C;iAP. II.] IXDIAN, ARABIAX, TEIISIAX AUTHORITIES. 



585 



scribes to wiite down from tlieir dictation tlic doctrines 

 of Buddhism, the legends of its prophets, and the 

 precepts of its law. This statement has an obvious 

 reference to the important events recorded in the 

 Mahaicanso^ of the reduction of the tenets, orally de- 

 livered by Buddha, to their ^vritten form, as they appear 

 in the Pittahitayan ; to the translation of the Atthakatha, 

 from Singhalese into Pali, in the reign of Mahanamo, 

 A. D. 410-432 ; and to the singular care displayed, at 

 all times, by the kings and the priesthood, to preserve 

 authentic records of every event connected with the 

 national rehgion and its history. 



Abou-zeyd adverts to the richness of the temples of 

 the Singhalese, and to the colossal dimensions of their 

 statues, and dwells with particularity on their toleration 

 of all religious sects as attested by the existence there, 

 in the ninth century, of a sect of Manichseans, and a 

 community of Jews.^ 



^ 3Iahmoanso, ch. xxxiii. p. 207 ; 

 ch. xxx\'ii. p. 252. j 



^ It was to Ceylon that the terri- 

 fied worshippers of Siva betook them- 1 

 selves in their flight, when Mahmoud 

 of Ghnznee smote the idol and over- 

 threw the temple of Somnant, A. D. 

 1025. (Ferishta, transl. by Briggs, 

 vol. i. p. 71 ; Rein Arc, Infrod. to 

 Aboulfeda, vol. i. p. cccxlix. 3Ie- 

 moires sur tlnde, p. 270.) Twenty 

 yeai's previonsly, when the same 

 orthodox invader routed the schis- 

 matic Carmathians at Moultan, the 

 fugitive chief of the Sheahs foimd an 

 asylum in Ceylon. (Reinattd, Joiirn. 

 Asiat., vol. xlv. p. 283 ; vol. xlvi. p. 

 ] 29. ) The latter circumstance serves 

 to show that the Mahometans in 

 Ceylon have not been uniformly 

 Sonnees, and it may probably throw 

 light on a fact of much local interest 

 connected with Colombo. Tliere for- 

 merly stood there, in the Mahometan 

 Cemetery, a stone ^^'ith an ancient 

 inscription in Cufic characters, which 

 no one could decipher, but which was 

 said to record the virtues of a man of 



singidar virtue, who had arrived in 

 the island in the tenth century. 

 About the year 1787 A. D., one of the 

 Dutch officials removed the stone to 

 the spot Avhere he was building, " and 

 placed it where it uoav stands, at one 

 of the steps to his door." This is the 

 accoimt given by Sir Alexander 

 Johnston, who, in 1827, sent a copy 

 of the inscription to the Royal 

 Asiatic Society of London. Gilde- 

 meister pronounces it to be wi'itten 

 in Carmathic characters, and to com- 

 memorate an Arab who died A. d. 

 848. " Karmathacis qu!e dicuntur 

 Uteris exarata viro cuidam Arabo 

 Mortuo, {)48 A. D. posita. Script. 

 Arahi de Rihus Indicis, p. 51). A 

 translation of the inscription by Lee 

 was published in Trans. Soi/. Asicd. 

 /Soc, vol. i. p. 545, from which it 

 appears that the deceased, Khalid 

 Ibn Abou Bakaya, distinguished him- 

 self by obtaining " security for re- 

 ligion, with other advantages, in the 

 year 317 of the Hf^jira." Lee was 

 disposed to think that this might be 

 the tomb of the Iniaum Abu Abd 



VOL. I. 



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