amongst the Singhalese* 229 



he said that the owner of such wealth was indeed a fit object 

 for the nobility ^Situ) ;* conferred on him further riches ; 

 hoisted up the white canopy of state; created him a Situ ; 

 and named him Bahudhana Sitd/io, or e The great opulent 

 Situ.' " 



If therefore, from the fact of a Situ's being a nobleman by 

 creation, and of his being thereby entitled to the privilegesf 

 of the Singhalese Nobility, a comparison may be instituted 

 between an English Baronet and a Singhalese Situ, I trust 

 my observations in the Sidath Sangarawa, to which Mr, 

 Stark refers at p. 72, were not misconceived. 



It appears from the Mahawansa that the consort of As6ka ? 

 the great Monarch of India, was the daughter of a Situ. 

 The passage to which I refer is the following : " While Prince 

 Asoka was ruling over the A wanti country by the appoint- 

 ment of his own father, on a journey to Ujjeni he arrived at 

 Chetiya; and while tarrying there having gained the affec- 

 tions of the lovely princess Dewi, the daughter of a Setthi, 

 he lived with her." Mahawansa, p. 76. 



Although the children by this lady were admitted into the 

 privileges to which princes were usually entitled; yet it 

 would seem, that upon Asoka's ascending his father's throne 

 of Pataliputtra, Dewi was not crowned f Queen consort.' 



* 6^B3C § or 6>8">c>§ 1S still vulgarly used to signify ' a rich man 7 ; as for 

 instance, speaking of a man hoarding up riches ^<^§)(^^o'§ 5^ • 'y.Qo^a 

 g] (^toSSc-JO©^©?^. 11 a PP ears fr° m Hindu books also, that a Situ, who is 

 called in Sanscrit Shrest'he, and whom Professor Wilson designates " Chief of the 

 Merchants''— perhaps from the circumstance of his opulence-— was a nobleman who 

 took part in the affairs of the State. In the Hindu play denominated The Troy Cart, 

 in Wilson's Hindu Theatre, vol. i., p. 145, a Shrest'he is introduced as the Judge or 

 <l . Recorder " of a Court. 



t This is a proper name, and not a designation implying Queen, as in the following 

 passage in the Ratnawali, the Hindu play 



Madam, You justly possess the title of devV 



1858.] 2 H 



