No. 47. — 1896.] PROCEEDINGS. 



129 



Mr. Harward, at the conclusion of the Paper, asked whether 

 Mr. Fernando could tell the audience whether there was any evidence 

 as to how recently the custom existed in Ceylon. 



Mr. Fernando replied that the earliest authentic mention of the 

 ceremony was the one he had just dealt with. He was aware that in 

 one of the Government publications there was mention made of the 

 fact that King Wijayo went through the ceremony of inauguration. 

 That would take the ceremony back to nearly 600 B.C., but he 

 thought this was merely a guess on the part of the compiler of the 

 " reader," and not an historical fact. He found that, in later times, 

 after the ceremony was inaugurated, and became a part of Buddhism, 

 it was continued by almost every king, and he had not the slightest 

 doubt that, as the history of Ceylon grew, the ceremony also went 

 through several changes ; but he could not find in the Mahdwansa 

 anything more than a mention of the abhiseka ceremony. There 

 was nothing descriptive of the ceremony. He believed Mr. Justice 

 Lawrie could mention some facts about the ceremony in a more recent 

 period, and he had no doubt that in later times the ceremony took a 

 different shape because of the changes which the original primitive 

 Buddhism underwent at the hands of the Tamil invaders and others, 

 who introduced many things which Buddhism never professed to 

 admit. 



Mr. Justice Lawrie said he had not had the time to go into the 

 subject as thoroughly as he would have wished with regard to the 

 inaugural ceremony ; but he believed there was still a stone in Kandy 

 on which the later kings of Kandy sat in public, and were there girded 

 with the sword of kingship. That was the open or ostensible ceremony 

 of coronation or inauguration, and immediately after the king was 

 girt with the sword, the title which he intended to take and be known 

 by was publicly proclaimed. He did not know whether there was any 

 actual coronation, in the strict sense of the word, but the later kings 

 of Kandy were certainly spoken of and pourtrayed as wearing a crown . 

 The stone he had alluded to was opposite the Old Palace. With 

 regard to the ceremony being considered a Buddhist one by some, he 

 was of opinion that there was no trace whatever to show that it was 

 in any way a religious rite or anything suggesting the presence of 

 Buddhist priests at the ceremony. He did not know whether he was 

 right, but it seemed to him there was nothing in the Paper read which 

 suggested that the ceremony was a Buddhist one at all. 



The Rev. F. H. de Winton, referring to the word grahapati, 

 which occurred in the course of the Paper, questioned whether it 

 could not be considered identical with the Buddhist expression 

 " householder." If so, it might confirm the view that the system 

 dividing the people into three sections originated, or was introduced, 

 about the same time as the introduction of Buddhism into 

 Ceylon. 



Mr. Coomaraswamy said that the abhiseka, which was a bath or 

 sprinkling, was not considered to be the most important part of the 

 inauguration ceremony by Hindus. There was a ceremony prior to 

 the abhiseha ; then the abhiseka itself ; and thirdly, the putting 

 on of the crown, which completed the ceremony. As regards the 

 right-handed sea-chank referred to as rare, they were not very rare, 



