w sect
were called, and frustrated their irreligious attempt.[1] The first
effort at repression was ineffectual. It was made by the King
Wairatissa, A.D. 209; but within forty years the schismatic tendency
returned, the persecution was renewed, and the apostate priests, after
being branded on the back were ignominiously transported to the opposite
coast of India.[2]

[Footnote 1: The _Mahawanso_ throws no light on the nature of the
Wytulian (or Wettulyan) heresy (ch. xxvii. p. 227), but the
_Rajaratnacari_ insinuates that Wytulia was a Brahman who had "subverted
by craft and intrigue the religion of Buddha" (ch. ii, p. 61). As it is
stated in a further passage that the priests who were implicated were
stripped of their habits, it is evident that the innovation had been
introduced under the garb of Buddha.--_Rajaratnacari_, ch. ii. p. 65.]

[Footnote 2: TURNOUR'S _Epitome_, p. 25, _Mahawanso_, ch. xxxvi. p. 232.
As the _Mahawanso_ intimates in another passage that amongst the priests
who were banished to the opposite coast of India, there was one
Sangha-mitta, "who was profoundly versed in the rites of the demon faith
('bhuta')," it is probable that out of the Wytulian heresy grew the
system which prevails to the present day, by which the heterodox
_dewales_ and halls for devil dances are built in close contiguity to
the temples and wiharas of the orthodox Buddhists, and the barbarous
rites of demon worship are incorporated with the abstractions of the
national religion. On the restoration of Maha-Sen to the true faith, the
_Mahawanso_ represents him as destroying the _dewales_ at Anarajapoora
in order to replace them with wiharas (_Mahawanso_, ch. xxxvii. p. 237).
An account of the mingling of Brahmanical with Buddhist worship, as it
exists at the present day, will be found in HARDY'S _Oriental
Monachism_, ch. xix. Professor H.H. WILSON, in his _Historical Sketch of
the Kingdom of Pandya_, alludes to a heresy, which, anterior to the
sixth century, disturbed the _sangattar_ or college of Madura; the
leading feature of which was the admixture of Buddhist doctrines with
the rite of the Brahmans, and "this heresy," he says, "some traditions
assert was introduced from Ceylon."--_Asiat. Journ._ vol. iii. p. 218.]

[Sidenote: A.D. 275.]

The new sect had, however, established an interest in high places; and
Sangha-mitta, one of the exiled priests, returning from banishment on
the death of the king, so ingratiated himself w