E.

THE LEGEND OF SUDHADEWI.

"The following romantic legend, connected with Kellania, is to be found in Sinhalese histories; the period is about 200 B.C.

The beautiful Queen of Tissa, King of Kellania, having been seduced by his brother Uttiya, and their intercourse detected, he fled to Gampola; from thence he soon after sent an emissary disguised as a priest. This person was instructed to mix in the crowd of priests, who, along with their chief, daily attended at the palace to receive their alms; at which time it was expected the messenger might find an opportunity of safely delivering a letter with which he was entrusted to the Queen, who always assisted at the distribution of alms. The disguised messenger entered the palace along with a multitude of priests, and, having caught the eye of the Queen, dropped the letter (an ola): the sound of its fall was heard by the King, who immediately turned round and seized it. The King, having perused the guilty communication, in the height of his fury decided that the High-priest must be cognizant of the intrigue; for not only had the messenger come as a priest in his train, but the letter appeared to the King to have been written by the High-priest. He was forthwith thrown into a cauldron of boiling oil; at the same time, the Queen was bound and cast into the river, and the messenger was hewn in pieces. The real writer was afterwards ascertained, and it was then

remembered that Uttiya had been a pupil of the unfortunate
High-priest, and had acquired exactly the same method of writing."
The above circumstances are thus referred to in the Sela-lihini
Sandése:-

Then in the mansion beautiful,-in memory built,
By men with merit blest, of deed of tragic guilt,—
Within the hall whose paintings the story vivid tell
Of priest slain ruthlessly by kingly passions fell ;—
Where Tissa in the cauldron of boiling oil had prone
The Rahat innocent on blind suspicion thrown ;—
There, on that sacred spot, to Buddhists ever dear,
The Sage's sedent image, O fairest friend, revere !

"Not long after these events, the sea began to encroach rapidly on the west coast of Ceylon, and the King became persuaded that this calamity was a judgment against him for the cruel and unjust sentence he had executed on the High-priest. In hopes. of preventing the onward progress of the waves, and to appease the wrath of those gods who control the waters, Tissa determined to sacrifice his virgin daughter Sudhádéwi; and, having secured her in a covered golden canoe, on which was inscribed "a royal maiden," he caused it to be launched into the ocean. The flood continued to increase; and the monarch, mounted on his elephant, had proceeded to view the destructive effects of the raging waters: while thus engaged, the earth opened, and the King disappeared amidst flames which burst from the sinking wreck of his richest provinces. Before the waves ceased to encroach upon the land, six hundred and forty villages (four hundred and seventy of which were principally inhabited by divers for pearls) had been overwhelmed, and the distance between Kellania and the sea-coast had been reduced from twenty-five to four miles.

The vessel in which the young Princess was immolated, having been drifted to the south-west, was discovered and brought to land by some fishermen in the Mágam district, which was at that time a separate kingdom, under the control of Kawantissa Raja. He, having heard of the mysterious appearance of the golden canoe, proceeded to the coast at Totalu Ferry; and, after reading the inscription, released the Princess, whose name he changed to Wihari Dewi, and whom he afterwards married.

Wihari Dewi became the mother of Dootoogaimoonoo, a prince who restored the Sinhalese power, and expelled the Malabars, to whom both Kellania Tissa and Kawantissa had been tributaries. Many Buddhists believe that her merits and good fortune are so great, that, in a future transmigration, she will become the mother of Mytrée, the expected Buddha."-FORBES' Eleven Years in Ceylon, vol. i. pages 154-156.

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In a Vilára recently built at Cotanchina, and not yet completed in its internal decorations, there is a statue of the expected Mytrée, who is represented as a white

man.

F.

THE DALADA-MALAGAWA ; AND THE HISTORY OF THE TOOTH.

"THE principal objects in Kandy worthy of any notice, are the palace, and the different temples of Boodhoo and the gods. The palace did occupy a considerable space of ground. Its front, about 200 yards long, made rather an imposing appearance: it looked towards the principal temples, and rose above a handsome moat, the walls of which were pierced with triangular cavities for purposes of illumination. At one extremity, it was terminated by an hexagonal building, of two stories, called Pateripooa, in which the king, on great occasions, appeared to the people, assembled in the square below. At the other extremity, it was bounded by the women's apartments, on the front of which the sun, moon, and stars, (not out of gallantry, but as insignia of royalty,) were carved in stone, and in which, at the public festivals, the king and his ladies stationed themselves to witness the processions. The intermediate space was occupied chiefly by the great entrance to the palace, and by the temple (the Dalada Malegawa) a little in the rear. The entrance was by a drawbridge over the moat, through a massive archway, on one hand, up a flight of huge steps, and through another archway to the hall of audience; and, on the other hand, up another flight of steps to the temple and the hexagonal building... The hall of audience, where the king usually transacted business and kept his court, is a long room, in which

*

nothing ornamental is now to be seen, excepting the carved wooden pillars by which the roof is supported... The principal temples in Kandy and its immediate neighbourhood, are the Dalada Malegawa, the Malwatté, and the Asgirie Wihares,-and the Nata, MahaVishnu, Katragam, and Patiné Dewalés. The Dalada Malegawa, was the domestic temple of the king, and is the most venerated of any in the country, as it contains the relic, the tooth of Boodhoo, to which the whole island was dedicate, and which is considered by good Boodhists as the most precious thing in the world. The temple is small, of two stories, built in the Chinese style of architecture. The sanctum is an inner room, about twelve feet square, on the upper story, without windows, and to which a ray of natural light never penetrates. You enter it by folding doors, with polished brass pannels, before and behind which is a curtain. The splendour of the place is very striking; the roof and walls are lined with gold brocade; and nothing scarcely is to be seen but gold, gems, and sweet-smelling flowers. On a platform or stage, about three feet and a half high, and which occupies about half the room, there is a profusion of flowers tastefully arranged before the objects of worship to which they are offered, viz. two or three small figures of Boodhoo,- one of crystal, and the other of silvergilt, and four or five domes or caskets, called karanduas, containing relics, and similar in form to the common Dagobah, of which a figure has been given already. All but one of the karanduas are small, not exceeding a foot in height, and wrapped in many folds

In page 103 I stated that the priests of the Maligawa, are proprietors of the site of the Berendi kówila at Sítáwaka; this I have since learnt is a mistake, that property belongs to the Maha Vishnu Déwálé in Kandy.