, since to the piety of
Devenipiatissa he united the chivalry of Dutugaimunu.

[Sidenote: A.D. 1155.]

The tranquillity insured by the independence and consolidation of his
dominions he rendered subservient to the restoration of religion, the
enrichment of his subjects, and the embellishment of the ancient
capitals of his kingdom; and, ill-satisfied with the inglorious ease
which had contented his predecessors, he aspired to combine the renown
of foreign conquests with the triumphs of domestic policy.

Faithful to the two grand objects of royal solicitude, religion and
agriculture, the earliest attention of Prakrama was directed to the
re-establishment of the one, and the encouragement and extension of the
other. He rebuilt the temples of Buddha, restored the monuments of
religion in more than their pristine splendour, and covered the face of
the kingdom with works for irrigation to an extent which would seem
incredible did not their existing ruins corroborate the historical
narrative of his stupendous labours.

Such had been the ostensible decay of Buddhism during the Malabar
domination that, when the kingdom was recovered from them by Wijayo
Bahu, A.D. 1071, "there was not to be found in the whole island five
tirunansis," and an embassy was bent to Arramana[1] to request that
members of this superior rank of the priesthood might be sent to restore
the order in Ceylon.[2]

[Footnote 1: A part of the Chin-Indian peninsula, probably between
Arracan and Siam.]

[Footnote 2: _Rajaratnacari_, p. 85; _Rajavali_, p. 252; _Mahawanso_,
ch, lx.

From the identity of the national faith in the two countries;
intercourse existed between Siam and Ceylon from time immemorial. At a
very early period missions were interchanged for the inter-communication
of Pali literature, and in later times, when, owing to the oppression of
the Malabars certain orders of the priesthood had become extinct in
Ceylon, it became essential to seek a renewal of ordination at the hands
of the Siamese heirarchy (_Rajaratnacari_, p. 86). In the numerous
incursions of the Malabars from Chola and Pandya, the literary treasures
of Ceylon were deliberately destroyed, and the _Mahawanso_ and
_Rajavali_, make frequent lamentations over the loss of the sacred
books. (See also _Rajaratnacari_, pp 77, 95, 97.) At a still later
period the savage Raja Singha who reigned between A.D. 1581 and 1592,
and became a convert to Brahmanism, sought eagerly for Buddhisti