84 Gleanings in Buddhism. [July, 



daughter Hemachala, he desired them, in either of these events, to 

 dress themselves like peasants to secrete the relic about their clothes 

 and to fly to the coast. Here they should embark on board of a vessel 

 and proceed to Lanka, the king of which country had long expressed an 

 ardent desire to possess a relic. He added that the time had now 

 arrived, as predicted by Buddha, when Dantapura was to fall to the 

 arms of five invading kings. He then delivered the relic to the Princ e 

 and Princess, and prepared for battle. He first took the bath, then 

 clothed himself in the refulgent armour which had before dazzled the 

 eyes of his foes. On his head was a splendid tiara, and he held in his 

 hand a ponderous mace. After a bloody fight in which the Singha 

 Raja was slain, the enemy gained the day. The queen obeyed the 

 injunctions of her deceased husband, while the prince and princess escap- 

 ed in disguise to the coast, where they embarked in a vessel and sailed 

 for Lanka (Ceylon). 



It may be noticed in passing that Raja Singha does not hint even 

 at the practice of burning widows, one which Buddhists must have 

 abhorred. So that although we find in the Mahawanso that this tooth 

 relic was carried to Ceylon by a Brahman Princess, she and her parents 

 most probably were Buddhists. " After a voyage of three months* 

 a tempest assailed the ship and it foundered with all on board excepting 

 Thont'ha Kuman (probably Dantakumara in Pali), and Hemachala who, 

 still retaining possession of the relic, floated on cocoanuts to the shore. 



They reached it at a place called the Diamond Sands (or that Sai 

 Keo in Siamese) but I have not yet been able to procure a complete 

 version of the original Bali work so cannot specify its title or the place 

 here alluded to. 



Here being afraid they dug a pit, and hid the relic and also concealed 

 themselves for three days, subsisting on fruits and roots." 



These Diamond Sands were probably those on the shore near to the 

 present site of Jagannath, which latter has been supposed either to 

 have been originally a Buddhist shrine, or to have been erected near to, 

 or on the more ancient site of one. In the Mahawanso (p. 24,) we 

 find it stated that " the right canine tooth relic was brought to Ceylon 

 by a Brahman Princess from Kalinga in the yearB. 853 or A. D. 310." 

 The account now digresses a little and is tinged with the marvellous. 

 * This must be an error. 



