65 



In a recent work upon Adam's Peak,* I was led to conclude, from 

 the information then before me, "that the belief in the existence 

 of the Foot- print was not of an older date than a century and a 

 half before the Christian era," but I was doubtful "if even it was 

 as old." Subsequent investigations, in which I have been much 

 assisted by Mr. Advocate Alwis, Mudaliyar L. de Zoysa, and the 

 Rev. C. Alwis, have convinced me that the origin of the belief 

 must be dated several centuries later. There are good grounds also 

 for concluding, that the discovery of the impression was a conse- 

 quence of the existence of the belief ; the belief having existed for 

 centuries before any intimation can be found in historic records 

 that the impression, which was thenceforth to justify it, had been 

 seen or visited. 



The current belief of the Sinhalese Buddhists upon this subject 

 is that given in the Raja Ratnacari,| written about the end of the 

 14th century, It is less loaded with the supernaturally mar- 

 vellous than the account extracted from the "Sarwajna Guna- 

 lankara,"J (quoted in Appendix D. of Adam's Peak), and is as 

 follows : — 



"Buddha, at the prayer of the father-in law of the king snake Mako- 

 dara, on the day of the full moon, in the month of May, came to the 

 place where now stands the great monument and temple of Calany, and 

 having sat down, the said snakes entertained Buddha with his priests, 

 with a banquet of the choicest meats, such as the gods make use of; 

 after which Buddha preached, and afterward, at the prayer of the snake - 

 king, left the print of his foot in the bottom of the river Calany. And 



* Adam's Peak: Legendary, Traditional, and Historic Notices of the Samanala 

 and Sri-Pad a : with a Descriptive Account of the Pilgrims' Route from Colombo 

 to the Sacred Foot-print. Fcp. 4to., pp. 412, with Map and Illustrations. 



t Upham's Sacred and Historical Books of Ceylon, vol. ii. pp. 22 — 25. 



% See also the account given in the " Manual of Buddhism," by the Rev. Spence 

 Hardy, pp. 210—213, 



