Chap. ITT.] CONQUEST OF CEYLOX BY WIJAYO. 



341 



the sacred city of Anarajapoora. The story proceeds to 

 explain, lio^v tlie king, who was hunting the elk, was 

 miraculously allured by the lieeing game to approach 

 the spot where Maliindo was seated ^ ; and how the 

 latter forthwith propounded the Divine doctrine " to the 

 ruler of the land ; who, at the conclusion of his discourse, 

 together with his forty thousand followers, obtained the 

 salvation of the faith." - 



Then follows the approach of Maliindo to the capital ; 

 the conversion of the queen and her attendants, and 

 the reception of Buddhism by the nation, under the 

 preaching of its great Apostle, who " thus became the 

 luminary which shed the hght of rehgion over the 

 land." He and his sister Sanghamitta thenceforth de- 

 voted their hves to the organisation of Buddliist com- 

 munities throughout Ceylon, and died in the odour of 

 sanctity, in the reign of King Uttiya, B.C. 267. 



But the grand achievement which consummated the 

 establishment of the national faith, was the arrival 

 from Magadha of a branch of the sacred Bo-tree. Every 

 ancient race has had its sacred tree ; the Chaldeans, the 

 Hebrews ^, the Greeks, the Eomans and the Druids, had 

 each their groves, their elms and their oaks, under which 

 to worship. Like them, the Brahmans have their Kalpa 

 tree in Paradise, and the Banyan in the vicinity of their 



B.C. 



307. 



B.C. 



289. 



^ The stoiy, as related in the 

 Mahawmiso, bears a resemblance to 

 the legend of St. Hubert and the 

 stag-, in the forest of ^Vi-dennes, and 

 to tliat of St. Eustace, who, when 

 hunting, was led by a deer of singidar 

 beauty towards a rock, where it dis- 

 played to him the crucifix upon its 

 forehead ; whence an appeal was ad- 

 di'essed which effected his conversion. 

 " The king Dewananpiyatissa de- 

 parted for an elk hunt, taking with 

 him a retinue ; and in the course of 

 the pursuit of the game on foot, he 

 came to the Missa mountain. A 

 certain devo, assuming the form of an 

 elk, stationed himself there, grazing ; 



the sovereign descried him, and say- 

 ing ' it is not fair to shoot him stand- 

 ing/ sounded his bowstring, on which 

 the elk fled to the momitain. The 

 king gave chase to the fljing animal, 

 and, on reaching the spot where the 

 priests were, the thero Mahindo came 

 within sight cf the monarch ; but the 

 metamorphosed deer vanished." — 

 3I(iIia7ranso, c. xiv. 



2 3Iahawanso, ch. xiv. p. 80. 



^ " They sacrifice upon the tops of 

 mountains, and burn incense under 

 oaks, and poplars, and elms,, because 

 the shadow thereof is good." — Hoseci, 

 iv. 1.3. 



z .3 



