.]
[Footnote 4: Rajaratnacari, p. 29, 49. Amongst the officers attached to the great establishments of the priests in Mihintala, A.D. 246, there are enumerated in an inscription engraven on a rock there, a secretary, a treasurer, a physician, a surgeon, a painter, twelve cooks, twelve thatchers, ten carpenters, six carters, and two florists.]
[Footnote 5: Rajaratnacari, p. 103. The same book states that another king, in the fifteenth century, "offered no less than 6,480,320 sweet smelling flowers" at the shrine of the Tooth.--Ib., p. 136.]
[Sidenote: B.C. 104.]
Another advantage conferred by Buddhism on the country was the planting of fruit trees and esculent vegetables for the gratuitous use of travellers in all the frequented parts of the island. The historical evidences of this are singularly corroborative of the genuineness of the Buddhist edicts engraved on various rocks and monuments in India, the deciphering of which was the grand achievement of Prinsep and his learned coadjutors. On the pillars of Delhi, Allahabad, and other places, and on the rocks of Girnar and Dhauli, there exist a number of Pali inscriptions purporting to be edicts of Asoca (the Dharmasoca of the Mahawanso), King of Magadha, in the third century before the Christian era, who, on his conversion to the religion of Buddha, commissioned Mahindo, his son, to undertake its establishment in Ceylon. In these edicts, which were promulgated in the vernacular dialect, the king endeavoured to impress both upon his subjects and allies, as well as those who, although aliens, were yet "united in the law" of Buddha, the divine precepts of their great teacher; prominent amongst which are the prohibition against taking animal life[1], and the injunction that, "everywhere wholesome vegetables, roots, and fruit trees shall be cultivated, and that on the roads wells shall be dug and trees planted for the enjoyment of men and animals." In apparent conformity with these edicts, one of the kings of Ceylon, Addagaimunu, A.D. 20, is stated in the Mahawanso to have "caused to be planted throughout the island every description of fruit-bearing creepers, and interdicted the destruction of animal life,"[2] and similar acts of pious benevolence, performed by command of various other sovereigns, are adverted to on numerous occasions.
[Footnote 1: It is curious that one of these edicts of Asoca, who was contemporary with Devenipiatissa, is addressed to "all the conquered territories of the raja, even unto the ends of the earth; as in Chola, in Pida, in Keralaputra, and in Tambapanni (or Ceylon)." This license of speech, reminding one of the grandiloquent epistles "from the Flaminian Gate," was no doubt assumed in virtue of the recent establishment of Buddhism, or, as it is called in the Mahawanso "the religion of the Vanquisher," and Asoca, as its propagator, thus claims to address the converts as his "subjects."]
[Footnote 2: Mahawanso, ch. xxxv. p. 215. The king Upatissa, A.D. 368, in the midst of a solemn ceremonial, "observing ants, and other insects drowning in an inundation, halted, and having swept them towards the with the feathers of a peacock's tail, and enabled them to save a themselves, he continued the procession."--Mahawanso, ch. xxxvii p. 249; Rajaratnacari, p. 49, 52; Rajavali, p. 228.]
CHAP. VII
FATE OF THE ABORIGINES.
[Sidenote: B.C. 104.]
It has already been shown, that devotion and policy combined to accelerate the progress of social improvement in Ceylon, and that before the close of the third century of the Christian era, the island to the north of the Kandyan mountains contained numerous cities and villages, adorned with temples and dagobas, and seated in the midst of highly cultivated fields. The face of the country exhibited broad expanses of rice land, irrigated by artificial lakes, and canals of proportionate magnitude, by which the waters from the rivers, which would otherwise have flowed idly to the sea, were diverted inland in all directions to fertilise the rice fields of the interior.[1]
[Footnote 1: Mahawanso, ch. xxxv. xxxvii.]
[Sidenote: B.C. 104.]
In the formation of these prodigious tanks, the labour chiefly employed was that of the aboriginal inhabitants, the Yakkhos and Nagas, directed by the science and skill of the conquerors. Their contributions of this kind, though in the instance of the Buddhist converts they may have been to some extent voluntary, were, in general, the result of compulsion.[1] Like the Israelites under the Egyptians, the aborigines were compelled to make bricks[2] for the stupendous dagobas erected by their masters[3]; and eight hundred years after the subjugation of the island, the Rajavali describes vast reservoirs and appliances for irrigation, as being constructed by the forced labour of the Yakkhos[4] under the superintendence of Brahman engineers.[5] This, to some extent, accounts for the prodigious amount of labour bestowed on these structures; labour which the whole revenue of the kingdom would not have sufficed to purchase, had it not been otherwise procurable.
[Footnote 1: In some instances the soldiers of the king were employed in forming works of irrigation.]
[Footnote 2: Mahawanso, ch. xxxviii.]
[Footnote 3: Ibid., ch. xxvii.]
[Footnote 4: Rajavali, p. 237, 238. Exceptions to the extortion of forced labour for public works took place under the more pious kings, who made a merit of paying the workmen employed in the erection of dagobas and other religious monuments.--Mahawanso, ch, xxxv.]
[Footnote 5: Maharwanso, ch. x.]
Under this system, the fate of the aborigines was that usually consequent on the subjugation of an inferior race by one more highly civilised. The process of their absorption into the dominant race was slow, and for centuries they continued to exist distinct, as a subjugated people. So firmly rooted amongst them was the worship both of demons and serpents, that, notwithstanding the ascendency of Buddhism, many centuries elapsed before it was ostensibly abandoned; from time to time, "demon offerings" were made from the royal treasury[1]; and one of the kings, in his enlarged liberality, ordered that for every ten villages there should be maintained an astrologer and a "devil-dancer," in addition to the doctor and the priest.[2]
[Footnote 1: Mahawanso, ch. x.; TURNOUR'S Epitome. p. 23.]
[Footnote 2: TURNOUR'S Epitome, p. 27; Rajaratnacari, ch. ii.; Rajavali, p. 241.]
Throughout the Singhalese chronicles, the notices of the aborigines are but casual, and occasionally contemptuous. Sometimes they allude to "slaves of the Yakkho tribe,"[1] and in recording the progress and completion of the tanks and other stupendous works, the Mahawanso and the Rajaratnacari, in order to indicate the inferiority of the natives to their masters, speak of their conjoint labours as that of "men and snakes,"[2] and "men and demons."[3]
[Footnote 1: Mahawanso, ch. x.]
[Footnote 2: Ibid., ch. xix, p. 115.]
[Footnote 3: The King Maha-Sen, anxious for the promotion of agriculture, caused many tanks to be made "by men and devils."--Mahawanso, ch. xxxvii.; UPHAM'S Transl.; Rajaratnacari, p. 69; Rajavali, p. 237.]
[Sidenote: B.C. 104.]
Notwithstanding the degradation of the natives, it was indispensable to "befriend the interests" of a race so numerous and so useful; hence, they were frequently employed in the military expeditions of the Wijayan sovereigns[1], and the earlier kings of that dynasty admitted the rank of the Yakkho chiefs who shared in these enterprises. They assigned a suburb of the capital for their residence[2], and on festive occasions they were seated on thrones of equal eminence with that of the king.[3] But every aspiration towards a recovery of their independence was checked by a device less characteristic of ingenuity in the ascendant race, than of simplicity combined with jealousy in the aborigines. The feeling was encouraged and matured into a conviction which prevailed to the latest period of the Singhalese sovereignty, that no individual of pure Singhalese extraction could be elevated to the supreme power, since no one could prostrate himself before one of his own nation.[4]
[Footnote 1: Mahawanso, ch. x.]
[Footnote 2: Ibid., ch. x. p. 67.]
[Footnote 3: Ibid., p. 66.]
[Footnote 4: JOINVILLE'S Asiat. Res, vol. vii. p. 422.]
For successive generations, however, the natives, although treated with partial kindness, were regarded as a separate race. Even the children of Wijayo, by his first wife Kuweni, united themselves with their maternal connexions on the repudiation of their mother by the king, "and retained the attributes of Yakkhos,"[1] and by that designation the natives continued to be distinguished down to the reign of Dutugaimunu.
[Footnote 1: Mahawanso, ch. vii.]
[Sidenote: B.C. 104.]
In spite of every attempt at conciliation, the process of amalgamation between the two races was reluctant and slow. The earliest Bengal immigrants sought wives among the Tamils, on the opposite coast of India[1]; and although their descendants intermarried with the natives, the great mass of the population long held aloof from the invaders, and occasionally vented their impatience in rebellion.[2] Hence the progress of civilisation amongst them was but partial and slow, and in the narratives of the early rulers of the island there is ample evidence that the aborigines long retained their habits of shyness and timidity.
[Footnote 1: Ibid., p. 53.]
[Footnote 2: Mahawanso, ch, lxxxv.]
Notwithstanding the frequent resort of every nation of antiquity to its coasts, the accounts of the first voyagers are almost wholly confined to descriptions of the loveliness of the country, the singular brilliancy of its jewels, the richness of its pearls, the sagacity of its elephants, and the delicacy and abundance of its spices; but the information which they furnish regarding its inhabitants is so uniformly meagre, as to attest the absence of intercourse; and the writers of all nations, Romans, Greeks, Arabians, Chinese and Indians, concur in their allusions to the unsocial and uncivilised customs of the islanders.[1]
[Footnote 1: See an account of these singular peculiarities, Vol. I. P. IV. c. vii.]
As the Bengal adventurers advanced into the interior of the island, a large section of the natives withdrew into the forests and hunting grounds on the eastern and southern coasts.[1] There, subsisting by the bow[2] and the chase, they adhered, with moody tenacity, to the rude habits of their race; and in the Veddah of the present day, there is still to be recognised a remnant of the untamed aborigines of Ceylon.[3]
[Footnote 1: Hiouen Thsang, the Chinese geographer, who visited India in the seventh century, says that at that time the Yakkhos had retired to the south-east corner of Ceylon;--and here their descendants, the Veddahs, are found at the present day,--Voyages, &c., liv. iv. p. 200.]
[Footnote 2: Mahawanso, ch. xxiv. p. 145, xxxiii. p. 204.]
[Footnote 3: DE ALWIS, Sidath Sangara, p. xvii. For an account of the Veddahs and their present condition, see Vol. II. P. ix. ch. iii.]
[Sidenote: B.C. 104.]
Even those of the original race who slowly conformed to the religion and habits of their masters, were never entirely emancipated from the ascendency of their ancient superstitions. Traces of the worship of snakes and demons are to the present hour clearly perceptible amongst them; the Buddhists still resort to the incantations of the "devil dancers" in case of danger and emergency[1]; a Singhalese, rather than put a Cobra de Capello to death, encloses the reptile in a wicker cage, and sets it adrift on the nearest stream; and in the island of Nainativoe, to the south-west of Jaffa, there was till recently a little temple, dedicated to the goddess Naga Tambiran, in which consecrated serpents were tenderly reared by the Pandarams, and daily fed at the expense of the worshippers.[2]
[Footnote 1: For an account of Demon worship as it still exists in Ceylon, see Sir J. EMERSON TENNANT'S History of Christianity in Ceylon, ch. v. p. 236.]
[Footnote 2: CASIE CHITTY'S Gazetteer, &c., p. 169.]
CHAP. VIII
EXTINCTION OF THE "GREAT DYNASTY."
[Sidenote: B.C. 104.]
From the death of Dutugaimunu to the exhaustion of the superior dynasty on the death of Malta-Sen, A.D. 301, there are few demonstrations of pious munificence to signalise the policy of the intervening sovereigns. The king whom, next to Devenipiatissa and Dutugaimunu, the Buddhist historians rejoice to exalt as one of the champions of the faith, was Walagam-bahu I.[1], whose reign, though marked by vicissitudes, was productive of lasting benefit to the national faith. Walagam-bahu ascended the throne B.C. 104., but was almost immediately forced to abdicate by an incursion of the Malabars; who, concerting a simultaneous landing at several parts of the island, combined their movements so successfully that they seized on Anarajapoora, and drove the king into concealment in the mountains near Adam's Peak; and whilst one portion of the invaders returned laden with plunder to the Dekkan, their companions remained behind and held undisputed possession of the northern parts of Ceylon for nearly fifteen years.
