Literature. Reviews.

illustrious , supreme Lord , the sacred Bo-tree , ' the planting of which forms the grandest episode in the sacred annals of Ceylon . The Bo-tree of Anarajapoora is , in all probability , the oldest historical tree in the world . It was planted 2 SS years before Christ , and hence it is now 2 , 147 years old . Ages varying from one to five thousand years have been assigned to the baobabs of Senegal , the encaly-Hm of Tasmania-, the dragontree of Orotav . i , and the chestnut of Mount Etna . But all these estimates are matters of conjectureand such calculationshowever

, , ingenious , must be purely inferential ; whereas the age of the Bo-tree is a matter of record , its conservancy has been an object of solicitude to successive dynasties , aud the . story of its vicissitudes has been preserved in a series of continuous chronicles amongst the most authentic that have been handed down bv mankind .

Compared with it the oak of Ellerslieis but a sapling ; and the Conqueror ' s oak in Windsor Forest barely numbers half its years . The yew trees of Fountains Abbey are believed to have flourished there twelve hundred years ago ; the olives iu the Garden of Gethsemaue were full grown when the Saracens were expelled from Jerusalem ; and the cypress of Soma , in Lombardy , is said to have been a tree in the time of Julius Ojesar , yet the Bo-tree is older than the oldest of these by a century , and would almost seem to verifthe hecy pronounced when it

y prop was planted , that it would ' flourish and be green for ever . ' "The degree of sanctity with which this extraordinary tree has been invested iu the imagination of the Buddhists may be compared to the feeling of veneration with which Christians would regard the attested wood of the cross . To it kings have even dedicated their dominions , in testimony of their belief that it is a branch of the identical fig tree under which Ootama Buddha reclined at Uruwelaya , when ho underwent his When '

apotheosis . the King of Magadha . in compliance with the request of the sovereign of Ceylon , was willing to send him a portion of that sanctified tree to he planted at Anarajapoora , he was deterred by the reflection that 'it cannot lie meet to lop it with any weapon , ' but , under the instruction of the high priest , using vermilion in a golden pencil , he made a streak on the branch , which , ' severing itself , hovered over the mouth of a vase filled with scented soil , ' into which it struck its roots : and descended . "

The chronicles of Ceylon deal more with the way in which Buddhism directed , developed , and controlled the government , than with episodes of revolution or those displays of individual character which mark the annals of more elastic and changeful races . The kings were characterized by one all engrossing idea , which was to establish and endow religion . They built largely ' and kept open house for the priestsand this induced largeiiost

, a of contemplative men to become ascetic solitaries , living on alms : "A signal effect of this regal policy , and of the growing diffusion of Buddhism , is to be traced in the impulse which it communicated to the reclamation of lands and the extension of cultivation . For more than three hundred years no mention is made in the . Singhalese annals of any mode of maintaining the priesthood other than the royal distribution of clothing and voluntary offerings of foodThey resorted for the

. 'royal alms , ' either to the residence of the authorities , or to halls specially built for their accommodation , to which they were summoned by 'the shout of refection ; ' the ordinary priests receiving rice , 'those endowed with the gift of preaching , clarified butter , sugar , and honey . ' Hospitals and medicines for their use , and rest houses on their journeys , were also provided at the public charge . These expedients were available so long as tho numbers of the priesthood were limited but such the mul

; were - titudes who were tempted to withdraw from the world and its pursuits in order to devote themselves to meditation aud the diffusion of Buddhism , that the difficulty became practical of maintaining them by personal gifts , and the alternative suggested itself of setting apart lands tor their support . This innovation was first resorted to during an interregnum . The Singhalese King Waalagambahu , being expelled from his capital by a Malabar usurpation , B . C . 104 , was unable to continue the accustomed regal bounty to the

priesthood , and dedicated certain lands while in exile m Rohaua , for the support of a fraternit y' who had sheltered him there . ' The precedent thus established was speedily seized on and extended , lauds were everywhere set apart for the repair of the sacred edifices , and eventually , about the beginning of the Christian era . tho priesthood acquired such an increase of influence as sufficed to convert their precarious eleemosynary dependency- into a permanent territorial endowment ; and the practice became universal of conveying estates in mortmain on the construction of a wihara or the dedication of . 1 temple . "

_ The result of this system was similar to that which took place m the West some centuries later , and it is very instructive to compare the same with the rise and establishment of monachism ; for we see how regularl y systems come round in cycles , and arc but the reproductions of each other under a trifling difference of detail , so , in the instance of Ceylon , the religious having once become possessed of landsin a corporate capacittheylike the

