s from the mainland of
India. Vijaya married the daughter of a native chief, with whose aid he
proceeded to master the whole island, which he parcelled out among his
followers, some of whom formed petty kingdoms. The Sinhalese introduced
from the mainland a comparatively high type of civilization, notably
agriculture. The earliest of the great irrigation tanks, near
Anuradhapura, was opened about 504 B.C. by the successor of Vijaya; and
about this time was established that system of village communities which
still obtains over a large part of Ceylon.

The island was converted to Buddhism at the beginning of the 3rd century
B.C. by the preaching of Mahinda, a son of the great Buddhist emperor
Asoka; a conversion that was followed by an immense multiplication of
_daghobas_, curious bell-shaped reliquaries of solid stone, and of
Buddhist monasteries. For the rest, the history of ancient Ceylon is
largely a monotonous record of Malabar or Tamil invasions, conquests and
usurpations. Of these latter the first was in 237 B.C. when two officers
in the cavalry and fleet revolted, overthrew the Sinhalese ruler with
the aid of his own Tamil mercenaries, and reigned jointly, as Sena I.
and Guptika, until 215. The Sinhalese Asela then ruled till 205, when he
was overthrown by a Tamil from Tanjore, Elala, who held the reins of
power for 44 years. In 161 B.C. Elala was defeated and slain by
Dutegemunu, still remembered as one of the great Sinhalese heroes of
Ceylon. The ruins of the great monastery, known as the Brazen Palace, at
Anuradhapura, remain a memorial of King Dutegemunu's splendour and
religious zeal. He died in 137 B.C., and thenceforth the history of
Ceylon is mainly that of further Tamil invasions, of the construction of
irrigation tanks, and of the immense development of the Buddhist
monastic system. A tragic episode in the royal family in the 5th century
A.D. is, however, worthy of notice as connected with one of Ceylon's
most interesting remains, the Sigiri rock and tank (see SIGIRI). In A.D.
477 King Datu Sen was murdered by his son, who mounted the throne as
Kasyapa I., and when he was driven from the capital by the inhabitants,
infuriated by his crime, built himself a stronghold on the inaccessible
Sigiri rock, whence he ruled the country until in 495 he was overthrown
and slain by his brother Mugallana (495-513), who at the time of his
father's murder had escaped to India.

Towards the close of the 10th century Ce