[Footnote 1: Called in the Mahawanso, "Wata-gamini".]
[Sidenote: B.C. 104.]
In this and the frequent incursions which followed, the Malabar leaders were attracted by the wealth of the country to the north of the Mahawelli-ganga; the southern portion of the island being either too wild and unproductive to present a temptation to conquest, or too steep and inaccessible to afford facilities for invasion. Besides, the highlanders who inhabit the lofty ranges that lie around Adam's Peak; (a district known as Malaya, "the region of mountains and torrents,")[1] then and at all times exhibited their superiority over the lowlanders in vigour, courage, and endurance. Hence the petty kingdoms of Maya and Rohuna afforded on every occasion a refuge to the royal family when driven from the northern capital, and furnished a force to assist in their return and restoration. Walagam-bahu, after many years' concealment there, was at last enabled to resume the offensive, and succeeded in driving out the infidels, and recovering possession of the sacred city, an event which he commemorated in the usual manner by the erection of dagobas, tanks, and wiharas.
[Footnote 1: Mahawanso, ch. vii.]
[Sidenote: B.C. 89.]
But the achievement by which most of all he entitled himself to the gratitude of the Singhalese annalists, was the reduction to writing of the doctrines and discourses of Buddha, which had been orally delivered by Mahindo, and previously preserved by tradition alone. These sacred volumes, which may be termed the Buddhist Scriptures, contain the Pittakataya, and its commentaries the Atthakatha, and were compiled by a company of priests in a cave to the north of Matelle, known as the Aloo-wihara.[1] This, and other caverns in which the king had sought concealment during his adversity, he caused to be converted into rock temples after his restoration to power. Amongst the rest, Dambool, which is the most remarkable of the cave temples of Ceylon from its vastness, its elaborate ornaments, and the romantic beauty of its situation and the scenery surrounding it.
[Footnote 1: Rajaratnacari, ch. i. p. 43. Abouzeyd states that at that time public writers were employed in recording the traditions of the island: "Le Royaume de Serendyb a une loi et des docteurs qui s'assemblent de temps en temps comme se réunissent chez nous les personnes qui recreillent les traditions du prophète, et les Indiens se rendent auprès des docteurs, et écrivent sous leurs dictée, la vie de leurs prophètes et les préceptes de leur loi."--REINAUD, Relation, &c., tom. i. p. 127.]
[Sidenote: B.C. 62.]
[Sidenote: B.C. 50.]
The history of the Buddhist religion in Ceylon is not, however, a tale of uniform prosperity. The first of its domestic enemies was Naga, the grandson of the pious Walagam-bahu, whom the native, historians stigmatise by the prefix of "chora" or the "marauder." His story is thus briefly but emphatically told in the Mahawanso: "During the reign of his father Mahachula, Chora Naga wandered through the island leading the life of a robber; returning on the demise of the king he assumed the monarchy; and in the places which had denied him an asylum during his marauding career, he impiously destroyed the wiharas.[1] After a reign of twelve years he was poisoned by his queen Anula, and regenerated in the Lokantariko hell."[2]
[Footnote 1: Mahawanso, ch. xxxiii.; Rajarali, p. 224; TURNOUR'S Epitome, p. 19; Rajaratnacari, ch. i. p. 43, 44.]
[Footnote 2: Mahawanso, ch. xxxiv. p. 209.]
[Sidenote: B.C. 47.]
[Sidenote: B.C. 41.]
His son, King Kuda Tissa, was also poisoned by his mother, in order to clear her own way to the throne. The Singhalese annals thus exhibit the unusual incident of a queen enrolled amongst the monarchs of the great dynasty--a precedent which was followed in after times; Queen Siwalli having reigned in the succeeding century, A.D. 37, Queen Lila-wati, in A.D. 1197, and Queen Kalyana-wati in A.D. 1202. From the excessive vileness of her character, the first of these Singhalese women who attained to the honours of sovereignty is denounced in the Mahawanso as "the infamous Anula." In the enormity of her crimes and debauchery she was the Messalina of Ceylon;--she raised to the throne a porter of the palace with whom she cohabited, descending herself to the subordinate rank of Queen Consort, and poisoned him to promote a carpenter in his stead. A carrier of firewood, a Brahman, and numerous other paramours followed in rapid succession, and shared a similar fate, till the kingdom was at last relieved from the opprobrium by a son of Prince Tissa, who put the murderess to death, and restored the royal line in his own person. His successors for more than two centuries were a race of pious fainéants, undistinguished by any qualities, and remembered only by their fanatical subserviency to the priesthood.
[Sidenote: A.D. 209.]
Buddhism, relieved from the fury of impiety, was next imperilled by the danger of schism. Even before the funeral obsequies of Buddha, schism had displayed itself in Maghadha, and two centuries had not elapsed from his death till it had manifested itself on no less than seventeen occasions, and in each instance it was with difficulty checked by councils in which the priesthood settled the faith in relation to the points which gave rise to dispute; but not before the actual occurrence of secessions from the orthodox church.[1] The earliest differences were on questions of discipline amongst the colleges and fraternities at Anarajapoora; but in the reign of Wairatissa, A.D. 209, a formidable controversy arose, impugning the doctrines of Buddhism, and threatening for a time to rend in sunder the sacred unity of the church.[2]
[Footnote 1: Mahawanso, ch. v. p. 21.]
[Footnote 2: Ibid., ch. xxxiii.]
[Sidenote: A.D. 209.]
Buddhism, although, tolerant of heresy, has ever been vehement in its persecution of schism. Boldly confident in its own superiority, it bears without impatience the glaring errors of open antagonists, and seems to exult in the contiguity of competing systems as if deriving strength by comparison. In this respect it exhibits a similarity to the religion of Brahma, which regards with composure shades of doctrinal difference, and only rises into jealous energy in support of the distinctions of caste, an infringement of which might endanger the supremacy of the priesthood.[1] To the assaults of open opponents the Buddhist displays the calmest indifference, convinced that in its undiminished strength, his faith is firm and inexpugnable; his vigilance is only excited by the alarm of internal dissent, and all his passions are aroused to stifle the symptoms of schism.[2]
[Footnote 1: Hence the indomitable hatred with which the Brahmans pursued the disciples of Buddhism from the fourth century before Christ to its final expulsion from Hindustan. "Abundant proofs," says Turnour, "may be adduced to show the fanatical ferocity with which these two great sects persecuted each other; and which, subsided into passive hatred and contempt, only when the parties were no longer placed in the position of actual collision."--Introd. Mahawanso, p. xxii.]
[Footnote 2: In its earliest form Buddhism was equally averse to persecution, and the Mahawanso extols the liberality of Asoca in giving alms indiscriminately to the members of all religions (Mahawanso, ch. v. p. 23). A sect which is addicted to persecution is not likely to speak approvingly of toleration, but the Mahawanso records with evident satisfaction the courtesy paid to the sacred things of Buddhism by the believers in other doctrines; thus the Nagas did homage to the relics of Buddha and mourned their removal from Mount Meru (Mahawanso, ch. xxxi. p. 189); the Yakkhos assisted at the building of dagobas to enshrine them, and the Brahmans were the first to respect the Bo-tree on its arrival in Ceylon (Ib. ch. xix. p. 119). COSMAS INDICOPLEUSTES, whose informant, Sopater, visited Ceylon in the sixth century, records that there was then the most extended toleration, and that even the Nestorian Christians had perfect freedom and protection for their worship.
Among the Buddhists of Burmah, however, "although they are tolerant of the practice of other religions by those who profess them, secession from the national faith, is rigidly prohibited, and a convert to any other form of faith incurs the penalty of death."--Professor WILSON, Journ. Roy. Asiat. Soc. vol. xvi. p. 261.]
[Sidenote: A.D. 209.]
This characteristic of the "religion of the Vanquisher" is in strict conformity, not alone with the spirit of his doctrine, but also with the letter of the law laid down for the guidance of his disciples. Two of the singular rock-inscriptions of India deciphered by Prinsep, inculcate the duty of leaving the profession of different faiths unmolested; on the ground, that "all aim at moral restraint and purity of life, although all cannot be equally successful in attaining to it." The sentiments embodied in one of the edicts[1] of King Asoca are very striking: "A man must honour his own faith, without blaming that of his neighbour, and thus will but little that is wrong occur. There are even circumstances under which the faith of others should be honoured, and in acting thus a man increases his own faith and weakens that of others. He who acts differently, diminishes his own faith and injures that of another. Whoever he may be who honours his own faith and blames that of others out of devotion to his own, and says, 'let us make our faith conspicuous,' that man merely injures the faith he holds. Concord alone is to be desired."
[Footnote 1: The twelfth tablet, which, as translated by BURNOUF and Professor WILSON, will be found in Mrs. SPEIR'S Life in Ancient India, book ii. ch. iv. p. 239.]
[Sidenote: A.D. 209.]
[Sidenote: A.D. 248.]
The obligation, to maintain the religion of Buddha was as binding as the command to abstain from assailing that of its rivals, and hence the kings who had treated the snake-worshippers with kindness, who had made a state provision for maintaining "offerings to demons," and built dwellings at the capital to accommodate the "ministers of foreign religions," rose in fierce indignation against the preaching of a firm believer in Buddha, who ventured to put an independent interpretation on points of faith. They burned the books of the Wytulians, as the new sect were called, and frustrated their irreligious attempt.[1] The first effort at repression was ineffectual. It was made by the King Wairatissa, A.D. 209; but within forty years the schismatic tendency returned, the persecution was renewed, and the apostate priests, after being branded on the back were ignominiously transported to the opposite coast of India.[2]
[Footnote 1: The Mahawanso throws no light on the nature of the Wytulian (or Wettulyan) heresy (ch. xxvii. p. 227), but the Rajaratnacari insinuates that Wytulia was a Brahman who had "subverted by craft and intrigue the religion of Buddha" (ch. ii, p. 61). As it is stated in a further passage that the priests who were implicated were stripped of their habits, it is evident that the innovation had been introduced under the garb of Buddha.--Rajaratnacari, ch. ii. p. 65.]
[Footnote 2: TURNOUR'S Epitome, p. 25, Mahawanso, ch. xxxvi. p. 232. As the Mahawanso intimates in another passage that amongst the priests who were banished to the opposite coast of India, there was one Sangha-mitta, "who was profoundly versed in the rites of the demon faith ('bhuta')," it is probable that out of the Wytulian heresy grew the system which prevails to the present day, by which the heterodox dewales and halls for devil dances are built in close contiguity to the temples and wiharas of the orthodox Buddhists, and the barbarous rites of demon worship are incorporated with the abstractions of the national religion. On the restoration of Maha-Sen to the true faith, the Mahawanso represents him as destroying the dewales at Anarajapoora in order to replace them with wiharas (Mahawanso, ch. xxxvii. p. 237). An account of the mingling of Brahmanical with Buddhist worship, as it exists at the present day, will be found in HARDY'S Oriental Monachism, ch. xix. Professor H.H. WILSON, in his Historical Sketch of the Kingdom of Pandya, alludes to a heresy, which, anterior to the sixth century, disturbed the sangattar or college of Madura; the leading feature of which was the admixture of Buddhist doctrines with the rite of the Brahmans, and "this heresy," he says, "some traditions assert was introduced from Ceylon."--Asiat. Journ. vol. iii. p. 218.]
[Sidenote: A.D. 275.]
