Cii.vr. III.] CEYLOX AS KNOWN TO THE CHINESE. 619 



liim into banishment to India (Ttien cliuli), whence, after 

 marrpng a royal princess, he was recalled to Ceylon 

 on the death of the tyi'ant, where he reigned twenty 

 years, and was succeeded by his son, Po-kea Ta-To." ^ 

 In this story may probably be traced the extinction 

 of the " Great Dynasty " of Ceylon, on the demise of 

 Maha-Sen, and the succession of the Sulu-wanse, or Lower 

 Dynasty, in the person of Kitsiri Maiwan, A.D. 301, 

 whose son, Detu Tissa, may possibly be the Po-kea Ta-to 

 of the Chinese Chronicle. ^ 



The \isit of Fa Hian, the zealous Buddliist pilgrim, 

 in the fifth century of our era, has been already fre- 

 quently adverted to. ^ He landed in Ceylon a.d. 412, 

 and remained for two years at Anarajapoora, engaged 

 in transcribing the sacred books. Hence his descrip- 

 tions are confined almost exclusively to the capital ; 

 and he appears to have seen httle of the rest of the 

 island. He dwells with dehght on the magnificence 

 of the Buddhist buildings, the richness of their jewelled 

 statues, and the prodigious dimensions of the dagobas, 

 one of which, from its altitude and sohdity, was called 

 the " Mountain ivithout fear." * But what most excited 

 his admu-ation was his findino; no less than 5000 Buddhist 

 priests at the capital, 2000 in a single monastery on a 

 mountain (probably ]\iihintala), and between 50,000 and 

 60,000 dispersed througliout the rest of the island.^ 

 Pearls and gems were the wealth of Ceylon ; and from 

 the latter the king derived a royalty of three out of every 

 ten discovered. ^ 



The earhest embassy from Ceylon recorded in the 

 Chinese '^ annals at the beginning of the fifth century, 



' Leang-shoo, "History of the 

 Leang Draasty," b. liv. p. 10. 



^ Mahmvanso, c. xxxvii. p 242. 

 TmtNoiJii's Epitome, &c., p. 24. 



^ The Foe-Koue Ki, or "Descrip- 

 tion of Buddhist Iving-doms," by Fa- 

 IIiAN, has been ti-anslated by Re- 

 musat, and edited by Klaproth and 

 Laudresse; 4to, Paris, 1830. 



* In Chinese, Woo-tvei. 



5 Foe-Kom Ki, c. xxxviii. pp. 333, 

 334. 



6 IhicL, c. xxxvii. p. 328. 



'' A.D. 405. Gibbon alludes with 

 natural sui-jDrise to his discovery of the 

 fact, that prior to the reipn of .Jus- 

 tinian, the "monarch of China liad 

 actually received an embassy from 



