THE HISTORY OF MANIKKA-VACAGAR. 131 



Amongst them the (^ora king took his seat upon a gorgeous throne, after 

 he had duly paid homage at the sacred feet of the saint. On the other 

 side entered the Ceylon king, who was received by the (^oran with the 

 utmost condescension. His tributary presents were accepted with many 

 complimentary speeches, and he was invited to occupy a seat near that 

 of the COran himself. 



The Buddhist guru with his disciples sat opposite, and towering 

 around (presumably invisible as yet) were all the gods and blessed onea 

 from all the worlds. Even the divinities of the Sun and Moon were in 

 presence there. The salutation of the (^ora king to the saint at the 

 opening of the conference was ominous : ' It is thine, O saint of sacred 

 Perunturrai, to establish the truth of the (^aiva wisdom. Afterwards it 

 shall be my care to extirpate these Buddhists ! ' It is said that these 

 words of the king were heard by the Ceylon champions with dismay and 

 by the orthodox champions with delight. Thus encouraged, the saint 

 opened the conference with no very saintly words : ' O Buddhan, who 

 dost utter words of guile, wherefore art thou come ? ' The foreign guru 

 replied in no conciliatory strain : ' I am come to tell this town that there 

 is no god but Him whose enduring worship we perform, and to place in 

 sight of all men, in the very Golden Hall itself, the image of our god 

 Buddha. This is all I seek.' The saint, with withering smile, replied : 

 ' O thou who hast performed no austerities in any former birth, can a 

 hare become an elephant ? But tell me who is this good and mighty god 

 of yours. And how shall souls approach his feet I ' The topics then 

 were 'God and the way of salvation.' The foreign guru replied in 

 wrath, ' Can one show the sun's rays to the blind ? "Were I to tell of 

 Buddha's greatness, I should require many thousand tongues. But our 

 god has revealed to us the good law of the pidagmn* in which virtue is 

 proclaimed. In love He has been born in many shapes. He has given 

 assurance to millions of souls, and, free from the fourfold evils of murder, 

 theftjfalsehood, and intemperance,! He sits inmajestyunder an arasultree. 

 The ' trouble of birth ' is coming into existence, and the ceasing of the 

 multiform cognizance of many things arising from assembling and com- 

 bination in the womb of the ^ Five Kandas,' which are form (rupa), 



* The Tri-pitaka (Tipitaka, in Tamil Pidagam), ' three baskets,' are three col- 

 lections regarded as canonical scriptures by the southern Buddhists. The second of 

 those treats of ethics, and seems to be especially indicated here. 



t The prohibitions of Buddhism are five. Here adultery is omitted. 



:;: This is the Fictis relit/iosa, or poplar-leaved fig-tree. In S. it is called Bodhi, 

 or ' perfect wisdom,' because under it Buddha was perfected. Other names are 

 A(;vattha and Pippala (Peepul). 



