CEYLON BRANCH— ROYAL ASIATIC SOCIETY. 31 



tance from the foot of the hill of Calany, where the ruins of an anci- 

 ent and renounced dagoba existed, into a christian school. This 

 project of erecting a building dedicated to the service of the 

 true God upon the ruins or in the contiguity of an idolatrous 

 temple, which was done with success by the first christian Em- 

 peror, who converted the temples of idols into temples of the 

 true God, the clergy were of opinion would operate to diminish 

 the resort of so many people, not only heathens but nominal 

 christians, both from the district under Colombo and from other 

 parts. They allude to their having in like manner built a school 

 near Negombo on the ruins of Roman Catholic Chapel, whereby 

 the numerous pilgrimages thither of Roman Catholic Devotees 

 eventually died away. 



But they did not find the same results at Calany; though 

 there was a school, pilgrims became rather more numerous. They 

 ascribed their failure to the want of an unconditional interdict 

 from Government. They therefore requested the XVII Re- 

 presentatives to aid them in the contest between the kirigdom 

 of darkness and of light, that the cause of God might prevail 

 over the cause of the devil, by enforcing the application of 

 the placards of 1682 against the public exercise of heathen 

 ceremonies to Calany. For what would the prohibition in other 

 places avail if Calany, which was the seat of Buddhism in 

 the Company's territories, and that in the vicinity of Colombo, 

 were allowed freely to exercise its superstitions, under the im- 

 mediate eye, as it were, of Government. Heathenism would 

 continue in full force ; the people would remain buddhists ; the 

 weak christians, who were not free from the seeds of super- 

 stitions, would be drawn away ; the clergy would be in danger 

 of unhallowing the sacrament of baptism, by administering it to 

 children of parents who secretly worshipped images, while there 

 were no means of detecting them ; the priests would pervade 

 the land, and practice their worship in defiance of the clergy. 

 (The local Government were disinclined to forbid Calany lest it 



