414 



THE SINGHALESE CHROXICLES. 



[Part III. 



A.D. 



1235. 



A.D. 



1266. 



A.D. 



1303. 



present Colombo. The Malabars still retained possession 

 of Pihiti, and defended tlieir frontier by a line of forts 

 drawn across the island from Pollanarrua to Ooroototta on 

 the western coast.* 



Thirty years later Pandita Prakrama Bahu III., A.D. 

 1266, effected a fmlher dislodgment of the enemy in the 

 north ; but Ceylon, which possessed 



" The fatal gift of beauty, that became 

 A funeral dower of present woes and past," 



was destined never a^ain to be free from the evils of foreii^n 

 invasion ; a new race of maraudei-s from the Malayan 

 peninsula were her next assailants '^ ; and these were fol- 

 lowed at no very long interval by a fresh expedition from 

 the coast of India. ^ 



Having learned by experience the exposure and inse- 

 curity of the successive capitals, which had been built 

 by former sovereigns in the low lands, this king founded 

 the city of Kandy, then called Siriwardanapuni,, amongst 

 the mountains of Maya'*, to which he removed the 

 sacred dalada, and the other treasures of the crown. 

 But such precautions came too late : to use the simile 

 of the native historian, they were " fencing the field 

 whilst the oxen were within engaged in devouring 

 the corn."^ The power of the Malabars had become 

 so firmly rooted, and had so irresistibly extended itself, 

 that, one after another, each of the earher capitals was 

 abandoned to them, and the seat of government car- 

 ried further towards the south. Pollanarrua had risen 

 into importance in the eighth and ninth centuries, when 

 Anarajapoora was found to be no longer tenable against 

 the strangers. Dambedenia was next adopted, A.D. 

 1235, as a retreat from Pollanarrua ; and this being 

 deemed insecure, was exchanged, a.d. 1303, for Yapahu 

 in the Seven Corles. Here the Pandyan marauders 



^ Mahawanm, ch. Ixxx. Ixxxii.; Ma- 

 jaratnacari, pp.n4,9o ; Jiq/avnii, p. 258. 



^ 7?rt/r«t'fl//, pp. 256, 260. A second 

 Malay landiii;^' i.s recorded in the reign 

 of Prakrama III., a.d. 1267. 



^ Ilaliawanso, ch. Ixxxii. 



* Rdjaratnacan, p. 104 ; Malia- 

 ivanso, ch. Ixxxiii. 



* Ri(jarafnacari, p. 82. 



