pavement at the south altar of Jetawanarama recording repairs and grants of King Malu Tissa (who has been identified with Kanittha Tissa) for the maintenance of the Abhayagiri vihara and its monks. As it is obviously unlikely that such a slab would have been laid at any dagaba but that to which it referred, this is very strong confirmatory evidence. A full account of these three slabs and their inscriptions can be found in Epigraphia Zeylanica, edited and translated by Don Martino de Z. Wickremasinghe (Vol. I, Part VI, 1912, Oxfd. Univ. Press).

The most interesting bit of translation is perhaps that from the second slab of Mahinda IV mentioned above:

(The income of) the villages set apart for repairs (of buildings) shall not be devoted to (the provision of) food and raiment (to monks) but shall be utilised for repairs.

When there are no villages set apart for repairs, the surplus (of the revenue) that remains after providing food and raiment according to ancient usage, shall be spent on repairs. The wardens who have not acted in this manner shall be sent away from residence" (Ibid.).

This interesting passage shows both the minuteness and strictness of the regulations governing the conduct of monks. But if any further evidence on the point is needed, we find it in the travels of the Chinese monk, Fa-Hien.'

He was a native of Wu-yang in Shansi, and undertook a journey to India in search of complete 1 Fa-Hien, by James Legge. 1886.

copies of the sacred book, the Vinaya pitaka, about A.D. 400.

He started from Changan, Shansi, west of Nanking, to which he eventually returned.

After wandering through Central Asia and losing his companions-one by death from exposure and others who turned back-he got over the Himalayas into India and visited all the scenes of Buddha's lifetime. Then he left the mouth of the Hugli and took a boat to Ceylon. He believed firmly in the legend of Buddha's visit to Ceylon.

"When Buddha came to this country, wishing to transform the wicked nagas, by his supernatural power, he planted one foot at the north of the royal city [Anuradhapura] and the other on the top of a mountain [Adam's Peak].

"Over the footprint at the north of the city the king built a large tope, 400 cubits high, grandly adorned with gold and silver. By the side of the tope he further built a monastery called the Abhayagiri, where there are now 5,000 monks. There is in it a hall of Buddha adorned with carved and inlaid work of gold and silver, and rich in the seven precious substances, in which there is an image (of Buddha) in green jade, more than 20 cubits in height and glittering all over and having an appearance of solemn dignity which words cannot express. In the palm of the right hand there is a priceless pearl."

As the so-called Abhayagiri dagaba is due east of the city and Jetawanarama due north, it is plain that the conjecture of experts is right, and that

at some time in the past confusion has arisen and the names have been transposed.

1

Mr. Parker surmises that the misnaming may date from the twelfth century, when the men sent by Parakrama the Great to restore the dagabas found them practically abandoned, " and because of the great heaps of bricks and clay and the thickets of the forest, no man was able to have access thereto " (Mahawansa).

The whole of Fa-Hien's book is worth reading; for though it is written in the third person with the exception of a few sentences at the end, it conveys throughout a sense of personal description which has kept it alive until the present time.

One rather pathetic touch is that one day when Fa-Hien, sitting by the image he describes, saw a merchant offering a fan of white silk which carried him back at a bound to his native land, "the tears of sorrow involuntarily filled his eyes and fell down." It was years since he had seen his country, all those who had started with him had died or left him, and he was overcome by a wave of home-sickness. He was away altogether fifteen years, and his journey was a miracle of fortitude and adaptability.

He gives in detail the ceremony by which the tooth of Buddha was brought forth and taken to Abhayagiriya for ninety days. Great coloured figures to the number of 500, showing Buddha in his 500 bodily forms, lined both sides of the road. These may have been the paintings, which some conjecture to have been hung on the pillars surrounding the dagabas.

1 Ancient Ceylon. (Luzac, 1909.)

Before going on to the so-called Jetawanarama dagaba itself, there are other things to see nearer at hand. There is in fact a choice of two ways and on both are objects of interest. The carriageroad, a continuation of the Outer Circular, which comes out at the back of the dagaba, and another a rough cart-road (feasible for most vehicles with care) starts from close by the stone canoes and goes off at right angles, ending up in front of the great dagaba.

By penetrating along this for a little distance a blackened sedent Buddha is passed. It is curious to note how very much more common this type is than either the standing or lying Buddha. I remember seeing only one of the former class at Anuradhapura, a very small and mutilated one at Vijayarama. The three positions denote : Buddha in meditation under the Bo-tree, as he was when he received revelation; Buddha preaching to enlighten others; and Buddha as he was when he attained Nirvana. In the Burmese representations of the seated Buddha, almost invariably the left hand lies in the lap and the right falls downwards over the knee; but in the Cingalese type both hands usually rest together in the lap. Where the statue has been mutilated, as in this case, it is not easy to judge of its original attitude.

By plunging into the jungle abreast of this figure the central block of a most beautiful vihara can be quickly seen. The steps and guards are unusually perfect. "The granite staircase of this viharé for completeness and rare beauty is, in its own line, the gem of Anuradhapura art and sculp

ture." (1911 Report.) The guard-stones are at least four inches higher than that remaining at the elephant stables, but they are without a sculptured torana. The steps are well decorated, and at the top on both sides are stone seats. Behind the vihara is a pokuna; turning left from this we come into the long thoroughfare, or passage-way. This leads to a very beautiful group of pillars, with richly carved capitals. Away to the right again others gleam amid the trees, and any one interested might wander on in this section of the jungle for long, finding many interesting memorials of the great company of monks who once made it their home. In the flickering sunlight, with the morning dew still on the leaves, alone with the butterflies and birds, squirrels and lizards, and occasionally a wild, shy creature of the woods, this desultory wandering among evidence of ancient life has a peculiar fascination. An excellent plan of all this district is to be found in the 1911-12 Archæological Report.

By retracing our steps along the central line of thoroughfare we come out again on the carttrack which leads through to Jetawanarama, and can then return to the canoes and try the other road. This, the Outer Circular Road, passes a very splendid specimen of a monastery known as the " King's Palace," where there is the largest and most perfect moonstone yet discovered. The surface shines like marble, and a lively procession of thirteen, instead of the usual nine, animals prances round it. The difficulty of photographing a moonstone, which is of course always flat on the ground, and keeping it in perfect focus, is no