No. 27. — 1884.] TISSAMAHARAMA ARCHEOLOGY. 



71 



At the Yatthala dagaba the restoration has just been 

 begun, and I have thus been able to preserve a good series 

 of bricks from oblivion. Their palseographical value de- 

 pends largely on the date of the structure, regarding which 

 the ancient histories are quite silent, the only guide being 

 the statement in the Mahavarhsa that Mahanaga's son Tissa, 

 who succeeded him, was born at the Yatthala wihara, and, 

 as Turnour has added, " during the flight" of his father. If 

 the Yatthala wihara, to which reference is made, is the 

 wihara which now goes by the name, at the Yatthala 

 dagaba in the ancient Magama, this statement, as I have 

 already mentioned, cannot be correct. It is improbable, on 

 the face of it, and it becomes impossible, when we consider 

 (1) that the palace was most likely not more than a mile dis- 

 tant ; (2) that Mahanaga was apparently 53 years old at the 

 time ; and (3) that in this case Tissa's grandson was born 18 

 years afterwards. Even if my revised chronology is quite 

 wrong — (although it rests on too secure a foundation to be 

 more than a few years wrong)— it cannot be supposed that 

 the prince was born at a wihara when the palace was in the 

 immediate neighbourhood. Besides, the Mahavarhsa says, 

 "proceeding thence to Rohana," an expression which would 

 not have been used if the Yatthala wihara was at Magama. 

 Magama had long before been the residence of a prince, at 

 least— even if Wijaya never lived at it ; and Mahanaga 

 came as the tributary king or viceroy of the southern king- 

 dom, and not merely as a fugitive who would be glad of 

 any shelter for his family. Jinaratana Terunnanse, of the 

 Yatthala wihara, informs me, also, that it is stated in the 

 Dhatuvarhsa that Mahanaga erected this wihara. If so, 

 this should be decisive evidence against his son's birth at 

 it during the journey of the father to the southern capital. 

 I hope to give the extract relating to it before closing my 

 report. (See Appendix, Note 6.) Whether this was the 

 case or not, I conclude, from the other evidence above given, 

 that if Prince Tissa was born at a Yatthala wihara it must 

 have been some other than this one.* At any rate, he 



* There is a Yatakalena wihara on the road from Colombo to 

 Kandy, connected by tradition with Yattkalaka Tissa. (Ancie?it Inscrip- 

 tions, No. 86.) 



