the murder of his father and the usurpation of Kasyapa, fled for
refuge to the coast of India, and subsequently recovered possession of
the throne, by the aid of a force which he collected there.[1] In the
succession of assassinations, conspiracies, and civil wars which
distracted the kingdom in the sixth and seventh centuries, during the
struggles of the rival branches of the royal house, each claimant, in
his adversity, betook himself to the Indian continent, and Malabar
mercenaries from Pandya and Soli enrolled themselves indifferently under
any leader, and deposed or restored kings at their pleasure.[2]

[Footnote 1: TURNOUR'S _Epitome_, p. 29; _Rajavali_ p. 244.]

[Footnote 2: TURNOUR'S _Epitome_, p. 31; _Rajavali_ p. 247.]

[Sidenote: A.D. 523.]

The _Rajavali_, in a single passage enumerates fourteen sovereigns who
were murdered each by his successor, between A.D. 523, and A.D. 648.
During a period of such violence and anarchy, peaceful industry was
suspended, and extensive emigrations took place to Bahar and Orissa.
Buddhism, however, was still predominant, and protection was accorded to
its professors.

[Sidenote: A.D. 640.]

Hiouen Thsang, a Chinese traveller, wno visited India between 629 A.D.
and 645[1], encountered numbers of exiles, who informed him that they
fled from civil commotions in Ceylon, in which religion had undergone
persecution, the king had lost his life, cultivation had been
interrupted, and the island exhausted by famine. This account of the
Chinese voyager accords accurately with the events detailed in the
Singhalese annals, in which it is stated that Sanghatissa was deposed
and murdered, A.D. 623, by the Seneriwat, his minister, who, amidst the
horrors of a general famine, was put to death by the people of Rohuna,
and a civil war ensued; one result of which was the defeat of the
Malabar mercenaries and their distribution as slaves to the temples.
Hiouen Thsang relates the particulars of his interviews with the
fugitives, from whom he learned the extraordinary riches of Ceylon, the
number and wealth of its wiharas, the density of its population in
peaceful times, the fertility of its soil, and the abundance of its
produce.[2]

[Footnote 1: _Histoire de la Vie de Hiouen Thsang, et de ses Voyages
dans l'Inde depuis l'an_ 629 _jusquen_ 643. _Par_ HOEI-LI _et_
YEN-THSANG, _&c. Traduite du Chinois par_ STANISLAUS JULIEN, Paris,
1853.]

[Footnote 2: "Ce royaume a sept mille li de tour,