impeaching and trying them, on their guilt being clearly proved to his satisfaction, according to the sentence awarded by his judicial ministers, he ordered the officers of the court to chop off their hands and feet. On their replying, "Déwo! we have no axes;" he answered: "It is the order of Chandagutto that ye should chop off their hands and feet, making axes with the horns of goats for blades, and sticks for handles. They acting accordingly, on striking with the axe, the hands and feet were lopt off. On the same person commanding, "Let them be re-united," the hands and feet were restored to their former condition.

Chánakko happening to come to that spot, was amazed at the proceeding he beheld. Accompanying (the boy) to the village, and presenting the huntsman with a thousand kahápaná, he applied for him; saying, "I will teach your son every accomplishment; consign him to me." Accordingly conducting him to his own dwelling, he encircled his neck with a single fold of a woollen cord, twisted with gold thread, worth a lac.

The discovery of this person is thus stated (in the former works): "He discovered this prince descended from the Móriyan line."

He (Chánakko) invested prince Pabbato, also, with a similar woollen cord. While these youths were living with him, each had a dream which they separately imparted to him. As soon as he heard each (dream), he knew that of these prince Pabbato would not attain royalty; and that Chandagutto would, without loss of time, become paramount monarch in Jambudípo. Although he made this discovery, he disclosed nothing to them.

On a certain occasion having partaken of some milk-rice prepared in butter, which had been received as an offering at a brahmanical disputation; retiring from the main road, and lying down in a shady place protected by the deep foliage of trees, they fell asleep. Among them the Acháriyo awaking first, rose; and, for the purpose of putting prince Pabbato's qualifications to the test, giving him a sword, and telling him: "Bring me the woollen thread on Chandagutto's neck, without either cutting or untying it," sent him off. Starting on the mission, and failing to accomplish it, he returned. On a subsequent day, he sent Chandagutto on a similar mission. He repairing to the spot where Pabbato was sleeping, and considering how it was to be effected, decided: "There is no other way of doing it; it can only be got possession of, by cutting his head off." Accordingly chopping his head off, and bringing away the woollen thread, presented himself to the brahman, who received him in profound silence. Pleased with him, however, on account of this (exploit), he rendered him in the course of six or seven years highly accomplished, and profoundly learned.

Thereafter, on his attaining manhood, deciding: "From henceforth this individual is capable of forming and controling an army;" and repairing to the spot where his treasure was buried, and taking possession of, and employing it; and enlisting forces from all quarters, and distributing money among them, and having thus formed a powerful army, he entrusted it to him. From that time throwing off all disguise, and invading the inhabited parts of the country, he commenced his campaign by attacking towns and villages. In the course of their (Chánakko and Chandagutto's) warfare, the population rose en masse, and surrounding them, and hewing their army with their weapons, vanquished them. Dispersing, they re-united in the wilderness; and consulting together, they thus decided: “As yet no advantage has resulted from war; relinquishing military operations, let us acquire a knowledge of the sentiments of the people." Thenceforth, in disguise, they travelled about the country. While thus roaming about, after sunset retiring to some town or other, they were in the habit of attending to the conversation of the inhabitants of those places.

In one of these villages, a woman having baked some "appalapúwa" (pancakes) was giving them to her child, who leaving the edges would only eat the centre. On his asking for another cake, she remarked: "This boy's conduct is like Chandagutto's in his attempt to take possession of the kingdom." On his inquiring, "Mother, why, what am I doing; and what has Chandagutto done?" "Thou, my boy, (said she,) throwing away the outside of the cake, eat the middle only. Chandagutto also in his ambition to be a monarch, without subduing the frontiers, before he attacked the towns, invaded the heart of the country, and laid towns waste. On that account, both the inhabitants of the town and others, rising, closed in upon him, from the frontiers to the centre, and destroyed his army. That was his folly."

They, on hearing this story of hers, taking due notice thereof, from that time, again raised an army. On resuming their attack on the provinces and towns, commencing from the frontiers, reducing towns, and stationing troops in the intervals, they proceded in their invasion. After a respite, adopting the same system, and marshalling a great army, and in regular course reducing each kingdom and province, then assailing Pátiliputta and putting Dhana-nando to death, they seized that sovereignty.

Although this had been brought about, Chánakko did not at once raise Chandagutto to the throne; but for the purpose of discovering Dhana-nando's hidden treasure, sent for a certain fisherman (of the river); and deluding him with the promise of

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raising the chhatta for him, and having secured the hidden treasure; within a month from that date, putting him also to death, inaugurated Chandagutto monarch.

