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of the city is more doubtful. In all probability it was fixed at the point where the ridge ends at that side, at a distance of about three-quarters of a mile from the southern gate. If so, the shape of the fortified part would be a narrow oblong, extending only along the top of the ridge, and not into the low ground on the east and west sides. The sites of the various suburbs of the city are not now distinguishable, but one or two of them will be considered in dealing with the identifications of the edifices mentioned below.

THE PATHAMA CĒTIYA.

The second dagaba erected at Anuradhapura was the Pathama Cētiya, which was raised to commemorate the spot where the Buddhist apostle Mahinda and his companions were supposed to have alighted when they proceeded from Mihintale on the occasion of their first visit to the city. From the account of their coming which is given in the Mahāvansa (i, p. 53), it is clear that this place was on the side of the public highway leading out of the town to Mihintale, and we are expressly told that it was 'in the eastern quarter of the city.'

In the description of the consecrated boundaries fixed by Dēvānam-piya Tissa, which included the city, this dāgaba is mentioned as lying north-west from two special trees that were on the bank of the Malwatta-oya. Thus it appears to have been at some moderate distance from the river, but not very far away. It was also distinguished by being selected as one of the places where the eight first shoots of the great Bō-tree were planted.

The dagaba is mentioned only once more in the Mahāvansa, in the description of a royal procession through the city, on which occasion King Mitta-Sēna (435-436 A.D.) rode on the white elephant that was kept for the temple services. The words are, And he mounted him, and rode through the city in procession, and commanded that he should be stationed at the Pathama Cētiya, outside the eastern gate.'

THE MIHINTALE MAHA SÃĒYA

The third dagaba, built on the hill at Mihintale, is stated,

but not in the historical works, to contain a single hair of Buddha. It seems to have been a structure in which the old annalists took little interest, and as a result there are almost no records respecting it. I have already mentioned that it was one of the works of Dēvānam-piya Tissa, who built it probably about 243 B.C.

Its shape is a hemisphere resting on three low circular basal platforms, and it had the usual square tee, faced with post-and-rail work in false relief, and doubtless also a spire, probably surmounted by a chatta or umbrella, like all the other large dagabas.

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It is much larger than the Thūpārāma dāgaba. The dome is about 84 feet in diameter and some 44 feet high. The tee was about 20 feet wide and 10 feet high. The total height of the present ruin is 65 feet. The basal platforms form steps each about 4 feet wide and rather less in height; there is a quadrantal moulding round them. The wāhalkaḍas' found at the other great dagabas of Anuradhapura are absent, and there are no encircling stone pillars, but wooden pillars were

erected in their place between 9 B.C and 21 A.D.1 The above noted dimensions are taken from a photograph by Messrs. Skeen and Co., of Colombo.

From the Mahāvansa (i, p. 128) we learn that King Lajji-Tissa 'encased with stone' this dāgaba (as well as the Thūpārāma dāgaba) at a cost of one hundred thousand pieces of money; but like the similar covering at the Thūpārāma all traces of such work have disappeared, impossible as it would seem at such a site. Considering the size of the dagaba, I should think it not improbable that there has been some misunderstanding regarding some expression of the pre-Christian annalist; and that it is most likely that the laying of the flooring of the platform round the dagaba was the work done at both structures.

It must have suffered like the Anuradhapura dāgabas during the periods when South-Indian invaders ruled the country in the eleventh and thirteenth centuries, and we may assume that it was included among the sixty-four dāgabas which Parakrama-Bāhu I repaired at Mihintale in the twelfth century.

In the latter part of last century it was in little better state than some of the other early works, and the spire had fallen, as well as large sections of the face work of the dome, and the structure was nearly surrounded by a talus of fallen brickwork covered with bushes. Its repair made considerable progress under the direction of the late Mr. R. W. Ievers, when he was the Government Agent of the Province, and its further destruction was thus arrested.

The dimensions of the bricks used in this structure have been given in a former chapter. It is of archaeological interest to note that when vainly searching for letters or marks that might have been left on them by their makers, I found on the side of one of them, which I handed over to the Archaeological Commissioner, a representation of a plain 'Buddhist railing,' consisting, I think, of three uprights and three cross bars, a post and rail fence like those built in stone in India. As the brick was one that had fallen out of the body of the

1 Pūjāvaliya, p. 20.

dāgaba with others, and is also of the size of the earliest ones used in the dāgaba, which must belong to the original work, the discovery of this design on it proves that the knowledge of this form of construction dates in Ceylon from the middle of the third century B.C.

SMALL DAGABAS

During the reign of Uttiya, brother and successor of Dēvānampiya Tissa, it is recorded that two dāgabas were built over the ashes of the introducer of Buddhism, the great apostle Mahinda, and his sister Sanghamittā, the first Superior of the Nuns. Evidently they were comparatively small structures.

The remains of a dagaba 21 feet in diameter, which now bears the name 'Sanghamitta Thūpa' and lies north-east of the Thūpārāma dāgaba, were excavated by Mr. Bell; although he found nothing to prove that the modern name is correct he thought it possible that 'some of the ashes of the princess may have been deposited at this site.' 1 The dagaba in which the ashes of Mahinda were laid was in the eastern part of the grounds of the Mahā Wihāra; it has not been traced.

The same king is also stated to have built a dāgaba, also doubtless a small one, to mark a spot where two previous Buddhas, Kōnāgamana and Kassapa, were supposed to have preached at the Sudassana or Sōmana Mālaka, 'the Beautiful Enclosure.' This place also has not been identified; the context seems to show that it was not far from the site of the Ruwanwaeli dāgaba, and probably to the southward of it.

To the south of the Thūpārāma dāgaba another small structure of this kind was also erected by a younger brother of King Uttiya, called Aśōka (Mah., i, p. 61), who is perhaps the same as the Asela who subsequently succeeded to the throne

1 Annual Report, 1895, p. 2. He found a small broken cella or relic chamber, in the form of an even cross,' in it, at about the level of the top of the basal platform or step. The dagaba was built on a circular platform, 31 feet in diameter, paved with brick.

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