No. 44. — 1893.] epic of parakrama. 



75 



Nor is there any description of battle scenes beyond the 

 very slightest : not even is the cutting off of heads and 

 limbs specified, as in the Indian epics ; and there is very 

 little bloodshed. This part of the work then is not a 

 description of battles, but a list of victories ; and has rather 

 the appearance of having been worked up from an official 

 report. In some places the names of the generals and the 

 places where they fought are crowded into the verse just as 

 thick as they can be packed. 



But the tedious list of .victories is interrupted by one 

 noticeable touch of character and heroic incident. It struck 

 the king, when he was halfway in the campaign, that he 

 could disencumber himself of all his generals and take 

 Pulatthi by himself, with no soldiers but the band of imme- 

 diate followers whom he had personally trained. 



Under the pretext of a summons to attend a festival of 

 Buddha, which he had ordered one of his generals to arrange 

 for this purpose in a place on the way towards Pulatthi, he 

 proposed to leave his ministers and advance alone. But his 

 generals saw through the scheme, and their loyal eagerness 

 to be in the forefront of the campaign defeated the king's 

 purpose. He advanced therefore with a well-organized 

 force. 



I have mentioned that I owe the identification of the 

 places to which I have referred to Dhammaratana Terun- 

 nanse. I am myself unfortunately entirely unacquainted 

 with that branch of the subject ; but few inquiries of the 

 kind would be more interesting than one which should result 

 in a map of the country as it was in the twelfth century, 

 with an itinerary of Parakrama's marches. But even such 

 information as I have enables me to draw your attention to a 

 fact which cannot fail to interest. The scene of this royal 

 history lay in exactly that region which an inhabitant of 

 modern Ceylon, at any rate until a few years ago, would have 

 been likely to select, if he had been asked tc mention the least 

 attractive and the most unhealthy portion of the Island — the 

 districts of Buttala, Wellassa, and Yatikinda in the Southern 



