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JOURNAL, R.A.S. (CEYLON). [Vol. VIII. 



the compilers of the Atthakatha understood the palace to 

 have a spacious court-yard, capable of holding 8,000 priests. 

 One might naturally consider this the exaggeration of an 

 enthusiastic admirer of Dutthagamini ; but it is a fact that, 

 making all deductions for the detached buildings, the 

 court-yard of this palace is quite capable of holding more 

 than that number of persons. The open space in it must 

 have been considerably over 5,000 square yards. 



From the story of the engagement of Suranimila, Duttha- 

 gamini's second hero, as contained at Mahavamsa, p. 130, it 

 is evident that the attendants at the court were accustomed 

 to bathe in the river, and not in the tank, as they would 

 have done were the palace nearer the tank. I have just 

 stated that one of the gateways faces the Kirinde- 

 ganga. 



This palace thus agrees so well in these two respects 

 (the only points regarding which there are data for insti- 

 tuting a comparison) with that of King Kakawannatissa, 

 that I think we must conclude that it occupies nearly the 

 same space as his, and that the more permanent features, 

 already referred to, perhaps date from his reign. Before 

 his time all is conjecture ; we know that the earlier princes 

 must have had a palace at Magama, and it is allowable to 

 presume that this is the building ; but there is not a line 

 which enables us to confirm the identification. In all 

 probability, however, the palace as it existed at the time 

 of Kakawannatissa was constructed by King Mahanaga. 

 Wijaya must have had his residence somewhere near, if he 

 really lived at Magama ; but that would be a much less 

 pretentious building, and it would be quite useless to 

 attempt to identify any part of this palace with the edifice 

 in which the first king of Ceylon "lived and goveraed his 

 kingdom." 



A point of interest regarding its construction is the 

 fact that two of the outer walls run — I may say exactly — 

 north and south, the other two very nearly forming right- 

 angles with them. As nearly as I have been able to 

 ascertain, the lines of the foundations of the two former 

 vary from the meridian only — 15 minutes and +24 

 minutes respectively. It is quite possible that the super- 

 structure ran more exactly north and south. In the case 



