NO. 47.— 1896.] ANCIENT CITIES AND TEMPLES. 



135 



he himself moving to Tissawa, which is not far from Panduwas 

 Nuwara. The city was after |the assumption of its government 

 by Panduwas called after him, and to this day it is known as such. 

 He reigned thirty years, improving and embellishing it. His son 

 Abhayo succeeded him at his death (474 B.C.). Abhayo reigned 

 twenty years most religiously and with every vdrtue, until he was 

 interrupted by the civil wars then raging between his brothers and his 

 nephew Pandukabhayo, and which lasted for fourteen years, when he 

 threw up the government and retired to Parama-kanda in the Demala- 

 pattu, which is by tradition known as the place where he ended his 

 days leading a religious life. After the cessation of the civil wars 

 Pandukabhayo, having obtained victory over his uncles, established 

 himself in his father-in-law's city, Anuradhapura. In the interval 

 Tisso, the brother of Abhayo and uncle of Pandukabhayo, held the 

 kingdom of Panduwas. 



The following from the Kadaim-pota assigns the found- 

 ing of the city to King Panduwas, and supplies interesting 

 particulars in connection therewith : — 



King Panduwas, son of Somithera, the brother of King Wijaya, 

 having arrived in Ceylon in his sixteenth year, on a Friday, under the 

 asterism Pusanekata, ordered his ministers to found a city after his 

 name. He sent for his ministers, who lived at the time in Hastipura, 

 and said : " All of you make me a city here." They began accord- 

 ingly to build the city four and a half gaw to the west of Hastipura. 585 

 Seeing this, King Sakraya ordered the god Wiswakarma, the wonderful 

 maker, to beautify the city. Thereupon Wiswakarma came and stood 

 there, and having surveyed the length and breadth of the city ordered 

 the (cubic) rule to be struck on the ground, when the following rose 

 into existence : — 



600 palaces (vmhala geval). 



300 smaller buildings (outhouses ?) (Jculu geval). 



9 buildings containing lion thrones (sinhasana geval). 



and that the city stood on the Kolamunu-oya, a tributary of the Deduru- 

 oya. He cites in further support of his contention a royal grant in the 

 Vittipota of the village Moragolla to one Appuhami, in which it is stated 

 that Upatissa Nuwara adjoins Moragolla, and similarly from the Kadaim- 

 pota of a royal grant of the village Moragama to one Punchappuhami, in 

 which the said village is described as adjoining the city in question. 

 Upatissa Nuwara, says President Marambe, was also known as Ela 

 Hatara Nuwara (the city of four moats), Nihasala Nuwara (the pure 

 city), and that the ruins being at present overgrown with jungle go under 

 the name of Nuwara-liele. 



* This does not correspond with the distance of the ruins from the 

 modern town of Kurunegala ; but it must be considered that the dimen- 

 sions of the city of Hastipura or Hastisailapura exceeded the limits of 

 the present capital by at least ten times. 



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