76 CEYLON BRANCH- — ROYAL ASIATIC SOCIETY.. 



The Chola-kmg, who set surrounded by his great army, 

 standing up and worshipping the feet of Vathavuren (g) 9 

 thus addressed him : " It is thy duty to establish the truth 

 of the Saiva doctrines, and mine to destroy the lives of the 

 Buddhists." 



When Chola-kmg thus spoke, the mendacious Buddhists, 

 who were present, were seized with anguish, while Va- 

 thavuren, rejoicing inwardly, asked (their heirarch), 

 " O thou who speakest falsehood ! tell me the object of thy 

 visit?" To this question which he had heard even as a 

 javelin was run thro' his ear, he thus replied, " I have been 

 in this great city since yesterday in order to proclaim that 

 there is no other God than our Buddha, and to place his 

 image in the sanctuary that all may see it, and this alone 

 is my object." 



The Lord Vathavuren, thereupon, smiled, and ob- 

 serving, "will a hare turn into an elephant?" thus asked 

 him : " O thou destitute of any merit in thy previous birth ! 

 tell me who is thy great and good god, and in what man- 

 ner do sentient beings arrive at his feet." 



When the great man had thus spoken, he (the Buddhist), 

 enraged, replied, ec Is it possible to shew to the blind the 

 radiant beams of the sun? Are not thousands of tongues 

 wanted to declare the praises of our inaccessible Lord ? " 

 thus saying, he continued : 



" Our Lord is he who revealed the Pitaka scriptures re- 

 plete with Dharmma (a ) 9 who out of compassion to sen- 

 tient beings transmigrated through many matrices ( b), and 

 afforded them comfort; and who having freed himself from 

 the four evils, took up his abode under the shade of the 

 excellent Bodhi-tree. 



"From the concurrence of the five Kandhas, namely, 

 organized body, sensation, perception, discrimination, and 

 consciousness in the embryo, a succession of sentiments is 

 produced and again removed; this is what is called birth, 

 which is misery, the entire cessation (of these ever-chang- 

 ing sentiments; is ultimate beatitude." 



The Lord Vathavuren, bestowing a gracious look on 



(a) In the original Aram (jyopco) the same with Dharma (p<$ 

 u>u>). This word ordinarily implies virtue, but here it is used 

 to denote especially those duties which are enjoined in the Vedas. 



(b) In the original Yoni (Qtutrerft), the vulva. 



