No. 45.— 1894.] which gaja bahu visited india ? 147 



The carrying away of the alms-bowl by the Tamils during 

 the reign of Wattagamini Abhaya is related in chapter XXIII. 

 of the Mahdwansa. 



I would now refer to a poem called Gajabd Kathdwa, 

 in Sinhalese. Neither the date of the work nor the name 

 of the author is given in the book, but all that appears in 

 the Bdjawaliya is related in it, Gajaba's father's name 

 appears in this work as Bapa Bdja. I thought that Bapa 

 meant father, and not one of the names of the King 

 Vankanasika Tissa. In the Wanni Bdjawaliya he is called 

 Vannesinambd Bdja. In this book the following occurs : 

 " E Sinambd Bajuge put Gaja Bdhu," "that Sinamba's son 

 Gaja Bahu." In the Bdjawaliya which is in the Museum 

 Library the words " ohu put Pinvanedi nam raja'''' occur, 

 which I read "ohu pitVanesinam raja" "his sonVannesinam 

 Raja." A few lines below this the following words occur : 

 " Gajabd Sinanambaba rajuge put" "Gajaba, son of 

 King Sinanambaba," which I take to be a clerical error for 

 " Vannesinambapa." Whether Bapa, which occurs in the 

 Gajabd Kathdva and in the Bdjawaliya, means " father," 

 or was another name for Vankanasika Tissa, it is difficult 

 to say. 



Mr. Bell mentions Tiyambarahena as a dewal6 sacred to 

 Pattini Deviyo, and one of the oldest in the Kegalla District. 

 The sannasa carries its founding back to Gaja Bahu I., the 

 rescuer of the Sinhalese captives in India. The date given 

 in this sannasa is, as Mr. Bell says, palpably wrong, but, as 

 he adds, probably crystallizes some old tradition that Gaja 

 Bahu caused to be built at Kelani Nawagomuwa a dewale 

 for the gem anklet of Pattini, and afterwards had it removed 

 to Tiyambarahena.* 



* " When 1,088 years had expired from the death of our Lord Buddha, in 

 the 852nd year after the establishing 1 of the Buddhist religion in Lanka, the 

 King Gaja Bahu, having heard that his subjects of the Island of Lanka 

 were carried away as slaves to Kaveri," &c. — Archceological Survey of 

 Ceylon: Report on the Kegalla District, page 56. - - - 



12—94 D 



