Western Province.

The capture of the Prince by a low-caste village girl is apparently borrowed from Sinhalese history. In the second century before Christ, Prince Sāli, the only son of King Duṭṭha-Gāmaṇi, fell in love with a beautiful village girl of low-caste,—according to tradition a Duraya girl—married her, and in order to retain her abandoned his succession to the throne. According to the historians, his infatuation was due to his grandfather’s having been a pious man of low-caste in his former life, and to the Prince’s marrying the girl in a previous existence, both of them then being of the same caste.


[1] Tun pas-wissak, lit., three [times] a five [and] twenty. [↑]

[2] Compare No. 225. [↑]

[3] Wēlāwē hō awēlāwē hō. [↑]

[4] Æt-muhunin bat munu bin̆ḍinṭa epāya. [↑]

[5] Because he thought the elephant was supernaturally prevented from killing him. [↑]

[6] Apparently from Skt. kal, to impel, hold, fasten. (See p. 340.) [↑]