32 
JOURNAL, R.A.S. (CEYLON). [VOL. XXII. 
effected solely for the benefit of the church. The only 
information on the subject is the following statement re- 
corded in the Rdjaratndhara.^ " Throughout the whole of 
Lanka he set apart and made over to the Tooth-rehc lord 
land dues and port dues." 
After having his grandson, during his own life time, sworn in 
as ruler, Mahalu Parakrama Bahu, the " aged " king,^ as his 
subjects loved to call him, passed away in the 55th year of 
his reign and in the 52nd after his coronation (1466-1467).^ 
Summoned to the helm of a disorganized State while yet a 
boy, he displayed a capacity and a genius in statecraft far 
beyond his years, and only matched by the greatest of his 
predecessors. Confronted with the danger of foreign invasion 
ere he was securely seated on the throne, he displayed the 
ready resource of a great commander by rapid concentration 
and sudden attack in beating back the invaders ^ as later he 
displayed a wary strategy and dogged patience in his campaign 
against the Vannis.* His wise and far-reaching statesmanship 
was seen in his temporizing policy with the Chinese, in the 
adjustment of the taxation of the country, and in diverting 
the activities of his ambitious foster son, Sapumal Kumaraya, 
from intriguing against the succession of his gi-andson into the 
profitable channel of reducing Jaffna. ^ He combined qualities 
seldom united, of skilful generalship and rare administrative 
power, with scholarship and love of culture. Along with the 
lofty courage, religious devotion, and ability to rule, which 
distinguished the race of Asoka,^ he had inherited their exqui- 
site sense of taste, their love of magnificence, and passion 
for noble buildings.^ He found a State distracted by civil 
^ Printed edition, p. 46. 
2 " Mahalu " also means ** elder." Perhaps the king was so styled in 
later years to distinguish him from his grandson Jayavira Parakrama 
Bahu, whose administration probably commenced during the lifetime 
of his grandsire. 
3 According to the chronicles he was sixteen years of age at the date 
of his accession (1411-1412) : hence the king was born circa 1395, and 
died in his 72nd year. 
* Gird Sondesa, v. 128. 
5 Couto, Journ., R.A.S. (C.B.), vol. XX., p. 69. 
^ Valentyn, Qird Sandesa^^. 138. 
