CHAP. TIL] CEYLOX AS KNOWN TO THE CHINESE. 



619 



him into banishment to India (Teen chuh), whence, after 

 marrying a royal princess, he was recalled to Ceylon 

 on the death of the tyrant, where he reigned twenty 

 years, and was succeeded by his son, Po-kea Ta-To" 1 

 In this story may probably be traced the extinction 

 of the " Great Dynasty " of Ceylon, on the demise of 

 Maha-Sen, and the succession of the " Sulu-wanse", or 

 Lower Dynasty, in the person of Kitsiri Maiwan, A.D. 

 301, whose son, Detu Tissa, may possibly be the Po-kea 

 Ta-to of the Chinese Chronicle. 2 



The visit of Fa-Hian, the zealous Buddhist pilgrim, 

 in the fifth century of our era, has been already fre- 

 quently adverted to. 3 He landed in Ceylon A.D. 412, 

 and remained for two years at Anarajapoora, engaged 

 in transcribing the sacred books. Hence his descrip- 

 tions are confined almost exclusively to the capital ; 

 and he appears to have seen little of the rest of the 

 island. He dwells with delight on the magnificence 

 of the Buddhist buildings, the richness of their jewelled 

 statues, and the prodigious dimensions of the dagobas, 

 one of which, from its altitude and solidity, was called 

 the " Mountain without fear" 4 But what most excited 

 his admiration was his finding no less than 5000 Buddhist 

 priests at the capital, 2000 in a single monastery on a 

 mountain (probably Mihintala), and between 50,000 and 

 60,000 dispersed throughout the rest of the island. 5 

 Pearls and gems were the wealth of Ceylon ; and from 

 the latter the king derived a royalty of three out of every 

 ten discovered. 6 



The earliest embassy from Ceylon recorded in the 

 Chinese 7 annals at the beginning of the fifth century, 



1 Leang-shoo, "History of the 

 Leang Dynasty," b. liv. p. 10. 



- JU&MMMO. c. xxxvii. p. 242. 

 TmsorR's Epitome, &c., p. 24. 



3 The Foe-koue-ki, or " Descrip- 

 tion of Buddhist Kingdoms," by FA- 

 HIAN, has been translated by Re- 

 musat, and edited by Klaproth and 

 Landresse, 4to. Paris, 183G. 



4 In Chinese, Woo-wei. 



5 Foe-koue-ki, c. xxxviii. pp. 333, 



6 Ibid, c. xxxvii. p. 328. 



7 A.D. 405. Gibbon alludes with 

 natural surprise to his discovery of the 

 fact, that prior to the reign of Jus- 

 tinian, the "monarch of China had 

 actually received an embassy from 



