CEYLON BRANCH— ROYAL ASIATIC SOCIETY* 153 



in the rock at Belligara, is no other than Kahutstha the great 

 progenitor of Rama* 



The union of Hindoo observances with Budhism, the notion 

 of tutelary deities, and even the countenance of demon offerings, 

 is common among the Singhalese ; and this not it would seem, 

 in anywise by conquest or compulsion, but throughout the whole 

 period of the Singhalese history of their own choice and con- 

 sent. * How is this ? Is it that the Singhalese came off from 

 a Hindu stock, before religious intolerance had yet manifested 

 itself in India ? — and that still finding in our common nature a 

 want which philosophy cannot supply, they became, like the men 

 of Athens of old, superstitious in all things, and seek methods 

 of atonement and propitiation from the poor yakhos, in spite of 

 Budhu and all his priests. An investigation into the character 

 of the Singhalese invasion, and, connected with that, an enquiry 

 into the religion and philosophy of the different states and tribes 

 of Hindustan at the time, are desiderata. [But see Col. Sykes 

 Notes, Journal Asiatic Society, Vol. 6. p. 248 seq. ] 



The emblems to the figures on the coins are not clear; and 

 the characters inscribed on the reverse differ on different spe- 

 cimens. The annexed are examples of the different reverses *f* 

 with one in which H an u in an appears in his usual attitude in 

 this description of coins, and at his side a fish to express the watesf 

 whereby he acquired his celebrity. 



* Among the gifts reciprocal'y given and interchanged as pledges of 

 mutual friendship and alliance between Devananpiatisso an early 

 king of Ceylon of the Wijeyan dynasty and the famous Dha- 

 masoko of India, both of them Budhists, though the father of 

 the latter was of the Brahmanical faith (Mahawanso chap. 5) 

 we find from the Mahawanso chap. 11. there was "a right 

 hand chank" — which is Vishnu's shell in the Ramayana, and 

 in the Mahawanso chap. 3u & 31, the shell of Sakko lord 

 of devos. 



f See as'respects these inscriptions, Journal of the Bengal Asiatic Society 

 lor "iS37 p. 298 seq. 