Hence the expression (in the Mahawanso) "a descendant of the dynasty of Móriyan sovereigns;" as well as the expression installed in the sovereignty." All the particulars connected with Chandagutto, both before his installation and after, are recorded in the Atthakatha of the Uttarawiharo priests. Let that (work) be referred to, by those who are desirous of more detailed information. We compile this work in an abridged form, without prejudice however to its perspicuity.

His (Chandagutto's) son was Bindusáro. After his father had assumed the administration, (the said father) sent for a former acquaintance of his, a Jatilian, named Maniyatappo, and conferred a commission on him. My friend, (said he) do thou restore order into the country; suppressing the lawless proceedings that prevail.” He replying “sádhu," and accepting the commission, by his judicious measures, reduced the country to order.

Chánakko, determined that to Chandagutto a monarch, who by the instrumentality of him (the aforesaid Maniyatappo) had conferred the blessings of peace on the country, by extirpating marauders who were like unto thorns (in a cultivated land) no calamity should befal from poison, decided on inuring his body to the effects of poison. Without imparting the secret to any one, commencing with the smallest partical possible, and gradually increasing the dose, by mixing poison in his food and beverage, he (at last) fed him on poison; at the same time taking steps to prevent any other person participating in his poisoned repasts.

At a subsequent period his queen consort was pronounced to be pregnant. Who was she? Whose daughter was she? “She was the daughter of the eldest of the maternal uncles who accompanied the rája's mother to Pupphapura." Chandagutto wedding this daughter of his maternal uncle, raised her to the dignity of queen consort.

About this time, Chánakko on a certain day having prepared the monarch's repast sent it to him, himself accidentally remaining behind for a moment. On recollecting himself, in an agony of distress, he exclaimed, "I must hasten thither, short as the interval is, before he begins his meal;" and precipitately rushed into the king's apartment, at the instant that the queen, who was within seven days of her confinement, was in the act, in the rája's presence, of placing the first handful of the repast in her mouth. On beholding this, and finding that there was not even time to ejaculate, "Don't swallow it," with his sword he struck her head off; and then ripping open her womb, extricated the child with its caul, and placed it in the stomach of a goat. In this manner, by placing it for seven days in the stomach of seven different goats, having completed the full term of gestation, he delivered the infant over to the female slaves. Causing him to be reared by them, on conferring a name on him-in reference to a spot (Bindu) which the blood of the goats had left-he was called Bindusa'ro.

Then follows another long note, which represents that the monarch whose corpse was reanimated after his death, was not Nando's, as stated in the hindu authorities, but Chandagutto's, by a yakkho named Déwagabbho. The imposture was detected by Chandagutto's prohitto bráhman: and Bindusáro with his own hands put him to death, and buried his parent with great pomp.

The next extract I shall make from the Tíká, contains the personal history of Nigródho, as well as of Asóko, who was converted by the former to the buddhistical creed.

This Nigródho, where did he dwell? Whose son was he? To answer the inquiry of the sceptical, (the Maha'wanso has stated) "This royal youth was the son of prince Sumano, the eldest of all the sons of Bindusa'ro." From the circumstance of their having been intimate in a former existence (as dealers in honey), and as he was the son of his elder brother, he was moved with affection towards him, the instant he saw him. Although they did not recognise each other, the impulse was mutual.

When his parent was on the point of death, Asóko quitted the kingdom of Ujjeni, which had been conferred on him by his father, and hastening to Pupphapura, established at once his authority over the capital. As soon as his sire expired, putting to death his brother Sumano, the father of Nigródho, in the capital, he there usurped the sovereignty without meeting with any opposition. He came from Ujjéni, on receiving a letter of recall from his father, who was bed-ridden. In his (Bindusa'ro's) apprehension, arising from a rumour which had prevailed that he (Asóko) would murder his own father, and being therefore desirous of employing him at a distance from him, he had (previously) established him in Ujjéni, conferring the government of that kingdom on him.

While he was residing happily there, having had a family consisting of Mahindo and other sons and daughters, on the receipt of a leaf (letter) sent by the minister, stating that his father was on his death bed, without stopping any where, he hastened to Pa'tiliputta, and rushing straight to the royal apartment, presented himself to his parent. On his (father's)

death, having performed the funeral obsequies, he consulted with the officers of state, and asserting his authority over the capital, assumed the monarchy.

