Anuradhapura and Polonnaruwa. The carving on the stones in these cities is as fresh as the day it was done, and is alive with the spirit of the artist whose hand fashioned the lifelike elephants and bullocks, the strange horses, and still stranger lions, which run incessantly after one another in a race beginning some 2,000 years ago and stretching to infinity.

Egypt has attracted its tens of thousands, and of the books that have been written about it there is no end, but mysterious and awe-inspiring as are the mighty monuments and temples of Egypt, they lack the individuality, the varying touches, the humanness of these works of Ceylon, where one is perpetually reminded by a thousand inimitable touches that all is handicraft and not machine-made.

The Cingalese have a tradition of a great king who was the son of a lion, the word Sinha in their language, hence their national name is more correctly spelt Sinhalese, but the anglicised form, being more familiar to English-speaking readers, is adopted in this book. This "Sinha" had a grandson, Wijaya,' from whom the real roll of the kings of Lanka-the ancient name for the island --begins.

Wijaya came over from India on a raiding expedition and established himself in the island some five and a half centuries before Christ (543 B.C.). The original inhabitants of the island found by him on his advent are somewhat con

1 Spelt also variously Wejaya or Vijaya.

temptuously spoken of in the records as kho" or "Yakkha "-demons.

"Yak

Mr. Still in his admirable little book' says, "It is a pity the Yakkhos are silent. They never produced a book, an inscription, a coin, or a permanent building."

The crowds of followers who came over with Wijaya must have intermarried with these aborigines, for they soon ceased to have an independent existence, and reference to them stops. It may be that the few Veddahs who live in the deepest jungles to the present day are a remnant of them.

The next outstanding name among Cingalese kings is that of Tissa, or Dewanampiatissa, the "Beloved of the Gods" as he came to be called. He reigned forty years from 307 B.C., and it was in his reign that the most important event in the whole of Cingalese history happened, for Mahinda, the pious son of the great King Asoka of India— the monarch to whom all Indian Buddhists look as their greatest ruler-came over on a mission to convert the Cingalese.

In this he was eminently successful, not only was the king converted, but his followers embraced the new religion wholesale, as the Kentish men embraced Christianity after the example of King Ethelbert, and ever since Ceylon has been a Buddhist stronghold.

Buddhists cherish legends of the appearance of no less than twenty-four Buddhas before that of the present era, who is generally meant when the title is used. He, the only historical example,

1 Guide to the Ancient Capitals of Ceylon. (Cave & Co., Ceylon,

is, they say, the fourth of this kalpa, or section of time, in which there is still one to appear.

For a considerable time doubt was thrown by the non-Buddhist world on the actual existence of Gautama, the latest Buddha, as the date of his birth was doubtful. Even when this was admitted, he was, for many years, supposed to be of an age considerably further back in time than has since been conjectured. Professor Rhys Davids, in his article on the subject in the Encyclopædia Britannica, says:

"The date [of Buddha's death] derived from Ceylon, which is usually assigned to that event, is 543 B.C. But those scholars who have devoted ⚫most attention to the point hold this calculation to contain a certain error of about sixty years, and a probable error of about eighty to a hundred more, so that the date for the death of Buddha would have to be brought forward to 400 B.C. or a few years later."

As it is known that Buddha lived to eightyone years of age, this puts his birth somewhere about 480 B.C. Yet this is not final. The researches of Sir M. Aurel Stein and others are yearly bringing out fresh evidence on which to form an opinion. By independent calculations also, based on the evidence of inscriptions, Don M. de Z. Wickremasinghe makes the death of Buddha 483 B.C., therefore his birth 564 B.C. But there is not yet finality on this question. Gautama was born in what is now known as the borders of Nepal, at Kapilavastu. His people

1 Epigraphia Zeylanica, vol. i. p. 156.

were called Shakyans and belonged to the warrior or Kshatriya caste.

In spite of the fact that the Mahawansa describes the visits of Gautama, and the three preceding Buddhas, to Ceylon, there seems to be not the slightest historical evidence for such events, and though the course of his life is fairly well known, there is nothing in it which confirms the idea of this visit. When the chroniclers of Ceylon are dealing with facts which came within their own cognisance they have often been proved to be remarkably accurate, if the few natural flourishes to embellish and aggrandise their kings are allowed for; but when writing purely from imagination, it is evident that their possession of that quality was not despicable.

The continuance of any tradition rests more upon the will to believe than is commonly supposed, and annually thousands of Buddhists still gaze in awe and reverence on the monstrous fivefoot impression on Adam's Peak, supposed to have been there imprinted by Gautama on the last of his three visits to the island; while the other foot rested in the centre of Anuradhapura, on the spot where the most sacred of the dagabas, Ruanweli, now stands. How this remarkable feat was accomplished needs no explaining to the faithful. The print on Adam's Peak bears the sign of the sacred lotus, which emblem is invariably to be seen sculped on the soles of prostrate images of Buddha.

As the whole life of the people of Ceylon is bound up with their religion, and their ancient monuments are overwhelmingly of the religious rather

than of the civil life, it is necessary to give a very brief sketch of what this religion means to its votaries.

Gautama, who began life in luxury as the son of a raja, received "revelation" which enlightened him as to the riddle of life.

"Sitting one night under the tree, which henceforth was called the Buddha-tree, he arrived at perfect insight into the nature and cause of sorrow, and the way of destroying it. He was then Buddha, the Buddha of the age. He had attained, unaided, and by direct insight and conscious realisation, the saving truth for the benefit of gods and men." 1

For seven times seven days he sat thus, part of the time sheltered from storms and rain by the hood of a cobra, who watched over him tenderly.

Hence the origin of the many-headed cobras so constantly found in Buddhistic sculpture. Possibly this touch and that of the "Bodhi-tree" were later additions designed to attract and bring into the fold the remnant of those who followed Tree and Serpent worship," for a characteristic of early Buddhism was a vast catholicity. In its origin at all events it claimed to spring from Hinduism, and to embrace and develop the spiritual side of that religion, and, entirely different as it is from Hinduism at the present day, many educated Brahmins still hold this idea. It is certain, in any case, that many very ancient beliefs were incorporated into the new religion, such as that of transmigration.

The summary of Buddha's reflections as to 1 Buddhism in Ceylon, by Bishop Copleston, 2nd ed. 1908.