one of the most striking
episodes in that very singular book.--_Mahawanso_, ch. xviii. xix.]

[Footnote 2: The planting of the Bo-tree took place in the eighteenth
year of the reign of King Devenipiatissa, B.C. 288; it is consequently
at the present time 2147 years old.]

[Illustration: THE BO TREE AT ANARAJAPOORA]

CHAP. IV.

THE EARLY BUDDHIST MONUMENTS.

[Sidenote: B.C. 289.]

Almost simultaneously with the establishment of the Buddhist religion
was commenced the erection of those stupendous ecclesiastical
structures, the number and magnitude of whose remains form a remarkable
characteristic in the present aspect of the country.

The architectural history of continental India dates from the third
century before Christ; not a single building or sculptured stone having
as yet been discovered there, of an age anterior to the reign of
Asoca[1], who was the first of his dynasty to abandon the religion of
Brahma for that of Buddha. In like manner the earliest existing
monuments of Ceylon belong to the same period; they owe their
construction to Devenipiatissa, and the historical annals of the island
record with pious gratitude the series of dagobas, wiharas, and temples
erected by him and his successors.

[Footnote 1: FERGUSON, _Handbook of Architecture_, b. i. c. i. p. 5.]

Of these the most remarkable are the Dagobas, piles of brickwork of
dimensions so extraordinary that they suggest comparison with the
pyramids of Memphis[1], the barrow of Halyattys[2], or the mounds in the
valleys of the Tigris and Euphrates.

[Footnote 1: So vast did the dagobas appear to the Singhalese that the
author of the _Mahawanso_, in describing the construction of that called
the _Ruanwelle_ at Anarajapoora, states that each of the lower courses
contained ten kotis (a koti being equal to 100 lacs) or 10,000,000
bricks.--_Mahawanso_, ch. xxx, p. 179.]

[Footnote 2: "The ancient edifices of Chi-Chen in Central America bear a
striking resemblance to the topes of India. The shape of one of the
domes, its apparent size, the small tower on the summit, the trees
growing on the sides, the appearance of masonry here and there, the
shape of the ornaments, and the small doorway at the base, are so
exactly similar to what I had seen at Anarajapoora that when my eyes
first fell on the engravings of these remarkable ruins I supposed that
they were presented in illustration of the dagobas of Ceylon."--HARDY's
_Eastern Monachism_, c. x