624 



MEDIAEVAL HISTOEY. 



[Part V. 



Buddha. ^ " In the sixth month of the year 1411," 

 says the author of the Ming-She^ " the prisoners were 

 presented at court. The Chinese ministers pressed for 

 their execution, but the emperor, in pity for their ig- 

 norance, set them at hberty, but commanded them to 

 select a virtuous man from the same family to occupy the 

 throne. All the captives declared in favour of Seay-pa- 

 nae-na, whereupon an envoy was sent with a seal to 

 invest him with the royal dignity, as a vassal of the 

 empire," and in that capacity he was restored to Ceylon, 

 the former king being at the same time sent back to the 

 island.^ It would be difficult to identify the names in 

 this story with the kings of the period, were it not stated 

 in another chronicle, the Woo-heo-peen, or Eecord of 

 the Ming Dynasty, that Seay-pa-nae-na was afterwards 

 named Pu-la-ko-ma Ba-zae La-cha^ in which it is not 

 difficult to recognise "Sri Prakrama Baku Eaja," the 

 sixtli of his name, who transferred tlie seat of govern- 

 ment from Gampola to Cotta, and reigned from a.d. 1410 

 to 1462.3 



For fifty years after tliis untoward event the sub- 

 jection of Ceylon to China appears to have been 



^ See note at the end of this 

 cliapter. 



^ 3Iing-she, b. cccxxvi. p. 5. M. 

 Stanislas Jitlien intimates that the 

 forthcoming- volume of his version of 

 the Sl-yu-hiy^A\\ contain the eleventh 

 book, in which an accoimt will be 

 given of the expedition of Ching- Ho. 

 - — 3Iei)ioires sur les Contrees Occiden- 

 taJes, torn. i. p. 26. In anticipation 

 of its publication, M. JuLiEN has 

 been so obliging as to make for me a 

 translation of the passage regarding 

 Ceylon, but it proves to be an anno- 

 tation of the fifteenth century, which, 

 by the inadvertence of transcribers, 

 has become interpolated in the text 

 of Iliouen- TJisa»f/. It contains, how- 

 ever, no additional facts or state- 

 ments beyond the questionable one 

 before alluded to, that the sacred 

 tooth of Buddha was amongst the 



spoils carried to Pekin by Ching: 

 Ho. 



3 Woo-Mo-peen, b. Ixviii. p. 5. 

 See also the Ta-tsing ylh-tung, a 

 topooi-aphical account of the Manchoo 

 empire, a copy of which is among the 

 Chinese books in the British Museum. 

 In the very imperfect version of the 

 Rqjavali, published by Upham, this 

 important passage is rendered un- 

 intelligible by the want of fidelity of 

 the ti-anslator, who has transformed 

 the conqueror into a " Malabar," and 

 ante-dated the event by a century. 

 {Rqjavali, p. 263.) I am indebted 

 to Mr. De Alwis, of Colombo, for a 

 correct translation of the original, 

 which is as follows : "In the reign of 

 King Wijayo-bahu, the King of 

 Maha (great) China landed in Ceylon 

 with an army, pretending that he 

 was bringing tribute ; King Wijaj^o- 



