183?.] Inscriptions on the columns at Delhi, fyc. 1055 



tify extensive imperfections in the copy previously obtained from the 

 ancient temple at Mulgirigalla, near Tangalle. 



Some time ago the modliar suggested to me that I was wrong in 

 supposing the Mahdwanso and the Dipawanso to be the same work, as 

 he thought he had brought the Dipawanso himself from Burmah. I 

 was sceptical. In my last visit, however, to Colombo, he produced 

 the book, with an air of triumph. His triumph could not exceed my 

 delight when I found the work commenced with these lines quoted by 

 the author of the Mahdwanso* as taken from the Mahdwanso (another 

 name for D(pawanso) compiled by the priests of the Utdru wihare 

 at Anurddhapura, the ancient capital of Ceylon. " I will perspicuously 

 set forth the visits of Buddho to Ceylon ; the histories of the convoca- 

 tions and of the schisms of the theros ; the introduction of the religion 

 (of Buddho) into the island ; and the settlement and pedigree of the 

 sovereign Wijayo." 



In cursorily running over the book, at the opening of the sixth 

 Bhdnawdro or chapter, which should contain the history ofDnAMMA'- 

 so'ko, I found the lines quoted from my note to you in page 791. 



This Dipawanso extends to the end of the reign of MAHASiNo,which 

 closed in A. D. 302. As the Mahdwanso, which quotes from this 

 work, was compiled between A. D. 459 and 477, the Dipdwanso must 

 have been written between those two epochs. I have only cursorily 

 run over the early chapters to the period where the Indian history 

 terminates without collecting from that perusal any new matter, not 

 found embodied either in the Mahdwanso or its Tikd, excepting the 

 valuable information above mentioned, and a series of dates defining 

 the particular year of each sovereign's reign, in which the several hie- 

 rarchs of the Buddhistical church died, down to Moggaliputtatisso 

 the chief priest who presided at the third convocation in the reign of 

 Dhamma'soko. These dates may remove some of the incongruities 

 touched upon in my second paper on Buddhistical annals. 



This Burmese copy, however, of the Dipawanso is very imperfect. 

 Each Bhdnawdro ought to contain 250 verses. Several chapters fall 

 short of this complement ; and, in some, the same passage is repeated 

 two and even three times. 



It will be highly desirable to procure, if possible, a more perfect 

 copy, together with its commentary, (either Tikd or Atthakathd) from 

 the Burmese empire. 



On my return to Kandy, and production of the Dipdivanso to the 

 Buddhist priests, who are my coadjutors in these researches, they 



* Vide in the quarto edition the introduction to the Mahawanso, page xxxi. 

 6 s 2 



