the executioner, and said,

I pray thee cut off my head first as that would be better for me." And the king's servants did as they had 36 been asked, and afterwards beheaded the captive king. Oh, ye who care to take heed of human actions, behold the deeds of wicked men! So unabiding is prosperity; it endureth not, and neither is it within 37 one's own control. Ye who put your trust therein, wherefore then do ye not strive after that happiness which is everlasting?

The executioner then spake unto the faithful minister and told him 38 all the king's orders. And when he heard it he smiled, and spake thus unto them," Has it been left to me to see the headless body of my 39 master, and think ye that I shall serve another after that I had served him? Ye have slain him here, and will ye now carry away his spirit? 40 Alas! what fools are ye? Verily I believe that ye are madmen and insane." Saying these words, he fell at his master's lifeless feet and 41 clung unto them, so that the king's servants were not able to remove him from the dead body of the monarch. And so they cut off his head 42 also and bore all the three together, and showed them to the king, who openly displayed his joy to all the people at what had happened. And 43 soon after he bestowed on the traitorous general the office of Malaya rájá, and his son he made the king's sword bearer.

This king also caused the three thúpas to be covered with new cloth, 44 and festivals also to be held at all the thúpas in Lanká. The hair- 45 relic of the lord, the tooth-relic, and the great bódhi he honoured also with many presents. He held the May festivals and others according 46 to the rites that were in custom, and purged the whole religion of Buddha by means of a disciplinary act. He caused the Three Piṭakas 47 also to be rehearsed with great pomp, and rewarded the learned monks with exceeding great presents. He gave robes to all the monks that 48 dwelt in the island, and made a present of the kaṭhina robes to all the monasteries, and gave orders that new images should be made and that old buildings should be repaired. To the Order he gave three hundred 49 salt pans also. At Kárapiṭṭhi he built the Moggallána vihára, and likewise viháras at Piṭṭhigáma, Sagáma, and Vaṭagáma. He built 50 also the Cétiyagéha and the Rakkha vihára. He endowed very many viháras also with much land for their support. In this manner did 51 the king many good deeds, remembering of how short a duration was the fortune of the king his predecessor.

Now, about that time, the king, angered at some fault of the Malaya 52

1 Dhamma-Kamman.-This expression occurs often in the Mahavansa to denote the manner in which the earlier kings interfered to carry out reforms in the Buddhist Church. It means literally a legal act. In some instances this act was applied for and obtained by one of the members of the brotherhood. (See verse 75 et seq.) The act seems to have consisted in the promulgation by the king of a decree enforcing the observance of discipline among the priesthood, and, in some cases, empowering one or more of its Order to carry out the decree into effect by means of an ecclesiastical court.

rájá, and remembering also the traitorous deed that he had committed on his former master, enticed him by a device, and (when he had got 53 him into his power) caused his hands and feet to be cut off. And when

this came to the ears of his son, the sword bearer, he fled to Róhana, 54 taking with him his own son, and dwelt there, and soon made himself 55 lord of the country. And he went to Jeṭṭhatissa, who remained in 56 concealment in the Malaya, and began in alliance with him to lay waste the whole country. He encamped himself with an army at the Dolha57 pabbata, which when the king heard of, he went at the head of an 58 equipped army and intrenched himself near the enemy. And it came

to pass that a great number of the king's men died of a fever that broke 59 out among them. And when the sword bearer came to hear of this, he attacked the enemy in great force, and the king's host being greatly weakened by sickness and death, broke and fled, the king himself 60 following after them. And the sword bearer (pursued after him and) overtook him near Síhagiri, and seeing that nobody was at hand to 61 protect him, he slew him together with his followers. Intending to kill Jeṭṭhatissa also, who was following close by, he sent messengers unto 62 him, saying, "Come and be king." But Jeṭṭhatissa, fearing his object, turned back and fled to the Malaya country, thinking, "How can he give unto me a kingdom which he had gotten himself with so much trouble."

63 And this sword bearer having killed the reigning king Moggallána, 64 surnamed Dalla, in the sixth year of his reign, entered the beautiful city of Anuradhapura with a great army, and became king under the title of Siláméghavanna, and extended his dominion over the whole 65 island. And after he had saluted the Order and the bodhi, he rendered the honours that were due to the three thúpas, and patronised the 66 Mahápáli alms-hall. In a time of great scarcity he distributed milk rice among the Order, mixed with ghee and honey, and supplied the monks 67 with water strainers also. He gave largely to the beggar, the wayfarer, and the mendicant, and by divers acts of charity gained their love. And being kind-hearted by nature, he even gave away cake money among the children.

