No. 34.— 1887.] 



POLONNAEUWA. 



to have lain rather in the direction of foreign conquest 

 and lavish almsgiving than of the endowment of viharas. 

 According to his inscription at the Ruwanweli Dagaba, Anu- 

 radhapura, he appears to have dealt with those who threw 

 off their robes and did work which disgraced the church. 

 According to the " Galpota" he " expelled the unrighteous 

 from the religious communities, and thus freed the country 

 in general from the thorns (of evil-doers)." In the, frieze 

 inscription of the Wata Dage we find him erecting a 

 Brahmana almshouse. Probably none of these things were 

 particularly pleasing to the priesthood. His predecessor 

 Parakrama Bahu, on the contrary, whose praises are sung in 

 the " Mahawanso " so loudly and at such length, appears to 

 have been just such a royal devotee, of the type of Tissa and 

 Dutugemunu, as the priestly chronicler loved. The only 

 inscription we have of his— that on the Galvihara — reads 

 more like the confessions and instructions of an ascetic than 

 the memorial of a king. And it must never be forgotten 

 that the " Mahawanso " was written entirely by, and chiefly 

 for, monks. If we had before us a fair secular and political 

 history as well, it is more than probable that we should 

 form a very different estimate of the various kings whose 

 reigns are detailed in it. 



I have not translated the opening words from ndnidd to 

 wenuna, because I do not understand them. 



Oka was. I have translated this literally as "the 

 Okkaka race," instead of adopting the Sanskrit equivalent, 

 " Ikshvaku." 



Chakrawartin. As this word is not explained or com- 

 mented on by Drs. Miiller and Goldschmidt, I think the 

 following extract will be found of interest : — 



That the custom of surrounding the sepulchres of mighty kings is 

 of remote origin throughout the East is evident from what we know of 

 the funeral ceremonies practised at the time of the invasion of 

 Western Asia by the Scythians, 625 B.C. Thus the Chakravartins, 

 a branch of the great Scythian race, or Sakas, were styled the Wheel 

 Kings, — in fact, kings of the circle, — i. e., monarchs who ruled all 



