(522 THE RUINED CITIES. [Part X. 



tions, it is still upwards of two Iniiidred and forty feet iu 

 lieiglit. Like the Eiuiuwelle, it U)o is densely covered 

 with trees which have taken root in the clefts of the 

 masomy, and huge heaps of displaced bricks he in decay 

 around its base. The word ahhayagiri means hterally 

 " the mountain of safety" — the origin of the epithet is 

 inicertain, but it presents a curious coincidence A\^tli the 

 term, by wliich, according to Diodorus Siculus, the people 

 of Samothrace designated tlie mounds erected by them to 

 commemmorate their preservation from the Cyantean 

 deluge — " opoi rr^g G^ayrrfC^ioLgy^ 



Near the intersection of the two great streets of tlie 

 city stands the Thuparama, the most venerated of all 

 the dagobas in Ceylon, having been constructed by 

 King Devenipiatissa to enslirine the collar-bone of 

 Buddha^, three centuries before the Christian era. So 

 sacred was this dagoba held to be, that Upatissa, a.d. 400, 

 caused a case to be made for it of " metal ornamented 

 Avithgold;"^ and Avithin this last twenty years a pious 

 priest at Anarajapoora collected funds fi-om the devout 

 for clearing it of the plants by wliich it had been pre- 

 viously overrun and covering it with a coating of cliunam. 

 Its outhne is pecuhar, being flattened at the top and so 

 hollowed at tlie sides as to give it the configuration of a 

 bell.'* Its height is about seventy feet from tlie ground, 

 and the terrace on which it is placed is sini'omided by 

 rows of monolithic pillars, each twenty-six feet high, with 

 richly decorated capitals. 



When the dalada was brought from India, in the 

 fomth ceiitmy^, it was placed for secm^ity in a building 

 at the foot of the Thuparama dagoba, and here it was 

 shortly afterwards seen by Fa Hiax.^ The ruins of this 



1 Diodorus SicuLrs, lib. v. c. 47. 

 Fa TIian {rives to the Abhayagiri 

 the Chines ename Won' Wei, which 

 liEiirsAT renders " la immtafine sans 

 craintcy — Foe Koue Ki, ch. xxxviii. 



2 3Iahairanso, ch. xvii. p. 108, 



published lithojrraph, by Prinsop, is 

 given in the Handbook of Architec- 

 ture, by Fkugussox, wlio pronovmces 

 it to be " older than any nidnunient 

 now existing on the continent of 

 India," vol. i. p. 41. 



3 Ihi(J. ch. xxx^ii. p. 250. ^ Mafutnanxo, ch. xxxvii. p. 241. 



* See diagTam, p. 621, note. A * Foe Koue Ki, ch. xxxviii. 

 view of this dagoba, from an nn- i 



