arrest the traveller in astonishment at their
stupendous dimensions. He thus effectually demonstrated the
misconceptions of those who previously believed the literature of Ceylon
to be destitute of historic materials.[2]

[Footnote 1: Besides the _Mahawanso, Rajaratnacari_, and _Rajavali_, the
other native chronicles relied on by Turnour in compiling his epitome
were the _Pujavali_, composed in the thirteenth century, the
_Neekaasangraha_, written A.D. 1347, and the _Account of the Embassy to
Siam_ in the reign of Raja Singha II., A.D. 1739-47, by WILBAAGEDERE
MUDIANSE.]

[Footnote 2: By the help of TURNOUR'S translation of the _Mahawanso_ and
the versions of the _Rajaratnacari_ and _Rajavali,_ published by Upham,
two authors have since expanded the _Epitome_ of the former into
something like a connected narrative, and those who wish to pursue the
investigation of the early story of the island, will find facilities in
the _History of Ceylon,_ published by KNIGHTON in 1845, and in the first
volume of _Ceylon and its Dependencies,_ by PRIDHAM, London, 1849. To
facilitate reference I have appended a _Chronological List of Singhalese
Sovereigns,_ compiled from the historical epitome of Turnour. See Note
B. at the end of this chapter.]

Besides evidence of a less definite character, there is one remarkable
coincidence which affords grounds for confidence in the faithfulness of
the purely historic portion of the Singhalese chronicles; due allowance
being made for that exaggeration of style which is apparently
inseparable from oriental recital. The circumstance alluded to is the
mention in the _Mahawanso_ of the Chandragupta[1], so often alluded to
by the Sanskrit writers, who, as Sir William Jones was the first to
discover, is identical with Sandracottus or Sandracoptus, the King of
the Prasii, to whose court, on the banks of the Ganges, Megasthenes was
accredited as an ambassador from Seleucus Nicator, about 323 years
before Christ. Along with a multitude of facts relating to Ceylon, the
_Mahawanso_ contains a chronologically connected history of Buddhism in
India from B.C. 590 to B.C. 307, a period signalized in classical story
by the Indian expedition of Alexander the Great, and by the Embassy of
Megasthenes to Palibothra,--events which in their results form the great
link connecting the histories of the West and East, but which have been
omitted or perverted in the scanty and perplexed annals of the Hindus,
because the