hough the petty kings of Rohuna and
Maya submitted to pay tribute to Elala, his personal rule did not extend
south of the Mahawelli-ganga[1], and whilst the strangers in the north
of the island were plundering the temples of Buddha, the feudal chiefs
in the south and west were emulating the munificence of Tissa in the
number of wiharas which they constructed.

[Footnote 1: _Mahawanso_, ch. xxii., _Rajavali_, p. 188,
_Rajaratnacari_, p. 36. The _Mahawanso_ has a story of Dutugaimunu, when
a boy, illustrative of his early impatience to rid the island of the
Malabars. His father seeing him lying on his bed, with his hands and
feet gathered up, inquired, "My boy, why not stretch thyself at length
on thy bed?" "Confined by the Damilos," he replied, "beyond the river on
the one side, and by the unyielding ocean on the other, how can I lie
with outstretched limbs?"]

Eager to conciliate his subjects by a similar display of regard for
religion, Dutugaimunu signalised his victory and restoration by
commencing the erection of the Ruanwelle dagoba, the most stupendous as
well as the most venerated of those at Anarajapoora, as it enclosed a
more imposing assemblage of relics than were ever enshrined in any other
in Ceylon.

The mass of the population was liable to render compulsory labour to the
crown; but wisely reflecting that it was not only derogatory to the
sacredness of the object, but impolitic to exact any avoidable
sacrifices from a people so recently suffering from internal warfare,
Dutugaimunu came to the resolution of employing hired workmen only, and
according to the _Mahawanso_ vast numbers of the Yakkhos became converts
to Buddhism during the progress of the building[1], which the king did
not live to complete.

[Footnote 1: _Mahawanso_, ch. xxviii. xxix. xxx. xxxi.]

[Sidenote: B.C. 161.]

But the most remarkable of the edifices which he erected at the capital
was the Maha-Lowa-paya, a monastery which obtained the name of the
_Brazen Palace_ from the fact of its being roofed with plates of that
metal. It was elevated on sixteen hundred monolithic columns of granite
twelve feet high, and arranged in lines of forty, so as to cover an area
of upwards of two hundred and twenty feet square. On these rested the
building nine stories in height, which, in addition to a thousand
dormitories for priests, contained halls and other apartments for their
exercise and accommodation.

The _Mahawanso_ relates with peculiar