The new sect had, however, established an interest in high places; and Sangha-mitta, one of the exiled priests, returning from banishment on the death of the king, so ingratiated himself with his successor, that he was entrusted with the education of the king's sons. One of the latter, Maha-Sen, succeeded to the throne, A.D. 275, and, openly professing his adoption of the Wytulian tenets, dispossessed the popular priesthood, and overthrew the Brazen Palace. With the materials of the great wihara, he constructed at the sacred Bo-tree a building as a receptacle for relics, and a temple in which the statue of Buddha was to be worshipped according to the rites of the reformed religion.[1]
[Footnote 1: Mahawanso, ch. xxxvii. p. 235.]
[Sidenote: A.D. 275.]
So bold an innovation roused the passions of the nation; the people prepared for revolt, and a conflict was imminent, when the schismatic Sangha-mitta was suddenly assassinated, and the king, convinced of his errors, addressed himself with energy to restore the buildings he had destroyed, and to redress the mischiefs chiefs caused by his apostacy. He demolished the dewales of the Hindus, in order to use their sites for Buddhist wiharas; he erected nunneries, constructed the Jaytawanarama (a dagoba at Anarajapoora), formed the great tank of Mineri by drawing a dam across the Kara-ganga and that of Kandelay or Dantalawa, and consecrated the 20,000 fields which it irrigated to the Dennanaka Wihare.[1] "He repaired numerous dilapidated temples throughout the island, made offerings of a thousand robes to a thousand priests, formed sixteen tanks to extend cultivation--there is no defining the extent of his charity"--and having performed during his existence acts both of piety and impity, the Mahawanso cautiously adds, "his destiny after death was according to his merits."[2]
[Footnote 1: TURNOUR's Epitome, p. 25.]
[Footnote 2: Mahawanso, ch. xxxiii. p. 238.]
[Sidenote: A.D. 302.]
With King Maha-Sen end the glories of the "superior dynasty" of Ceylon. The "sovereigns of the Suluwanse, who followed," says the Rajavali, "were no longer of the unmixed blood, but the offspring of parents, only one of whom was descended from the sun, and the other from the bringer of the Bo-tree or the sacred tooth; on that account, because the God Sakkraia had ceased to watch over Ceylon, because piety had disappeared, and the city of Anarajapoora was in ruins, and because the fertility of the land was diminished, the kings who succeeded Maha-Sen were no longer reverenced as of old."[1]
[Footnote 1: Rajavali, p. 289.]
[Sidenote: A.D. 302.]
The prosperity of Ceylon, though it may not have attained its acme, was sound and auspicious in the beginning of the fourth century, when the solar line became extinct. Pihiti, the northern portion of the island, was that which most engaged the solicitude of the crown, from its containing the ancient capital, whence it obtained its designation of the Raja-ratta or country of the kings. Here the labour bestowed on irrigation had made the food of the population abundant, and the sums expended on the adornment of the city, the multitude of its sacred structures, the splendour of its buildings, and the beauty of its lakes and gardens, rendered it no inappropriate representative of the wealth and fertility of the kingdom.
Anarajapoora had from time immemorial been a venerated locality in the eyes of the Buddhists; it had been honoured by the visit of Buddha in person, and it was already a place of importance when Wijayo effected his landing in the fifth century before the Christian era. It became the capital a century after, and the King Pandukabhaya, who formed the ornamental lake which adjoined it, and planted gardens and parks for public festivities, built gates and four suburbs to the city; set apart ground for a public cemetery, and erected a gilded hall of audience, and a palace for his own residence.
The Mahawanso describes with particularity the offices of the Naggaraguttiko, who was the chief of the city guard, and the organisation of the low caste Chandalas, who were entrusted with the cleansing of the capital and the removal of the dead for interment. For these and for the royal huntsmen villages were constructed in the environs, mingled with which were dwellings for the subjugated native tribes, and temples for the worship of foreign devotees.[1]
[Footnote 1: Mahawanso, ch. x. p. 66.]
Seventy years later, when Mahindo arrived in Ceylon, the details of his reception disclose the increased magnificence of the capital, the richness of the royal parks, and the extent of the state establishments; and describe the chariots in which the king drove to Mihintala to welcome his exalted guest.[1]
[Footnote 1: Ibid., ch. xiv., xv., xx.]
[Sidenote: A.D. 302.]
Yet these were but preliminary to the grander constructions which gave the city its lasting renown; stupendous dagobas raised by successive monarchs, each eager to surpass the conceptions of his predecessors; temples in which were deposited statues of gold adorned with gems and native pearls; the decorated terraces of the Bo-tree, and the Brazen Palace, with its thousand chambers and its richly embellished halls. The city was enclosed by a rampart upwards of twenty feet in height[1], which was afterwards replaced by a wall[2]; and, so late as the fourth century, the Chinese traveller Fa Hian describes the condition of the place in terms which fully corroborate the accounts of the Mahawanso. It was crowded, he says, with nobles, magistrates, and foreign merchants; the houses were handsome, and the public buildings richly adorned. The streets and highways were broad and level, and halls for preaching and reading bana were erected in all the thoroughfares. He was assured that the island contained not less than from fifty to sixty thousand ecclesiastics, who all ate in common; and of whom from five to six thousand were supported by the bounty of the king.
[Footnote 1: By WASABHA, A.D. 66. Mahawanso, ch. xxxv. p. 222.]
[Footnote 2: TURNOUR, in his Epitome of the History of Ceylon, says that Anarajapoora was enclosed by a rampart seven cubits high, B.C. 41, and that A.D. 66 King Wasabha built a wall round the city sixteen gows in circumference. As he estimates the gow at four English miles, this would give an area equal to about 300 square miles. A space so prodigious for the capital seems to be disproportionate to the extent of the kingdom, and far too extended for the wants of the population. TURNOUR does not furnish the authority on which he gives the dimensions, nor have I been able to discover it in the Rajavali nor in the Rajaratnacari. The Mahawanso alludes to the fact of Anarajapoora having been fortified by Wasabha, but, instead of a wall, the work which it describes this king to have undertaken, was the raising of the height of the rampart from seven cubits to eighteen (Mahawanso, ch. xxxv. p. 222). Major Forbes, in his account of the ruins of the ancient city, repeats the story of their former extent, in which he no doubt considered that the high authority of Turnour in matters of antiquity was sustained by a statement made by Lieutenant Skinner, who had surveyed the ruins in 1822, to the effect that he had discovered near Alia-parte the remains of masonry, which he concluded to be a portion of the ancient city wall running north and south and forming the west face; and, as Alia-parte is seven miles from Anarajapoora, he regarded this discovery as confirming the account given of its original dimensions. Lieutenant, now Major, Skinner has recently informed me that, on mature reflection, he has reason to fear that his first inference was precipitate. In a letter of the 8th of May, 1856, he says:--"It was in 1833 I first visited Anarajapoora, when I made my survey of its ruins. The supposed foundation of the western face of the city wall was pointed out near the village of Alia-parte by the people, and I hastily adopted it. I had not at the time leisure to follow up this search and determine how far it extended, but from subsequent visits to the place I have been led to doubt the accuracy of this tradition, though on most other points I found the natives tolerably accurate in their knowledge of the history of the ancient capital. I have since sought for traces of the other faces of the supposed wall, at the distances from the centre of the city at which it was said to have existed, but without success." The ruins which Major Skinner saw at Alia-parte are most probably those of one of the numerous forts which the Singhalese kings erected at a much later period, to keep the Malabars in check.]
The sacred tooth of Buddha was publicly exposed on sacred days in the capital with gorgeous ceremonies, which he recounts, and thence carried in procession to "the mountains without fear;" the road to which was perfumed and decked with flowers for the occasion; and the festival was concluded by a dramatic representation of events in the life of Buddha, illustrated by scenery and costumes, with figures of elephants and stags, so delicately coloured as to be undistinguishable from nature.[1]
[Footnote 1: FA HIAN, Fo[)e] Kou[)e] Ki, ch. xxxviii. p. 334, &c.]
CHAP. IX.
KINGS OF THE "LOWER DYNASTY."
[Sidenote: A.D. 302.]
The story of the kings of Ceylon of the Sulu-wanse or "lower line," is but a narrative of the decline of the power and prosperity which had been matured under the Bengal conquerors and of the rise of the Malabar marauders, whose ceaseless forays and incursions eventually reduced authority to feebleness and the island to desolation. The vapid biography of the royal imbeciles who filled the throne from the third to the thirteenth century scarcely embodies an incident of sufficient interest to diversify the monotonous repetition of temples founded and dagobas repaired, of tanks constructed and priests endowed with lands reclaimed and fertilised by the "forced labour" of the subjugated races. Civil dissensions, religious schisms, royal intrigues and assassinations contributed equally with foreign invasions to diminish the influence of the monarchy and exhaust the strength of the kingdom.
Of sixty-two sovereigns who reigned from the death of Maha-Sen, A.D. 301, to the accession of Prakrama Bahu, A.D. 1153, nine met a violent death at the hands of their relatives or subjects, two ended their days in exile, one was slain by the Malabars, and four committed suicide. Of the lives of the larger number the Buddhist historians fail to furnish any important incidents; they relate merely the merit which each acquired by his liberality to the national religion or the more substantial benefits conferred on the people by the formation of lakes for irrigation.
[Sidenote: A.D. 330.]
[Sidenote: A.D. 339.]
Unembarrassed by any questions of external policy or foreign expeditions, and limited to a narrow range of internal administration, a few of the early kings addressed themselves to intellectual pursuits. One immortalised himself in the estimation of the devout by his skill in painting and sculpture, and in carving in ivory, arts which he displayed by modelling statues of Buddha, and which he employed himself in teaching to his subjects.[1] Another was equally renowned as a medical author and a practitioner of surgery[2], and a third was so passionately attached to poetry that in despair for the death of Kalidas[3], he flung himself into the flames of the poet's funeral pile.
[Footnote 1: Detoo Tissa, A.D. 330, Mahawanso, xxxvii. p. 242.]
[Footnote 2: Budha Daasa, A.D. 339. Mahawanso, xxxvii, p. 243. His work on medicine, entitled Sara-sangraha or Sarat-tha-Sambo, is still extant, and native practitioners profess to consult it.--TURNOUR'S Epitome, p. 27.]
[Footnote 3: Not KALIDAS, the author of Sacontala, to whom Sir W. Jones awards the title of "The Shakspeare of the East," but PANDITA KALIDAS, a Singhalese poet, none of whose verses have been preserved. His royal patron was Kumara Das, king of Ceylon, A.D. 513. For an account of Kalidas, see DE ALWIS'S Sidath Sangara, p. cliv.]
[Sidenote: A.D. 400.]
With the exception of the embassy sent from Ceylon to Rome in the reign of the Emperor Claudius[1], the earliest diplomatic intercourse with foreigners of which a record exists, occurred in the fourth or fifth centuries, when the Singhalese appear to have sent ambassadors to the Emperor Julian[2], and for the first time to have established a friendly connection with China. It is strange, considering the religious sympathies which united the two people, that the native chronicles make no mention of the latter negotiations or their results, so that we learn of them only through Chinese historians. The Encyclopoedia of MA-TOUAN-LIN, written at the close of the thirteenth century[3], records that Ceylon first entered into political relations with China in the fourth century.[4] It was about the year 400 A.D., says the author, "in the reign of the Emperor Nyan-ti, that ambassadors arrived from Ceylon bearing a statue of Fo in jade-stone four feet two inches high, painted in five colours, and of such singular beauty that one would have almost doubted its being a work of human ingenuity. It was placed in the Buddhist temple at Kien-Kang (Nankin)." In the year 428 A.D., the King of Ceylon (Maha Nama) sent envoys to offer tribute, and this homage was repeated between that period and A.D. 529, by three other Singhalese kings, whose names it is difficult to identify with their Chinese designations of Kia-oe, Kia-lo, and the Ho-li-ye.
[Footnote 1: PLINY, lib. vi. c. 24.]
[Footnote 2: AMMIANUS MARCELLINUS, lib. XX. c. 7.]
