No. 27.— 1884.] TISSAMAHAKAMA ARCHEOLOGY. 75 



and particularly when we find the lower castes able to write 

 so early as 240 B.C. (about which time the building of the 

 Maharama was probably begun), it may be accepted as 

 almost beyond doubt that the knowledge of writing was 

 brought to Ceylon fully 170 years previously, by the first 

 settlers. If the art had been introduced only at the time of 

 Mahinda's mission, there would have been no time for so 

 many of the builders of the Maharama to learn to write ; 

 and there is ho ground for assuming that these men were 

 specially imported from Magadha for the purpose of burn- 

 ing bricks. Prof. Max Muller (Hist, of Sanscrit Literature, 

 quoted by Duncker loc. ext., Vol. iv., p. 156) has fixed the 

 date of the first written work in India, Panini's Grammar, 

 at about 350 B.C. ; but he considers that the art was known 

 in India before 600 B.C. Dr. Duncker would remove this 

 date to 800 B.C. (loc. cii., p. 157). It would be strange, then, 

 if the first Magadhese settlers were quite ignorant of it. 



Writing must have been long practised, too, before the 

 idea of cutting dies with which to print the letters was 

 originated. This may possibly have been adopted originally 

 in India, from the Babylonians, who, as is well-known, had 

 from a very early period (2,400 B.C.) been accustomed to 

 use dies for stamping their bricks ; but if so, it is rather 

 strange that no earlier examples of it have been discovered 

 in India.* It cannot, however, be assumed that these 

 inscriptions at two dagabas in the extreme south-east of 

 Ceylon are the first instances among the Aryans of writing 

 or imprinting letters on plastic clay. 



The Mdgama Palace. 

 I take advantage of the delay in publishing this report 

 to furnish some particulars and a plan of the ruins of the 

 presumed palace of the Magama princes. This ruin is 

 about half a mile north-west of the Msenik dagaba. While 

 my men were removing some broken bricks lying at the 

 site, some flat stones were met with, about 2J or 3 feet 

 underground ; and on tracing the line of these, it was found 



* Compare Report of Arch. Survey of India, Vol. 1, p. 326, where 

 General Cunningham mentions that he ftrand a stamped brick at Aju- 

 dhya, but of a later date than Asoka. 



