NO. 44. — 1893.] EPIC OF PARAKRAMA. 65 



The closeness of the parallel is obvious. I have hinted at 

 two alternatives for its explanation. Did the writer of the 

 Mahdwansa consciouslyfand intentionally delight to trace, as 

 he thought, in his hero's history a faint copy of that of the 

 object of a Buddhist's veneration ? Or is the case rather 

 that these incidents were so essentially part of the stock- 

 in-trade of the biographer of heroes, as to have attached 

 themselves inevitably in the poetic tradition, first to the 

 name of Gotama, and afterwards to that of Parakrama? 

 It is certain that some of the features are as old as the 

 Rdmdyana. 



We read in that poem that to Dasaratha, the father of 

 Rama, when he had been " engaged in austerities with the 

 view of having sons born to him," and had offered in parti- 

 cular the horse-sacrifice with that object, there appeared a 

 mighty being, as messenger of Pajapati, and announced to 

 him that he should have a son (1, 44). There was no ele- 

 phant in his case, but on his birth celestial music sounded, 

 and flowers fell from heaven. And the youth of course was 

 brought up in the same accomplishments of riding, swords- 

 manship, and archery. On the whole, it seems to me more 

 likely that the writer, familiar with the Indian epics, and 

 also, of course, with the lives of Gotama, could not help 

 constructing his narrative upon the well-known framework, 

 than that he was consciously parodying a biography which to 

 him was sacred. 



He was not, however, so much of a Buddhist as some of 

 his predecessors or as his successor among the Mahdwansa 

 writers. In his chapters the morals, drawn from every 

 king's death or conduct, about the lesson of the worthlessness 

 of perishable things, are few, and less earnest. There is a 

 great contrast, for instance, between this : 



Even so all the riches that men lay up for themselves by much 

 suffering are lost in a moment ; yet alas ! foolish men set their heart 

 on them alone — 



which I take from Mr. Wijesinha's translation of one of the 

 42—93 F 



