3.

DOCUMENTS RELATING TO THE ELECTION OR APPOINTMENT TO THE OFFICE OF HIGH PRIEST OF ADAM'S PEAK.

Ratnapura, 15th January, 1826.

The Board of Commissioners, Kandy.

GENTLEMEN,

I HAVE the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your letter of 16th December last, wherein I am directed to select a fit person to receive the appointment of High Priest of Adam's Peak.

Having in consequence called upon the two Dissaves, and the Basnaike Nilleme, to report on the claims of those who might be candidates for the Office, their selection fell on Gallay Madankare Unanse, who though neither a candidate residing at present in the District, they conceived should be the person to be appointed, from his having been admitted into Priesthood in the District, been the pupil of Waihaille Naike Unanse, the High Priest of the Peak, and more especially on account of his piety and great learning, which are said to have procured for him a very extended reputation.

All the Upasampada Priests of the Malwatte establishment beneficed in the District were then assembled, and the individual proposed being unanimously approved by them, I signified to Gallay Unanse, who resides in the Matura District, my intention of submitting his name for the Office, under the restrictions stated in your letter, and the additional one of constant residence in the

Dissavony. He has acceded to the proposal, and I have, in consequence, to recommend that the appointment may be conferred upon him.

I have also to recommend that he should at the same time be appointed Chief Priest of the Saffragam Dissavony, an office which has not for some time been conferred upon any one, though the want of it has been much felt. It was intended to have renewed it in 1822, as will be seen from the annexed copy of a letter from the late Resident, but the Priest named declined accepting the situation owing to some dissensions among the priesthood. Mr. Sawers' letter, to which Sir John Doyly refers, is not on record in this Department.

I HAVE the honor to return the petition of the High Priest of the Malwatte Wiháre, in which he lays claim to the village Pelmadulle. It is accompanied by a counter-statement from the Chief Priest of Saffragam and the Peak.

From the information I am able to collect, the claim of the Malwatte High Priest does not appear to be well founded.

When Rája Singha (whose capital was Sittawakka, and who died in Sacca 1514) abjured Buddhism, and became a convert to the Brahminical faith, he bestowed the charge and the emoluments of

the Peak on some Andee Fackeers. The institutions of Buddha, discountenanced and depressed, soon lost the requisites for conferring the ordination of Upasampada, and that order of priesthood in time became extinct.

Subsequent kings made some efforts to re-establish these institutions, by inviting over learned priests from the Eastern continent, but the object was never effectually and permanently attained till the reign of Kirtissry.

The Upasampada ordination was then also extinct. The priesthood chiefly consisted of the Syloat order (not now in existence) who observed most of the rules of devotion and abstinence, without being able to perform any of the functions considered the most important of a priest. The head of the Priesthood was a Samanairoo, named Welwita, known by the title of Saranankero Ganin.

To the zeal and exertions of this individual the natives now owe the footing of permanency on which their religious establisment is placed. He induced Wejai Rajah to depute Wilbaagedere Mudeyanse on an embassy to Siam for the purpose of bringing over priests capable of conferring the Upasampada ordination, and of leaving behind them the means of perpetuating it.

Wejai Rajah died before the mission reached Siam, and the Mudeyanse returned to Ceylon. He was sent back by king Kirtissry, and succeeded in bringing over the Siam priests.

On the restoration of Upasampada, Weliwita was placed at the head of the church, with the title, not of Nayaka Unanse, but of Sangha Rajah (King of Priests) and with unusual powers, to preserve the new institution from innovation.

It was at this period that the Andee Fackeers were deprived of the Peak, which at that time had no land revenue attached to it.

That office, together with Koottapitteye (till then a royal village) was conferred by the king on Sangha Raja and the grant recorded on a copper Sannas.

The Andees attempted to avert this alienation, by making presents to the King, among other articles of a pair of elephant tusks, which he received from the Andees, and made an offering of, to the Peak. According to the enclosed Statement of the Saffragam Chief Priest, the Peak, with the village Koottapitteye, was bestowed by Sangha Rajah on Maalibodde Unanse of this Province; together with the Wihare and village of Pelmadulla, which Sangha Rajah is said to have received by the dedication of Kapugankande Syloat Namma. I am inclined to think this was some private arrangement of Sangha Rajah. For by the account Wilbaagedere Mudeyanse has left of his embassy, and of these religious proceedings, it appears that the superintendence of the Peak, together with the office of High Priest of the Low Country (Saffragam and the Maritime Districts), were confided to Waihelly Nayake Unanse by the king, at the same time that the Sannas itself was granted to Sangha Rajah. This point however, is not material to the present reference.

From that period till the succession of Rajaadi Raja Singha (in Sacca 1703) four High Priests had held the Chief-priestship of the Low Country together with the Peak, residing at Pelmadulla. The last of these was Korrattotte Nayake Unanse, who now resides in Matura District. Morraattotte Naike Unanse was the High Priest of Malwatte, and had been the tutor of his king. On the pretence that the Saffragam Priests were leagued with the Dutch, Morraattotte induced the king to deprive Korrattotte of the Peak. The Sannas was taken to Kandy by Ratnapura Nilleme, and placed, it is said, by the king's order, by Dodangwelle Adikar, the Dissave of Saffragam, in Sanguka, in Malwatte Wihare.

From that time, until last year, the Peak, with Koottapitteye, has been held by the Malwatte High Priests. The Low Country has been without any regular Chief Priest, and Pelmadulla has been the residence of the Pupils of Waihelly.

The only advantage the Malwatte High Priests derived from Pelmadulla, consisted in having eight loads of the offerings made at the Peak, transported for them to Kandy. This exaction also is not of old standing, as the removal of the offerings at the Peak to Kandy was an irregularity which gradually attained to the extent it was ultimately carried.

I have been minute in my inquiry, as my information must chiefly be derived from interested sources. I see no ground whatever for the claim preferred. Pelmadulla is certainly not a dependency of the Peak, neither does it appear to me to appertain to the Chiefpriestship of the Low Country; further than from the accidental circumstance of three succeeding High Priests inheriting Pelmadulla, as pupils of each preceding incumbent. But the Malwatte High Priests hold neither of these appointments, and can have no claim on either ground.

If the present arrangement is intended to be made permanent, it would be well to remove all ground for future litigation. With this view, I recommend that king Kirtissry's Sannas should be bestowed upon the High Priest, who now holds the Chiefship of the Peak by the appointment of the present Government. The document was, I am told, in the possession of Parakumbura Unanse of Kandy, who some time ago placed it in the charge of Deheigame Dewie Nileme. The tusks also presented by king Kirtissry (which have Sree-pada carved on them) were removed to Kandy when our troops first entered the country, by Kobaikadoowe Nayaka Unanse, they are said to be now at Goddalladeneya Wihare in Ouda