erity of Ceylon, though it may not have attained its acme, was
sound and auspicious in the beginning of the fourth century, when the
solar line became extinct. Pihiti, the northern portion of the island,
was that which most engaged the solicitude of the crown, from its
containing the ancient capital, whence it obtained its designation of
the Raja-ratta or country of the kings. Here the labour bestowed on
irrigation had made the food of the population abundant, and the sums
expended on the adornment of the city, the multitude of its sacred
structures, the splendour of its buildings, and the beauty of its lakes
and gardens, rendered it no inappropriate representative of the wealth
and fertility of the kingdom.

Anarajapoora had from time immemorial been a venerated locality in the
eyes of the Buddhists; it had been honoured by the visit of Buddha in
person, and it was already a place of importance when Wijayo effected
his landing in the fifth century before the Christian era. It became the
capital a century after, and the King Pandukabhaya, who formed the
ornamental lake which adjoined it, and planted gardens and parks for
public festivities, built gates and four suburbs to the city; set apart
ground for a public cemetery, and erected a gilded hall of audience, and
a palace for his own residence.

The _Mahawanso_ describes with particularity the offices of the
Naggaraguttiko, who was the chief of the city guard, and the
organisation of the low caste Chandalas, who were entrusted with the
cleansing of the capital and the removal of the dead for interment. For
these and for the royal huntsmen villages were constructed in the
environs, mingled with which were dwellings for the subjugated native
tribes, and temples for the worship of foreign devotees.[1]

[Footnote 1: _Mahawanso_, ch. x. p. 66.]

Seventy years later, when Mahindo arrived in Ceylon, the details of his
reception disclose the increased magnificence of the capital, the
richness of the royal parks, and the extent of the state establishments;
and describe the chariots in which the king drove to Mihintala to
welcome his exalted guest.[1]

[Footnote 1: Ibid., ch. xiv., xv., xx.]

[Sidenote: A.D. 302.]

Yet these were but preliminary to the grander constructions which gave
the city its lasting renown; stupendous dagobas raised by successive
monarchs, each eager to surpass the conceptions of his predecessors;
temples in which were deposited statues of gold ador