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TRAXSLATOR'S PREFACE.
point, supplies the omission of the author, and clubs in these modern records of traditions along with the more ancient Itihasa, showing the altered state of things when he wrote: I of course take it for granted that the author describes the manners of his own time and place, and not those of the sixth century before our era at Kundagráma and Rájayriha, in Berir, where the scene of his hero's piety and labours is laid. It is a pity the work is so entirely confined to its subject, and that we have none of those historical notices which render the Ceylonese Mahávansu so interesting to Europeans.
I was at first inclined to stop my remarks on the history of the Jain religion at this point, and to concede that through the natural change to which all systems of opinion are liable, it had arisen at the period in question from a corruption of the Buddhistical religion, but a close attention to the list of Theros (Suns. Sthírá vara) or head teachers from Malavíra to the author's time, which forms a part of the work, especially the unbrokenness of the chain, and the reasonable number of years assigned to each, has made me hesitate about
