[Footnote 1:  Mahawanso, ch. xxviii. xxix. xxx. xxxi.]

[Sidenote:  B.C. 161.]

But the most remarkable of the edifices which he erected at the capital was the Maha-Lowa-paya, a monastery which obtained the name of the Brazen Palace from the fact of its being roofed with plates of that metal.  It was elevated on sixteen hundred monolithic columns of granite twelve feet high, and arranged in lines of forty, so as to cover an area of upwards of two hundred and twenty feet square.  On these rested the building nine stories in height, which, in addition to a thousand dormitories for priests, contained halls and other apartments for their exercise and accommodation.

The Mahawanso relates with peculiar unction the munificence of Dutugaimunu in remunerating those employed upon this edifice; he deposited clothing for that purpose as well as “vessels filled with sugar, buffalo butter and honey;” he announced that on this occasion it was not fitting to exact unpaid labour, and, “placing high value on the work to be performed, he paid the workmen with money."[1]

[Footnote 1:  Mahawanso, ch. xxvii. p. 163.]

The structure, when completed, far exceeded in splendour anything recorded in the sacred books.  All its apartments were embellished with “beads, resplendent like gems;” the great hall was supported by golden pillars resting on lions and other animals, and the walls were ornamented with festoons of pearls and of flowers formed of jewels; in the centre was an ivory throne, with an emblem on one side of a golden sun, and on the other of the moon in silver, and above all glittered the imperial “chatta,” the white canopy of dominion.  The palace, says the Mahawanso, was provided with rich carpets and couches, and “even the ladle of the rice boiler was of gold.”

[Sidenote:  B.C. 161.]

The vicissitudes and transformations of the Brazen Palace are subjects of frequent mention in the history of the sacred city.  As originally planned by Dutugaimunu, it did not endure through the reign of his successor Saidaitissa, at whose expense it was reconstructed, B.C. 140, but the number of stories was lowered to seven.[1] More than two centuries later, A.D. 182, these were again reduced to five[2], and the entire building must have been taken down in A.D. 240, as the king who was then reigning caused “the pillars of the Lowa Pasado to be arranged in a different form.”

[Footnote 1:  Mahawanso, ch. xxxvi.]

[Footnote 2:  Mahawanso, ch. xxxiii.]

The edifice erected on its site was pulled to the ground by the apostate Maha Sen, A.D. 301[1]; but penitently reconstructed by him on his recantation of his errors.  Its last recorded restoration took place in the reign of Prakrama-bahu, towards the close of the twelfth century, when “the king rebuilt the Lowa-Maha-paya, and raised up the 1600 pillars of rock.”