sa, B.C. 119, hastened to proclaim his youngest
son Thullatthanako[1], to the prejudice of his elder brother
Laiminitissa, but the latter established his just claim by the sword,
and hence arose two rival lines, which for centuries afterwards were
prompt on every opportunity to advance adverse pretensions to the
throne, and assert them by force of arms.

[Footnote 1: _Mahawanso_, ch. xxxiii. p. 201.]

In such contests the priesthood brought a preponderant influence to
whatever side they inclined [1]; and thus the royal authority, though
not strictly sacerdotal, became so closely identified with the
hierarchy, and so guided by its will, that each sovereign's attention
was chiefly devoted to forwarding such measures as most conduced to the
exaltation of Buddhism and the maintenance of its monasteries and
temples.

[Footnote 1: It was the dying boast of Dutugaimunu that he had lived "a
slave to the priesthood." The expression was figurative in his case; but
so abject did the subserviency of the kings become, and so rapid was its
growth, that Bhatiya Tissa, who reigned A.D. 8, rendered it literal, and
"dedicated himself, his queen, and two sons, as well as his charger, and
state elephant, as _slaves to the priesthood_." The _Mahawanso_
intimates that the priests themselves protested against this debasement,
ch. xxxiv. p. 214.]

[Sidenote: B.C. 119.]

[Sidenote: B.C. 104.]

A signal effect of this regal policy, and of the growing diffusion of
Buddhism, is to be traced in the impulse which it communicated to the
reclamation of lands and the extension of cultivation. For more than
three hundred years no mention is made in the Singhalese annals of any
mode of maintaining the priesthood other than the royal distribution of
clothing and voluntary offerings of food. They resorted for the "royal
alms" either to the residence of the authorities or to halls specially
built for their accommodation [1], to which they were summoned by "the
shout of refection;" [2] the ordinary priests receiving rice, "those
endowed with the gift of preaching, clarified butter, sugar, and
honey."[3] Hospitals and medicines for their use, and rest houses on
their journeys, were also provided at the public charge.[4] These
expedients were available so long as the numbers of the priesthood were
limited; but such were the multitudes who were tempted to withdraw from
the world and its pursuits, in order to devote themselves to meditation
and the diffu