[Footnote 3: KLAPROTH doubts, "si la science de l'Europe a produit jusqu'à présent un ouvrage de ce genre aussi bien exécuté et capable de soutenir la comparaison avec cette encyclopédie chinoise."--Journ. Asiat. tom. xxi. p. 3. See also Asiatic Journal, London, 1832, xxxv. p. 110. It has been often reprinted in 100 large volumes. M. STANISLAS JULIEN says that in another Chinese work, Pien-i-tien, or The History of Foreign Nations, there is a compilation including every passage in which Chinese authors have written of Ceylon, which occupies about forty pages 4to. Ib. tom. xxix. p. 39. A number of these authorities will be found extracted in the chapter in which I have described the intercourse between China and Ceylon, Vol. I. P. v. ch. iii.]
[Footnote 4: Between the years 317 and 420 A.D.--Journ. Asiat. tom. xxviii. p. 401.]
In A.D. 670, another ambassador arrived from Ceylon, and A.D. 742, Chi-lo-mi-kia sent presents to the Emperor of China consisting of pearls (perles de feu), golden flowers, precious stones, ivory, and pieces of fine cotton cloth. At a later period mutual intercourse became frequent between the two countries, and some of the Chinese travellers who resorted to Ceylon have left valuable records as to the state of the island.
[Sidenote: A.D. 413.]
[Sidenote: A.D. 432.]
It was during the reign of Maha Nama, about the year 413 A.D., that Ceylon was visited by Fa Hian, and the statements of the Mahawanso are curiously corroborated by the observations recorded by this Chinese traveller. He describes accurately the geniality of the climate, whose uniform temperature rendered the seasons undistinguishable. Winter and summer, he says, are alike unknown, but perpetual verdure realises the idea of a perennial spring, and periods for seed time and harvest are regulated by the taste of the husbandman. This statement has reference to the multitude of tanks which rendered agriculture independent of the periodical rains.
[Sidenote: A.D. 459.]
Fa Hian speaks of the lofty monuments which were the memorials of Buddha, and of the gems and gold which adorned his statues at Anarajapoora. Amongst the most surprising of these was a figure in what he calls "blue jasper," inlaid with jewels and other precious materials, and holding in one hand a pearl of inestimable value.[1] He describes the Bo-tree in terms which might almost be applied to its actual condition at the present day, and he states that they had recently erected a building to contain "the tooth of Buddha," which was exhibited to the pious in the middle of the third moon with processions and ceremonies which he minutely details.[2] All this corresponds closely with the narrative of the Mahawanso. The sacred tooth of Buddha, called at that time Dáthá dhátu, and now the Dalada, had been brought to Ceylon a short time before Fa Hian's arrival in the reign of Kisti-Sri-Megha-warna, A.D. 311, in charge of a princess of Kalinga, who concealed it in the folds of her hair. And the Mahawanso with equal precision describes the procession as conducted by the king and by the assembled priests, in which the tooth was borne along the streets of Anarajapoora amidst the veneration of the multitude.[3]
[Footnote 1: It was whilst looking at this statue that FA HIAN encountered an incident which he has related with touching simplicity:--"Depuis que FA HIAN avait quitté la terre de Han, plusieurs années s'étaient écoulées; les gens avec lesquels il avait des rapports étaient tous des hommes de contrées étrangères. Les montagnes, les rivières, les herbes, les arbres, tout ce qui avait frappé ses yeux était nouveau pour lui. De plus, ceux qui avaient fait route avec lui, s'en étaient séparés, les uns s'étant arrêtés, et les autres étant morts. En réfléchissant au passé, son coeur était toujours rempli de pensées et de tristesse. Tout à coup, à cóté de cette figure de jaspe, il vit un marchand qui faisait hommage à la statue d'un éventail de taffetas blanc du pays de Tsin. Sans qu'en s'en aperçût cela lui causa une émotion telle que ses larmes coulèrent et remplirent ses yeux." (FA HIAN, Fo[)e] Kou[)e] Ki, ch. xxxviii. p. 333.) "Tsin" means the province of Chensi, which was the birthplace of Fa Hian.]
[Footnote 2: FA HIAN, Fo[)e] Kou[)e] Ki, ch. xxxviii. p. 334-5.]
[Footnote 3: Mahawanso, ch. xxxvii. p. 241, 249. After the funeral rites of Gotama Buddha had been performed at Kusinara, B.C. 543, his "left canine tooth" was carried to Dantapura, the capital of Kalinga, where it was preserved for 800 years. The King of Calinga, in the reign of Maha-Sen, being on the point of engaging in a doubtful conflict, directed, in the event of defeat, that the sacred relic should be conveyed to Ceylon, whither it was accordingly taken as described. (Rajavali, p. 240.) Between A.D. 1303 and 1315 the tooth was carried back to Southern India by the leader of an army, who invaded Ceylon and sacked Yapahoo, which was then the capital. The succeeding monarch, Prakrama III., went in person to Madura to negotiate its surrender, and brought it back to Pollanarrua. Its subsequent adventures and its final destruction by the Portuguese, as recorded by DE COUTO and others, will be found in a subsequent passage, see Vol. II. P. VII. ch. v. The Singhalese maintain that the Dalada, still treasured in its strong tower at Kandy, is the genuine relic, which was preserved from the Portuguese spoilers by secreting it at Delgamoa in Saffragam.
TURNOUR'S Account of the Tooth Relic of Ceylon; Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal, 1837, vol. vi. p. 2, p. 856.]
[Sidenote: A.D. 459.]
One of the most striking events in this period of Singhalese history was the murder of the king, Dhatu Sena, A.D. 459, by his son, who seized the throne under the title of Kasyapa I. The story of this outrage, which is highly illustrative of the superstition and cruelty of the age, is told with much feeling in the Mahawanso; the author of which, Mahanamo, was the uncle of the outraged king, Dhatu Sena was a descendant of the royal line, whose family were living in retirement during the usurpation of the Malabars, A.D. 434 to 459. As a youth he had embraced the priesthood, and his future eminence was foretold by an omen. "On a certain day, when chaunting at the foot of a tree, when a shower of rain fell, a cobra de capello encircled him with its folds and covered his book with its hood."[1] He was educated by his uncle, Mahanamo, and in process of time, surrounding himself with adherents, he successfully attacked the Malabars, defeated two of their chiefs in succession, put three others to death, recovered the native sovereignty of Ceylon, "and the religion which had been set aside by the foreigners, he restored to its former ascendancy." He recalled the fugitive inhabitants to Anarajapoora; degraded the nobles who had intermarried with the Malabars, and vigorously addressed himself to repair the sacred edifices and to restore fertility to the lands which had been neglected during their hostile occupation by the strangers. He applied the jewels from his head-dress to replace the gems of which the statue of Buddha had been despoiled. The curled hair of the divine teacher was represented by sapphires, and the lock on his forehead by threads of gold.
[Footnote 1: This is a frequent traditionary episode in connection with the heroes of Hindu history.--Asiat. Researches, vol. xv. p. 275.]
[Sidenote: A.D. 459.]
The family of the king consisted of two sons and a daughter, the latter married to his nephew, who "caused her to be flogged on the thighs with a whip although she had committed no offence;" on which the king, in his indignation, ordered the mother of her husband to be burned. His nephew and eldest son now conspired to dethrone him, and having made him a prisoner, the latter "raised the chatta" (the white parasol emblematic of royalty), and seized on the supreme power. Pressed by his son to discover the depository of his treasures, the captive king entreated to be taken to Kalawapi, under the pretence of pointing out the place of their concealment, but in reality with a determination to prepare for death, after having seen his early friend Mahanamo, and bathed in the great tank which he himself had formerly constructed. The usurper complied, and assigned for the journey a "carriage with broken wheels," the charioteer of which shared his store of "parched rice" with the fallen king. "Thus worldly prosperity," says Mahanamo, who lived to write the sad story of the interview, "is like the glimmering of lightning, and what reflecting man would devote himself to its pursuit!" The Raja approached his friend and, "from the manner these two persons discoursed, side by side, mutually quenching the fire of their afflictions, they appeared as if endowed with royal prosperity. Having allowed him to eat, the thero (Mahanamo) in various ways administered consolation and abstracted his mind from all desire to prolong his existence." The king then bathed in the tank; and pointing to his friend and to it, "these," he exclaimed to the messengers, "are all the treasures I possess."
[Sidenote: A.D. 477.]
He was conducted back to the capital; and Kasyapa, suspecting that the king was concealing his riches for his second son, Mogallana, gave the order for his execution. Arrayed in royal insignia, he repaired to the prison of the raja, and continued to walk to and fro in his presence: till the king, perceiving his intention to wound his feelings, said mildly, "Lord of statesmen, I bear the same affection towards you as to Mogallana." The usurper smiled and shook his head; then stripping the king naked and casting him into chains, he built up a wall, embedding him in it with his face towards the east, and enclosed it with clay: "thus the monarch Dhatu-Sena, who was murdered by his son, united himself with Sakko the ruler of Devos."[1]
[Footnote 1: Mahawanso, ch. xxxviii. To this hideous incident Mahanamo adds the following curious moral: "This Raja Dhatu Sena, at the time he was improving the Kalawapi tank, observed a certain priest absorbed in meditation, and not being able to rouse him from abstraction, had him buried under the embankment by heaping earth over him. His own living entombment was the retribution manifested in this life for that impious act."]
[Sidenote: A.D. 477.]
The parricide next directed his groom and his cook to assassinate his brother, who, however, escaped to the coast of India.[1] Failing in the attempt, he repaired to Sihagiri, a place difficult of access to men, and having cleared it on all sides, he surrounded it with a rampart. He built three habitations, accessible only by flights of steps, and ornamented with figures of lions (siho), whence the fortress takes its name, Siha-giri, "the Lion Rock." Hither he carried the treasures of his father, and here he built a palace, "equal in beauty to the celestial mansion." He erected temples to Buddha, and monasteries for his priests, but conscious of the enormity of his crimes, these endowments were conferred in the names of his minister and his children. Failing to "derive merit" from such acts, stung with remorse, and anxious to test public feeling, he enlarged his deeds of charity; he formed gardens at the capital, and planted groves of mangoes throughout the island. Desirous to enrich a wihara at Anarajapoora, he proposed to endow it with a village, but "the ministers of religion, regardful of the reproaches of the world, declined accepting gifts at the hands of a parricide. Kasyapa, bent on befriending them, dedicated the village to Buddha, after which they consented, on the ground that it was then the property of the divine teacher." Impelled, says the Mahawanso, by the irrepressible dread of a future existence, he strictly performed his "aposaka"[2] vows, practised the virtue of non-procrastination, acquired the "dathanga,"[3] and caused books to be written, and image and alms-edifices to be formed.
[Footnote 1: I am indebted to the family of the late Mr. Turnour for access to a manuscript translation of a further portion of the Mahawanso, from which this continuation of the narrative is extracted.]
[Footnote 2: A lay devotee who takes on himself the obligation of asceticism without putting on the yellow robe.]
[Footnote 3: The dathanga or "teles-dathanga" are the thirteen ordinances by which the cleaving to existence is destroyed, involving piety, abstinence, and self-mortification.--HARDY'S Eastern Monachism, ch. ii. p. 9.]
[Sidenote: A.D. 495.]
Meanwhile, after an interval of eighteen years, Mogallana, having in his exile collected a sufficient force, returned from India to avenge the murder of his father; and the brothers encountered each other in a decisive engagement at Ambatthakolo in the Seven Corles. Kasyapa, perceiving a swamp in his front, turned the elephant which he rode into a side path to avoid it; on which his army in alarm raised the shout that "their liege lord was flying," and in the confusion which followed, Mogallana, having struck off the head of his brother, returned the krese to its scabbard, and led his followers to take possession of the capital; where he avenged the death of his father, by the execution of the minister who had consented to it. He established a marine force to guard the island against the descents of the Malabars, and "having purified both the orthodox dharma[1], and the religion of the vanquisher, he died, after reigning eighteen years, signalised by acts of piety."[2] This story as related by its eye-witness, Mahanamo, forms one of the most characteristic, as well as the best authenticated episodes of contemporary history presented by the annals of Ceylon.
