The shape of these huge mounds of masonry was originally hemispherical, being that best calculated to prevent the growth of grass or other weeds on objects so sacred.  Dutugaimumi, according to the Mahawanso, when about to build the Ruanwelle dagoba, consulted a mason as to the most suitable form, who, “filling a golden dish with water, and taking some in the palm of his hand, caused a bubble in the form of a coral bead to rise on the surface; and he replied to the king, ’In this form will I construct it.’"[1]

[Footnote 1:  Mahawanso, ch. xxx. p. 175.  This legend as to the origin of the semicircular form of the dagoba is at variance with the conjecture of Major FORBES, that these vast structures were merely an advance on the mounds of earth similar to the barrow of Halyattes, which in the progress of the constructive arts, came to be converted into brickwork.—­Eleven Years in Ceylon, v. i. p. 222.]

Two dagobas at Anarajapoora, the Abay-a-giri and Jeyta-wana-rama, still retain their original outline,—­the Ruanwelle, from age and decay, has partly lost it,—­and the Thupa-ramaya is flattened on the top as if suddenly brought to a close, and the Lanka-ramaya is shaped like a bell.

Monasteries and Wiharas.—­According to the annals of Ceylon the construction of dwellings for the devotees of Buddha preceded the erection of temples for his worship.  Originally the anchorite selected a cave or some shelter in the forest as his place of repose or meditation.[1] In the Rajavali Devenipiatissa is said to have “caused caverns to be cut in the solid rock at the sacred place of Mihintala;"[2] and these are the earliest residences for the higher orders of the priesthood in Ceylon, of which a record has been preserved.  A less costly substitute was found in the erection of detached huts of the rudest construction, in winch may be traced the embryo of the Buddhist monastery; and the king Walagambahu was the first, B.C. 89, to gather these scattered residences into groups and “build wiharas in unbroken ranges, conceiving that thus their repairs would be more easily effected."[3]

[Footnote 1:  Mahawanso c. xxx. p. 174.]

[Footnote 2:  Rajavali, p. 184.]

[Footnote 3:  Mahawanso, ch. xxxiii. p. 207.]

Simplicity and retirement were at all times the characteristics of these retreats, which rarely aspired to architectural display; and the only recorded instance of extravagance in this particular was the “Brazen Palace” at Anarajapoora, with its sixteen hundred columns; an edifice which, though nominally a dwelling for the priesthood, appears to have been in reality a vast suite of halls for their assemblies and festivals, and a sanctuary for the safe custody of their jewels and treasure.[1]