[Footnote 1:  In describing the events in the reign of Dhaatu-Sena, the king at whose instance and during whose reign the Mahawanso was written by his uncle Mahanamo, between the years A.D. 459, 477, the author, who was contemporary with the occurrence he relates, says, that “at the three principal chetyos (dagobas) he made a golden chatta and a diamond hoop (wajira-chumbaton) for each.”—­Mahawanso, ch. xxxviii. p. 259.  Similar instances of gems being attached to the chattas of dagobas are recorded in the same work, ch. xlii. and elsewhere.

The original passage relative to the diamond hoop placed by Sanghatissa runs thus in Pali, “Wisun satasahassagghe chaturocha mahamanin majjhe chatunnan suriyanan thapapesi mahipati; thupassa muddhani tatha anaggha wajira-chumbatan,” which Mr. DE ALWIS translates:  “The king caused to be set four gems, each of the value of a lac, in the centre of the four emblems of the sun, and likewise an invaluable adamantine (or diamond) ring on the top of the thupa.” Some difficulty existed in TURNOUR’S mind as to the rendering to be given to these two last words “wajira-chumbatan.”  Prof.  H.H.  WILSON, to whom I have submitted the sentence, says, “Wajira is either ‘diamond,’ or ‘adamant,’ or ’the thunderbolt of Indra;’” and with him the most leaned Pali scholars in Ceylon entirely concur; De Saram, the Maha-Moodliar of the Governor’s Gate, the Rev. Mr. Gogerly, Mr. De Alwis, Pepole the Hight Priest of the Asgiria (who was TURNOUR’S instructor in Pali), Wattegamine Unnanse of Kandy, Bulletgamone Unnanse of Galle, Batuwantudawe, of Colombo, and De Soyza, the translator Moodliar to the Colonial Secretary’s Office.  Mr. DE ALWIS says, “The epithet anagghan, ‘invaluable’ or ‘priceless,’ immediately preceding and qualifying wajira in the original (but omitted by Turnour in the translation), shows that a substance far more valuable than glass must have been meant.” “Chumbatan,” Prof.  Wilson supposed to be the Pali equivalent to the Sanskrit chumbakam, “the kisser or attractor of steel;” the question he says is whether wajira is to be considered an adjective or part of a compound substantive, whether the phrase is a diamond-magnet pinnacle, or conductor, or a conductor or attractor of the thunderbolt.  In the latter case it would intimate that the Singhalese had a notion of lightning conductors, Mr. DE ALWIS, however, and Mr. GOGERLY agree that chumba_ka_ is the same both in Sanskrit and Pali, whilst chumba_ta_ is a Pali compound, which means a circular prop or support, a ring on which something rests, or a roll of cloth formed into a circle to form a stand for a vessel; so that the term must be construed to mean a diamond circlet, and the passage, transposing the order of the words, will read literally thus: 

  thapapesi tatha muddhani thupassa
  he placed in like manner on the top of the thupo