94 CEYLON BRANCH — ROYaL ASIATIC SOCIETY, 



is called a Wihara or residence, and is known by Europeans 

 as a Budhist Temple. The order of nuns does not exist at 

 present in Ceylon. 



In order to understand the nature of the laws binding the 

 Budhist priesthood, and the manner in which they were 

 enacted, extracts must be made from the two books named 

 Parajika and Pachite, being the first and second Books of 

 Discipline already referred to. As much repetition is found 

 in these books, the extracts will be in an abridged form, yet 

 carefully retaining the sense of the original, and I shall con- 

 fine myself, in the present Paper, to extracts from the 

 Parajika, with explanatory observations. 



Upon the conclusion of the discourse, translated in the 

 former paper, addressed by Gautama to the Bramin Weranja, 

 in which he asserts his supremacy, the Bramin requested 

 Budha, and his 500 attendant priests, to remain with him as 

 his guests during the ensuing rainy season, to which he 

 assented. But at that period a famine prevailed, in conse- 

 quence of the crops having failed from blight and mildew, 

 and the grain gathered in being of a light and inferior 

 quality. The distress was great, vast numbers of the in- 

 habitants being destitute of food, so that when the priests 

 went into the city to collect alms for their support, they 

 obtained nothing, and were compelled to live on some hard 

 barley-cakes, used by a horse dealer as food for his horses. 

 This they pounded in a mortar, it being too hard to be other- 

 wise eaten. A conversation between Budha and one of his 

 two chief priests is recorded, which, while it manifests the 

 ignorance which prevailed at the time respecting the form of 

 the earth, shews also the extent of the super-human powers 

 supposed to be possessed by the Rahats, or those who had 

 attained to perfect virtue. 



During the famine Moggalana came to Budha, and said, 

 My Lord, there is a great famine in Weranja, and it is with 



