ARCHAEOLOGY.

It is now carefully enshrined in another much more
modern and better known Dalada Maligawa, or Temple of
the Tooth, in Kandy, which became the capital of Ceylon in
the middle of the thirteenth century A.D.
The cave or rock-cut temples of Ceylon, still used for the
celebration of the same rites to which they were dedicated
twenty centuries ago, are natural caverns slightly improved
by art, advantage being taken of the shelter of overhanging
rocks and entrances constructed by the application of
masonry facades embellished with architectural decorations.
as a rule of no great merit.

INTERIOR OF DAMBULLA TEMPLE.

The most celebrated of these rock temples is that at
Dambulla, between Kandy and Anuradhapura, consisting of
five chambers, in one of which is a gigantic recumbent
statue of Buddha carved out of the solid rock and measuring
17 feet in length.
Ceylon is rich in rock and cave inscriptions, dating from
the first century B.C., of which the contents are frequently
religious, containing grantsto temples, and also relating tothe
construction of irrigation works, Written literature from a
very ancient period is preserved in olas, or strips of palm-