CHAP. VI.] INFLUENCE OF BUDDHISM ON CIVILISATION. 367 



soms of the nagaha and the lotus. At an earlier period B.C. 

 the profusion in which these beautiful emblems were 104 - 

 employed in sacred decorations appears almost incre- 

 dible ; the Mahawanso relates that the Kuanwelle da- 

 goba, which was 270 feet in height, was on one occasion 

 "festooned with garlands from pedestal to pinnacle till 

 it resembled one uniform bouquet ; " and at another 

 time, it and the lofty dagoba at Mihintala were buried 

 under heaps of* jessamine from the ground to the 

 summit. 1 Fa Hian, in describing his visit to Anaraja- 

 poora in the fourth century, dwells with admiration 

 and wonder on the perfumes and flowers lavished on 

 their worship by the Singhalese 2 ; and the native histo- 

 rians constantly allude as familiar incidents to the 

 profusion in which they were employed on ordinary 

 occasions, and to the formation by successive kings of 

 innumerable gardens for the floral requirements of the 

 temples. The capital was surrounded on all sides 3 by 

 flower gardens, and these were multiplied so extensively 

 that, according to the Rajaratnacari, one was to be 

 found within a distance of four leagues in any part of 

 Ceylon. 4 Amongst the regulations of the temple built 

 at Dambedenia, in the thirteenth century, was " every 

 day an offering of 100,000 flowers, and each day a 

 different flower." 5 



Another advantage conferred by Buddhism on the 

 country was the planting of fruit trees and esculent vege- 

 tables for the gratuitous use of travellers in all the fre- 

 quented parts of the island. The historical evidences of 

 this are singularly corroborative of the genuineness of the 



1 Mahawanso, ch. xxxiv. ; Raja- 

 ratnacari, p. 52, 53. 



2 FA-HIAN. Foe-koue-ki, ch. 

 xxxviii. p. 335. 



3 RajavaJi, p. 227 ; Mahawanso, ch. 

 xi. p. 07. 



4 Rajaratnacari, p. 29, 49. Amongst 

 the officers attached to the great 

 establishments of the priests in Mihin- 

 tala, A.D. 246, there are enumerated 

 in an inscription engraven on a rock 



there, a secretary, a treasurer, a 

 physician, a surgeon, a painter, twelve 

 cooks, twelve thatchers, ten carpen- 

 ters, six carters, and two florists. 



5 Rajaratnacari, p. 103. The same 

 book states that another king, in 

 the fifteenth century, "offered no 

 less than 6,480,320 'sweet smelling 

 flowers " at the shrine of the Tooth. 

 Ib., p. 136. 



