79 



in which Mahinda introduced himself to the king Devanan- 

 piyatissa, near the Missa mountain, or Mihintalle ; his discourses 

 with, and the consequent conversion of the monarch, followed by 

 that of his sister-in-law the princess Anula, the Court, and large 

 numbers of the people. Numerous donations of land, sites of the holy 

 places, were then made to Mahinda by the king ; who was informed, 

 to his intense satisfaction, that these sites had already been sancti- 

 fied by the presence on them of Gautama and the three preceding 

 Buddhas. In the account which Mahinda gave the king of the 

 proceedings of these Buddhas, he mentions that the first, Kakusandha, 

 stationed himself on the summit of Dewakuta (Adam's Peak), in 

 order, amongst other things, to deliver the inhabitants from a pre- 

 vailing febrile epidemic. The second Buddha, Konagamana, in 

 order to bring about the cessation of a terrible drought, also 

 stationed himself on the summit of Sumanakuta (Adam's Peak) 

 The third Buddha, Kassapa, in order to put a stop to a sanguinary 

 civil war, stationed himself, in a similar manner, on the summit of 

 Subhakuta (Adam's Peak). In each case that elevated position was 

 chosen by the Buddha for the simple purpose of making manifest his 

 presence in the land, the same resolution (or command) being each 

 time adopted "Let all the inhabitants of this land Ojadipo [after- 

 wards Waradipo, then Mandadipo] this very day see me manifested. 

 Let all persons who are desirous of repairing to me repair instantly 

 (hither) without any exertion on their part." Whereupon, each 

 time, " The king and inhabitants of the capital observing the divine 

 sage, effulgent by the rays of his halo, as well as the mountain 

 illuminated by his presence, instantly repaired thither." The 

 divine sages then successively went to the sites of the various 

 holy places already mentioned in the quotation from the 1st chapter. 

 But there is no mention whatever of the impression of a Foot-print 

 having been made on the summit of the mountain on either of 

 these occasions. 



