Part 71 (1/2)

The vicissitudes and transformations of the Brazen Palace are subjects of frequent mention in the history of the sacred city. As originally planned by Dutugaimunu, it did not endure through the reign of his successor Saidaitissa, at whose expense it was reconstructed, B.C. 140, but the number of stories was lowered to seven.[1] More than two centuries later, A.D. 182, these were again reduced to five[2], and the entire building must have been taken down in A.D. 240, as the king who was then reigning caused ”the pillars of the Lowa Pasado to be arranged in a different form.”

[Footnote 1: _Mahawanso_, ch. x.x.xvi.]

[Footnote 2: _Mahawanso_, ch. x.x.xiii.]

The edifice erected on its site was pulled to the ground by the apostate Maha Sen, A.D. 301[1]; but penitently reconstructed by him on his recantation of his errors. Its last recorded restoration took place in the reign of Prakrama-bahu, towards the close of the twelfth century, when ”the king rebuilt the Lowa-Maha-paya, and raised up the 1600 pillars of rock.”

[Footnote 1: _Mahawanso_, ch. x.x.xvii.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: RUINS OF THE BRAZEN PALACE]

[Sidenote: B.C. 161.]

Thus exposed to spoliation by its splendour, and obnoxious to infidel invaders from the religious uses to which it was dedicated, it was subjected to violence on every commotion, whether civil or external, which disturbed the repose of the capital; and at the present day, no traces of it remain except the indestructible monoliths on which it stood. A ”world of stone columns,” to use the quaint expression of Knox, still marks the site of the Brazen Palace of Dutugaimunu, and attests the accuracy of the chronicles which describe its former magnificence.

[Sidenote: B.C. 137.]

The character of Dutugaimunu is succinctly expressed in his dying avowal, that he had lived ”a slave to the priesthood.”[1] Before partaking of food, it was his practice to present a portion for their use; and recollecting in maturer age, that on one occasion, when a child, he had so far forgotten this invariable rule, as _to eat a chilly_ without sharing it with the priest, he submitted himself to a penance in expiation of this youthful impiety.[2] His death scene, as described in the _Mahawanso_, contains an enumeration of the deeds of piety by which his reign had been signalised.[3] Extended on his couch in front of the great dagoba which he had erected, he thus addressed one of his military companions who had embraced the priesthood: ”In times past, supported by my ten warriors, I engaged in battles; now, single-handed, I commence my last conflict, with death; and it is not permitted to me to overcome my antagonist.” ”Ruler of men,” replied the thero, ”without subduing the dominion of sin, the power of death is invincible; but call to recollection thy acts of piety performed, and from these you will derive consolation.” The secretary then ”read from the register of deeds of piety,” that ”one hundred wiharas, less one, had been constructed by the Maharaja, that he had built two great dagobas and the Brazen Palace at Anaraj.a.poora; that in famines he had given his jewels to support the pious; that on three several occasions he had clothed the whole priesthood throughout the island, giving three garments to each; that five times he had conferred the sovereignty of the land for the s.p.a.ce of seven days on the National Church; that he had founded hospitals for the infirm, and distributed rice to the indigent; bestowed lamps on innumerable temples, and maintained preachers, in the various wiharas, in all parts of his dominions. 'All these acts,' said the dying king, 'done in my days of prosperity, afford no comfort to my mind; but two offerings which I made when in affliction and in adversity, disregardful of my own fate, are those which alone administer solace to me now.[4] After this, the pre-eminently wise Maharaja expired, stretched on his bed, in the act of gazing on the Mahatupo.”[5]

[Footnote 1: _Mahawanso_, ch. x.x.xii.]

[Footnote 2: _Mahawanso_, ch. xxiv, xxv.]

[Footnote 3: _Mahawanso_, ch. x.x.xii.]

[Footnote 4: _Mahawanso_, ch. x.x.xii.]

