360 



THE SINGHALESE CHRONICLES. [Part III. 



I 



CHAP. VI. 



THE INFLUENCE OF BUDDHISM ON CIVILISATION. 



B.C. 



137. 



After the reign of Dutugaimiinu there is little in the 

 pages of the native historians to sustain interest in the 

 story of the Singhalese monarchs. The long hne of 

 sovereigns is divided into two distinct classes ; the kings 

 of the Maha-wanse or " superior dynasty " of the uncon- 

 tamhiated blood of Wijayo, who occupied the throne from 

 his death, B.C. 505, to that of Maha Sen, a.d. 302 ; — and 

 the Sitlu-ivanse or " inferior race," whose descent was less 

 pure, but who, amidst invasions, revolutions, and decline, 

 continued, with unsteady hand, to hold the government 

 down to the occupation of the island by Europeans in the 

 beginning of the sixteenth century. 



To the great dynasty, and more especially to its 

 earhest members, the inhabitants were indebted for the 

 first rudiments of civihsation, for the arts of agricultural 

 hfe, for an organised government, and for a system of 

 national worship. But neither the piety of the kings 

 nor their munificence sufiiced to concihate the personal 

 attachment of their subjects, or to strengthen their throne 

 by national attachment such as would have fortified its 

 occupant against the fatahties incident to despotism. 

 Of fifty-one sovereigns who formed the pure Wijayan 

 dynasty, two were deposed by their subjects, and nine- 

 teen put to death by their successors.^ Excepting the 



1 There is sometliing very striking 

 in the facility with which aspirants to 

 the throne obtained the instant ac- 

 quiescence of the people, so soon as 

 assassination had put them in pos- 



session of power. And this is the 

 more remarkable, where the usui-pers 

 were of the lower grade, as in the 

 instance of Subho, a gate porter, who 

 murdered King Yasa Silo, a.d. GO, 



