38 HISTORY OF CASHMIR. 



when the Nobles of Cashmir sent a deputation to solicit and accompany his 

 return to that kingdom, to which he immediately hastened, and of which die 

 assumed the sovereignty. 



Meghavahana, although a worshipper of the orthodox divinities, was in- 

 clined to adopt the Bauddha doctrine: he encouraged the professors of that 

 heresy to settle in his dominions, and particularly prohibited the destruc- 

 tion of animal life, granting from the public revenue a maintenance to such 

 individuals as followed the business of hunters or butchers, whom his enact- 

 ments deprived of their accustomed means of support, 



Although thus careful of brute existence, he seems to have been less scru- 

 pulous about human life; being a warlike and victorious sovereign, and 

 engaging in remote and hostile expediti oris he is said to have led his ar- 

 mies to the sea shore, and by the aid of Varuria, who opened a dry path 

 through the waters for his army, to have crossed over to Lancet ov Ceylon, 

 where he ascended, with his troops, the Gem-enshrining peak of the moun- 

 tain Rohana.* Whilst encamped on the mountain, the king of the island, the 

 Rdcshasa Vibhishana,-)- came voluntarily, and submitted to his invader, in 

 consequence of which he was confirmed in his sovereignty, on condition of 

 his no longer permitting in his island the expenditure of animal life, t Me- 



* Adams peak the Rahu (y-^j) and Rahun (CJjJDj) of the Mohammedans, according to 

 whom also it contained mines of precious gems. Rohana implies the act or instrument of as- 

 cending as step?, a ladder, &c. and may refer to the rude steps and links of iron chain work, des- 

 cribed by Valentyn, and more recently by Mr. Percival, and Sir William Ouseley, i. 59. 



f After the defeat and death of RAVANA, Ram A conferred the sovereignty of JLancd upon 

 Havana's younger brother ViBHi'sHAlfA, who is generally supposed to be still the monarch of 

 Lanca. 



% In other words, he introduced or enforced the Bauddha faith. Whatever credit it may be 

 thought, that these Cashmirian tales of a conquest of Ceylon by one of their kings deserve, they 

 are curiously connected with the Sinhalese traditions of foreign invasion, and consequent intro- 

 duction of the Bauddhakxth. VijayaRaja, the first monarch of that island, and who introduced 

 the present religion, invaded it, it is said either 534 years before Christ, or A. D. 77 ojr 106 or350. 

 A. R. vii. 51 and 421. Molony and Joinville's accounts of Ceylon. Discordancies that admit 

 perhaps of some explanation, the first referring to the period at which Gautama the founder of 

 the Bauddha faith existed, and the others to the date of its introduction in the Island, an event to 

 which foreign conquest was chiefly conducive. 



