from the opening of the first to the close of the last chapter. Two causes may however be assigned, with some shew of reason, for this want of information:-(1) the destruction of Sinhalese records at various times by Malabar invaders and apostate Buddhist kings; and (2) the fact that the capital of the island was, up to A. D. 1319, in the Northern kingdom, the Pihiți Rata (called also the Rája Rata or country of the kings); the Mountain zone forming the central kingdom or Máyá Raṭa; and the Southern portion of the Island the Ruhuna Rața. Up to about A. D. 1050 the Máyá and Ruhuna Ratas were under the dominion of independent princes or petty kings, and were only at intervals subjected to the sway of the northern potentate. Among those kings who were acknowledged sole sovereigns of the island was Dutthagameni, To the mountain fastnesses of the Máyá Rata kings and priests naturally fled for refuge when the

who like himself was a zealous Buddhist. But no mention of such a visit at either date is to be found in the Mahawansó, the Rája Ratnakari, or the Rajawaliya.

* Of Malabar invasions 17 are recorded between B. c. 204 and A. D. 1391. The invaders were in almost every instance animated by the same spirit of deadly hostility to Buddhism which led to the ultimate extirpation of that faith in Central India towards the end of the seventh century, Of apostate or impious sovereigns, the principal were Chora Nága, B. C. 63; Kanijánitissa, A. D. 33; Maha Sen, A. D. 275; Mágha, a. D. 1219; and Rája Singha I., A. D. 1581. This last king gave over the custody of the Samanala to a body of Aandiyas, or Hindu Fakeers; who are described by S. C. Chitty, as a sort of begging friars belonging to the Saiva sect.

Malabar invaders drove them from their throne and temples at Anuradhapura or Polonnaruwa; although at times they established themselves in the Southern division; ultimately indeed [A. D. 1059] the Máyá was annexed to the Ruhuna Rața, and the Island partitioned into two provinces, the Northern being occupied by the Solíans, and the Southern being retained by the native princes. Throughout the Southern kingdom the Samanala was ever present to view, while in the Northern the high Nuwara Eliya range would exclude it from sight.

Closed in on all sides by chains of mountains whose sides and valleys were overgrown with dense and all but impenetrable jungle, visits or pilgrimages to the Samanta-kúṭa must necessarily have been few and far between, and were probably only attempted at times when the influence and power of a paramount sovereign could make itself felt through every portion of his dominions. Such being the case, the widespread knowledge in the north of the existence, and the visibility in the west and south of the isolated cloud-capped peak that reared itself so loftily above all surrounding heights, would well keep alive in the minds of Buddhists the tradition, and foster the belief, that the founder of their faith had there indelibly impressed the foot-mark that was alleged to have sealed the isle of Lanka as his own; a tradition that was ultimately destined to become an article of faith whereever Buddhism was professed. A belief in the existence of such a foot-print was held, we know, amongst the Chinese, as early as the third century of the Christian era, since there

are records in their literature of pilgrimages to India at that date. All the pilgrims were struck by the altitude of the hills of Ceylon, and above all by the lofty crest of Adam's Peak, which served as the land-mark for ships approaching the island. They speak reverentially of the sacred foot-mark impressed by the first created man, who in their mythology, bears the name of Pawn-koo; and the gems which were found upon the mountain, they believed to be his "crystallized tears, which accounts for their singular lustre and marvellous tints." The Chinese books repeat the popular belief, that the hollow of the sacred footstep contains water, "which does not dry up all the year round," and that invalids recover health by drinking from the well at the foot of the mountain, into which "the sea-water enters free from salt."* At a later period, the belief of the Chinese as to the origin of the foot-print seems to have undergone a change, for Fa Hian,

* Sir J. E. Tennent's Ceylon, vol. i. p. 586-7. This early belief of the Chinese that the mark on the top of Adam's Peak, was an impression of the foot of the first created man, is so very remarkable, that one is inclined to suspect there must be some error on the part of the translators of the books in which it is recorded, unless indeed it be the record of some ancient tradition which was afterwards grafted on to Buddhism. Ibn Batutu, in his account of the foot-mark, visited by him about A. D. 1340, says “The Chinese came here at some former time, and cut out from this stone the place of the great toe, together with the stone about it, and placed it in a temple in the city of Zaitun: and pilgrimages are made to it from the most distant parts of China." The rock does not however bear any evidences of such an outrage; and the story probably owes its origin to the

the Chinese pilgrim, who in the course of his travels visited Ceylon, A. D. 413, says in the 38th chapter of his interesting narrative, "By the strength of his divine foot, he [Foe, i. e. Buddha] left the print of one of his feet to the north of the royal city, and the print of the other on the summit of a mountain." This visit took place in the reign of Maha Náma, and the royal city alluded to was Anuradhapura, where Fa Hian took up his abode. He did not however visit the Srí-páda, and only thus incidentally alludes to it; so that it does not appear to have then been a place of pilgrimage; nor does he mention that any of the priesthood resided on the mountain, a fact which he would scarcely have failed to note, had such really been the case.

From the time of Kirti Nissanga, pilgrimages to the footprint seem to have become a settled practice. The Rája Ratnakari,* an authority only second to that of the Mahawansó, states, that Wijayabáhu, who established himself [a. d. 1240—1267] in the Máyá Rața, and fixed his

craft of some of the Chinese mercenaries employed in the army of Prákrama III. A. D. 1266. One can imagine the inward chuckle with which, after his return to "the flowery land," one of these mercenaries practised the "old soldier" over his countrymen, in palming off a lump of stone with a chiseled toe-mark, as a relic from the original impression of the footprint of Foe from the top of the sacred mountain of "Sze-tseu-kwo."

*The exact date of the composition of the Rája Ratnakari is not known; but it would seem to have been written in, or immediately after, the reign of Wikremabáhu of Kandy, whose life and acts occupy a considerable space at the end of the work, and whose career the author, Abhayaraja of Walgampaye wihare, eulogises in glowing terms.

capital at Dambadeniya in the Seven Kóralés, repaired the route to the peak, viâ Gampola, and with much pomp, visited and worshipped the Srí-páda. His successor Pandita Prákramabahu, improved the communications, and formed a road from the Samanala to Bentota in the Southern Province, bridging the ravines and rivers in the way, and among others, throwing a bridge of timber 193 ft. 6 in. long across the Kaluganga. Two hundred and seventy years later, Wikremabáhu, whose capital was at Kanda Nuwara, the modern Kandy, "caused bridges to be laid over the rivers, repaired the road, and caused 780 steps to be cut in the rock, in order that travellers might the more easily ascend; and also caused resthouses to be made for the convenience of travellers on the road. And after expending a large sum of money, he caused a great flambeau to be made which was eapable of containing 100 pots of oil, and this he lighted as a beacon on the top of the peak, in order to make his works visible to the world; and thus this king accumulated an infinite amount of merit." * This route, there is reason to believe, is the same that is now followed in ascending to the peak, viâ Ratnapura. The practice of lighting up the summit of the mountain at sunset, during the pilgrim season, is continued to the present day, and the effect produced by the multitude of flaming lamps in front of Saman's shrine, and the Ranhili-gey, or temple of the foot-print, as seen either from Diyabetme or Heramittipane is exceedingly fine.

* Upham's Rája-Ratnakari, p. 131-2,