222 On the Ruins of Arturadhapura, [March, 



this building, and the spot on which His Majesty reclined is still pointed 

 out. At some distance on the other side of the ancient street is a 

 large stone slab, which it is said covers the entrance to the interior of 

 the dagobah. Ceylonese history records its having been twice pene- 

 trated, once by miraculous power invoked by faith, and on another 

 occasion by the sturdy arms of an usurper's soldiery. It is now nearly 

 completely overgrown with jungle, as will be seen in the accompanying 

 sketch — the original brick-work of which it is composed being only 

 visible in a few detached places. The squared platform on which it 

 stands and which is still well paved with slabs of granite, has been 

 cleared of the brushwood with which it was overgrown by the high- 

 priest, and lying on the southern side of it is to be seen a broken statue 

 of Batyatisso, who reigned from B. C. 19 to A. D. 9, "and appears," 

 justly observes Major Forbes, " to have been one of those persevering 

 zealots who ' hope to merit heaven by making earth a hell/ " On the 

 granite pavement are pointed out indentures said to have been worn 

 out by the knees of Batyatisso during his frequent and lengthened 

 prayers. The Ruanwelle dagobah appears to have suffered more from 

 the ravages of Magha, the usurper alluded to, who forced a passage into 

 it in the thirteenth century, than from any of the other revolutions to 

 which the capital was subjected, and it does not appear that any 

 attempt was ever afterwards made to restore it to its former condition. 

 It was originally two hundred and seventy feet high, and would appear 

 to be now decreasing in elevation with the rains of every successive 

 year. When Major Forbes visited it in 1828, he states it to have been 

 one hundred and eighty-nine feet in height, whilst now (in 1846) it is 

 but a hundred and forty — having thus lost forty-nine feet of elevation 

 in 18 years. 



The invasion of the Malabars and the flight of the king Walagam- 

 bahu, has already been noticed in the account of the caves of Dambool. 

 It would appear that his first act on his regaining his throne was the 

 erection of a stupendous dagobah as a monument of his good fortune. 

 This he called the Abhayagiri, a title compounded of a surname of his 

 own — Abhaya — and the name of a Hindu sect. It was originally a 

 hundred and eighty cubits, or four hundred and five feet high, and 

 stood on a mass of masonry of even larger dimensions than that parti- 

 cularly noticed as forming the foundation of the Ruanwelle dagobah. 



