or more later, and also follows the 'Mahavansa' closely in this part) is there anything to point to the identification with Kandy.

Turnour, writing a few years later than Upham, placed no confidence in the latter's work, and so escaped the mistake. He does not expressly contradict it, nor does he attempt any other identification; he simply says, 'Sirivaḍḍhanapura in the Seven Korles.'

Sir Emerson Tennent (i. 414) was more easily misled. Referring to Upham (1. c.), but probably supported also by the popular opinion in Ceylon, he published to the world the identification of Kandy with the birthplace of Parakrama the second. Knighton, in 1845, and others had already repeated the received opinion, but it was Tennent's popularity and authority that did most to establish it.

The next step is a curious one. In January 1877, the learned Sumangala Terunnanse and the late Batuwantudávé Pandit published their Sinhalese translation of the 'Mahavansa.' Into their text, in the passage which states the distance of Sirivaḍdhana from Dambadeniya, there crept, I know not how, the erroneous reading 'eight yoduns' (ninety-six miles) instead of 'half-a-yodun' (six miles). The Pali for 'eight' is 'attha,' and that for 'half' is 'addha,' and the characters are very much alike, but the error is the more surprising from the fact that the translators had already published a Pali text with the other reading, 'addha.'

It is to be attributed, I suppose, to this oversight that when the learned C. Vijésinhe came to make his English version, he followed the same reading, and removed the place ninety-seven miles, instead of seven, from Dambadeniya. At the same time, by rendering the word 'atule' as 'incomparable for its scenery,' Mr. Vijésinhe further favoured the identification with Kandy.

The truth seemed now in a fair way to be for ever lost sight of, at least by all who should form their opinions from published works and not from direct study of original authorities.

But happily there were still in Ceylon students of the latter class, and among them Mr. K. J. Pohath, Mr. D. M. de Zilva Wickremesinghe, Native Assistant to the Archæological Commission, Velivitiye Dhammaratana Terunnanse (who has kindly helped me with his opinion), and Mr. W. Goonetilleke, the Editor of the Orientalist.

Mr. Pohat communicated to the Orientalist (vol. iii. p. 218) a note to the following effect: 'Sir Emerson Tennent has made a serious mistake when he says in his History of Ceylon (vol. i.

p. 414) that King Pandita Parákrama Báhu (erroneously called by him "Prakrama Bahu") III. "founded the city of Kandy then called Siri-vardana-pura." The truth is, that this king never built a city called "Sirivardanapura," much less the city of Kandy. It was to a city in Hat-korale (Seven Korles) called Sirivardanapura, in the neighbourhood of Dambadeniya, that Pandita Parákrama Báhu III. (11) removed the Daladá-relic,' etc. Mr. Pohath went on to mention some of the authors who had fallen into the mistake.

This note attracted little attention in Ceylon, but it was seen and accepted by Professor Rhys Davids, who adopted Mr. Pohath's statement in an 'addendum' to vol. xxx. of Sacred Books of the East.

It was by Professor Davids' 'addendum' that my own attention was drawn to the matter, after I had adopted the mistake in the first draft of my twenty-seventh chapter. I consulted Mr. W. Goonetilleke, to whom also the question was then new. His inquiries about the MSS. of the Mahavansa showed that 'addha' and not 'aṭṭha,' 'half' and not 'light,' was the true reading. He pointed out also that the Tooth was stated, after having been placed at Sirivaḍdhanapura, to have been carried to Pulaṭṭhi, not from any other neighbourhood, but from Dambadeniya. His arguments, based on a careful study of the Mahavansa itself, convinced the learned Sumangala that Mr. Pohath was right.

The argument was carried further by Mr. Wickremesinghe, who, with Velivitiye Terunnanse, had long before this convinced himself that the place was to be sought near Dambadeniya, and had succeeded, as I think, in identifying it still more exactly. The following are the proofs which he has been good enough to communicate to me :—

66

Now,

'The Sirivaḍdhana, which we are discussing, was confessedly the birthplace of Parákrama, the son of Vijaya Báhu. while several books (“Daladápújávaliya,” “Vanne Rájavaliya,” and Dambadeņi-asna") say that Vijaya Báhu lived at Palábatgala, in Seven Korles (a place not identified), the Dambadeņi-asna says that Parakrama, his son, lived at a place called (and still known as) Nanbambaraya; and that from that place he made a processionpath, two "gows," or about eight miles long. The Vanné Rájavaliya also mentions this procession-path. Nanbambaraya is about this distance from Dambadeniya.'

But Mr. Wickremesinghe has got nearer than this. He dis

490

covered some three years ago at Dambadeniya part of an old poem called 'Kalundápaṭuna,' and in this he finds it recorded that when Parakrama II. was called to the kingdom he was superintending the cultivation of his fields at Nanbambaraya, where he had his palace. This then was, in all probability, his native place, the place which he would delight to honour. It would be no wonder if he gave to it, when it became the royal abode, the royal and auspicious title.

But even here Mr. Wickremesinghe does not leave us to conjecture, for the same passage of the 'Kalundápaṭuna' says, that Nanbambaraya was adorned not only by the king's palace but by his queen, Sirivardhana Bisava, 'Queen Sirivardhana.'

Thus not only is the place, with the highest degree of probability, identified, but a romantic light is thrown upon its origin; while the king's selection of it for honour, and the enthusiasm with which his historian describes it, are abundantly explained. We know not which more to admire, the faithfulness of our ancient historian or the ingenuity of his modern interpreters.

Since this note was written, Mr. H. Parker, a very careful archæologist, has announced, in the Ceylon Literary Register, that he possesses ample and conclusive information about Sirivardhanapura. Whether it will confirm the results above set forth or not remains to be seen.

July 14, 1892.

INDEX I

Antiochus, mentioned by Asoka, 266.

Abhayagiri dagaba, 340; fraternity, Anurádha, example of unity, 163.

Bharadvaja, a disputant about caste, Cunda, blacksmith, who gave to Gotama

Confucianism, the orthodoxy of China,' Ganges, valley in sixth century. B.C.,

Corea, Buddhism carried to, in fourth Getambe, suburb of Kandy, 405.