[Footnote 1: The doctrines of Buddha.]
[Footnote 2: Mahawanso, ch. xxxix. Manuscript translation by TURNOUR. TURNOUR, in his Epitome, says Kasyapa "committed suicide on the field of battle," but this does not appear from the narrative of the Mahawanso.]
[Sidenote: A.D. 515.]
Such was the feebleness of the royal house, that of the eight kings who succeeded Mogallana between A.D. 515 and A.D. 586, two died by suicide, three by murder, and one from grief occasioned by the treason of his son. The anarchy consequent upon such disorganisation stimulated the rapacity of the Malabars; and the chronicles of the following centuries are filled with the accounts of their descents on the island and the misery inflicted by their excesses.
CHAP. X.
THE DOMINATION OF THE MALABARS.
[Sidenote: A.D. 515.]
It has been already explained that the invaders who engaged in forays into Ceylon, though known by the general epithet of Malabars (or as they are designated in Pali, damilos, "Tamils"), were also natives of places in India remote from that now known as Malabar. They were, in reality, the inhabitants of one of the earliest states organised in Southern India, the kingdom of Pandya[1], whose sovereigns, from their intelligence, and their encouragement of native literature, have been appropriately styled "the Ptolemies of India." Their dominions, which covered the extremity of the peninsula, comprehended the greater portion of the Coromandel coast, extending to Canara on the western coast, and southwards to the sea.[2] Their kingdom was subsequently contracted in dimensions, by the successive independence of Malabar, the rise of the state of Chera to the west, of Ramnad to the south, and of Chola in the east, till it sank in modern times into the petty government of the Naicks of Madura.[3]
[Footnote 1: Pandya, as a kingdom was not unknown in classical times, and its ruler was the [Greek: Basileus Pandiôn] mentioned in the Periplus of the Erythræan Sea, and the king Pandion, who sent an embassy to Augustus.--PLINY, vi. 26; PTOLEMY, vii. 1.]
[Footnote 2: See an Historical Sketch of the Kingdom of Pandya, by Prof. H. H. WILSON, Asiat. Journ., vol. iii.]
[Footnote 3: See ante, p. 353, n.]
[Sidenote: A.D. 515.]
The relation between this portion of the Dekkan and the early colonisers of Ceylon was rendered intimate by many concurring incidents. Wijayo himself was connected by maternal descent with the king of Kalinga[1], now known as the Northern Circars; his second wife was the daughter of the king of Pandya, and the ladies who accompanied her to Ceylon were given in marriage to his ministers and officers.[2] Similar alliances were afterwards frequent; and the Singhalese annalists allude on more than one occasion to the "damilo consorts" of their sovereigns.[3] Intimate intercourse and consanguinity, were thus established from the remotest period. Adventurers from the opposite coast were encouraged by the previous settlers; high employments were thrown open to them, Malabars were subsidised both as cavalry and as seamen; and the first abuse of their privileges was in the instance of the brothers Sena and Goottika, who, holding naval and military commands, took advantage of their position and seized on the throne, B.C. 237; apparently with such acquiescence on the part of the people, that even the Mahawanso praises the righteousness of their reign, which was prolonged to twenty-two years, when they were put to death by the rightful heir to the throne.[4]
[Footnote 1: Mahawanso, ch. vi. p. 43.]
[Footnote 2: Mahawanso, ch. vii. p. 53; the Rajarali (p. 173) says they were 700 in number.]
[Footnote 3: Mahawanso, ch. xxxviii. p. 253.]
[Footnote 4: Mahawanso ch. xxi. p. 127.]
[Sidenote: A.D. 515.]
The easy success of the first usurpers encouraged the ambition of fresh aspirants, and barely ten years elapsed till the first regular invasion of the island took place, under the illustrious Elala, who, with an army from Mysore (then called Chola or Soli), subdued the entire of Ceylon, north of the Mahawelli-ganga, and compelled the chiefs of the rest of the island, and the kings of Rohuna and Maya, to acknowledge his supremacy and become his tributaries.[1] As in the instance of the previous revolt, the people exhibited such faint resistance to the usurpation, that the reign of Elala extended to forty-four years. It is difficult to conceive that their quiescence under a stranger was entirely ascribable to the fact, that the rule of the Malabars, although adverse to Buddhism, was characterised by justice and impartiality. Possibly they recognised to some extent their pretensions, as founded on their relationship to the legitimate sovereigns of the island, and hence they bore their sway without impatience.[2]
[Footnote 1: TURNOUR'S Epitome, p. 17; Mahawanso, ch. xxi. p. 128; Rajavali, p. 188.]
[Footnote 2: See ante, p. 360, n.]
The majority of the subsequent invasions of Ceylon by the Malabars partook less of the character of conquest than of forays, by a restless and energetic race, into a fertile and defenceless country. Mantotte, on the northwest coast, near Adam's Bridge, became the great place of debarcation; and here successive bands of marauders landed time after time without meeting any effectual resistance from the unwarlike Singhalese.
The second great invasion took place about a century after the first, B.C. 103, when seven Malabar leaders effected simultaneous descents at different points of the coast[1], and combined with a disaffected "Brahman prince" of Rohuna, to force Walagam-bahu I. to surrender his sovereignty. The king, after an ineffectual show of resistance, fled to the mountains of Malaya; one of the invaders carried off the queen to the coast of India; a third despoiled the temples of Anarajapoora and retired, whilst the others continued in possession of the capital for nearly fifteen years, till Walagam-bahu, by the aid of the Rohuna highlanders, succeeded in recovering the throne.
[Footnote 1: TURNOUR'S Epitome, p. 16. The Mahawanso says they landed at "Mahatittha."--Mantotte, ch. xxxiii. p. 203.]
[Sidenote: A.D. 515.]
The third great invasion on record[1] was in its character still more predatory than those which preceded it, but it was headed by a king in person, who carried away 12,000 Singhalese as slaves to Mysore. It occurred in the reign of Waknais, A.D. 110, whose son Gaja-bahu, A.D. 113, avenged the outrage by invading the Solee country with an expedition which sailed from Jaffnapatam, and brought back not only the rescued Singhalese captives, but also a multitude of Solleans, whom the king established on lands in the Alootcoor Corle, where the Malabar features are thought to be discernible to the present day.[2]
[Footnote 1: This incursion of the Malabars is not mentioned in the Mahawanso, but it is described in the Rajavali, p. 229, and mentioned by TURNOUR, in his Epitome, &c., p. 21. There is evidence of the conscious supremacy of the Malabars over the north of Ceylon, in the fourth century, in a very curious document, relating to that period. The existence of a colony of Jews at Cochin, in the southwestern extremity of the Dekkan, has long been known in Europe, and half a century ago, particulars of their condition and numbers were published by Dr. Claudius Buchanan. (Christian Researches, &c.) Amongst other facts, he made known their possession of Hebrew MSS. demonstrative of the great antiquity of their settlement in India, and also of their title deeds of land (sasanams), engraved on plates of copper, and presented to them by the early kings of that portion of the peninsula. Some of the latter have been carefully translated into English (see Madras Journ., vol. xiii. xiv.). One of their MSS. has recently been brought to England, under circumstances which are recounted by Mr. FORSTER, in the third vol. of his One Primeval Language, p. 303. This MS. I have been permitted to examine. It is in corrupted Rabbinical Hebrew, written about the year 1781, and contains a partial synopsis of the modern history of the section of the Jewish nation to whom it belongs; with accounts of their arrival in the year A.D. 68, and of their reception by the Malabar kings. Of one of the latter, frequently spoken of by the honorific style of SRI PERUMAL, but identifiable with IRAVI VARMAR, who reigned A.D. 379, the manuscript says that his "rule extended from Goa to Colombo."]
[Footnote 2: CASTE CHITTY, Ceylon Gazetteer, p. 7.]
A long interval of repose followed, and no fresh expedition from India is mentioned in the chronicles of Ceylon till A.D. 433, when the capital was again taken by the Malabars; the Singhalese families fled beyond the Mahawelli-ganga; and the invaders occupied the entire extent of the Pihiti Ratta, where for twenty-seven years, five of them in succession administered the government, till Dhatu Sena collected forces sufficient to overpower the strangers, and, emerging from his retreat in Rohuna, recovered possession of the north of the island.[1]
[Footnote 1: Rajavali, p. 243; TURNOUR'S Epitome, p. 27.]
[Sidenote: A.D. 515.]
Dhatu Sena, after his victory, seems to have made an attempt, though an ineffectual one, to reverse the policy which had operated under his predecessors as an incentive to the immigration of Malabars; settlement and intermarriages had been all along encouraged[1], and even during the recent usurpation, many Singhalese families of rank had formed connections with the Damilos. The schisms among the Buddhist themselves, tending as they did to engraft Brahmanical rites upon the doctrines of the purer faith, seem to have promoted and matured the intimacy between the two people; some of the Singhalese kings erected temples to the gods of the Hindus[2], and the promoters of the Wytulian heresy found a refuge from persecution amongst their sympathisers in the Dekkan.[3]
[Footnote 1: Anula, the queen of Ceylon, A.D. 47, met with no opposition in raising one of her Malabar husbands to the throne.--TURNOUR'S Epitome, p. 19. Sotthi Sena, who reigned A.D. 432, had a Damilo queen.--Mahawanso, ch. xxxviii. p. 253.]
[Footnote 2: Sri Sanga Bo III. A.D. 702, "made a figure of the God Vishnu; and was a supporter of the religion of Buddha, and a friend of the people."--Rajaratnacari, p. 78.]
[Footnote 3: Mahawanso, ch. xxxvii. p. 234; TURNOUR'S Epitome, p. 25.]
[Sidenote: A.D. 515.]
The Malabars, trained to arms, now resorted in such numbers to Ceylon, that the leaders in civil commotions were accustomed to hire them in bands to act against the royal forces[1]; and whilst no precautions were adopted to check the landing of marauders on the coast, the invaders constructed forts throughout the country to protect their conquests from recapture by the natives. Proud of these successful expeditions, the native records of the Chola kings make mention of their victories; and in one of their grants of land, engraved on copper, and still in existence, Viradeva-Chola, the sovereign by whom it was made, is described as having triumphed over "Madura, Izham, Caruvar, and the crowned head of Pandyan;" Izham, (or Ilám) being the Tamil name of Ceylon.[2] On their expulsion by Dhatu Sena, he took possession of the fortresses and extirpated the Damilos; degraded the Singhalese who had intermarried with them; confiscated their estates in favour of those who had remained true to his cause; and organised a naval force for the protection of the coasts[3] of the island.
[Footnote 1: Mahawanso, ch. xxxvi. p. 238.]
[Footnote 2: DOWSON, on the Chera Kingdom of India.--Asiat. Journ. vol. viii. p. 24.]
[Footnote 3: Mahawansa ch. xxxviii. p. 256. and xxxix. TURNOUR'S MS., Trans.]
But his vigorous policy produced no permanent effect; his son Mogallana, after the murder of his father and the usurpation of Kasyapa, fled for refuge to the coast of India, and subsequently recovered possession of the throne, by the aid of a force which he collected there.[1] In the succession of assassinations, conspiracies, and civil wars which distracted the kingdom in the sixth and seventh centuries, during the struggles of the rival branches of the royal house, each claimant, in his adversity, betook himself to the Indian continent, and Malabar mercenaries from Pandya and Soli enrolled themselves indifferently under any leader, and deposed or restored kings at their pleasure.[2]
[Footnote 1: TURNOUR'S Epitome, p. 29; Rajavali p. 244.]
[Footnote 2: TURNOUR'S Epitome, p. 31; Rajavali p. 247.]
