The Ancient Geography of India. I. The Buddhist Period, including the Campaigns of Alexander, and the Travels of Hwen-Thsang c8.s4.40

c8.s4.40

It is difficult to reconcile the discrepancy between the dates of the Siamese and Ceylonese chronicles; but I think it is highly improbable that these Nâga relics could have been carried to Ceylon at so early a date as 157 B.C., at which time it is more than doubtful whether Buddhism had penetrated to any part of Southern India. I would suggest, as a possible explanation of the discrepancy, that the relics may have been carried off to Ceylon in A.D. 313, as stated in the Siamese chronicles, and there enshrined in the great stupa of Ruanwelli; and that in after times their acquisition was erroneously assigned to *Dutthagamini*, the original founder of the stupa. The famous tooth itself, which was taken from Kalinga to Ceylon, in A.D. 310, was enshrined in the *Dharmmachakra*, an edifice erected by *Dewanan-piyatisso*, the contemporary of Asoka, about 240 B.C., and was afterwards transferred to the Abhayagiri Vihara, which was erected in B.C. 89.*