with adherents, he successfully attacked the Malabars, defeated two of their chiefs in succession, put three others to death, recovered the native sovereignty of Ceylon, “and the religion which had been set aside by the foreigners, he restored to its former ascendancy.”  He recalled the fugitive inhabitants to Anarajapoora; degraded the nobles who had intermarried with the Malabars, and vigorously addressed himself to repair the sacred edifices and to restore fertility to the lands which had been neglected during their hostile occupation by the strangers.  He applied the jewels from his head-dress to replace the gems of which the statue of Buddha had been despoiled.  The curled hair of the divine teacher was represented by sapphires, and the lock on his forehead by threads of gold.

[Footnote 1:  This is a frequent traditionary episode in connection with the heroes of Hindu history.—­Asiat.  Researches, vol. xv. p. 275.]

[Sidenote:  A.D. 459.]

The family of the king consisted of two sons and a daughter, the latter married to his nephew, who “caused her to be flogged on the thighs with a whip although she had committed no offence;” on which the king, in his indignation, ordered the mother of her husband to be burned.  His nephew and eldest son now conspired to dethrone him, and having made him a prisoner, the latter “raised the chatta” (the white parasol emblematic of royalty), and seized on the supreme power.  Pressed by his son to discover the depository of his treasures, the captive king entreated to be taken to Kalawapi, under the pretence of pointing out the place of their concealment, but in reality with a determination to prepare for death, after having seen his early friend Mahanamo, and bathed in the great tank which he himself had formerly constructed.  The usurper complied, and assigned for the journey a “carriage with broken wheels,” the charioteer of which shared his store of “parched rice” with the fallen king.  “Thus worldly prosperity,” says Mahanamo, who lived to write the sad story of the interview, “is like the glimmering of lightning, and what reflecting man would devote himself to its pursuit!” The Raja approached his friend and, “from the manner these two persons discoursed, side by side, mutually quenching the fire of their afflictions, they appeared as if endowed with royal prosperity.  Having allowed him to eat, the thero (Mahanamo) in various ways administered consolation and abstracted his mind from all desire to prolong his existence.”  The king then bathed in the tank; and pointing to his friend and to it, “these,” he exclaimed to the messengers, “are all the treasures I possess.”

[Sidenote:  A.D. 477.]