50 JOURNAL, R.A.S. (CEYLON). [YOL. X. 



the succession to the Kalirtga dynasty. It is just possible 

 that the king's marriage with queen Kalyana of the Gowi 

 caste had inspired that caste with the idea of securing the 

 throne for themselves : at least there appears to be no other 

 explanation of the king's apprehension of their probable 

 rivalry with his own family. If, however, the reading 

 G-anga-vansa is insisted on, possibly Ganga may be an 

 equivalent of I'swara, and so not out of the keeping with 

 Parvati, the name of the king's mother. 



I should like to call attention to a curious historical 

 parallel, though it has no importance beyond its curiosity. 

 In nearly all his newly-discovered inscriptions King 

 Nissarika Malla lays stress on the fact of his having talab- 

 hdra nengt " ascended the scales according to his vow " : 

 the vow being to give his weight in gold to the poor. He 

 reigned about 1187 A.D. Some fifty years before that date a 

 hero of early English history was undergoing a similar 

 ceremony. We are told that the pious lady Rohese, the 

 mother of Thomas a Becket, Archbishop of Canterbury, who 

 was the type of the devout woman of her day, was wont 

 to weigh her son each year, on his birthday, against 

 money, clothes, and provisions, which she gave to the 

 poor. 



I would also venture to point out the advisability, or 

 rather the necessity, of removing at least the greater number 

 of these inscriptions to the protection of some building 

 under the eye of the Disawa. The extreme importance of 

 preserving them from further decay, not so much perhaps 

 for archaeological as for philological reasons, is too patent to 

 need insisting on. The certainty of their rapid deterioration 

 if constantly exposed to the weather is not the only — nor 

 possibly the strongest — reason for their removal. The present 

 inhabitants of Polonnaruwa are a hybrid and irreverent race, 

 most dangerous neighbours to the ruins. Moreover, its 

 pasture lands make the place a kind of local Texas, with 

 many interesting examples of the tropical cowboy, a bevy 

 of whom were seen, shortly before my arrival, amusing 