[Sidenote: A.D. 523.]
The Rajavali, in a single passage enumerates fourteen sovereigns who were murdered each by his successor, between A.D. 523, and A.D. 648. During a period of such violence and anarchy, peaceful industry was suspended, and extensive emigrations took place to Bahar and Orissa. Buddhism, however, was still predominant, and protection was accorded to its professors.
[Sidenote: A.D. 640.]
Hiouen Thsang, a Chinese traveller, wno visited India between 629 A.D. and 645[1], encountered numbers of exiles, who informed him that they fled from civil commotions in Ceylon, in which religion had undergone persecution, the king had lost his life, cultivation had been interrupted, and the island exhausted by famine. This account of the Chinese voyager accords accurately with the events detailed in the Singhalese annals, in which it is stated that Sanghatissa was deposed and murdered, A.D. 623, by the Seneriwat, his minister, who, amidst the horrors of a general famine, was put to death by the people of Rohuna, and a civil war ensued; one result of which was the defeat of the Malabar mercenaries and their distribution as slaves to the temples. Hiouen Thsang relates the particulars of his interviews with the fugitives, from whom he learned the extraordinary riches of Ceylon, the number and wealth of its wiharas, the density of its population in peaceful times, the fertility of its soil, and the abundance of its produce.[2]
[Footnote 1: Histoire de la Vie de Hiouen Thsang, et de ses Voyages dans l'Inde depuis l'an 629 jusquèn 643. Par HOEI-LI et YEN-THSANG, &c. Traduite du Chinois par STANISLAUS JULIEN, Paris, 1853.]
[Footnote 2: "Ce royaume a sept mille li de tour, et sa capitale quarante li; la population est agglomérée, et la terre produit des grains en abondance."--HIOUEN-THSANG, liv. iv. p. 194.]
For nearly four hundred years, from the seventh till the eleventh century, the exploits and escapes of the Malabars occupy a more prominent portion of the Singbalese annals than that devoted to the policy of the native sovereigns. They filled every office, including that of prime minister[1], and they decided the claims of competing candidates for the crown. At length the island became so infested by their numbers that the feeble monarchs found it impracticable to effect their exclusion from Anarajapoora[2]; and to escape from their proximity, the kings in the eighth century began to move southwards, and transferred their residence to Pollanarrua, which eventually became the capital of the kingdom. Enormous tanks were constructed in the vicinity of the new capital; palaces were erected, surpassing those of the old city in architectural beauty; dagobas were raised, nearly equal in altitude to the Thuparama and Ruanwelli, and temples and statues were hewn out of the living rock, the magnitude and beauty of whose ruins attest the former splendour of Pollanarrua.[3]
[Footnote 1: TURNOUR'S Epitome, p. 33.]
[Footnote 2: TURNOUR'S Epitome, A.D. 686, p. 31.]
[Footnote 3: The first king who built a palace at Pollanarrua was Sri Sanga Bo II., A.D. 642. His successor, Sri Sanga Bo III., took up his residence there temporarily, A.D. 702; it was made the capital by Kuda Akbo, A.D. 769, and its embellishment, the building of colleges, and the formation of tanks in its vicinity, were the occupations of numbers of his successors.]
[Sidenote: A.D. 640.]
Notwithstanding their numbers and their power, it is remarkable that the Malabars were never identified with any plan for promoting the prosperity and embellishment of Ceylon, or with any undertaking for the permanent improvement of the island. Unlike the Gangetic race, who were the earliest colonists, and with whom originated every project for enriching and adorning the country, the Malabars aspired not to beautify or enrich, but to impoverish and deface;--and nothing can more strikingly bespeak the inferiority of the southern race than the single fact that everything tending to exalt and to civilise, in the early condition of Ceylon, was introduced by the northern conquerors, whilst all that contributed to ruin and debase it is distinctly traceable to the presence and influence of the Malabars.
[Sidenote: A.D. 840.]
The Singhalese, either paralysed by dread, made feeble efforts to rid themselves of the invaders; or fascinated by their military pomp, endeavoured to conciliate them by alliances. Thus, when the king of Pandya over-ran the north of Ceylon, A.D. 840, plundered the capital and despoiled its temples, the unhappy sovereign had no other resource than to purchase the evacuation of the island by a heavy ransom.[1] Yet such was the influence still exercised by the Malabars, that within a very few years his successor on the throne lent his aid to the son of the same king of Pandya in a war against his father, and conducted the expedition in person.[2] His army was, in all probability, composed chiefly of Damilos, with whom he overran the south of the Indian peninsula, and avenged the outrage inflicted on his own kingdom in the late reign by bearing back the plunder of Madura.
[Footnote 1: TURNOUR'S Epitome, p. 35; Rajaratnacari, p. 79.]
[Footnote 2: A.D. 858; Rajaratnacari, p, 84.]
[Sidenote: A.D. 954.]
This exploit served to promote a more intimate intercourse between the two races, and after the lapse of a century, A.D. 954, the king of Ceylon a second time interposed with an army to aid the Pandyan sovereign in a quarrel with his neighbour of Chola, wherein the former was worsted, and forced to seek a refuge in the territory of his insular ally, whence he was ultimately expelled for conspiracy against his benefactor. Having fled to India without his regalia, his Cholian rival made the refusal of the king of Ceylon to surrender them the pretext for a fresh Malabar invasion, A.D. 990, when the enemy was repulsed by the mountaineers of Rohuna, who, from the earliest period down to the present day, have evinced uniform impatience of strangers, and steady determination to resist their encroachments.
[Sidenote: A.D. 997.]
But such had been the influx of foreigners, that the efforts of these highland patriots were powerless against their numbers. Mahindo III., A.D. 997, married a princess of Calinga[1], and in a civil war which ensued, during the reign of his son and successor, the novel spectacle was presented of a Malabar army supporting the cause of the royal family against Singhalese insurgents. The island was now reduced to the extreme of anarchy and insecurity; "the foreign population" had increased to such an extent as to gain a complete ascendency over the native inhabitants, and the sovereign had lost authority over both.[2]
[Footnote 1: Now the Northern Circars.]
[Footnote 2: TURNOUR'S Epitome, p. 37.]
[Sidenote: A.D. 1023.]
In A.D. 1023, the Cholians again invaded Ceylon[1], carried the king captive to the coast of India (where he died in exile), and established a Malabar viceroy at Pollanarrua, who held possession of the island for nearly thirty years, protected in his usurpation by a foreign army. Thus, "throughout the reign of nineteen kings," says the Rajaratnacari "extending over eighty-six years, the Malabars kept up a continual war with the Singhalese, till they filled by degrees every village in the island."[2]
[Footnote 1: In the reign of Mahindo IV.]
[Footnote 2: Rajaratnacari, p. 85.]
[Sidenote: A.D. 1028.]
During the absence of the rightful sovereign, and in the confusion which ensued on his decease, various members of the royal family arrived at the sovereignty of Rohuna, the only remnant of free territory left. Four brothers, each assuming the title of king, contended together for supremacy; and amidst anarchy and intrigue, each in turn took up the reins of government, as they fell or were snatched from the hands of his predecessor[1], till at length, on the retirement of all other candidates, the forlorn crown was assumed by the minister Lokaiswara, who held his court at Kattragam, and died A.D. 1071.[2]
[Footnote 1: TURNOUR'S Epitome, p. 39.]
[Footnote 2: Mahawanso, ch. lxi.]
CHAP XI.
THE REIGN OF PRAKRAMA BAHU.
[Sidenote: A.D. 1071.]
From the midst of this gloom and despondency, with usurpation successful in the only province where even a semblance of patriotism survived, and a foreign enemy universally dominant throughout the rest of Ceylon, there suddenly arose a dynasty which delivered the island from the sway of the Malabars, brought back its ancient wealth and tranquillity, and for the space of a century made it pre-eminently prosperous at home and victorious in expeditions by which its rulers rendered it respected abroad.
The founder of this new and vigorous race was a member of the exiled family, who, on the death of Lokaiswara, was raised to the throne under the title of Wijayo Bahu.[1] Dissatisfied with the narrow limits of Rohuna, he resolved on rescuing Pihiti from the usurping strangers; and, by the courage and loyalty of his mountaineers, he recovered the ancient capitals from the Malabars, compelled the whole extent of the island to acknowledge his authority, reunited the several kingdoms of Ceylon under one national banner, and, "for the security of Lanka against foreign invasion, placed trustworthy chiefs at the head of paid troops, and stationed them round the coast."[2] Thus signally successful at home, the fame of his exploits "extended over all Dambadiva[3], and ambassadors arrived at his court from the sovereigns of India and Siam."
[Footnote 1: A.D. 1071.]
[Footnote 2: Mahawanso, ch. lix.; Rajaranacari, p. 58; Rajavali, p. 251; TURNOUR'S Epitome, p. 39.]
[Footnote 3: India Proper.]
[Sidenote: A.D. 1126.]
As he died without heirs a contest arose about the succession, which threatened again to dissever the unity of the kingdom by arraying Rohuna and the south against the brother of Wijayo Bahu, who had gained possession of Pollanarrua. But in this emergency the pretensions of all other claimants to the crown were overruled in favour of Prakrama, a prince of accomplishments and energy so unrivalled as to secure for him the partiality of his kindred and the admiration of the people at large.
He was son to the youngest of four brothers who had recently contended together for the crown, and his ambition from childhood had been to rescue his country from foreign dominion, and consolidate the monarchy in his own person. He completed by foreign travel an education which, according to the Mahawanso, comprised every science and accomplishment of the age in which he lived, including theology, medicine, and logic; grammar, poetry, and music; the training of the elephant and the management of the horse.[1]
[Footnote 1: Mahawanso, ch. lxiv.]
[Sidenote: A.D. 1153.]
On the death of his father he was proclaimed king by the people, and a summons was addressed by him to his surviving uncle, calling on him to resign in his favour and pay allegiance to his supremacy. As the feeling of the nation was with him, the issue of a civil war left him master of Ceylon. He celebrated his coronation as King of Pihiti at Pollanarrua, A.D. 1153, and two years later after reducing the refractory chiefs of Rohuna to obedience, he repeated the ceremonial by crowning himself "sole King of Lanka."[1]
[Footnote 1: Mahawanso, ch. lxxi.]
There is no name in Singhalese history which holds the same rank in the admiration of the people as that of Prakrama Bahu, since to the piety of Devenipiatissa he united the chivalry of Dutugaimunu.
[Sidenote: A.D. 1155.]
The tranquillity insured by the independence and consolidation of his dominions he rendered subservient to the restoration of religion, the enrichment of his subjects, and the embellishment of the ancient capitals of his kingdom; and, ill-satisfied with the inglorious ease which had contented his predecessors, he aspired to combine the renown of foreign conquests with the triumphs of domestic policy.
Faithful to the two grand objects of royal solicitude, religion and agriculture, the earliest attention of Prakrama was directed to the re-establishment of the one, and the encouragement and extension of the other. He rebuilt the temples of Buddha, restored the monuments of religion in more than their pristine splendour, and covered the face of the kingdom with works for irrigation to an extent which would seem incredible did not their existing ruins corroborate the historical narrative of his stupendous labours.
Such had been the ostensible decay of Buddhism during the Malabar domination that, when the kingdom was recovered from them by Wijayo Bahu, A.D. 1071, "there was not to be found in the whole island five tirunansis," and an embassy was bent to Arramana[1] to request that members of this superior rank of the priesthood might be sent to restore the order in Ceylon.[2]
[Footnote 1: A part of the Chin-Indian peninsula, probably between Arracan and Siam.]
[Footnote 2: Rajaratnacari, p. 85; Rajavali, p. 252; Mahawanso, ch, lx.
