14 
JOURNAL, R.A.S. (CEYLON). [VoL. XXII. 
stone, and a beautiful palace of the same stone, but with a 
sort of new bangled galleries, and with a number of new 
temples of devils, and of the idols that he worshipped. Here 
he dwelt in company with a priest (i.e., Sri Rahula), whom he 
esteemed very highly, preserved here the relics of Budun, and 
built a special house or monastery for his priests." 
The place referred to was the royal pile known as the 
Pas Mai Peya, " the Five-storied Palace," which probably 
had been built on the principle of the similar quadrangular 
structures at Anuradhapura and Polonnaruva, the different 
tiers diminishing as the stories ascended. The magnificence 
of the building has been sung by the bards who flourished at 
the capital ; among them by Sri Rahula in his Selalihini 
Sandesa : — 
" Departing straight into the palace where 
Of moonstone built stand the long Hnes of walls. 
Where waving in the wind smooth strings of pearls 
Hang from the palace eaves where ghtter gems 
Shining upon the sohd golden spire." ^ 
' ' Thence in a trice repair to the royal bower which stands with 
rows of mighty walls wrought of moonstone (crystal), where 
on the ground hallowed by an anchorite's hermitage, which determined 
the Sakyas' choice of Kapilavastu as the site of their future city, 
according to the old Buddhist legend. As shown by Couto , the story 
reappears in tracing the origins of other Indian towns, and perhaps for 
the first time in Ceylon it has been adopted as fixing the site of Kotte. 
Later, the legend was again introduced by the annalists to account 
for the choice of Senkadagala Nuvara (Kandy) as the capital. 
Travels by De MarignoUi, p. 369, contains the following reference to 
Kotte: — " If we suppose he {i.e., Cain) built his city after the murder of 
Abel this city of his is thought to have been where now is that 
called Kota, Ceyllan, a place where I have been." Note (by Burnell) : — 
*' Kotta, or (Buddhist- classically) Jayawardhanapura, near Colombo, 
is first mentioned as a royal residence about 1314, but it again became 
the capital of the Island in 1410. .It appears to be represented as such 
in the great map of Fra Mauro, imder the name of Cotte Civitas." 
Marignolli left Constantinople, May, 1339, passing overland to Pekin 
returning via Zaeton to Quillon in Malabar, December, 1346, or 
1 347, from which place he sailed about the end of 1348 .... and appears 
to have been accidentally driven by the winds to Ceylon. He returned 
to Europe, 1353 (see " Ceylon," by an Officer, vol. I., p. 263). 
^ Macready's Selalihini Sandesa, v. 17. 