68 He made offerings to the solid stone statue of Buddha at the Abhayagiri vihára, and having renewed the old house of that statue, and 69 adorned it with divers gems, he dedicated unto it the Kálavápi tank. He gave also to it all manner of protection, and always held the festivals connected with it with great pomp.

70

While this ruler of the realm, a vessel of all virtues, was thus passing 71 his days, Sirinága, the chief, the uncle of Jeṭṭhatissa, proceeded to the opposite coast of India and gathered together a great number of Tamils, and returned to the northern part of the country and essayed to take 72 it. But the king having heard thereof went up to meet the enemy, and gave him battle at the village rájá Mittaka and killed Sirinága 73 and captured such of his Tamil followers as were not slain on the field of battle; and after he had most cruelly treated them, he gave them

away as slaves to different viháras in the island. And returning in 74 triumph to the capital, the ruler of the land restored order throughout the kingdom and lived without fear of any danger.

At that time a certain monk, by name Bódhi, of the Abhayagiri 75 fraternity, seeing how great a number of his brethren were wholly given up to lewdness, although he was not himself an elder in robes, approach- 76 ed the king and begged him that he would issue a decree to enforce discipline in the Order. Whereupon the king issued a decree for the enforcement of discipline, which he caused to be executed at the vihára by (the young monk) himself. And all the lewd priests who had been 77 expelled from the Order, conspired together, and secretly killed him and set aside all that had been done. When the king heard of this he 78 was greatly enraged, and seized them all in a body and cut off their hands and bound them with fetters, and appointed them to be guardians of tanks. A hundred other monks also of this Order he banished 79 to India. Thus did the king, remembering the zeal of the monk Bódhi, purify the religion of Buddha. He requested the monks of the Mahá- 80 vihára fraternity that they should observe the upósatha ceremony in common with the monks of the Abhayagiri. And when the former refused to do as he had desired, he was greatly incensed, and mercilessly insulted and abused them with many hard words. He then 81 proceeded to the southern country, without obtaining forgiveness from the monks for the offence that he had done against them. And there 82 he was seized with a severe illness that caused his death soon after. And thus he left the world in the ninth year of his reign.

His son Aggabódhi1 then became king, with the title of Sirisangha- 83 bódhi. Mána, his younger brother, he crowned as sub-king, and gave 84 him the southern country with the whole army that was stationed in that province. He ruled the country with justice, honoured the Order 85 greatly, and disregarded not the customs of ancient kings. And Jeṭ- 86 thatissa, who was then in the Malaya country, having heard of these things, went up to Ariṭṭhagiri and gained over the people of that part to his cause, and having established his authority over the southern 87 and eastern countries, he marched step by step towards the capital with a great host and with much hope. Dáthásíva, his general, he sent to 88 reduce the western country, and remained himself at the village Siripiṭṭhika. And the king having heard of these things sent his brother, 89 the sub-king, with an army, to the western country. And he went and 90 drove away the enemy. The general of Jeṭṭhatissa's army then went up to Máyetti, where the king himself met him, and saying, "Now can the stripling be crushed like a young bird in his nest," fell on him unawares, and took him prisoner. And hoping to fall upon Jeṭṭhatissa 91 in like manner, and take him prisoner also, the king advanced boldly to meet him with a small army. But Jeṭṭhatissa having had warning 92

1 The Third.

thereof beforehand, prepared himself with a well-armed host to meet the king, and surrounded his army like unto a sea that had burst its 93 bounds, and overpowered him. The king's army being thus altogether

routed, he mounted on an elephant and instantly fled alone, and in 94 disguise, from the field of battle. And six months after that he had been defeated he went on board a ship and made haste to India, leaving his country and his kinsmen and his treasure behind him.

95

Jeṭṭhatissa was then crowned king in the capital, and he governed the country as his predecessors had done, and gave protection to the 96 religion of the land. He gave the village Mahádáragiri to the Abhaya97 giri vihára, the bodhi tree called Mahámetta to the Mahávihára, and 98 the village Gondigáma to the Jétavana vihára. To Mahánága, the

chief priest of the Padhánaghára, he gave the villages Matulangana and Dumbarangana; the village Ambilápika to the Kassapagiri vi99 hára; the village Kakkhalaviṭṭhi to the Véluvana vihára; the village Keheta to the Gangámáti vihára; the village Cullamátika to the 100 Antaráganga vihára; the village Sahannanagara to the Máyetti vihára; 101 the village Udagáma to Kálavápi vihára. These viháras and many 102 others he enriched with abundant gifts of land. He expended three hundred thousand pieces of money also in repairing temples, and gave the three robes to all monks who dwelt in the island.

