CHAP. I.] 



THE MAHAWANSO. 



317 



enabled to prepare an Epitome of the History of Ceylon. 

 In this work he has exhibited the succession and 

 genealogy of one hundred and sixty-five kings, who 

 filled the throne during 2341 years, extending from 

 the invasion of the island from Bengal, by Wijayo, 

 in the year B.C. 543, to its conquest by the British in 

 1798. He has succeeded, after infinite labour, in con- 

 densing the events of each reign, commemorating 

 the founder^ of the chief cities, and noting the erec- 

 tion of the great temples and Buddhist monuments, 

 and the construction of some of those gigantic reservoirs 

 and works for irrigation, which, though in ruins, arrest 

 the traveller in astonishment at their stupendous di- 

 mensions. He thus effectually demonstrated the mis- 

 conceptions of those who had previously believed the 

 literature of Ceylon to be destitute of historic materials. 1 



Besides evidence of a less definite character, there is 

 one remarkable coincidence which affords ground for 

 confidence in the faithfulness of the purely historic 

 portion of the Singhalese chronicles ; due allowance 

 being made for that exaggeration of style which is 

 apparently inseparable from oriental recital. The cir- 

 cumstance alluded to is the mention in the Mahawanso 

 of the Chandragupta 2 , so often alluded to by the Sanskrit 

 writers, who, as Sir William Jones was the first to 

 discover, is identical with Sandracottus or Sandra- 

 coptus, the King of the Prasii, to whose court, on the 

 banks of the Ganges, Megasthenes was accredited as an 

 ambassador from Seleucus Nicator, about 323 years be- 



1 By the help of TtnufOFE's trans- 

 lation of the Mahawanso and the 

 versions of the Rajaratnacari and 

 Rajavali, published by Upham, two 

 authors have since expanded the 

 Epitome of the former into something 

 like a connected narrative, and those 

 who wish to pursue the investigation 

 of the early story of the island, will 

 find facilities in the History of Ceylon, 

 published by KNTGHTOX in 1845, 

 and in the first volume of Ceylon 



and its Dependencies, by PRTDHAM, 

 London, 1849. To facilitate re- 

 ference I have appended a Chrono- 

 logical List of Singhalese Sovereigns, 

 compiled from the historical epitome 

 of Tumour. See Note B. at the end 

 of this chapter. 



2 The era and identity of Sandra- 

 cottus and Chandragupta have been 

 accurately traced in MAX MTTLLER'S 

 History of Sanskrit Literature, p. 298, 



vCC. 