The rest of the fifth chapter, containing the account of Asóko's conversion-the history of Moggaliputtatisso, by whom the third convocation was held, as well as of that convocation, is full of interesting matter, detailed with peculiar distinctness, on which the comments of the Tíka throw no additional light.

At this stage of his work, being at the close of the third convocation, Mahanámo abruptly interrupts his history of India, and without assigning any reason in the sixth chapter for that interruption, resumes the history of Lanká, in continuation of the visits of Budho, given in the first chapter, commencing with the landing of Wijayo. His object in adopting this course is sufficiently manifest to his readers, when they come to the twelfth chapter. In the Tíká, however, he thus explains himself for following this course, at the opening of the sixth chapter.

As soon as the third convocation was closed, Maha Mahindo, who was selected for, and sent on, that mission, by his preceptor Moggaliputto, who was bent on establishing the religion of Buddho in the different countries (of Jambudípo) came to this island, which had been sanctified, and rescued from evil influences, by the three visits paid, in aforetime, by the supreme Buddho; and which had been rendered habitable from the very day on which Bhagawa attained parinibbanan, Accordingly, at the expiration of two hundred and thirty six years from that event, and in the reign of Déwananpiyatisso, (Mahindo) arrived. Therefore (the Mahawanso) arresting the narrative of the history (of Jambudipo) here, where it was requisite that it should be shown how the inhabitants of this island were established here; with that view, and with the intent of explaining the arrival of Wijayo, it enters (at this point), in detail, into the lineage of the said Wijayo, by commencing (the sixth chapter) with the words: "In the land of Wangu, in the capital of Wangu, &c."

The Tíká adds nothing to the information contained in the Mahawanso, as to the fabulous orign of the Síhala dynasty. There are two notes on the first verse, on the words " Wangésu" and "puré," which should have informed us fully as to the geographical position of the country, and the age in which the Wangu princes lived. They are however unsatisfactorily laconic, and comprised in the following meagre

sentences.

There were certain princes named Wangu. The country in which they dwelt becoming powerful, it was called "Wangu," from their appellation.

The word “puré” “formerly,” signifies anterior to Bhagawa becoming Buddho."

All that can be safely advanced in regard to the contents of the sixth chapter is that Wijayo was descended, through the male branch, from the rájas of Wangu (Bengal proper), and, through the female line, from the royal family of Kálinga (Northern Circars); that his grand mother, the issue of the alliance above mentioned, connected herself or rather eloped with, some obscure individual named Siho (which word signifies "a lion"); that their son Sihabahu put his own father to death, and, established himself in Lala, a subdivision of Mágadha, the capital of which was Sihapura, probably the modern Synghaya on the Gunduck river; (in the vicinity of which the remains of buddhistical edifices are still to be found;) and that his son Wijayo, with his seven hundred followers, landed in Lanká, outlawed in their native land, from which they came to this island. I shall hereafter notice the probability of the date of his landing having been antidated by a considerable term, for the purpose of supporting a pretended revelation or command of Buddho, with which the seventh chapter opens.

It became a point of interesting inquiry to ascertain, whether the budhists of Ceylon had ventured to interpolate this injunction, as well as "the five resolves silently willed by Gótamo," mentioned in the seventeenth chapter, into the Pitakattaya, for the purpose of deluding the inhabitants of this island; as that imposition might, perhaps, have been detected by comparing those passages with the Pitakattaya of the Burmese empire, and the Sanscrit edition presented to the Bengal Asiatic Society, by Mr. Hodgson.

On referring, accordingly, to the Parinibbánasuttan in the Díghanikayo, no trace whatever was to be found there of these passages. But the "five resolves" alone are contained in the Atthakatha to that Suttan; but even there the command to Sakko, predictive of Wijayo's landing in Ceylon, is not noticed. I took the opportunity of an official interview with the two high priests of the Malwatte and Asgiri establishments and their fraternity, to discuss this, apparently fatal, discrepancy, with them. They did not appear to be aware that the "five resolves" were only contained in the Atthakathá; nor did they attach any kind of importance to their absence from the text. They observed, that the Pitakattaya only embodied the essential portions of the discourses, revelations, and prophecies of Buddho. That his disciples for some centuries after his nibbánan, were endowed with inspiration; and that their supplements to the Pitakattaya were as sacred in their estimation as the text itself. On a slight hint being thrown out, whether this particular supplement might not have been "a pious fraud" on the part of Mahindo, with the view of accelerating the conversion of the ancient inhabitants of Ceylon; the priests adroitly replied, if that had been his object, he would have accomplished it more effectually by altering the Pitakattaya itself. Nothing can exceed the good taste, the unreserved communicativeness, and even the tact, evinced by the heads of the buddhistical church in Ceylon, in their intercourse with Europeans, as long as they are treated with the courtesy, that is due to them.

