344 



THE SINGHALESE CHEONICLES. 



[Part III. 



CHAP. ly. 



THE EARLY BUDDHIST MONUMENTS. 



B.C. 



289. 



Almost simultaneously with the establishment of the 

 Buddhist religion was commenced the erection of those 

 stupendous ecclesiastical structures, the number and mag- 

 nitude of whose remains form a remarkable characteristic 

 in the present aspect of the country. 



The architectm^al history of continental India dates 

 from the third centmy before Christ ; not a single build- 

 ing or sculptured stone having as yet been discovered 

 there, of an age anterior to the reign of Asoca \ who 

 was the first of his dynasty to abandon the rehgion of 

 Brahma for that of Buddha. In hke manner the earliest 

 existing monuments of Ceylon belong to the same period ; 

 they owe their construction to Devenipiatissa, and the 

 historical annals of the island record with pious gratitude 

 the series of dagobas, wiharas, and temples erected by 

 him and his successors. 



Of these the most remarkable are the Dagobas, piles 

 of brickwork of dimensions so extraordinary that they 

 suggest comparison with the pyramids of Memphis ^, the 

 barrow of Halyattys ^, or the mounds in the valleys of the 

 Tigris and Euphrates. 



^ Feegtjsok, Handbook of Archi- 

 tecture, b. i. c. i. p. 5. 



^ So vast did the dag'obas appear 

 to the Singhalese that the author of 

 the 3Iahawanso, iu describino- the 

 construction of that called the liimn- 

 tvelle at Anarajapoora, states that 

 each of the lower courses contained 

 ten kotis (a Icoti being equal to 100 

 lacs) or 10,000,000 bricks. — J/oAa- 

 wanso, ch. xxx. p. 179. 



^ " The ancient edifices of Chi-Chen 

 in Central America bear a striking 

 resemblmce to the topes of India. 



The shape of one of the domes, its 

 apparent size, the smaU tower on the 

 summit, the trees gi-owing on the 

 sides, the appearance of masonry 

 here and there, the shape of the 

 ornaments, and the small doorway at 

 the base, are so exactly similar to 

 what I had seen at Anarajapoora 

 that when my eyes first fell on the 

 engravings of these remarkable ruins 

 I supposed that they were presented 

 in illustration of the dagobas of Cey- 

 lon." — Hardy's Eastern 3Io)iachism, 

 c. xix. p. 222. 



