1847.] formerly the capital of Ceylon. 217 



Anuradhapura itself are superior to the paltry remains of Cotta or of 

 Kurneyalle. 



The earliest building whose remains still attract the attention of the 

 visitor, is the Thuparamo, or Thupharamaya dagobah, erected by the 

 pious Tisso formerly mentioned, three hundred and seven years before 

 our era. The spot on which it was erected was said to have been 

 hallowed by the presence of Gotamo himself, and the purpose of its con- 

 struction was to enshrine the right collar-bone of that prophet. Consi- 

 dering the great length of time during which it has stood, (upwards of 

 two thousand years) it is in excellent preservation, and the piety of the 

 present high-priest has lately re-erected the spire which had fallen, 

 without taking from the appearance, or adding anything foreign to the 

 original design of the structure. It is situated a short distance to the 

 north of the road by which Anuradhapura is usually reached, that from 

 Dambool to Aripo. The approach to it is along the ancient north 

 and south street of the city, a broad and well-defined road, now cleared 

 of jungle. On each side of this street large trees and low brushwood 

 extend over the greater part of the adjoining lands, amidst which hun- 

 dreds of square granite pillars lift their heads in lonely desolation, the 

 silent witnesses of the present desertion, as they once were also of the 

 busy multitudes who thronged these streets. Masses of stone cut into 

 the forms of bullocks and lions are also seen lying numerously about, 

 together with the fragments of sculptured columns, and the blocks of 

 irregular and regular stone, usually seen on the site of deserted habita- 

 tions. But one object cannot fail to strike the most inattentive in tra- 

 versing the great and now grass-grown street by which he is led to the 

 Thupharamaya, that is, the towering mass of the Ruanwelle dagobah, ris- 

 ing on his left hand like a pyramidal hill overgrown with trees and bushes. 

 A little further on he crosses what now remains of the east and west 

 street, running at right angles to that on which he stands, and of equal 

 dimensions, both being quite as broad as the widest streets of London 

 or Paris at the present day. Near a bend in the road which leads the 

 visitor in a north-westerly direction, stands one of the most extraordin- 

 ary monuments of royal Singhalese refinement. It consists of an enor- 

 mous trough, composed of a single block of granite, about ten feet long 

 at the top, five broad, and in depth four feet — the excavation measures 

 nine feet by four, being also two and a half feet deep. The tradition 



