‘Vol. I, No. 4.] Anuruddha Thera. 101 
ENS. 
Anuruddha to bring from there some learned Buddhist monks and 
elders of the church. I have reasons to believe that the Ramajfiia! 
country was identical with the kingdom of the Pallavas that lay in 
the Coromandel coast, and “the King of Anuruddha” was the 
Pallaya King in whose territory Anuruddha was born and from whose 
territory learned monks including Anuruddha himself were taken 
over to Ceylon. Anuruddha must on this supposition have gone 
to Ceylon early in the 12th Century A.D. when Vijayabahu I was 
King of the island. 
Kajcipura in which Anuruddha was born is identified with 
modern Conjeeveram, 43 miles south-west of Madras. It was the 
capital of the ancient kingdom of Dravida and was the residence 
of the kings of the Pallava dynasty till that dynasty was over- 
thrown by the Cholas at the close of the 11th Century AD. 
Rajarajendra Kulottunga Chola I, who reigned from 1064—1113 
A.D., is said to have completely crushed the power of the Pallava 
kings and to have destroyed the city of Kaftci. He, however, sub- 
sequently rebuilt and greatly improved that city but selected 
Tanjore as the permanent place of residence of the Chola kings. 
Anuruddha, we have seen, lived both in Kaiici and Tanjore. 
It may be noted here that the Pallava Kings who reigned in 
Kanci were staunch Buddhists and belonged to the Sthavira school. 
It has already been stated that they were overthrown by the 
Cholas inthe 1Ith Century A.D. From that time downwards they 
remained as vassals under the Chola kings. The last mention of 
the Pallavas as a dynasty occurs, as far as it is known at present, 
about the year 1223 A.D. In 1310 A.D. the Cholas being con- 
quered by the Mahomedans Kajfici passed into the hands of the 
conquerors. Harly in the 12th century A.D. Ramanuyja, the cele- 
brated Vaisnava preacher, flourished in Sriperumatur, 18 miles east- 
north-east of Kaiicipura, and converted the kings of the Chalukya, 
Chola and other dynasties into his religion. The Buddhists were 
henceforth persecuted by the Vaisnavas of the Ramanuja school 
as wel] as by the Mahomedan conquerors. Still Buddhism 
lingered for some time in Kaficipura or Conjeeveram and finally 
disappeared from it at the close of the 15th Century A.D. Anurud- 
dha Thera, who flourished in Kaficipura early in the 12th Century 
A.D., was by no means the last Buddhist Pali scholar of that city. 
} In Burmese books we find, however, that Anaurata or Anuruddha was 
the 42nd (or 44th) King of Pagan and Ramafiia or Ramagniais the country 
round Thaton. Vide Bigandet’s Legend of Gaudama, Vol. IT, pp. 145-146 
(3rd edition). Rev. T. Foulkes observes :—‘‘ Sir Hmersgon Tennent guesses 
that this Kingdom of Aramana [Ramafifia] may be apart of the Indo-Chinese 
Peninsula probably between Arracan and Siam; and Turnour had already, 
without giving any authority, fixed it in Arracan; but the passages in the 
Rajaratnakari, the Rajavali and the Mahadvamsa, in which it is mentioned, 
clearly locate it on the Coromandel coast; and, as it is not Pandya nor Chola, 
the only part of that coast which remains is that which lies between Chola 
and Kalinga, namely, the old dominions of the Pallavas.” ‘he Indian Anti- 
quary, Vo\. XVII (1888), page 126. 
