whose family were living in retirement during the usurpation of
the Malabars, A.D. 434 to 459. As a youth he had embraced the
priesthood, and his future eminence was foretold by an omen. "On a
certain day, when chaunting at the foot of a tree, when a shower of rain
fell, a cobra de capello encircled him with its folds and covered his
book with its hood."[1] He was educated by his uncle, Mahanamo, and in
process of time, surrounding himself with adherents, he successfully
attacked the Malabars, defeated two of their chiefs in succession, put
three others to death, recovered the native sovereignty of Ceylon, "and
the religion which had been set aside by the foreigners, he restored to
its former ascendancy." He recalled the fugitive inhabitants to
Anarajapoora; degraded the nobles who had intermarried with the
Malabars, and vigorously addressed himself to repair the sacred edifices
and to restore fertility to the lands which had been neglected during
their hostile occupation by the strangers. He applied the jewels from
his head-dress to replace the gems of which the statue of Buddha had
been despoiled. The curled hair of the divine teacher was represented by
sapphires, and the lock on his forehead by threads of gold.

[Footnote 1: This is a frequent traditionary episode in connection with
the heroes of Hindu history.--_Asiat. Researches_, vol. xv. p. 275.]

[Sidenote: A.D. 459.]

The family of the king consisted of two sons and a daughter, the latter
married to his nephew, who "caused her to be flogged on the thighs with
a whip although she had committed no offence;" on which the king, in his
indignation, ordered the mother of her husband to be burned. His nephew
and eldest son now conspired to dethrone him, and having made him a
prisoner, the latter "raised the chatta" (the white parasol emblematic
of royalty), and seized on the supreme power. Pressed by his son to
discover the depository of his treasures, the captive king entreated to
be taken to Kalawapi, under the pretence of pointing out the place of
their concealment, but in reality with a determination to prepare for
death, after having seen his early friend Mahanamo, and bathed in the
great tank which he himself had formerly constructed. The usurper
complied, and assigned for the journey a "carriage with broken wheels,"
the charioteer of which shared his store of "parched rice" with the
fallen king. "Thus worldly prosperity," says Mahanamo, who lived to
write th