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Nov. 1, 1872.)
DONDRA INSCRIPTION.
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DONDRA INSORIPTION.
BY T. W. RHYS DAVIDS, C.C.S., ANURADHAPURA. LIKE Cape Komorin on the continent of India, lished, and its gates and towers levelled with the Dondra Head on the island of “Happy Lanka," ground. The plunder was immense-in ivory, has always been a place of pilgrimage, and seems
gems, jewels, sandalwood, and ornaments of gold. to have derived its sanctity from its being the
As the last indignity that could be offered to the
sacred place, cows were slaughtered in the courts, extreme southerly point of land, where the
and the cars of the idol, with other combustible known and firm earth ceases, and man looks out
materials, being fired, the shrine was reduced to upon the ocean—the evermoving, the impassable, ashes. A stone door-way exquisitely carved, and the infinite.
a small building, whose extraordinary strength reThe worship of Neptune is no modern cultus,
sisted the violence of the destroyers, are all that but even now when standing on those points, or
now remain standing; the ground for a consider
able distance is strewn with ruins, conspicuous on Siva's rocky headland at Trinkomali, who
among which are numbers of finely cut columns of does not feel a touch at least of the grand
granite. The dagoba which stood on the crown of afflatus that inspired Byron's hymn to the the hill is a mound of shapeless debris. “far-sounding sea ?” It is at least acknowledg- I have not been able to find Sir Emerson ed that no one who cannot enter in some degree Tennent's authority for stating that the Buddhists into the feelings which gave rise to the worship consecrated there one of their earliest dagoof nature can hope to understand the history of bas : and the statement is in itself so unlikely the religious movements of the world.
that a good authority for it is all the more needful; The history of the temple on the headland at and again what can be the derivation of Dondra is at present quite unknown. Sir' E. the name Ptolemy gives to Dondra, namely, Tennent describes its destruction as follows:- Dagana ? is it Dagoba? or is it Déwa-nagara ?
Dondera Head, the Sunium of Ceylon, and the which becomes in Elu Dewu-nuwara, in modern southern extremity of the island, is covered with the Sinhalese Dewun'dara,t and in the English ruins of the temple, which was once one of the corruption Dondra? No attempt has been made most celebrated in Ceylon. The headland itself to repair the temple since its destruction by the has been the resort of devotees and pilgrims, from
Portuguese and Major Forbest thus describes the remotest ages. Ptolemy describes it as Dagana,
its state in 1840 :*sacred to the Moon," and the Baddhista constructed there one of their earliest dagobas; the restoration
"Donđera or Dewinuwara (city of the god), is of which was the care of successive sovereigns.
situated four miles from Matura, on a narrow penBut the most important temple was a shrine which
insula, the most southerly point of Ceylon, latitude in very early times had been erected by the Hindus
5° 50 N. and longitude 80° 40' E. Here, interspersin favour of Vishnu. It was in the height of its
ed amongst native huts, gardens, and cocoanut splendour when, in 1587, the place was devastated in
plantations, several hundred upright stone pillars the course of the marauding expedition by which
still remain : they are cut into various shapes, and De Souza d' Arronches sought to create a diversion exbibit different sculptures ; amongst others, Rama, during the siege of Colombo by Raja Singha II. The with his bow and arrows, may be discerned in various historians of the period state that at that time Don. forms. A square gateway, formed of three stones dera was the most renowned place of pilgrimage elaborately carved, leads to a wretched "mud ediin Ceylon, Adani's Peak scarcely excepted. The fice," in which four stone windows of superior temple they say was so vast, that from the sea-it had workmanship are evidences that a very different the appearance of a city. The pagoda was raised style of building had formerly occupied the site of on vaulted arches, richly decorated, and roofed with this hovel. It is now, however, the only temple of plates of gilded, copper. It was encompassed by a Vishnu at Dewinuwara; a station reckoned particuquadrangular cloister, opening under verandas, larly sacred by his votaries, as being the utmost upon a terrace and gardens with odoriferous shrubs limit which now remains of his conquests when inand trees whose flowers were gathered by the carnate in that perfect prince and peerless warrior priests for processions. De Souza entered the gates Ramachandra. Although his temple is so mean, without resistance; and his soldiers tore down the the place still retains much of its sanctity; and an statues, which were more than a thousand in num- annual festival, which takes place at the full moon ber. The temple and its buildings were over in the month of July, continues to attract many thrown, its arches and its colonnades were demo thousands of the worshippers of Vishnu. From the Ceylon, Vol. II. PP. 112, 114.
Accented on the second syllable which ta short In his now rare book Eleven Years in Ceylon, vol. IL. Pp. 176-179.
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