ANURADHAPURA AND POLONNARUWA, 33

The city of Anuradhapura was abandoned as the capital
towards the close of the eighth century A.D., and the seat of
Government fixed at no very great distance at Polonnarnwa,
the ruins of which, though much more modern in date and
less pure in style, are scarcely less interesting than those of
the earlier city.
It was much enriched and beautified in the twelfth cenbury
 by King Prakkrama Bahu, a photograph of whose statue
1s given in the previous page.
Among the buildings of which the rnins remain at
Polonnaruwais the Dalada Maligawa, or temple of the Sacred
Tooth-relic, built 1198 A.D. as a shrine for the so-called
tooth of Buddha.

ROCK TEMPLE AT ISURUMINIYA.

The traditional history of this remarkable relic, which has
for so many centuries commanded the unreasoning homage
of millions of devotees, is as follows.
After the funeral rites of Gautama Buddha had been
celebrated, 543 B.C. at Kusinara in India, his left canine
tooth was carried to Dantapura, where it was preserved for
800 years, whence it was brought to Ceylon in the fourth
century A.D. It was preserved at Polonnaruwa for many
years.
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