la Dharma Suriya 2nd, son of
Rajasingha Khandy 1687
161. Sriwira Prakrama Narendrasingha or
Kundasala ditto 1707
162. Sriwejaya Raja Singha or Hanguranketta,
brother-in-law ditto 1739
163. Kirtisri Raja Singha, brother-in-law ditto 1747
164. Rajadhi Raja Singha, brother ditto 1781
165. Sri Wikrema Raja Singha, son of the late
king's wife's sister, deposed by the
English in 1815, and died in captivity
in 1832 ditto 1798

NOTE.--The Singhalese vowels _a_, _e_, _i_, _o_, _u_ are to be
pronounced as in French or Italian.

CHAP. II.

THE ABORIGINAL INHABITANTS OF CEYLON.

Divested of the insipid details which overlay them, the annals of Ceylon
present comparatively few stirring incidents, and still fewer events of
historic importance to repay the toil of their perusal. They profess to
record no occurrence anterior to the advent of the last Buddha, the
great founder of the national faith, who was born on the borders of
Nepaul in the _seventh_ century before Christ.

In the theoretic doctrines of Buddhism "_Buddhas_"[1] are beings who
appear after intervals of inconceivable extent; they undergo
transmigrations extending over vast spaces of time, accumulating in each
stage of existence an increased degree of merit, till, in their last
incarnation as men, they attain to a degree of purity so immaculate as
to entitle them to the final exaltation of "Buddha-hood," a state
approaching to incarnate divinity, in which they are endowed with wisdom
so supreme as to be competent to teach mankind the path to ultimate
bliss.

[Footnote 1: A sketch of the Buddhist religion may be seen in Sir J.
EMERSON TENNENT'S _History of Christianity in Ceylon_, ch. v. London,
1850. But the most profound and learned dissertations on Buddhism as it
exists in Ceylon, will be found in the works of the Rev. R. SPENCE
HARDY, _Eastern Monachism_, Lond. 1850, and _A Manual of Buddhism_,
Lond. 1853.]

Their precepts, preserved orally or committed to writing, are cherished
as _bana_ or the "_word_;" their doctrines are incorporated in the
system of _dharma_ or "_truth_;" and, at their death, instead of
entering on a new form of being, either corporeal or spiritual, they are
absorbed into _Nirwana_