2: TURNOUR's Epitome, p. 41; Mahawanso, lxxiv.; Rajaratnacari, p. 87; Rajavali, p. 254.
3: Mahawanso, ch. lxxvi. I am not aware whether the Tamil historians have chronicled this remarkable expedition, and the conquest of this portion of the Dekkan by the king of Ceylon; but in the catalogue of the Kings appended by Prof. WILSON to his Historical Sketch of Pandya (Asiat. Journ. vol. iii. p. 201) the name of "Pracrama Baghu" occurs as the sixty-fifth in the list of sovereigns of that state. For an account of Dipaldenia, where he probably coined his Indian money, see Asiat. Soc. Journ. Bengal, v. vi. pp. 218, 301.
"Thus," says the Mahawanso, "was the whole island of Lanka improved and beautified by this king, whose majesty is famous in the annals of good deeds, who was faithful in the religion of Buddha, and whose fame extended abroad as the light of the moon."[1] "Having departed this life," adds the author of the Rajavali, "he was found on a silver rock in the wilderness of the Himalaya, where are eighty-four thousand mountains of gold, and where he will reign as a king as long as the world endures."[2]
1: Mahawanso, ch. lxxviii
2: Rajaratnacari, p. 91.
CHAP. XII.
FATE OF THE SINGHALESE MONARCHY.—ARRIVAL OF THE PORTUGUESE, A.D. 1501.
A.D. 1155.The reign of Prakrama Bahu, the most glorious in the annals of Ceylon, is the last which has any pretension to renown. His family were unequal to sustain or extend the honours he had won, and his nephew[1], a pious voluptuary, by whom he was succeeded, A.D. 1186.was killed in an intrigue with the daughter of a herdsman whilst awaiting the result of an appeal to the Buddhist sovereign of Arramana to aid him in reforming religion. His murderer, whom he had previously nominated his successor, himself fell by assassination. A.D. 1187.An heir to the throne was discovered amongst the Singhalese exiles on the coast of India[2], but death soon ended his brief reign.A.D. 1192. His brother and his nephew in turn assumed the crown; both were despatched by the Adigar, who, having allied himself with the royal family by A.D. 1196.marrying the widow of the great Prakrama, contrived to place her on the throne, under the title of Queen Leela-Wattee, A.D. 1197. A.D. 1197.Within less than three years she was deposed by an usurper, and he being speedily put to flight, another queen, Kalyana-Wattee, A.D. 1202.was placed at the head of the kingdom. The next ill-fated sovereign, a baby of three months old, was speedily set aside by means of a hired force, and the first queen, Leela-Wattee, restored to the throne. But the same band who had effected a revolution in her favour were prompt to repeat the exploit; she was a second time deposed, and a third time recalled by the intervention of foreign mercenaries.[3]