Mediaeval Sinhalese Art c6.23

c6.23

*The Tooth-relic* In the ninth year of the reign of Śri Mēghavaṇṇa (i.e. A.D. 313) “a certain Brahman princess brought thither from Kāliṅga the Daṭhadhatu, or tooth-relic of Buddha, under circumstances set forth in the Daṭhadhatuvamsa.‡ The monarch taking charge of it himself and rendering the highest honours to it, in the most reverential manner deposited it in a casket . . . and placed it in the building called the Dhammacakka built by Dēvānam Piyatissa in the royal park.” This was at Anurādhapura. The relic was afterwards enshrined on Polonnaruva, which was made the capital in A.D. 769, when Anurādhapura was abandoned to the Tamils. Subsequently the tooth-relic was removed successively to Beligala (Vijaya Bāhu III., A.D. 1236), Dambadeniya (Parākrama Bāhu II., A.D. 1240), and again to Polonnaruva. In the time of Bhuvaneka Bāhu I. (A.D. 1277) Ceylon was invaded by Ārya Cakravarti and the tooth relic carried away to India. It was soon recovered by Parākrama III. (A.D. 1288) and brought back to Polonnaruwa. Thereafter it was hidden for safety in various places, until it passed into the hands of the Tamil Kings of Jaffna. It was taken from them by the Portuguese, who carried it to Goa and there reduced it to ashes. But this (it is said) was merely a counterfeit. The real tooth-relic was enshrined in Kandy by Vimala Dharma Sūriya II. (A.D. 1679), who built a temple for its reception; and his son Narēndra Simha, the last Sinhalese king, when this fell into disrepair, built the present Daḷada Māligāva. It is to be hoped that the late talk of completely remodelling this historic building so as to make it more commodious will be heard no more of.