362 



THE SINGHALESE CHEONICLES. 



[Part III. 



B.C. 



119. 



arose two rival lines, which for centuries afterwards 

 were prompt on every opportunity to advance adverse 

 pretensions to the throne, and assert them by force of 

 arms. 



In such contests the priesthood brought a preponde- 

 rant influence to whatever side they inclined ' ; and thus 

 the royal authority, though not strictly sacerdotal, be- 

 came so closely identified with the hierarchy, and so 

 guided by its will, that each sovereign's attention was 

 chiefly devoted to forwarding such measures as most con- 

 duced to the exaltation of Buddhism and the maintenance 

 of its monasteries and temples. 



A signal effect of this regal policy, and of the growing 

 diffusion of Buddhism, is to be traced in the impulse 

 which it communicated to the reclamation of lands and 

 the extension of cultivation. For more than three 

 hundred years no mention is made in the Singhalese 

 annals of any mode of maintaining the priesthood other 

 than the royal distribution of clothing and voluntary 

 offerings of food. They resorted for the " royal alms " 

 either to the residence of the authorities or to halls 

 specially built for their accommodation ^, to which they 

 were summoned by " the shout of refection ; " ^ the ordi- 

 nary priests receiving rice, " those endowed with the 

 gift of preaching, clarified butter, sugar, and honey." ^ 

 Hospitals and medicines for their use, and rest houses on 

 their journeys, were also provided at the pubhc charge.^ 

 These expedients were available so long as the num- 

 bers of the priesthood were Hmited ; but such were the 



I 



' It was the dyinor boast of Diitu- 

 gaimunu that he had lived " a sLive to 

 the priesthood." The expression was 

 figurative in his case; but so abject 

 did the subserviency of the kings 

 become, and so rapid was its gi'owth, 

 that Bhatiya Tissa, who reigned a.d. 

 8, rendered it literal, and " dedicated 

 himself, his queen, and two sons, as 

 well as his charger, and state ele- 

 phant, as slaves to the 2^t'iesthood.'^ 



The Mahmvanso intimates that the 

 priests themselves protested against 

 this debasement, ch. xxxiv. p. 214. 



'^ Mahawanso, ch. xx. p. 12.3 ; xxii. 

 p. 132, 135, 



3 3Iahawanso, ch. xxviii. p. 167. 



* 3Iahawa7iso, ch. xxxii. p. 196-7. 



5 Mahawanso, ch. xxxii. p. 196 

 xxxvii. p. 244 ; Rajaratnacari, p. 39^ 

 41. 



