376 



THE SINGHALESE CHUONICLES. 



[Part III. 



B.C. 



89. 



B.C. 



G2. 



B.C. 



50. 



B.C. 



47. 



Scriptures, contain tlie Pittakataya, and its comment- 

 aries the Attliakatha, and were compiled by a company 

 of priests in a cave to the north of Matelle, known as 

 the Aloo-wihara.^ Tliis, and other caverns in which 

 the king had sought conceahnent during his adversity, 

 he caused to be converted into rock temples after his 

 restoration to power. Amongst the rest, Dambool, 

 which is the most remarkable of the cave temples of 

 Ceylon from its vastness, its elaborate ornaments, and 

 the romantic beauty of its situation and the scenery 

 surrounding it. 



The history of the Buddhist rehgion in Ceylon is 

 not, however, a tale of uniform prosperity. The 

 lirst of its domestic enemies was Kaga, the grandson 

 of the pious Walagam-bahu, whom the native histo- 

 I'ians stigmatise by the prefix of " chora " or the " ma- 

 rauder." His story is thus briefly but emphatically told 

 in the Mahawanso : "During the reign of his father 

 Mahachula, Chora Naga wandered through the island 

 leading the life of a robber ; returning on the demise 

 of the king he assumed the monarchy; and in the 

 places which had denied him an asylum dming his 

 marauding career, he impiously destroyed the wiharas.''^ 

 After a reign of twelve years he was poisoned by 

 his queen Anula, and regenerated in the Lokantariko 

 heU."3 



His son, King Kuda Tissa, was also poisoned by his 

 mother, in order to clear her own way to the thi'one. 

 The Sin2;halese annals thus exhibit the unusual incident 

 of a queen enrolled amongst the monarchs of the great 

 dynasty — -a precedent which was followed in after times ; 



^ Majaratnncari, cli.i. p. 43. Abou- 

 zeyd states that at that time public 

 writers were employed in recording 

 the traditions of the island : *' Le 

 Royaume de Serendyb a une loi et 

 des docteurs qui s'assembleut de 

 temps en temps comme se reunissent 

 chez nous les personnes qui recueil- 

 lent les traditions du prophete^ et li's 



Indiens se rendent aupres des docteurs, 

 et ecrivent sous leurs dictee, la vie de 

 leurs prophetes et les preceptes de 

 leur loi." — Reinatjd, Itclation, SjC, 

 tom. i. p. 127. 



* Mahawanso, ch. xxxiii. ; Raja- 

 vali, p. 224; Tfhxour's Epitome, 

 p. 19 ; Rnjaratnacari, ch. i. p. 43, 44. 



^ 3Iah(twanso, oh. xxxiv. p. 209. 