, y , , Cistercians and other monk ? , were the first to reclaim and cultivate the wastes , for—_ " As the estates so made over to religious uses lav ! ov tho most part in waste districts , the quantity oE land which was thus brought under cultivation necessarily involved large extensions of the means of irrigation . Io supply these , reservoirs were formed on such a Benin as to

justify the term ' consecrated lakes , ' by which they are described in the Singhalese annals . " Where the circumstances of the ground permitted , their formation was effected by drawing au embankment across the embouchure of a valley , so as to arrest and retain the waters by which it was traversed ; and so vast were the dimensions of some of these gigantic tanks , that many yet in existence still cover an area of from fifteen to twenty miles

in circumference . The ruins of that at ICalaweva , to the north west of Bambool , show that its original circuit could not have been less than forty miles , its retaining bund being upwards of twelve miles long . The spilt water of stone , which remains to the present time , is ' perhaps one of the most stupendous monuments of misapplied human labour in the island . ' " The number of those stupendous works , which were formed by the earlsoverei of Ceylonalmost exceeds credibilityKings are named

y gns , . in the native annals , each of whom made from fifteen to thirty , together with canals , and all the appurtenances for irrigation . Originally these vast undertakings were completed ' for tho benefit of tho country , ' and ' out of compassion for living creatures ; ' but so early as the first century of the Christian era , the custom became prevalent of forming tanks with the pious intention of conferring the lands which they enriched on the church . .....

To identify the crown still more closely with the interests of agriculture , some of the kings superintended public works for irrigating the lands of the temples ; and one , more enthusiastic than the rest , toiled in the rice fields to enhance the merit of conferring their produce on the priesthood . " These broad possessions , the Church , under all vicissitudes and revolutions , has succeeded in retaining to the present clay . Their territories , it is true , have been diminished iu extent by national decay ; the destruction of works for irrigation has converted into wilderness and

jungle plains once teeming with fertility ; ancl in the mild policy of the British Government , by abolishing rajah-karii / tt , has emancipated the peasantry , who are no longer the serfs either of the temples or the chiefs . But in every district of the island the priests are in the enjoyment of the most fertile lands , over which the Crown exercises no right of taxation ; ' and such is the extent of their possessions that , although their precise limits have not been ascertained by the local government , they havebeen conjectured , with probability , to bo equal to one-third of the cultivated land of the island . "

In agricultural pursuits Buddhism also gave a strong direction to the employment of the people , and gardening and floral decorations were a portion of the religious system and the sustenance of the natives ; for , forbidden as they were to take any animal life , they were large consumers of vegetable diet , and the ritual , ol their worship had" One peculiarity in the Buddhist ceremonial served at all times to

give a singular impulse to the progress of horticulture . Flowers and garlands are introduced in its religious rites to the utmost excess . The atmosphere of the wiharas ancl temples is rendered oppressive with the perfume of champae and jessamine , and the shrine of the deity , the pedestals of his image , and the steps leading to the temple are strewn thickly with blossoms of the nagaha and the lotus . At an earlier period the profusion in which these beautiful emblems were employed in sacred decorations appears almost incredible ; the jlftthiiwaitxo relates that the

Ruanwelli dagoba , which was 270 feet in height , was once'festooned with garlands from pedestal to piunacle till it resembled one uniform bouquet ; " and at another time it and the lofty dagoba at Mihintala were buried under heaps of jessamine from the ground to the summit . Fa Hian , in describing his Ti . sifc to Ammjapooi \ i in the foui-tli century , dwells with admiration and wonder on the perfumes and flowers lavished on their worship by the Singhalese ; ancl the native historians constantly allude , as familiar incidents , to tho profusion in which they were

employed on ordinary occasions , and to the formation , by successive kings , of innumerable gardens for the floral requirements of the temples . The capital was surrounded on all sides by flower gardens , and these were multiplied so extensively , that , according to tho Hujaratnacari , one was to be found within a distance of four leagues in any part of Ceylon . Amongst tho regulations of the temple built at Pambedinya , in thethirteenth century , was 'every day au offering of 100 , 000 flowers , and each day a different flower '

. " Another advantage conferred by Buddhism on the country was the planting of fruit trees and vegetables for the gratuitous use of travellers in all tho frequented parts of the island . The historical evidences of this are singularly corroborative of the genuineness of the Buddhist edicts engraved on various rocks and monuments in India , tho deciphering of which was tho grand achievement of Prinsep and his learned coadjutors . "

The following sketch of one of the Buddhist kings , when on his death bed , will show the working of the system . He was the builder of the " Brazen Palace , " whose sixteen hundred monolithic granite pillars , ranged in lines of forty each , are still to be seen among the other ruins of tho island . Sir J . E . Tennent tells ns that" The character of Dutugaimuua is succinctly expressed in his dying avowal , that he had lived ' a slave to the priesthood . ' ^ Before partakingof food it was his practice to present a portion for their use ; and , recollecting in maturer age that on one occasion when » child he had so far