northern portion of the island, various princes of the B.C. same family occupied themselves in forming settlements 266. 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 Malabars1 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,"" proved unfaithful to their trust, and after causing the death of the king Suratissa (B. C. 237), B.C. 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. 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 B.C. Chola country, killed the reigning king Asela, and ruled 205. the kingdom for forty years, administering justice impartially to friends and foes."

237.

Such is the encomium which the Mahawanso passes B.c. on an infidel usurper, because Elala offered his protection 161. 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."5

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.

2 Mahawanso, ch. xxi. p. 127. VOL. I.

3 Mahawanso, xxi.; Rajaratnacari, ch. ii.

Chola, or Solee, was the ancient name of Tanjore, and the country traversed by the river Caveri.

5 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.

A A

B.C.

But it was not the priests alone who were captivated In the final struggle for 161. by the generosity of Elala. 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 contest between the admiration of his enemies.

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 Mahawanso1," it has been
the custom for the monarchs of Lanka to silence their
music, whatsoever procession 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 de-
feated aspirant to the throne was making his escape by
Anarajapoora, he alighted from his litter, on approach-
ing 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

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

161.

little impeded in their social progress by the forty- B.C. 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-ganga1, 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.

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 were 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 2, which the king did not live to complete.

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

1 Mahawanso, ch. xxii., Rajavali, 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 Da-
milos," he replied, "beyond the river
on the one side, and by the unyield-
ing ocean on the other, how can I
lie with outstretched limbs ?"

2 Mahawanso, ch. xxviii. xxix. xxx.

xxxi.

B.C.

columns of granite twelve feet high and arranged in lines 161. 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

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."

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.2 More than two centuries later, A. D. 182, these were again reduced to five 3, and the entire

building must have been taken down in A. D. 240, as the B.C. king who was then reigning caused "the pillars of the 161. Lowa Pasado to be arranged in a different form."

The edifice erected on its site was pulled to the ground by the apostate Maha Sen, A. D. 3011; 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."

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,

1 Mahawanso, ch. xxxvii.