103

And the brethren of king Sirisanghabódhi who had fled to India, and who were now concealing themselves in various parts of the island, 104 were laying waste the country by degrees. And Jeṭṭhatissa, having heard of it, went up to Kálavápi and encamped there, and made war 105 on them. And king Sirisanghabódhi, who also had fled to the coast,

now came back with a large army of Tamils, and having reached Kála106 vápi, prepared to give him battle. And when Jeṭṭhatissa heard that

the king had arrived with an army, he sent his general, Dáthásíva, to 107 India (that he might raise an army of Tamils there), and mounting his well-equipped elephant put himself at the head of his army and led them on to battle. And in the fight that ensued Jeṭṭhatissa's army was repulsed, and seeing them give way he spake unto his minister who 108 was riding with him, and said, "Take this my message first to my 109 queen, and do after it as it pleaseth you. Say unto her, Take thyself into a convent, great queen; learn there the doctrines of religion, and having preached the Abhidhamma, give the merit thereof unto the 110 king.'" And the king having ordered this message to be delivered to his queen, fought bravely with each Tamil that came forth to meet him, 111 and killed all of them. And at last (when he was quite exhausted), 112 seeing a Tamil named Véluppa coming forward to the combat, he drew

out a knife that he carried carefully in his betel purse, and cut his neck, and having laid himself down on the back of his elephant he returned 113 the knife into its sheath. Whereupon the enemy raised a great shout; and the king's minister took to flight and went and informed the queen of their defeat, and delivered to her the message which had been 114 entrusted to him when the king cut off his head. And the queen took

herself into a convent, and when she had perfected herself in the Abhidhamma and the Aṭṭhakathá, she descended one day from the pulpit, and having seated herself on the ground, spoke to the king's 115 minister (who was attending to her discourse), saying, "Come now, show us the manner of my lord the king's death." And the minister 116 being thus desired, sat himself also before her, and cut his neck and cast away the knife from him, saying, "Thus did the king his majesty 117 die." And she (the queen-nun), who witnessed the deed, was so overcome with grief that she died of a broken heart.

Thus did this king Jeṭṭhatissa depart this life five months after he had begun to reign.

He (Aggabódhi, who was also called Sirisanghabódhi) having now 118 defeated all his enemies and gained the victory over them, took up his 119 abode in the capital and restored the kingdom to its former state. He 120 gave away the two villages Hankára and Sámugáma, and the king's portion of Kehella with the tenants thereof, as a gift to the high priest who dwelt at the Padhánaghara called Mahalla rájá, that he had built in memory of his father, the sub-king. Likewise also he gave the 121 village Mahámanika to the Jétavana vihára, and the village Sálagáma to the vihára of Mayetti, and the village Ambillapadara to the Cétiya- 122 giri; and at Pullatthinagara he made the island Mahápánádi.

And his ministers caused the sub-king Máņa to be put to death, in 123 that he had done a wicked thing among the king's wives, although he had been pardoned (by the king). Then the king appointed Kassapa, 124 another of his brothers, as sub-king, so that the office might remain in 125 the king's family. But Dáthásíva, having heard of the sub-king Mána's death, got together an army of Tamils and went up against the village Tintini. And when the king heard of his coming, he proceeded 126 with an army to meet him and gave him battle. And the king was defeated, and he fled alone to India in the twelfth year of his reign, leaving everything behind save the king's necklace of pearls, which 127 he took away in order that thereby he might be known there. He 128 (Dáthásíva) then ascended the throne, and was arrayed as king according to all the ceremonies of state, but without the royal necklace. And he was known over the island as Dáṭhópatissa. But the other (de- 129 throned king) took advantage of every opportunity and made war and got back his kingdom. Thus did these kings in their turn war against each other and drive each other away from the throne; and by reason 130 of this continual warfare the people were sore oppressed, and suffered greatly; and the country was brought to great poverty. And (when 131 these wars were going on) Dáṭhópatissa destroyed all the works that had been done by his predecessors, and took to himself all the wealth of the three brotherhoods and of the relic-houses. He melted the golden 132 images also, and took the gold thereof for his use. He despoiled the 133 temples of all their offerings of gold, and removed the golden pinnacle of the Thúpáráma, and melted the golden canopy, that was studded with gems of great value, which was on the top of the great cétiya. 47-08

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