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JOURNAL, R.A.S. (CEYLON). [VOL. XII. 



into the same error, evidently misled by the authority of Sir Emerson 

 Tennent. 



In the " Geography of Ceylon," by Messieurs Silva and Gabriel, 

 Teachers of the Government Training School, Bentota, published in 

 1887, — a very useful and well arranged work, — the compilers have 

 committed the same blunder, when they say on page 70 that " Kandy 

 was built by Pandita Parakrama Bahu III. in 1280." 



I discovered the mistake on reading, among other books, that 

 valuable and rare history of Ceylon called Narendracharit- 

 dvalokana-pradipikmva, which was written upwards of 55 years ago by 

 that great Pali scholar Yatanvala, High Priest, at the special request 

 of His Excellency Sir Edward Barnes, Lieutenant-Governor of Ceylon 



As the mistake was first made by an author of such great reputa- 

 tion as Sir Emerson Tennent, the others, it appears, simply followed 

 him, never suspecting that he was wrong. 



In the Sinhalese translation of the Mahawansa (chap. 85) the distance 

 from Dambadeniya to Sirivardhana-pura is given as eight yoduns. 

 This is a mistake of the translators, who must have read the Pali word 

 addha, " half," as attha, " eight." The distance then is only half a 

 yodun, and not eight yoduns. 



This escaped my notice, and does not seem to have 

 attracted much attention in Ceylon. It was observed, how- 

 ever, and its decision was adopted, by Professor Ehys Davids, 

 who appended to his translation of the " Questions, of King 

 Milinda," the 35th volume of Sacred Books of the East, the 

 following addendum : — 



Sri-war dhana-pura. It should have been pointed out that this city 

 is not (as stated by Emerson Tennent at vol. I., p. 414, of his " Ceylon") 

 the same as the modern town of Kandy, but was in the Kurunsegalla 

 District, and (as pointed out by Mr. K. James Pohath in the " Ceylon 

 Orientalist," vol. III., p. 218) about three and a half miles distant from 

 the modern Damba-deniya. 



It was by this note of Professor Rhys Davids that my own 

 attention was drawn to the question. I at once consulted 

 the late Pandit Batuwantudawe, and was confirmed by him 

 in my own prima facie opinion that Mr. Pohath was wrong. 

 The Pandit, as I have mentioned, had committed himself to 

 the reading " eight yojanas," and believed it to be the correct 

 one ; and both he and I thought it more likely that the 

 historian had overstated the distance to Kandy and exag- 

 gerated the decorations, than that a place so important as 



