The most remarkable of these passages occurs in connection with the following subject.  It will be remembered that Dutugaimunu, by whom the great dagoba, known as the Ruanwelle, was built at Anarajapoora, died during the progress of the work, B.C. 137, the completion of which he entrusted to his brother and successor Saidaitissa.[1] The latest act of the dying king was to form “the square capital on which the spire was afterwards to be placed[2], and on each side of this there was a representation of the sun."[3] The Mahawanso states briefly, that in obedience to his brother’s wishes, Saidaitissa “completed the pinnacle,"[4] for which the square capital before alluded to served as a base; but the Dipawanso, a chronicle older than the Mahawanso by a century and a half, gives a minute account of this stage of the work, and says that this pinnacle, which he erected between the years 137 and 119 before Christ, was formed of glass.[5]

[Footnote 1:  Mahawanso, ch. xxxii. p. 198.  See ante, Vol.  I. Pt.  III. ch. v. p. 358.]

[Footnote 2:  Ibid., ch. xxxi. p. 192.]

[Footnote 3:  Ibid., ch. xxxii. p. 193.]

[Footnote 4:  Ibid., ch. xxxiii. p. 200.]

[Footnote 5:  “Karapesi khara-pindun maha thupe varuttame.”  For this reference to the Dipawano I am indebted to Mr. DE ALWIS of Colombo.]

A subsequent king, Amanda, A.D. 20, fixed a chatta (in imitation of the white umbrella which is emblematic of royalty) on the spire[1], and two centuries later, Sanghatissa, who reigned A.D. 234 to 246, “caused this chatta to be gilt, and set four gems in the centre of the four emblems of the sun, each of which cost a lac."[2] And now follows the passage which is interesting from its reference, however obscure, to the electrical nature of lightning.  The Mahawanso continues:  “he in like manner placed a glass pinnacle on the spire to serve as a protection against lightning."[3]

[Footnote 1:  Mahawanso, ch. xxxv. p. 215.]

[Footnote 2:  Ibid., ch. xxxvi. p. 229.]

[Footnote 3:  Ibid., ch. xxxvi. p. 229.  This belief in the power of averting lightning by mechanical means, prevailed on the continent of India as well as in Ceylon, and one of the early Bengalese histories of the temple of Juggernauth, written between the years A.D. 470 and A.D. 520, says that when the building was completed, “a neclchukro was placed at the top of the temple to prevent the falling of thunderbolts.”  In an account of the modern temple which replaced this ancient structure, it is stated that “it bore a loadstone at the top, which, as it drew vessels to land, was seized and carried off two centuries ago by sailors.”—­Asiat.  Res. vol. xv. p. 327.]

The term “wajira-chumbatan” in the original Pali, which TURNOUR has here rendered “a glass pinnacle,” ought to be translated “a diamond hoop,” both in this passage and also in another in the same book in which it occurs.[1] The form assumed by the upper portion of the dagoba would therefore resemble the annexed sketch.