[Footnote 5: Another name for the Ruanwelle dagoba, which he had built.]

CHAP. VI.

THE INFLUENCE OF BUDDHISM ON CIVILISATION.

[Sidenote: B.C. 137.]

After the reign of Dutugaimunu there is little in the pages of the native historians to sustain interest in the story of the Singhalese monarchs. The long line of sovereigns is divided into two distinct cla.s.ses; the kings of the _Maha-wanse_ or ”superior dynasty” of the uncontaminated blood of Wijayo, who occupied the throne from his death, B.C. 505, to that of Maha Sen, A.D. 302;--and the _Sulu-wanse_ or ”inferior race,” whose descent was less pure, but who, amidst invasions, revolutions, and decline, continued, with unsteady hand, to hold the government clown to the occupation of the island by Europeans in the beginning of the sixteenth century.

[Sidenote: B.C. 137.]

To the great dynasty, and more especially to its earliest members, the inhabitants were indebted for the first rudiments of civilisation, for the arts of agricultural life, for an organised government, and for a system of national wors.h.i.+p. But neither the piety of the kings nor their munificence sufficed to conciliate the personal attachment of their subjects, or to strengthen their throne by national attachment such as would have fortified its occupant against the fatalities incident to despotism. Of fifty-one sovereigns who formed the pure Wijayan dynasty, two were deposed by their subjects, and nineteen put to death by their successors.[1] Excepting the rare instances in which a reign was marked by some occurrence, such as an invasion and repulse of the Malabars, there is hardly a sovereign of the ”Solar race” whose name is a.s.sociated with a higher achievement than the erection of a dagoba or the formation of a tank, nor one whose story is enlivened by an event more exciting than the murder through which he mounted the throne or the conspiracy by which he was driven from it.[2]

[Footnote 1: There is something very striking in the facility with which aspirants to the throne obtained the instant acquiescence of the people, so soon as a.s.sa.s.sination had put them in possession of power. And this is the more remarkable, where the usurpers were of the lower grade, as in the instance of Subho, a gate porter, who murdered King Yasa Silo, A.D. 60, and reigned for six years (_Mahaw._ ch. x.x.xv. p. 218). A carpenter, and a carrier of fire-wood, were each accepted in succession as sovereigns, A.D. 47; whilst the ”_great dynasty_” was still in the plenitude of its popularity. The mystery is perhaps referable to the dominant necessity of securing tranquillity at any cost, in the state of society where the means of cultivation were directly dependent on the village organisation, and famine and desolation would have been the instant and inevitable consequences of any commotions which interfered with the conservancy and repair of the tanks and means of irrigation, and the prompt application of labour to the raising and saving of produce at the instant when the fall of the rains or the ripening of the crops demanded its employment with the utmost vigour.]

[Footnote 2: In theory the Singhalese monarchy was elective in the descendants of the Solar race: in practice, primogeniture had a preference, and the crown was either hereditary or became the prize of those who claimed to be of royal lineage. On reviewing the succession of kings from B.C. 307 to A.D. 1815, _thirty-nine_ eldest sons (or nearly one fourth), succeeded to their fathers: and _twenty-nine_ kings (or more than one fifth), were succeeded by brothers. _Fifteen_ reigned for a period less than one year, and thirty for more than one year, and less than four. Of the Singhalese kings who died by violence, twenty-two were murdered by their successors; six were killed by other individuals; thirteen fell in feuds and war, and four committed suicide; eleven were dethroned, and their subsequent fate is unknown. Not more than two-thirds of the Singhalese kings retained sovereign authority to their decease, or reached the funeral pile without a violent death.--FORBES'

_Eleven Years in Ceylon_, vol. i. ch. iv. p. 80, 97; JOINVILLE, _Religion and Manners of the People of Ceylon; Asiat. Res._ vol. vii. p.

423. See also _Mahawanso_, ch. xxiii. p. 201.]

[Sidenote: B.C. 119.]