B.C. less," to mark their abandonment of social enjoyments.1 289. 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 breadth2; 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 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 struc tures, generally reared of mud and thatch, with no pretension to external beauty and no attempt at internal decoration. 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 1 "Les hommes hors de leur maisons."-FA HIAN, Foe Koně Ki, ch. xxxix. This is the equivalent of the Singhalese term for the same class, agariyan-pubbajito, used in the Pittakas. 2 HARDY'S Eastern Monachism, ch. xiii. p. 122. 3 The Rajaratnacari says that Devenipiatissa caused eighty-four thousand temples to be built during his reign, p 35. a plough drawn by elephants. A second monastery was erected by him on the summit of Mihintala2; a third was attached to the dagoba of the Thuparamaya, and others were rapidly founded in every quarter of the island.3 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. 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 1 Mahawanso, ch. xv. p. 99. 2 Mahawanso, ch. xx. p. 123. 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 B.C. 289. B.C. 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 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," when the monarch himself set the example to his subjects of "serving them with rice broth, cakes, and dressed rice."3 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."4 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 1 FA HIAN, Foě Kouě Ki, ch. | yellow robe and are then at liberty to marry again. 2 Rajavali, p. 189. 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. 3 Mahawanso, ch. xiv. p. 82. 4 Mahawanso, ch. xxxii.; Rajaratnacari, ch. i. p. 37, ch. ii. p. 56, 60, 62. B.C. preserved intact the institution of caste, which they had brought with them from the valley of the Ganges; and, 289. 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 si multaneously absolved from all conventional disabilities, and received as members of the sacred community with all its exalted prerogatives.1 Along with food, clothing consisting of three garments to complete the sacerdotal robes, as enjoined by the Buddhist ritual2, 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."3 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. 1 Professor WILSON, Journ. Roy. Asiat. Soc. vol. xvi. p. 249. 2 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. Α 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. 1 HARDY'S Eastern Monachism, c. xii. p. 117; Rajaratnacari, ch. ii. p. 60, 66. 3 Rajaratnacari, p. 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 Hades, by investing one of their body with a cloak made in a single day, papоç aúтnμεpòv Evenvavres, 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. B.C. 289. B.C. 266. CHAP. V. SINGHALESE CHIVALRY.—ELALA AND DUTUGAIMUNT. FOR nearly a century after the accession of Devenipia- |