CHAP. IX.] KINGS OF THE " LOWER DYNASTY." 



391 



various ways administered consolation and abstracted his 

 mind from all desire to prolong his existence." The king 

 then bathed in the tank ; and pointing to his friend and 

 to it, " these," he exclaimed to the messengers, " are ah 1 

 the treasures I possess." 



He was conducted back to the capital ; and Kasyapa, 

 suspecting that the king was concealing his riches 

 for his second son, Mogallana, gave the order for his 

 execution. Arrayed in royal insignia, he repaired to the 

 prison of the Raja, and continued to walk to and fro in 

 his presence : till the king, perceiving his intention to 

 wound his feelings, said mildly, " Lord of statesmen, I 

 bear the same affection towards you as* to Mogallana." 

 The usurper smiled and shook his head ; then stripping 

 the king naked and casting him into chains, he built up a 

 wall, embedding him in it with his face towards the east, 

 and enclosed it with clay : " thus the monarch Dhatu-Sena, 

 who was murdered by his son, united himself with Sakko 

 the ruler of Devos." 1 



The parricide next directed his groom and his cook 

 to assassinate his brother, who, however, escaped to the 

 coast of India. 2 Failing in the attempt, he repaired to Siha- 

 giri (Sigiri), a place difficult of access to men, and having 

 cleared it on ah 1 sides, he surrounded it with a rampart. 

 He built three habitations, accessible only by flights of 

 steps, and ornamented with figures of lions (siho), 

 Avhence the fortress takes its name, Siha-giri, " the Lion 

 Rock." Hither he carried the treasures of his father, 

 and here he built a palace, " equal in beauty to the ce- 

 lestial mansion." He erected temples to Buddha, and 



1 Mahmcanso, eh. xxxviii. To this 

 hideous incident Mahanamo adds 

 the following curious moral : " This 

 Raja Dhatu Sena, at the time he was 

 improving the Kalawapi tank, ob- 

 served a certain priest absorbed in 

 meditation, and not being able to 

 rouse him from abstraction, had him 

 buried under the embankment by 

 heaping earth over him. His own 

 o c 



living entombment was the retribu- 

 tion manifested in this life for that 

 impious act." 



2 I am indebted to the family of 

 the late Mr. Tumour for access to a 

 manuscript translation of a further 

 portion of the Mahmcanso, from which 

 this continuation of the narrative is 

 extracted. 



A.D. 



477. 



