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CEYLON BRANCH— HOYAL ASIATIC SOCIETY, 



begetting, lest the Lichiwy princes, upon our death, should 

 seize upon the whole of it. That, mother, he replied, I am 

 willing to do, informing her where he resided. She accord- 

 ingly directed his wife to dress herself in her best apparel, 

 and accompanied her to the place where her son lived, and 

 having renewed her request, that he would forsake the priest- 

 hood, but without effect, presented his wife to him, and 

 begged that she might have a grandchild to take his place. 

 Assenting to her wishes, he retired with his wife into the 

 recesses of the forest, who became pregnant, and returning 

 with her mother-in-law, was in course of time delivered of a 

 son. Upon the act being consummated, the Gods dwelling 

 on the earth exclaimed, Truly impurity has been intro- 

 duced by Sudinna among the previously immaculate and 

 holy priesthood, and the intelligence spread instantaneously 

 from heaven to heaven, until it had been communicated to 

 the whole of the Brahma worlds. 



From this relation it appears, that when there was no 

 descendant in a family, a child could neither be adopted, nor 

 the property be left by a will to any other person, but must 

 escheat to the lord paramount; for Sudinna's mother, being 

 desirous of preventing this, could yet devise no other plan 

 than that of obtaining a grandchild ; whereas, if a strange 

 child could have been adopted, or the property devised to some 

 remote branch of the family, or even to a friend, the necessity 

 would not have existed. 



It is observed of Sudinna, that when he retired with his 

 wife into the forest, the law enjoining abstinence even from 

 the woman who had previously been his lawful wife, not hav- 

 ing been enacted, he was not aware of the impropriety of his 

 conduct : from which it would appear, that in the original 

 rule of the Budhist monastical order, chastity was not speci- 

 fied : but retirement from secular life, a dependence on alms 

 for support, and general holiness of life, were alone prescribed: 



