himself also partook of it." This passage certainly intimates that the mountain Sumano (the same as the Samanala) was believed to be a place of residence for priests at that time; but it does not settle the point as to whether the mountain peak was then a place of pilgrimage, and the alleged foot-print an object of worship.

A tradition of a later period, current in the locality, with much of probability in its favor, attributes to king Walagambáhu the discovery of the Srí-páda* on the mountain top. This king ascended the throne B. C. 104, and after a reign of five months was driven from it by Malabar invaders. For 14 years and 7 months following, he wandered a fugitive amongst the hills and fastnesses of the mountain districts, dwelling in caves and supporting himself by means of the chase. During this period, while living on the Samanala mountain at Bhagawálena (Buddha's cave), he saw a deer in the distance which he resolved to kill; to his surprise however, he could not approach near enough to secure it, the deer keeping just beyond his reach, slackening or increasing its pace or stopping altogether, in exact accord with its pursuer's movements. In this way the king was led to the top of the mountain, and when there the deer suddenly vanished. On reaching the spot Walagambáhu discovered the Srí-páda; and it was then revealed to him that in this manner the god Sekrayá, to whom Buddha had entrusted the care of Ceylon and Buddhism, had chosen to make known to him the spot on

which he had left the impress of his sacred foot. After his restoration the king caused the rock that bore the foot-mark to be surrounded with large iron spikes, which formed the first foundation for the terraced platform from the centre of which the Samanta-kúta now seems to spring. Thus far the local tradition. History then records that the king, having recovered his throne, B. c. 88, "brought together 500 of the principal and most learned priests at a cave at Mátalé called Alulena, and, for the first time, had the tenets of Buddhism reduced to writing; which occurred in the 217th year, 10th month, and 10th day after they were promulgated orally by Mahindo." It is curious that a somewhat similar story of the deer is also made use of to introduce Mahindo the princely Buddhist propagandist, to the notice of king Déwánanpiyatissa, B. C. 307,† in whose reign and through whom the Buddhist religion was first established as the national faith of Ceylon.

* Turnour's Epitome of the History of Ceylon, p. 280, vol. ii. of Forbes's Eleven Years in Ceylon,

"The king Déwánanpiyatissa 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.”— Mahawunsó, c. xiv.

C

Divested of the romance with which the local tradition is clothed, there is no reason to doubt that it contains certain germs of truth; for what more likely than that the king who thus caused the whole of Buddha's tenets to be reduced to writing, and whose subsequent reign was zealously devoted to the restoration of Buddhism, the building of immense dágobas, and the founding of rock temples throughout his dominions, should resolve upon connecting so remarkable a mountain, already sacred to the renowned god Saman, and the place which holy theros selected as their abode,-by indissoluble ties to the religion to which he was himself so enthusiastic an adherent. A vivid imagination pondering upon the discovery of the hollow, or the interpretation given to a dream, would be all-sufficient in an age of superstition to account for a supernatural revelation; and aided by the efforts of a powerful and restored priesthood, the account of such a revelation industriously circulated amongst the people, and followed by the more elaborate legends which the priests concocted in their pansalas, would speedily establish the fame of the Samanta-kúța, and draw pilgrims to the Srí-páda from every quarter of India and the East where Buddhism had established itself.

So far therefore as the Buddhists of Ceylon are concerned, it would seem that the belief in the existence of the footprint is not of an older date than a century and a half before the Christian era, if even it is as old, for although the legendary visits of Buddha to the island-(in the third of which occurred the stamping upon the top of the Samanala

peak the impress of his left foot)—are duly recorded in the Mahawansó, it must be remembered that the early chapters of that work were not written until the latter half of the fifth century; more than a thousand years later than the date when the impression is said to have been made; and it is moreover noteworthy, that "except in the historical works of Ceylon, there is no account of this supposed impression of Buddha's foot in any of the earliest records of Buddhism: "*. a faith which was not accepted as national until nearly two and a half centuries subsequent to the death of its author; and the doctrines of which were not reduced to writing until

*

J. D'Alwis's Attanagaluvansa, note 15, p. 9.-The evident object of the historians, (themselves Buddhist priests,) was to connect in a miraculous manner the invasion of Wijaya, the first king of Ceylon, with the propagation of the Buddhist faith; and for that purpose the seventh chapter of the Mahawansó opens with a revelation or command of Buddha to that effect-Wijaya's invasion, according to the record of the historian, taking place on the day of Buddha's death. But the logic of facts, as established by chronology, fixes the invasion at a period 60 years subsequent. As to Buddha's visits to Ceylon, the following is the deliverance of the late Rev. Spence Hardy, an authority on Buddhism of the highest rank. He says, in a paper published in the Journal of the Ceylon Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society for 1846, "I have little doubt that it will one day be proved, even from the most sacred books of the Buddhists themselves, that the accounts we have of his visits to Ceylon are a pure fiction. In all the Sinhalese books that I have read, the narration appears out of the regular order of events, like an afterthought, and it is entirely at variance with the traditions of Nepal and Thibet."

a further period of 218 years had passed from the time of their oral propagation by Mahindo.

The statement concerning Máliyadéwo and 500 of the fraternity of priests living on Sumano, quoted at page 15, will hardly be accepted as other than apocryphal by those who consider that the special object of the dying scene of the aged monarch, as depicted by the historian, was to elevate the order of the priesthood, and to shew that the smallest alms to them outweighed in merit the greatest of all other kingly deeds. That the mountain was a place of abode at a later epoch is evident from the fact, that Mihindo III. [A. D. 997-1013] repaired the edifices which in a previous reign had been destroyed by the Solíans; and he is praised as a patron of the religious institutions of the country. It is not however clear whether these edifices were actually on the peak or only at the base of the mountain, nor is the foot-print at all mentioned in the record of their repair.

The first notice of the Srí-páda, after the legend of its formation in the opening pages of the Mahawansó, is contained

* Maliyadéwo thero was a kinsman of king Walagambáhu, and is stated in the Mahawansó to have been the last of Buddha's inspired disciples. It is significantly recorded, that on the reduction to writing of the doctrines of Buddha in the reign of Walagambáhu, the age of inspiration passed away. The inspiration then was connected with the capacity for acquiring and orally delivering the traditions and doctrines of Buddhism; and one may readily conceive how constantly additions and marvellous legends and tales of miracles would be made to these from age to age; the tendency to which would at once be checked, if not entirely stopped, by an authorised promulgation of the written word.