382 
JOURNAL, R.A.S. (CBYLON) [VOL. XVIII. 
RAJA SINHA I., 
O 
PARRICIDE AND CENTENARIAN. 
A Review. 
By W. F. GuNAWARDHANA, Mudalijar, of the Department 
of Public Instruction. 
It is stated, and generally accepted as history, that Raja 
Sinha I., the wa^rrior king of Ceylon, cleared his way to the 
throne by putting his father to death, and that he lived 
to the great age of 120 years. The first statement is con- 
tained in the Mahdwaiisa* and appears in the works of 
Faria y Sousa,| De Couto,J and others§ : the second is made, 
or allusion is made to it, by most European writers dealing 
With the period. j| From a consideration of surrounding 
facts and circumstances, however, it would seem that we 
can arrive at independent conclusions of our own with regard 
to the truthfulness or otherwise of both these statements ; 
and such an investigation is the object of this Paper. 
Raja Sinha, whose name in his childhood was Tikiri 
Bandara (the little Prince), was the youngest of a family of 
four children of Mayadunne,1[ who was the youngest son of 
King Vijaya Bahu VII., and the first great opponent of 
* Chap. XCIII. 
t Vol. III., pt. I., chap. IV., sec. 11. 
J Dec. X., chap. XIII., vol. VI., pt. II., p. 215 (Ref. given by Tennent, 
*' Ceylon," vol. II., p. 19, footnote). 
§ See among others the latest history of the period, Danvers," Portuguese 
in India," vol. II., p. 45, 
II Philalethes, p. 59, apparently quoting from Valentyn ; Knighton, 
"Hist.," p. 242; Emerson Tennent, "Ceylon," vol. II., p. 21, footnote; 
Bell (Report on Kegalla Dist., p. 7), quoting from Knighton, speaks of Raja 
Siigha's energy when 100 years old. 
^ Rajdwaliya^ Eng. trans., p. 82. 