From the identity of the national faith in the two countries; intercourse existed between Siam and Ceylon from time immemorial. At a very early period missions were interchanged for the inter-communication of Pali literature, and in later times, when, owing to the oppression of the Malabars certain orders of the priesthood had become extinct in Ceylon, it became essential to seek a renewal of ordination at the hands of the Siamese heirarchy (Rajaratnacari, p. 86). In the numerous incursions of the Malabars from Chola and Pandya, the literary treasures of Ceylon were deliberately destroyed, and the Mahawanso and Rajavali, make frequent lamentations over the loss of the sacred books. (See also Rajaratnacari, pp 77, 95, 97.) At a still later period the savage Raja Singha who reigned between A.D. 1581 and 1592, and became a convert to Brahmanism, sought eagerly for Buddhistical books, and "delighted in burning them in heaps as high as a coco-nut tree." These losses it was sought to repair by an embassy to Siam, sent by Kirti-Sri in A.D. 1753, when a copious supply was obtained of Burmese versions of Pali sacred literature.]
[Sidenote: A.D. 1155.]
During the same troublous times, schisms and heresy had combined to undermine the national belief, and hence one of the first cares of Prakrama Bahu was to weed out the perverted sects, and establish a council for the settlement of the faith on debatable points.[1] Dagobas and statues of Buddha were multiplied without end during his reign, and temples of every form were erected both at Pollanarrua and throughout the breadth of the island. Halls for the reading of bana, image rooms, residences for the priesthood, ambulance halls and rest houses for their accommodation when on journeys, were built in every district, and rocks were hollowed into temples; one of which, at Pollanarrua, remains to the present day with its images of Buddha; "one in a sitting and another in a lying posture," almost as described in the Mahawanso.[2]
[Footnote 1: Mahawanso, ch. lxxvii.]
[Footnote 2: Mahawanso, ch. lxxii. For a description of this temple see the account of Pollanarrua in the present work, Vol. II. Pt. x. ch. i.]
In conformity with the spirit of toleration, which is one of the characteristics of Buddhism, the king "erected a house for the Brahmans of the capital to afford the comforts of religion even to his Malabar enemies." And mindful of the divine injunctions engraven on the rock by King Asoca, "he forbade the animals in the whole of Lanka, both of the earth and the water, to be killed,"[1] and planted gardens, "resembling the paradise of the God-King Sakkraia, with trees of all sorts bearing fruits and odorous flowers."
[Footnote 1: Mahawanso, ch. lxxvii. Among the religious edifices constructed by Prakrama Bahu in many parts of his kingdom, the Mahawanso, enumerates three temples at Pollanarrua, besides others at every two or three gows distance; 101 dagobas, 476 statues of Buddha, and 300 image rooms built, besides 6100 repaired. He built for the reception of priests from a distance, "230 lodging apartments, 50 halls for preaching, and 9 for walking, 144 gates, and 192 rooms for the purpose of offering flowers. He built 12 apartments and 230 halls for the use of strangers, and 31 rock temples, with tanks, baths, and gardens for the priesthood."]
[Sidenote: A.D. 1155.]
For the people the king erected almonries at the four gates of the capital, and hospitals, with slave boys and maidens to wait upon the sick, superintending them in person, and bringing his medical knowledge to assist in their direction and management.
Even now the ruins of Pollanarrua, the most picturesque in Ceylon, attest the care which he lavished on his capital. He surrounded it with ramparts, raised a fortress within them, and built a palace for his own residence, containing four thousand apartments. He founded schools and libraries; built halls for music and dancing; formed tanks for public baths; opened streets, and surrounded the whole city with a wall which, if we are to credit the native chronicles, enclosed an area twelve miles broad by nearly thirty in length.
By his liberality, Rohuna and Pihiti were equally embellished; the buildings of Vigittapura and Sigiri were renewed; and the ancient edifices at Anarajapoora were restored, and its temples and palaces repaired, under the personal superintendence of his minister. It is worthy of remark that so greatly had the constructive arts declined, even at that period, in Ceylon, that the king had to "bring Damilo artificers" from the opposite coast of India to repair the structures at his capital.[1]
[Footnote 1: Mahawanso, ch. lxxv. lxxvii.]
[Sidenote: A.D. 1155.]
The details preserved in the Singhalese chronicles as to the works for irrigation which he formed or restored, afford an idea of the prodigious encouragement bestowed upon agriculture in this reign, as well as of the extent to which the rule of the Malabars had retarded the progress and destroyed the earlier traces of civilisation. Fourteen hundred and seventy tanks were constructed by the king in various parts of the island, three of them of such vast dimensions that they were known as the "Seas of Prakrama;"[1] and in addition to these, three hundred others were formed by him for the special benefit of the priests. The "Great Lakes" which he repaired, as specified in the Mahawanso, amount to thirteen hundred and ninety-five, and the smaller ones which he restored or enlarged to nine hundred and sixty. Besides these, he made five hundred and thirty-four watercourses and canals, by damming up the rivers, and repaired three thousand six hundred and twenty-one.[2]
[Footnote 1: Rajaratnacari, p. 88]
[Footnote 2: The useful ambition of signalising their reign by the construction of works of irrigation, is still exhibited by the Buddhist sovereigns of the East; and the king of Burmah in his interview with the British envoy in 1855, advanced his exploits of this nature as his highest claim to distinction. The conversation is thus reported in YULE'S Narrative of the Mission. London, 1858.
"King. Have you seen any of the royal tanks at Oung-ben-le', which have recently been constructed?
"Envoy. I have not been yet, your Majesty, but I purpose going.
"King. I have caused ninety-nine tanks and ancient reservoirs to be dug and repaired; and sixty-six canals: whereby a great deal of rice land will be available. * * * In the reign of Nauraba-dzyar 9999 tanks and canals were constructed: I purpose renewing them."--P. 109.]
The bare enumeration of such labours conveys an idea of the prodigious extent to which structures of this kind had been multiplied by the early kings; and we are enabled to form an estimate of the activity of agriculture in the twelfth century, and the vast population whose wants it supplied, by the thousands of reservoirs still partially used, though in ruins; and the still greater number now dry and deserted, and concealed by dense jungle, in districts once waving with yellow grain. Such was the internal tranquillity which, under his rule, pervaded Ceylon, that an inscription, engraved by one of his successors, on the rock of Dambool, after describing the general peace and "security which he established, as well in the wilderness as in the inhabited places," records that, "even a woman might traverse the island with a precious jewel and not be asked what it was."[1]
[Footnote 1: Moore's melody, beginning "Rich and rare were the gems she wore," was founded on a parallel figure illustrative of the security of Ireland under the rule of King Brien; when, according to Warner, "a maiden undertook a journey done, from one extremity of the kingdom to another, with only a wand in her hand, at the top of which was a ring of exceeding great value."]
[Sidenote: A.D. 1155.]
In the midst of these congenial operations the energetic king had command of military resources, sufficient not only to repress revolt within his own dominions, but also to carry war into distant countries, which had offered him insult or inflicted injury on his subjects. His first foreign expedition was fitted out to chastise the king of Cambodia and Arramana[1] in the Siamese peninsula, who had plundered merchants from Ceylon, visiting those countries to trade in elephants; he had likewise intercepted a vessel which was carrying some Singhalese princesses, had outraged Prakrama's ambassador, and had dismissed him mutilated and maimed. A fleet sailed on this service in the sixteenth year of Prakrama's reign, he effected a landing in Arramana, vanquished the king, and obtained full satisfaction.[2] He next directed his arms against the Pandyan king, for the countenance which that prince had uniformly given to the Malabar invaders of the island. He reduced Pandya and Chola, rendered their sovereigns his tributaries, and having founded a city within the territory of the latter, and coined money in his own name, he returned in triumph to Ceylon.[3]
[Footnote 1: See ante, p. 406, n.]
[Footnote 2: TURNOUR's Epitome, p. 41; Mahawanso, lxxiv.; Rajaratnacari, p. 87; Rajavali, p. 254.]
[Footnote 3: Mahawanso, ch. lxxvi. I am not aware whether the Tamil historians have chronicled this remarkable expedition, and the conquest of this portion of the Dekkan by the king of Ceylon; but in the catalogue of the Kings appended by Prof. WILSON to his Historical Sketch of Pandya (Asiat. Journ. vol. iii. p. 201) the name of "Pracrama Baghu" occurs as the sixty-fifth in the list of sovereigns of that state. For an account of Dipaldenia, where he probably coined his Indian money, see Asiat. Soc. Journ. Bengal, v. vi. pp. 218, 301.]
"Thus," says the Mahawanso, "was the whole island of Lanka improved and beautified by this king, whose majesty is famous in the annals of good deeds, who was faithful in the religion of Buddha, and whose fame extended abroad as the light of the moon."[1] "Having departed this life," adds the author of the Rajavali, "he was found on a silver rock in the wilderness of the Himalaya, where are eighty-four thousand mountains of gold, and where he will reign as a king as long as the world endures."[2]
[Footnote 1: Mahawanso, ch. lxxviii]
[Footnote 2: Rajaratnacari, p. 91.]
CHAP. XII.
FATE OF THE SINGHALESE MONARCHY.--ARRIVAL OF THE PORTUGUESE, A.D. 1501.
[Sidenote: A.D. 1155.]
[Sidenote: A.D. 1186.]
[Sidenote: A.D. 1187.]
[Sidenote: A.D. 1192.]
[Sidenote: A.D. 1196.]
[Sidenote: A.D. 1197.]
[Sidenote: A.D. 1202.]
The reign of Prakrama Bahu, the most glorious in the annals of Ceylon, is the last which has any pretension to renown. His family were unequal to sustain or extend the honours he had won, and his nephew[1], a pious voluptuary, by whom he was succeeded, was killed in an intrigue with the daughter of a herdsman whilst awaiting the result of an appeal to the Buddhist sovereign of Arramana to aid him in reforming religion. His murderer, whom he had previously nominated his successor, himself fell by assassination. An heir to the throne was discovered amongst the Singhalese exiles on the coast of India[2], but death soon ended his brief reign. His brother and his nephew in turn assumed the crown; both were despatched by the Adigar, who, having allied himself with the royal family by marrying the widow of the great Prakrama, contrived to place her on the throne, under the title of Queen Leela-Wattee, A.D. 1197. Within less than three years she was deposed by an usurper, and he being speedily put to flight, another queen, Kalyana-Wattee, was placed at the head of the kingdom. The next ill-fated sovereign, a baby of three months old, was speedily set aside by means of a hired force, and the first queen, Leela-Wattee, restored to the throne. But the same band who had effected a revolution in her favour were prompt to repeat the exploit; she was a second time deposed, and a third time recalled by the intervention of foreign mercenaries.[3]
[Footnote 1: Wijayo Bahu II., killed by Mihindo, A.D. 1187.]
[Footnote 2: Kirti Nissanga, brought from Calinga, A.D. 1192.]
[Footnote 3: Of the very rare examples now extant of Singhalese coins, one of the most remarkable bears the name of Leela-Wattee.--Numismatic Chronicle, 1853. Papers on some Coins of Ceylon, by W.S.W. Vaux, Esq., p. 126.]
[Sidenote: A.D. 1211.]
Within thirty years from the decease of Prakrama Bahu, the kingdom was reduced to such an extremity of weakness by contentions amongst the royal family, and by the excesses of their partisans, that the vigilant Malabars seized the opportunity to land with an army of 24,000 men, reconquered the whole of the island, and Magha, their leader, became king of Ceylon A.D. 1211.[1]
[Footnote 1: Rajavali, p. 256.]
The adventurers who invaded Ceylon on this occasion came not from Chola or Pandya, as before, but from Calinga, that portion of the Dekkan which now forms the Northern Circars. Their domination was marked by more than ordinary cruelty, and the Mahawanso and Rajaratnacari describe with painful elaboration the extinction of Buddhism, the overthrow of temples, the ruin of dagobas, the expulsion of priests, and the occupation of their dwellings by Damilos, the outrage of castes, the violation of property, and the torture of its possessors to extract the disclosure of their treasures, "till the whole island resembled a dwelling in flames or a house darkened by funeral rites."[1]
[Footnote 1: Mahawanso, ch. lxxix.; Rajaratnacari, p. 93; Rajavali, p. 256.]
