CiiAi-. 11.] AXAKAJAl'UORA. Gil 



icamo), we rode through the thick forest, whieli covers 

 everything witli an impervious shade, except Avhere the 

 piety of pilgrims and devotees has caused a space to be 

 cleared round the principal monuments. Here the au* is 

 heavy and unwholesome, vegetation is rank, and malaria 

 broods over the waters, as they escape from the broken 

 tanks ; one of which, the Abhaya-weva, is the oldest in 

 Ceylon. 1 The soHtary city has shrunk into a few scat- 

 tered huts that scarcely merit the designation of a vil- 

 lage.^ The liumble dwelUng of a government officer, 

 the pansila of the officiating priests, a wretched bazaar, 

 and the houses of the native headmen, are all that now 

 remains of the metropolis of Anuradha, the " Anuro- 

 grammum Eegium " of Ptolemy, the sacred capital of 

 " the kingdom of Lions," on whose splendours the 

 Chinese travellers of the early ages expatiated with re- 

 ligious fervoiu'.^ The present aspect of the place fur- 

 nishes proofs that these encomiums were not unmerited, 

 and shows that the whole area, extending for some 

 miles in every dh-ection, must have been covered wdth 

 buildings of singular magnificence, surrounded by groves 

 of odoriferous trees. It recalls the description of the 

 palace of Kubla Khan, 



" Wliere twice five miles of fertile ground, 

 With walls and towers, were girded round ; 



' This tank, called also the Java- | Jonm. of the Amtt. Soc. of Biwjal for 

 weva, was constructed B.C. 505. 1847, vol. xati. pt. i. p. 213. 

 Mahmoanso, ch. x. p. Go. See aide, | ^ Fa IIi.vn, Foe Koue Ki, ch. 

 rt. III. ch. ii. p. 328. | xxxviii. p. 333. The antiquity claimed 



^ For an account of the ancient j forAnarajapoorabythejR^yV//Y//«rtcrt/7, 

 city, as described in the Singhalese exceeds that a.ssigned to it by the 

 Clironicles, see ^'ol. I. Pt. iv. ch. vii. 3Iahaivamo, the former asserting that 

 p. 493. Capt. CiiAPMAN, Roy. Art. it existed as a city before the advent 



F.R.S., published in 1832, Some Re- 

 marks on tJie Anrient City of Anara- 

 japoora in the Transact, of the Roy. 

 Asiat. Soe. vol. iii. p. 463, and in 



of the first Buddha to Ceylon (p. 2). 

 Forbes infers, from the absence of 

 anj-thing in the site and the soil to 

 recommend it for selection as a town, 



1852 he communicated a further ; that the place must have been 



paper on the same subject, which has \ chosen on superstitious g:i-ounds at a 



been printed in the Asiat. Soc. time when ^lihintala was the scene 



Journal, vol. xiii. p. 104. There is of hill-worship, prior to the intro- 



also an interesting- accoimt of the duction of Buddhism. — Elenn Years 



Ruins, by Mr. Knighton, in the in Ceylon, vol. i. ch. x. p. 207. 



R R 2 



