340 



THE SINGHALESE CHEONICLES. 



[Part III. 



B.C. 



oU7. 



different to his own faith, that his first alhance in Ceylon 

 Avas witli a demon worsliipper.^ His immediate successors 

 were so eager to encourage immigration, that they treated 

 aU rehgions with a perfect equahty of royal favour. 

 Yakkho temples were not only respected, but " annual 

 demon offerings were provided " for them ; halls were 

 built for the worshippers of Brahma, and residences were 

 provided at the public cost, for " five hundred persons of 

 various foreign rehgious faiths ;"'^ but no mention is made 

 in the Mahawanso of a, single edifice having been then 

 raised for the worsliippers of Buddha, whether resident 

 in the island, or arriving amongst the colonists from 

 India. 



It was not till the year B.C. 307, in the reign of 

 Tissa, that the preacher Mahindo ventured to visit 

 Ceylon, under the auspices of the king, whom he suc- 

 ceeded in inducing to abstain from Brahmanical rites, 

 and to profess faith in the doctrines of Buddha. From 

 the prominent part thus taken by Tissa in estabhshing 

 the national faith of Ceylon, the sacred writers honour 

 his name with the prefix of Dewdnan-pia^ or " beloved of 

 the saints." 



The Mahawanso exhausts the vocabulary of ecstacy 

 in describing the advent of Mahindo, a prince of 

 Magadha, and a lineal descendant of Chandragutto. 

 It records the visions by which he was divinely 

 directed to " depart on his mission for the conversion 

 of Lanka;" it describes his aerial flight, and his descent 

 on Ambatthalo, the loftiest peak of JVIihintala, the moun- 

 tain which, rising suddenly from the plain, overlooks 



■* According to tlie Mahawanso, 

 Vishnu, in order to protect Wijajo 

 and his followers from the sorceries 

 of the Yakkhos, met them on their 

 landing in Ceylon, and " tied threads 

 on their arms" ch. vii. ; and at a later 

 period, when the king Pauduwasa, 

 15.C. 504, was afflicted with temporary 



insanity, as a punishment in his person 

 of the crime of perjmy, committed hy 

 his predecessor Wijayo, Iswara was 

 supplicated to interpose, and by his 

 mediation the king was restored to 

 his right mind. — Rqjavali, p. 181. 



^ Mahawanso, ch. x. p. G7 ; ch, 

 xxxiii. p. 203. 



