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



be a coincidence of no ordinary singularity, that by mere accident, it 

 should have fallen to the lot of the person who has had the official 

 custody of this relic since 1828 to have suggested that reading. 

 During that period, the six-fold caskets in which it is enshrined have 

 been twice opened, once in May, 1828, at the request of the natives, 

 when a magnificent festival was celebrated, which lasted a fortnight ; 

 and again in 1834, to admit of Sir Robert and Lady Horton seeing 

 it, on which occasion the scientific Austrian traveller Baron Von 

 Hugel was also present. The keys of the sanctum are never absent 

 from my library, excepting during the actual performance of the dai- 

 ly religious ceremonies, and at night a military guard is posted at the 

 temple. 



Our much valued correspondent then proceeds to his reading of the 

 inscription, which with his permission we now withhold, with exception 

 of the opening paragraph, which has formed the text of the foregoing 

 paper. It is as follows : 



1. Dewdnanpiya Pdndu so rdjd hewan dhd, Satta wisati 



2. wasa abhisitena me iyan dhanmalipi likhapitd 



3. hi. Dantapurato Dasanan upadayin. Ananta agdya dhammakdmatdya. 



4. Agdya parikhdya, agdya sdsandya agena bhayena, fyc. 



" The Raja Pa 'ndu who is the delight of the dewos, has thus said. This 

 inscription on Dhanmo is recorded by me who have attained the twenty-seventh 

 year of my inauguration. From Dantapura I have obtained the tooth (relic of 

 Buddho), out of innumerable and inestimable motives of devotion to Dhanmo, 

 with the reverential awe, &c." 



Mr. Turnour rests the tenability of his corrections upon the possi- 

 bility of errors in the printed transcript. There is, however, no 

 chance of these in the name of the raja — neither is there any in the pas- 

 sage hidutapdlate', &c. — which is confirmed by three texts. With full 

 anticipation that the author will himself abandon his reading when the 

 July No. reaches Ceylon, we refrain from entering into defence of the 

 reading, if not of the interpretation, we have ourselves adopted. The 

 word agdya we also think is much more intelligible as aghdya ; 

 and sususaya cannot certainly be read as sdsandya. Eor the most 

 part the author's translation (which extends only to the four tablets) 

 corresponds in substance with the one published, and after having invited 

 him to the labour, it was perhaps ungracious to anticipate it by an 

 attempted version of our own ; — but we are very sure Mr. Turnour 

 will forgive an ambition so natural, and the learned world will be well 

 pleased that our interpretation should have in all but a few passages the 

 confirmation of so distinguished a scholar. — Ed. 



