[Footnote 2:  Po-w[)u]h yaou-lan, b. xxxiii. p. 2.]

[Footnote 3:  Ibid.]

[Footnote 4:  Suy-shoo, “History of the Suy Dynasty,” A.D. 633, b. lxxxi. p. 3.]

Of the religion of the people, the earliest account recorded by the Chinese is that of F[)A] HIAN, in the fourth century[1], when Buddhism was signally in the ascendant.  But in the century which followed, travellers returning from Ceylon brought back accounts of the growing power of the Tamils, and of the consequent eclipse of the national worship.  The Yung-teen and the Tae-ping describe at that early period the prevalence of Brahmanical customs, but coupled with “greater reverence for the Buddhistical faith."[2] In process of time, however, they are forced to admit the gradual decline of the latter, and the attachment of the Singhalese kings to the Hindu ritual, exhibiting an equal reverence to the ox and to the images of Buddha.[3]

[Footnote 1:  Fo[)e]-Kou[)e] Ki, ch. xxxviii.]

[Footnote 2:  Tae-ping, b. dccxciii, p. 9.]

[Footnote 3:  Woo-he[)o]-peen, “Records of the Ming Dynasty,” b. lxviii. p. 4; Tung-ne[)e], b. cxcvi. pp. 79, 80.]

The Chinese trace to Ceylon the first foundation of monasteries, and of dwelling-houses for the priests, and in this they are corroborated by the Mahawanso.[1] From these pious communities, the Emperors of China were accustomed from time to time to solicit transcripts of theological works[2], and their envoys, returning from such missions, appear to have brought glowing accounts of the Singhalese temples, the costly shrines for relics, and the fervid devotion of the people to the national worship.[3]

[Footnote 1:  Mahawanso, ch. xv. p. 99; ch. xx. p. 123.  In the Itinerary of KE-NE[)E]’s Travels in the Western Kingdoms in the tenth Century he mentions having seen a monastery of Singhalese on the continent of India.—­KE-NE[)E], Se-y[)i]h hing-ching, A.D. 964—­976.]

[Footnote 2:  Tae-ping, b. dcclxxxvii. p. 5.]

[Footnote 3:  Taou-e che-le[)o].  “Account of Island Foreigners,” quoted in the “Foreign Geography” b. xviii. p. 15. Se-y[)i]-ke foo-choo.  Ib.  “At daybreak every morning the people are summoned, and exhorted to repeat the passages of Buddha, in order to remove ignorance and open the minds of the multitude.  Discourses are delivered upon the principles of vacancy (nirwana?) and abstraction from all material objects, in order that truth maybe studied in solitude and silence, and the unfathomable point of principle attained free from the distracting influences of sound or smell.”—­Ts[)i]h-foo yaen-kwei, A.D. 1012, b. dcccclxi. p. 5.]

The cities of Ceylon in the sixth century are stated, in the “History of the Leang Dynasty,” to have been encompassed by walls built of brick, with double gates, and the houses within were constructed with upper stories.[1] The palace of the king, at Anarajapoora, in the eleventh century, was sufficiently splendid to excite the admiration of these visitants, “the precious articles with which it was decorated being reflected in the thoroughfares."[2]