494 Captain Cxarman on the Cily of Anardjapura 
The existence of this city being thus carried up by European authorities 
to a period not far short of the Christian era, we have only to trace it in 
the native records. 
In the Rdjaratndcari, Anarddhepura is mentioned as one of the places 
consecrated by the visit of the first Bupp’Ha,* and that it was then called 
Abayapura. It appears that Panpuwas ABaye caused the city of Anarddhe 
to be built, and that during his life-time the city was assigned to his uncle 
AnarabuE, and took the name of Anarddhepura-newara. 
VisAya, the first king of Ceylon according to two of the histories, 
embarked for Ceylon on the day of the death of the present Bupp’na ; 
according to the other, seven days after his death. VusAya is stated to 
have reigned either thirty or thirty-eight years: he was succeeded by his 
minister ALPETISsA, who appears to have held the government only until the 
arrival of Panpuwas. Panpuwas reigned thirty years: he was father to 
Azaya, by whom Anarddhepura is said to have been built. We have thus 
a period of from sixty-one to sixty-nine years after the death of Bupp’Ha, 
within which the city was founded. 
The date assigned to the death of Bupp’Ha, by concurrent testimony of 
the best authorities, is 542 years before the Christian era. If from this we 
deduct seventy years, within which, as before stated, we may safély believe 
that the city was founded, we arrive at the date of 470 years before Christ, 
and thus assign to this interesting spot the remote antiquity of upwards of 
2,300 years. 
According to the histories, Anarddhepura was subject to the constant 
inroads of the Malabars, who appear always to have retained possession of 
the northern part of the island. Its buildings were frequently destroyed; 
* The first Bupp’na, according to Sir WM. Jones and Mr, Bentiey ( Asiatic Researches), is 
supposed to have existed about 1027 years before Christ ; the antiquity, therefore, which is thus 
assigned to Anarddhepura, under the name of Abaya-pura, is 2860 years; but the accounts are 
vague and contradictory : for, on comparing them, Agaya commenced his reign in the sixty-ninth 
year of Bupp'na, or 474 years before Christ ; and Anarddhepura, which had taken the name 
from Anuradha during the reign of the preceding king Panpuwas, became the capital of the 
next king, whose reign commenced 437 years before Christ. 
+ From the Chronology, published in the Ceylon Almanac for 1833, which has fallen into my 
hands whilst correcting this paper for the press, and which has been compiled with great care by 
Mr. Turnour, the revenue commissioner at Kandy, the era of the present or fourth Bupp'Ha, 
is 543 years before Christ. 
