342 The rock temples of Dambool, Ceylon. [April, 



supposing the visitor to be standing, runs in front of all the caves, a 

 distance of about five hundred feet, varying much in breadth, but gra- 

 dually becoming narrower towards the western side, where are situated 

 the two aluth or new caves. In front of all the temples a narrow 

 verandah extends, which projects from their front wall, and above which 

 may be seen the marks of the wedges used in excavating them. 



I have said that the rock temples of Dambool are partly natural and 

 partly artificial. So long ago as one hundred years before our era, 

 they had served as a refuge to a Ceylonese monarch when escaping 

 from the Malabars, who had invaded his kingdom, and in gratitude for 

 his deliverance and for the shelter they had afforded him, Walagambahu 

 piously increased the caves to a much larger dimension, placed in them 

 images of Budha, appointed priests to take charge of them, and dedi- 

 cated certain lands for their support. The invasion of the kingdom 

 by the natives of the continental coast, the flight of the monarch, and 

 his subsequent success, are thus related in the Rajavali.* "After his 

 (the previous king's) death, Walagambahu Rajah succeeded to the 

 throne. When he had reigned five months, seven Malabar chiefs with 

 seven thousand men from Sollee, made a descent on Ceylon, and drove 

 Walagambahu from the throne, and one of the Malabars taking the 

 king's wife, went away with her. Another of them seized the patrya 

 cup of Budha, and likewise went away. The other five Malabar chiefs 

 remained, and succeeding one another in the government, reigned as 

 kings for the space of thirty years." (The Mahawanso, with more proba- 

 bility, computes their reigns at fourteen years in all) ; " about the expira- 

 tion of which time the king, Malagambahu, who had been living amongst 

 the rocks in the wilderness, left his solitude, raised an army, and attack- 

 ing the city of Anuradhapura, destroyed the Malabars, again ascended 

 the throne, and caused the houses of stone or caves of the rock in 

 which he had taken refuge in the wilderness to be made more commo- 

 dious." In the Mahawanso, as translated by Mr. Upham, the caves of 

 Dambool are particularly mentioned as having been constructed by 

 Walagambahu, although in Mr. Tumour's version, which is generally 

 so much fuller, strange to say, this notice is altogether omitted. 



The next notice which Ceylonese history affords us of these caves, 

 is in the account of the reign of Kirti Nissanga, A. D. 1 187 to 1 196. 

 * Part 3, p. 223, in Mr. Upham 's translation. 



