Part 75 (1/2)

[Sidenote: A.D. 302.]

The story of the kings of Ceylon of the _Sulu-wanse_ or ”lower line,” is but a narrative of the decline of the power and prosperity which had been matured under the Bengal conquerors and of the rise of the Malabar marauders, whose ceaseless forays and incursions eventually reduced authority to feebleness and the island to desolation. The vapid biography of the royal imbeciles who filled the throne from the third to the thirteenth century scarcely embodies an incident of sufficient interest to diversify the monotonous repet.i.tion of temples founded and dagobas repaired, of tanks constructed and priests endowed with lands reclaimed and fertilised by the ”forced labour” of the subjugated races.

Civil dissensions, religious schisms, royal intrigues and a.s.sa.s.sinations contributed equally with foreign invasions to diminish the influence of the monarchy and exhaust the strength of the kingdom.

Of sixty-two sovereigns who reigned from the death of Maha-Sen, A.D.

301, to the accession of Prakrama Bahu, A.D. 1153, nine met a violent death at the hands of their relatives or subjects, two ended their days in exile, one was slain by the Malabars, and four committed suicide. Of the lives of the larger number the Buddhist historians fail to furnish any important incidents; they relate merely the merit which each acquired by his liberality to the national religion or the more substantial benefits conferred on the people by the formation of lakes for irrigation.

[Sidenote: A.D. 330.]

[Sidenote: A.D. 339.]

Unembarra.s.sed by any questions of external policy or foreign expeditions, and limited to a narrow range of internal administration, a few of the early kings addressed themselves to intellectual pursuits.

One immortalised himself in the estimation of the devout by his skill in painting and sculpture, and in carving in ivory, arts which he displayed by modelling statues of Buddha, and which he employed himself in teaching to his subjects.[1] Another was equally renowned as a medical author and a pract.i.tioner of surgery[2], and a third was so pa.s.sionately attached to poetry that in despair for the death of Kalidas[3], he flung himself into the flames of the poet's funeral pile.

[Footnote 1: Detoo Tissa, A.D. 330, _Mahawanso_, x.x.xvii. p. 242.]

[Footnote 2: Budha Daasa, A.D. 339. _Mahawanso_, x.x.xvii, p. 243. His work on medicine, ent.i.tled _Sara-sangraha_ or _Sarat-tha-Sambo_, is still extant, and native pract.i.tioners profess to consult it.--TURNOUR'S _Epitome_, p. 27.]

[Footnote 3: Not KALIDAS, the author of _Sacontala_, to whom Sir W.

Jones awards the t.i.tle of ”The Shakspeare of the East,” but PANDITA KALIDAS, a Singhalese poet, none of whose verses have been preserved.

His royal patron was k.u.mara Das, king of Ceylon, A.D. 513. For an account of Kalidas, see DE ALWIS'S _Sidath Sangara_, p. cliv.]

[Sidenote: A.D. 400.]

With the exception of the emba.s.sy sent from Ceylon to Rome in the reign of the Emperor Claudius[1], the earliest diplomatic intercourse with foreigners of which a record exists, occurred in the fourth or fifth centuries, when the Singhalese appear to have sent amba.s.sadors to the Emperor Julian[2], and for the first time to have established a friendly connection with China. It is strange, considering the religious sympathies which united the two people, that the native chronicles make no mention of the latter negotiations or their results, so that we learn of them only through Chinese historians. The _Encyclopoedia_ of MA-TOUAN-LIN, written at the close of the thirteenth century[3], records that Ceylon first entered into political relations with China in the fourth century.[4] It was about the year 400 A.D., says the author, ”in the reign of the Emperor Nyan-ti, that amba.s.sadors arrived from Ceylon bearing a statue of Fo in jade-stone four feet two inches high, painted in five colours, and of such singular beauty that one would have almost doubted its being a work of human ingenuity. It was placed in the Buddhist temple at Kien-Kang (Nankin).” In the year 428 A.D., the King of Ceylon (Maha Nama) sent envoys to offer tribute, and this homage was repeated between that period and A.D. 529, by three other Singhalese kings, whose names it is difficult to identify with their Chinese designations of Kia-oe, Kia-lo, and the Ho-li-ye.

[Footnote 1: PLINY, lib. vi. c. 24.]

[Footnote 2: AMMIa.n.u.s MARCELLINUS, lib. XX. c. 7.]

[Footnote 3: KLAPROTH doubts, ”si la science de l'Europe a produit jusqu'a present un ouvrage de ce genre aussi bien execute et capable de soutenir la comparaison avec cette encyclopedie chinoise.”--_Journ.

Asiat._ tom. xxi. p. 3. See also _Asiatic Journal_, London, 1832, x.x.xv.

p. 110. It has been often reprinted in 100 large volumes. M. STANISLAS JULIEN says that in another Chinese work, _Pien-i-tien_, or _The History of Foreign Nations_, there is a compilation including every pa.s.sage in which Chinese authors have written of Ceylon, which occupies about forty pages 4to. _Ib_. tom. xxix. p. 39. A number of these authorities will be found extracted in the chapter in which I have described the intercourse between China and Ceylon, Vol. I. P. v. ch. iii.]

[Footnote 4: Between the years 317 and 420 A.D.--_Journ. Asiat._ tom.

xxviii. p. 401.]

In A.D. 670, another amba.s.sador arrived from Ceylon, and A.D. 742, Chi-lo-mi-kia sent presents to the Emperor of China consisting of pearls (_perles de feu_), golden flowers, precious stones, ivory, and pieces of fine cotton cloth. At a later period mutual intercourse became frequent between the two countries, and some of the Chinese travellers who resorted to Ceylon have left valuable records as to the state of the island.

[Sidenote: A.D. 413.]

[Sidenote: A.D. 432.]

It was during the reign of Maha Nama, about the year 413 A.D., that Ceylon was visited by Fa Hian, and the statements of the _Mahawanso_ are curiously corroborated by the observations recorded by this Chinese traveller. He describes accurately the geniality of the climate, whose uniform temperature rendered the seasons undistinguishable. Winter and summer, he says, are alike unknown, but perpetual verdure realises the idea of a perennial spring, and periods for seed time and harvest are regulated by the taste of the husbandman. This statement has reference to the mult.i.tude of tanks which rendered agriculture independent of the periodical rains.

[Sidenote: A.D. 459.]

Fa Hian speaks of the lofty monuments which were the memorials of Buddha, and of the gems and gold which adorned his statues at Anaraj.a.poora. Amongst the most surprising of these was a figure in what he calls ”blue jasper,” inlaid with jewels and other precious materials, and holding in one hand a pearl of inestimable value.[1] He describes the Bo-tree in terms which might almost be applied to its actual condition at the present day, and he states that they had recently erected a building to contain ”the tooth of Buddha,” which was exhibited to the pious in the middle of the third moon with processions and ceremonies which he minutely details.[2] All this corresponds closely with the narrative of the _Mahawanso_. The sacred tooth of Buddha, called at that time _Datha dhatu_, and now the _Dalada_, had been brought to Ceylon a short time before Fa Hian's arrival in the reign of Kisti-Sri-Megha-warna, A.D. 311, in charge of a princess of Kalinga, who concealed it in the folds of her hair. And the _Mahawanso_ with equal precision describes the procession as conducted by the king and by the a.s.sembled priests, in which the tooth was borne along the streets of Anaraj.a.poora amidst the veneration of the mult.i.tude.[3]