The fabulous tone of the narrative in which the account of Wijayo's landing in Lanká is conveyed in the seventh chapter, bears, even in its details, so close a resemblance to the landing of Ulysses at the island of Circé, that it would have been difficult to defend Mahanámo from the imputation of plagiarism, had he lived in a country in which the works of Homer could, by possibility, be accessible to him. The seizure and imprisonment of Ulysses' men, and his own rencontre with Circé, are almost identical with the fate of Wijayo and his men, on their landing in Lanká, within the dominions of Kuwéni.

"We went, Ulysses! (such was thy cammand!)
Through the lone thicket and the desert land.

A palace in a woody vale we found,

Brown with dark forests, and with shades around.

A voice celestial echoed from the dome,

Or nymph or goddess, chanting to the loom.
Access we sought, nor was access deny'd :
Radiant she came; the portals open'd wide:
The goddess mild invites the guest to stay :
They blindly follow where she leads the way.
I only wait behind of all the train:

I waited long, and ey'd the doors in vain :
The rest are vanish'd none repass'd the gate;
And not a man appears to tell their fate."

"Then sudden whirling, like a waving flame,
My beamy falchion, I assault the dame.
Struck with unusual fear, she trembling cries;
She faints, she falls; she lifts her weeping eyes.

What art thou? say! from whence, from whom you came?

O more than human! tell thy race, thy name.

Amazing strength, these poisons to sustain

Not mortal thou, nor mortal is thy brain

Or art thou he? the man to come (foretold
By Hermes powerful with the wand of gold),
The man from Troy, who wandered occan round;
The man for wisdom's various arts renown'd,
Ulysses? Oh! thy threatening fury cease,

Sheath thy bright sword, and join our hands in peace!
Let mutual joys our mutual trust combine,
And love, and love-born confidence, be thine.'
And how, dread Circé! (furious I rejoin)

Can love, and love-born confidence be mine!
Beneath thy charms when my companions groan,
Transform'd to beasts, with accents not their own?

O thou of fraudful heart, shall I be led

To share thy feast-rites, or ascend thy bed;

That, all unarm'd, that vengeance may have vent,

And magic bind me, cold and impotent?

Celestial as thou art, yet stand denied ;

Or swear that oath by which the gods are tied.

Swear, in thy soul no latent frauds remain,

Swear by the vow which never can be vain.'

The goddess swore then seiz'd my hand, and led
To the sweet transports of the genial bed."

It would appear that the prevailing religion in Lanká, at that period, was the demon or yakkha worship. Buddhists have thence thought proper to represent that the inhabitants were yakkhos or demons themselves, and possessed of supernatural powers. Divested of the false colouring which is imparted to the whole of the early portion of the history of Lanká in the Mahawanso, by this fiction, the facts embodied in the narrative are perfectly consistent, and sustained by external evidence, as well as by surviving remnants of antiquity. No train of events can possibly bear a greater semblance of probability than that Wijayo, at his landing, should have connected himself with the daughter of some provincial chieftain or prince; by whose means he succeeded in overcoming the ruling powers of the island ;—and that he should have repudiated her, and allied himself with the sovereigns of Southern India, after his power was fully established in the island.

The narrative is too full and distinct in all requisite details, in the ensuing three chapters, to make any further remarks necessary from me.

The eleventh chapter possesses more extended interest, from the account it contains of the embassy sent to Asóko by Dewánanpiyatisso, and of the one deputed to Lanká in return.

The twelfth chapter contains the account of the dispersion of the buddhist missionaries, at the close of the third convocation, in B.c. 307, to foreign countries, for the purpose of propagating their faith. I had intended in this place to enter into a comparison of the data contained in professor Wilson's sketch of the Rája Taringiní, with the details furnished in this chapter of the Mahawanso, connected with the introduction of buddhism in Cashmir. The great length, however, of the preceding extracts from the Tíká, which has already swelled this introduction beyond the dimensions originally designed, deters me from undertaking the task in the present sketch. I shall, therefore, now only refer to the accordance between the two authorities (though of conflicting faiths) as to the facts of that conversion having taken place in the reign of Asóko; of the previous prevalence of the nága worship;

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