472 Application of the Sanchi alphabet [June. 



In all the Hindu genealogical tables with which I am acquainted* 

 no prince can be discovered possessing this very remarkable name. 

 If there ever reigned such a monarch in India, his memory must 

 have been swept away with every other record of the Buddhist dy- 

 nasties we know to have ruled in India unrecorded by fame : but if 

 any explanation can be afforded short of supposing such an entire 

 obliteration, and if it can be supported, moreover, by collateral facts, 

 we are bound to give it a preference rather than make darkness more 

 obscure by multiplying imaginary existences. 



Such explanation can be satisfactorily supplied from the annals of a 

 neighbouring country, and this is the third occasion in which we have 

 been indebted to them for the elucidation of obscure occurrences in 

 India Proper. In Mr. Turnour's epitome of Ceylonese History, then, 

 we are presented once, and once only, with the name of a king, Deve- 

 nipeatissa, as nearly identical with ours as possible, (especially the last 

 reading of the name,) and bearing, as Ratna Paula informs me, pre- 

 cisely the same derivation. 



Deveni peatissa succeeded his father on the throne of Ceylon in 

 the year of Buddha 236, or B. C. 307. One of his first acts is thus 

 related by Mr. Turnour : — 



" He induced Dharmasoka, a sovereign of the many kingdoms 

 into which Dambadiva (Jambudwipa, or India) was divided, and whose 

 capital was Pattilipatta, (PatnaJ to depute his son Mihindu' and his 

 daughter Sangamitta', with several other principal priests, to Anurd- 

 dhapura for the purpose of introducing the religion of BunDHA. They 

 arrived in the year 237, the first of this reign and eighteenth of that 

 of Dharmasoka. They established Buddhism, propagating its doctrines 

 orally. The 60- tree was brought and planted at Anurddhapura on 

 the spot where the sacred trees of former Buddhas has 9tood. The 

 right jaw-bone of Buddha was obtained from Sakraya himself, and a 

 cup full of other relics from Dharmasoka. The king built the vihare 

 and ddgoba called Toohpaaraamaya, in which the jaw relic was deposit- 

 ed; sixty-eight rock temples wuh thirty-two priest's chambers on 

 Mihintallai ; the M aha vihare, the Issaramuni vihare, the Saita chaitya 

 ddgoba, and the Issa-ramaya ddgoba and vihare ; and formed the Jssa 

 viva tank. Anula', the principal queen, and many inferior wives of 

 the king, assumed priesthood*." 



The age of the great Asoka, the third or fourth in descent from 

 Chandra gupta, is one of the well known epochs of the promulgation 

 of the Buddhist faith. It was also the most flourishing period of the 

 Ceylonese sovereignty then enriched by a commerce which has in 

 subsequent ages gradually passed into other channels. The monu- 

 * Turnour's Epitome of Ceylouese History, Ceylon Almanac, 1833. 



