No. 56.— 1905.] 
RAJA SINHA 1. 
which, it may be remarked in passing, magnified his vices 
and minimized his virtues, speaks of his death, and tells us 
as a circumstance of detail that it was occasioned by an iron 
stake chancing to pierce his foot." The mention of the 
detail is important as showing the carefulness of the writer 
to say all he knew with regard to whatever he was speaking. 
He mentions Mayadunne,too,as Raja Si nha's father,! butof his 
murder he says nothing : a significant silence from such an 
author. The Dutch account, from the diffuse pen of the still 
more faithful Baldaeus, recounts the enormities committed 
by Raja Sinhaon the members of his family but among these, 
the murder of his father is not one. On the Sinhalese side, 
the author of the Rdjdwaliya, who is, perhaps, the best 
historian of this period, and gives a more circumstantial 
account from within than was possible with the two European 
writers, but who, nevertheless, is corroborated by them at 
every point where their accounts come in mutual contact, 
narrates in their proper places the various treacheries and 
cruelties practised by Raja Sinha ; but nowhere does he speak 
of the parricide. § We have, therefore, the negative evidence 
of the silence of all these three writers on this point, goiDg 
to show that the story of the parricide was not known in 
their day. 
Bnt, in addition to this negative evidence, we have also 
the positive testimony of the Rdjdwaliya^ which, in closing 
the account of the eventful and stirring times of Maya- 
dunne, says, King Mayadunne having reigned seventy years 
departed this life."|l A clear statement, direct and definite. 
It would seem that the misdeeds of Raja Sinha not only 
survived him, but multiplied by a gradual process, till long 
after he had himself ceased to be, the list of his enormities 
was crowned by the story of this execrable murder. De 
mortiiis nil nisi bonum is a good old maxim which, in the 
* Lee's translation, p. 23. 
t Lee's translation, p. 21. 
X Churchill's "Collection," vol. III., p. 671. 
§ The story of Raja Sigiha is told in the RdjdwaUya, Eng. trans., pp. 82-94. 
11 Rdjdwaliya (Sigi.), p. 71 ; see also Eng. trans., p. 86, bottom. 
