860 Account of the Tooth relic of Ceylon. [Oct. 



being transposed into the Mdgadhi, and on its being comprehended in that 

 delightful language, all the benefits derivable in this world and in the next 

 would be most fully realized, — therefore transposing the substance of the Data- 

 ddwansa composed in Elu kdwi into Mdgadhi verse, according to the prosody 

 of that language, this Ddthddhdtuwanso is composed in a form comprehen- 

 sible to degenerated intellects." 



A few leaves further on, Dhammarakkhito explains that it is under the 

 auspices of the minister, also called Para'kkamo, by whom Li'la'wati' was 

 raised to the throne, that the translation was undertaken by him ; and towards 

 the close of the book, he gives his own name, to which the title of " Rdjaguru" 

 or " preceptor of royalty " is added. 



In the following analysis of the Ddthddhdtuwanso , I will endeavour 

 to make my abridgements as concise, and my extracts as few, as a 

 narrative exposition of its contents will admit of. 



After the funeral obsequies of Buddho had been performed at Kusindrd 

 (in the year 543 B. C.) one of his disciples Khe'mo th^ro is commissioned to 

 take his *left canine tooth to Dantapura, the capital of Kdlinga. The 

 reigning sovereign there, who received the relic, was Brahmadatto. He was 

 succeeded by his son, ^Ka'si, who was succeeded by his son Sunando. These 

 rajas are stated to have been devout Buddhists. From the undiscriimnating 

 tone in which the ensuing monarchs are stated to have " continued to make offer- 

 ings to the tooth relic of the divine sage" it is reasonable to infer that, sub- 

 sequently to Sunando's reign, Buddhism ceased to be the faith of the rulers of 

 Kdlinga. At all events Gu / hasi'wo, who as a contemporary of the Ceylonese 

 monarch Mahase'no, must have reigned, towards the close of the third 

 century of our era, is admitted to have been of the br£hminical faith. Up to 

 that period, therefore, the relic had been kept at Dantapura for a term of, 

 at least, 800 years. 



The circumstance of a splendid festival having been held in his capital, in 

 honor of the relic, by the inhabitants of Kdlinga, leads Gu'hasi'wo into a 

 controversial discussion with the Buddhist priests in that city, which terminates 

 in that raja becoming a convert. With all the zeal and intolerance of recent 

 conversion, he expels from his dominions, the ministers of the brahminical 

 faith, who are thenceforth called Nighantd. These discarded brahmans repair to 

 Pdtilipura, to appeal to the Ra'ja'dhira'ja' of all Jambudipo, who is called 

 Pa'ndu, whether that be his individual name, or the designation of the dynasty 

 from which he is descended, remains to be decided. The burden of their repre- 

 sentation is that " while Pa'ndu, emperor of all India, worships the deity 

 worthily adored by all the dewas, Gu'hasi'wo, a raja subordinate to his autho- 

 rity, reviling those gods, worships a piece of human bone." 



Pa'ndu commissions Chittaya'no, another subordinate raja, it is not stated 

 of what country, to chastise Gu'hasi'wo. The commands issued are sufficiently 



* I take this opportunity of correcting a note made at page 105 of my trans- 

 lation of the Mahdwanso. The tooth relic there spoken of is the right 

 one. I had forgot at the moment the relic removed from Dantapura to 

 Ceylon, was the left tooth. 