[Sidenote: A.D. 1211.]
On all former occasions Rohuna and the South had been comparatively free from the actual presence of the enemy, but in this instance they established themselves at Mahagam[1], and thence to Jaffnapatam, every province in the island was brought under subjection to their rule.
[Footnote 1: Rajavali, 257.]
The peninsula of Jaffna and the extremity of the island north of Adam's Bridge, owing to its proximity to the Indian coast, was at all times the district most infested by the Malabars. Jambukola, the modern Colombogam, is the port which is rendered memorable in the Mahawanso by the departure of embassies and the arrival of relics from the Buddhist countries, and Mantotte, to the north of Manaar, was the landing place of the innumerable expeditions which sailed from Chola and Pandya for the subjugation of Ceylon.
The Tamils have a tradition that, prior to the Christian era, Jaffna was colonised by Malabars, and that a Cholian prince assumed the government, A.D. 101,--a date which corresponds closely with the second Malabar invasion recorded in the Mahawanso. Thence they extended their authority over the adjacent country of the Wanny, as far south as Mantotte and Manaar, "fortified their frontiers and stationed wardens and watchers to protect themselves from invasion."[1] The successive bands of marauders arriving from the coast had thus on every occasion a base for operations, and a strong force of sympathisers to cover their landing; and from the inability of the Singhalese to offer an effectual resistance, those portions of the island were from a very early period practically abandoned to the Malabars, whose descendants at the present day form the great bulk of its population.
[Footnote 1: See a paper on the early History of Jaffna by S. CASIE CHITTY, Journal of the Royal Asiat. Society of Ceylon, 1847, p. 68.]
[Sidenote: A.D. 1235.]
After an interval of twenty years, Wijayo Bahu III., A.D. 1235, collected as many Singhalese followers as enabled him to recover a portion of the kingdom, and establish himself in Maya, within which he built a capital at Jambudronha or Dambedenia, fifty miles to the north of the present Colombo. The Malabars still retained possession of Pihiti and defended their frontier by a line of forts drawn across the island from Pollanarrua to Ooroototta on the western coast.[1]
[Footnote 1: Mahawanso, ch. lxxx. lxxxii.; Rajaratnacuri, pp. 94, 94; Rajavali, p.258.]
[Sidenote: A.D. 1266.]
Thirty years later Pandita Prakrama Bahu III, A.D. 1266, effected a further dislodgment of the enemy in the north; but Ceylon, which possessed
"The fatal gift of beauty, that became A funeral dower of present woes and past,"
was destined never again to be free from the evils of foreign invasion; a new race of marauders from the Malayan peninsula were her next assailants[1]; and these were followed at no very long interval by a fresh expedition from the coast of India.[2]
[Footnote 1: Rajavali, pp. 256, 260. A second Malay landing is recorded in the reign of Prakrama III., A.D. 1267.]
[Footnote 2: Mahawanso, ch. lxxxii.]
[Sidenote: A.D. 1303.]
[Sidenote: A.D. 1319.]
[Sidenote: A.D. 1347.]
[Sidenote: A.D. 1410.]
Having learned by experience the exposure and insecurity of the successive capitals, which had been built by former sovereigns in the low lands, this king founded the city of Kandy, then called Siriwardanapura, amongst the mountains of Maya[1], to which he removed the sacred dalada, and the other treasures of the crown. But such precautions came too late: to use the simile of the native historian, they were "fencing the field whilst the oxen were within engaged in devouring the corn."[2] The power of the Malabars had become so firmly rooted, and had so irresistibly extended itself, that, one after another, each of the earlier capitals was abandoned to them, and the seat of government carried further towards the south. Pollanarrua had risen into importance in the eighth and ninth centuries, when Anarajapoora was found to be no longer tenable against the strangers. Dambedenia was next adopted, A.D. 1235 as a retreat from Pollanarrua; and this being deemed insecure, was exchanged, A.D. 1303, for Yapahu in the Seven Corles. Here the Pandyan marauders followed in the rear of the retreating sovereign[3], surprised the new capital, and carried off the dalada relic to the coast of India. After its recovery Yapahu was deserted, A.D. 1319. Kornegalle or Kurunaigalla, then called Hastisailapoora and Gampola[4], still further to the south and more deeply intrenched amongst the Kandyan mountains, were successively chosen for the royal residence, A.D. 1347. Thence the uneasy seat of government was carried to Peradenia, close by Kandy, and its latest migration, A.D. 1410, was to Jaya-wardana-pura, the modern Cotta, a few miles east of Colombo.
[Footnote 1: Rajaratnacari, p. 104; Mahawanso, ch. lxxxiii.]
[Footnote 2: Rajaratnacari, p. 82.]
[Footnote 3: A.D. 1303.]
[Footnote 4: Gampola or Gam-pala, Ganga-siripura, "the beautiful city near the river," is said in the Rajaratnacari to have been built by one of the brothers-in-law of Panduwaasa, B.C. 504.]
Such frequent removals are evidences of the alarm and despondency excited by the forays and encroachments of the Malabars, who from their stronghold at Jaffna exercised undisputed dominion over the northern coasts on both sides of the island, and, secure in the possession of the two ancient capitals, Anarajapoora and Pollanarrua, spread over the rich and productive plains of the north. To the present hour the population of the island retains the permanent traces of this alien occupation of the ancient kingdom of Pihiti. The language of the north of the island, from Chilaw on the west coast to Batticaloa on the east, is chiefly, and in the majority of localities exclusively, Tamil; whilst to the south of the Dederaoya and the Mahawelli-ganga, in the ancient divisions of Rohuna and Maya, the vernacular is uniformly Singhalese.
[Sidenote: A.D. 1410.]
Occasionally, after long periods of inaction, collisions took place; or the Singhalese kings equipped expeditions against the north; but the contest was unequal; and in spite of casual successes, "the king of the Ceylonese Malabars," as he is styled in the Rajavali, held his court at Jaffnapatam, and collected tribute from both the high and the low countries, whilst the south of the island was subdivided into a variety of petty kingdoms, the chiefs of which, at Yapahu, at Kandy, at Gampola, at Matura, Mahagam, Matelle, and other places[1], acknowledged the nominal supremacy of the sovereign at Cotta, with whom, however, they were necessarily involved in territorial quarrels, and in hostilities provoked by the withholding of tribute.
[Footnote 1: Rajavali, p. 263; Mahawanso, ch. lxxxvii.]
[Sidenote: A.D. 1410.]
It was during this period that an event occurred, which is obscurely alluded to in some of the Singhalese chronicles, but is recorded with such minute details in several of the Chinese historical works, as to afford a reliable illustration of the condition of the island and its monarchy in the fifteenth century. Prior to that time the community of religion between Ceylon and China, and the eagerness of the latter country to extend its commerce, led to the establishment of an intercourse which has been elsewhere described[1]; missions were constantly despatched charged with an interchange of courtesies between their sovereigns; theologians and officers of state arrived in Ceylon empowered to collect information regarding the doctrines of Buddha; and envoys were sent in return bearing royal donations of relics and sacred books. The Singhalese monarchs, overawed by the magnitude of the imperial power, were induced to avow towards China a sense of dependency approaching to homage; and the gifts which they offered are all recorded in the Chinese annals as so many "payments of tribute." At length, in the year 1405 A.D,[2], during the reign of the emperor Yung-lo[3] of the Ming dynasty, a celebrated Chinese commander, Ching-Ho, having visited Ceylon as the bearer of incense and offerings, to be deposited at the shrine of Buddha, was waylaid, together with his followers, by the Singhalese king, Wijayo Bahu VI., and with difficulty effected an escape to his ships. To revenge this treacherous affront Ching-Ho was despatched a few years afterwards with a considerable fleet and a formidable military force, which the king (whom the Chinese historian calls A-lee-ko-nae-wih) prepared to resist; but by a vigorous effort Ho and his followers succeeded in seizing the capital, and bore off the sovereign, together with his family, as prisoners to China. He presented them to the emperor, who, out of compassion, ordered them to be sent back to their country on the condition that "the wisest of the family should be chosen king." "Seay-pa-nea-na"[4] was accordingly elected, and this choice being confirmed, he was sent to his native country, duly provided with a seal of investiture, as a vassal of the empire under the style of Sri Prakrama Bahu VI.,--and from that period till the reign of Teen-shun, A.D. 1434-1448, Ceylon continued to pay an annual tribute to China.
[Footnote 1: See Part v. ch. iii.]
[Footnote 2: The narrative in the text is extracted from the Ta-tsing-yi-tung, a "Topographical Account of the Manchoo Empire," written in the seventeenth century, to a copy of which, in the British Museum, my attention was directed by the erudite Chinese scholar, Mr. MEADOWS, author of "The Chinese and their Rebellions." The story of this Chinese expedition to Ceylon will also be found in the Se-yih-ké-foo-choo, "A Description of Western Countries," A.D. 1450; the Woo heo-pecu, "A Record of the Ming Dynasty," A.D. 1522, b. lviii. p. 3, and in the Ming-she, "A History of the Ming Dynasty," A.D. 1739, cccxxvi. p. 2. For a further account of this event see Part v. of this work; ch. iii.]
[Footnote 3: The Ming-she calls the Emperor "Ching-tsoo."]
[Footnote 4: So called in the Chinese original.]
From the beginning of the 13th century to the extinction of the Singhalese dynasty in the 18th, the island cannot be said to have been ever entirely freed from the presence of the Malabars. Even when temporarily subdued, they remained with forced professions of loyalty; Damilo soldiers were taken into pay by the Singhalese sovereigns; the dewales of the Hindu worship were built in close contiguity to the wiharas of Buddhism, and by frequent intermarriages the royal line was almost as closely allied to the kings of Chola and Pandya as to the blood of the Suluwanse.[1]
[Footnote 1: Rajavali, p.261, 262. In A.D. 1187 on the death or Mahindo V., the second in succession from the great Prakrama, the crown devolved upon Kirti Nissanga, who was summoned from Calinga on the Coromandel Coast. On the extinction of the recognised line of Suluwanse in A.D. 1706, a prince from Madura, who was merely a connection by marriage, succeeded to the throne. The King Raja Singha, who detained Knox in captivity, A.D. 1640, was married to a Malabar princess. In fact, the four last kings of Ceylon, prior to its surrender to Great Britain, were pure Malabars, without a trace of Singhalese blood.]
[Sidenote: A.D. 1505.]
It was in this state of exhaustion, that the Singhalese were brought into contact with Europeans, during the reign of Dharma Prakrama IX, when the Portuguese, who had recently established themselves in India, appeared for the first time in Ceylon, A.D. 1505. The paramount sovereign was then living at Cotta; and the Rajavali records the event in the following terms:--"And now it came to pass that in the Christian year 1522 A.D., in the month of April, a ship from Portugal arrived at Colombo, and information was brought to the king, that there were in the harbour a race of very white and beautiful people, who wear boots and hats of iron, and never stop in one place. They eat a sort of white stone, and drink blood; and if they get a fish they give two or three ridé in gold for it; and besides, they have guns with a noise louder than thunder, and a ball shot from one of them, after traversing a league, will break a castle of marble."[1]
[Footnote 1: Rajavali, Upham's version, p. 278.]
Before proceeding to recount the intercourse of the islanders with these civilised visitors, and the grave results which followed, it will be well to cast a glance over the condition of the people during the period which preceded, and to cull from the native historians such notices of their domestic and social position as occur in passages intended by the Singhalese annalists to chronicle only those events which influenced the national worship, or the exploits of those royal personages, who earned immortality by their protection of Buddhism.
Part IV
* * * * *
SCIENCES AND SOCIAL ARTS
OF
THE ANCIENT SINGHALESE.