Chap. II.] THE RUINED CITY. 609 



Christian era, and the Mahawanso relates that, on its 

 completion, the king caused it to be enveloped in a 

 jewelled covering ornamented with pearls, and spread a 

 foot carpet from Mihintala to Anarajapoora, that pilgrims 

 might proceed all the way with unwashed feet.^ The 

 rock in many places bears inscriptions recording the 

 mmiificence of the sovereigns of Ceylon, and the ground 

 is strewn with the fragments of broken carved-work and 

 the debris of ruined buildings. On the face of the cliff 

 a ledge of granite artificially levelled is pointed out as 

 "the bed of Mahindo," from which a view of extraor- 

 dinary beauty extends over an expanse of fohage that 

 stretches to the versre of the horizon. Towerino; above 

 this ocean of verdure are the gigantic dagobas of Anara- 

 japoora, whose artificial lakes he glittering in the sun- 

 beams below ; and, dim in the distance, can be descried 

 the sacred rock of Dambool, and the mysterious suminit 

 of the Eitta-galla mountain. 



The road leading from the base of Mihintala to Anara- 

 japoora, a distance of nearly eight miles, is marked by 

 as many traces of antiquity as the Appian Way between 

 Aricia and Eome. It passes between moiddering walls, 

 by mounds where the grass imperfectly conceals the 

 ruins beneath, and by fragments of fallen columns that 

 mark the sites of perished monuments. It was the Via 

 Sacra of the Buddhist hierarchy, along which they con- 

 ducted processions led by their sovereigns from the tem- 

 ple at the capitol to the peak of Ambatthalo.^ Though 

 now overgrown with jungle and forest trees, it was 

 traversed by chariots two thousand years ago, when the 

 pious king Devenipiatissa sent his carriage to bring 

 Mahindo to the sacred city.^ 



Passing by the noble tank of Neuera-weva, and havuig 

 forded the Malwatte-oya (the Kadamba of the Maha- 



* Mahmcanso, ch. xxxiv. p. 21.3. 

 ^ Mahaioanso, ch. xxxvii. p. 240. 

 These processions are mmutely de- 



scribed by Fa IIiax, loe Koue Ki, 

 ch. xxxviii. p. 335. 



^ Mahmcanso, ch. xiv. 2>. 80. 



VOL. II. K R 



