346 



THE SINGHALESE CHRONICLES. 



[PART III. 



B.C. 



289. 



closing a hollow vessel of inetal or stone that had once 

 contained the relic, but of which the ornament alone and 

 a few gems or discoloured pearls set in gold, are usually 

 all that is now discoverable. 



Their outline exhibits but little of ingenuity or of 

 art, and their construction is only remarkable for the 

 vast amount of labour which must necessarily have 

 been lavished upon them. But, independently of this, 

 the first dagoba erected at Anarajapoora, the Thupa- 

 ramaya, which exists to the present day, " as nearly as 

 may be in the same form in which it was originally 

 designed, is possessed of a peculiar interest from the 

 fact that it is in all probability the oldest architectural 

 monument now extant in India." 1 It was raised by 

 King Tissa, at the close of the third century before 

 Christ, over the collar-bone of Buddha, which Mahindo 

 had procured for the king. 2 In dimensions this monu- 

 ment is inferior to those built at a later period by the 

 successors of Tissa, some of which are scarcely exceeded 

 in diameter and altitude by the dome of St. Peter's 3 ; but 

 in elegance of outline it immeasurably surpassed all the 

 other dagobas, and the beauty of its design is still percep- 

 tible in its ruins after the lapse of two thousand years. 



The king, in addition to this, built a number of others 

 in various parts of Ceylon 4 , and his name has been per- 

 petuated as the founder of temples, for the rites of the 

 new religion, and of Wiharas or monasteries for the resi- 

 dence of its priesthood. The former were of the simplest 

 design, for an atheistical system, which substitutes medi- 

 tation for worship, dispenses with splendour in its edifices 

 and pomp in its ceremonial. 



1 FERGUSSON'S Handbook of Archi- 

 tecture, b. i. c. iii. p. 43. 



2 Mahawanso, en. xvii. The Raja- 

 vali calls it the jaw-bone, p. 184. 



3 The Abhayagiri dagoba at Anara- 

 japoora, built B.C. 89, was originally 

 180 cubits high, which, taking the 

 Ceylon cubit at 2 feet 3 inches, 

 would be equal to 405 feet. The 



dome was hemispherical, and describ- 

 ed with a radius of 180 feet, giving a 

 circumference of 1130 feet. The 

 summit of this stupendous work was 

 therefore fifty feet higher than St. 

 Paul's, and fifty feet lower than St 

 Peter's. See vol. ii. p. x. c. ii. p. 622. 

 4 TuaNOTO's Epitome, p. 15. 



