No. 48.— 1897.] 



DAMBADENIYA. 



it brings you to the entrance to the temple precincts, which 

 are surrounded by a wall built of rock stones, roughly hewn. 

 The door frame is composed of rock and the clumsy and 

 unwieldy shutter of wood. On the temple grounds, to the 

 right, is a dagaba, which is roofed over with tiles, and on the 

 left is the vihare, with a little upstair, which leads into the 

 chamber in which the Tooth-relic is said to have been kept. 

 The temple is a small one, and, with the exception of the 

 rock pillars and ornaments, seems, like the dagaba, to be of 

 modern construction, the former probably having been built 

 with the remains and in the site of the ancient edifice. In 

 the front of the temple there is another entrance similar to 

 the one just mentioned, which leads in the direction of 

 Maligd-kanda, and was no doubt used by the kings of old in 

 repairing thither for devotion. On the right of the entrance 

 stands an old bo-tree, which is enclosed in the form of a 

 square by a low stone wall, the space between the tree and 

 the wall being filled in with sand. Offerings are made on a 

 stone table, which is reached by a short flight of steps. The 

 pansala stands outside the temple wall, and bears all the 

 appearance of a modern structure. In February, 1892, a 

 bana-ge was being erected by some Moratuwa carpenter, 

 close to the pansala, in the modern style. 



Rocky Hills and Legends. 



Pridham and Casie Chitty agree to the very letter in their 

 description of the situation of Dambadeniya : — 



It stands in a very picturesque valley, which is terminated by 

 ranges of lofty naked hills, rising perpendicularly in a variety of 

 peaked forms.* 



Hardy remarks : — 



Above the city is a rock about 400 ft. high, nearly inaccessible, 

 standing alone like the house of some giant. The folk-lore of the 

 neighbourhood presents many curious legends. f 



Maligd-kanda lies to the south-east of the temple, and on 



it, it is said, stood the palatial residence of King Pandita 



* Pridham, vol. II., p. 648 ; Casie, Chitty, p. 84. 



f Jubilee Memorials of the Wesley an Mission, 1814-16. 



