Chap. I.] DONDEEA. 113 



in wliicli contains the statue of the " Kustia Baja" an 

 Indian prmce, in whose honoiu: it was erected, because, 

 accordino; to the legend, he was the first to teach the 

 Singhalese tlie culture of the coco-nut/ 



Every building throughout tliis favourite district is 

 a memorial of the Dutch. The rest-houses on the road- 

 side, the villas in the suburbs, and the fortifications of the 

 towns were erected by them ; and Matura, with its Httle 

 star-fort of coral, remains as perfect at the present day, 

 as when it was a seat of the spice trade, and a sanitary 

 retreat for the garrison of Galle.'-^ 



Dondera Head, the Sunium of Ceylon, and the 

 southern extremity of the island, is covered with the 

 ruins of a temple, which was once one of the most cele- 

 brated in Ceylon. The headland itself has been the 

 resort of devotees and pilgrims, from the most remote 

 ages ; — Ptolemy describes it as Dagana^ " sacred to the 

 Moon," and the Buddliists constructed there one of 

 their earhest dagobas, the restoration of wliich was the 

 care of successive sovereigns.^ But the most important 

 temple was a shrine which m veiy early times had been 

 erected by the Hindus in honour of Yishnu. It was in 

 the height of its splendour, when, in 1587, the place 

 was devastated in the course of the maraudino- ex- 

 pedition by which De Souza d'Arronches sought to 

 create a diversion, dming the siege of Colombo by Eaja 

 Singha H.^ The historians of the period state that at 

 tliat time Dondera was the most renowned place of 

 pilgrimage in Ceylon ; Adam's Peak scarcely excepted. 



^ See ante, Vol. I. Pt. w. cli. xi. 

 p. 437. The legend will be foimd iu 

 Power's Ceylon MisccUamj, vol. i. p. 

 250, Cotta, 1842. An engraving of 

 the statue is given in the Asiatic Me- 

 searches, vol. vi. p. 432. 



2 Matiu-a was fortified in a.d. 

 15.50, by King Dhanua-pala, with 

 the aid of the Portuguese (Y\- 

 lENTTN, Ond en Nieuw Oost-Indien, 

 ch. vi. p. 8) ; but the fort still exist- 



VOL. II. 



ing was erected by the Dutch in A.u. 

 1645.— JJjV/., ch. xi. p. 130. 



^ Query. — Does Ptolemy's name 

 Dayana refer to the da(/oba? The 

 latter was repaired, a.d. ()8(3, by Iving 

 Dapoolu, who hold his court at 

 Mahagam, to the east of Dondera 

 (Hajavali, p. 248) ; and again, A.D. 

 1180, by Prakrania Bahu I. — Forbks' 

 ElevenYears in Ceylon, \o\. ii. p. 178, 



* See ante, Vol. II. Pt. vi. ch. i. 



