The Mahawanse or Great Dynasty The Suluwanse or Inferior Dynasty Services rendered by the Great Dynasty Frequent usurpations and the cause Disputed successions Rising influence of the priesthood B.C. 104. Their first endowment with land Rapid increase of the temple estates Their possessions and their vow of poverty reconciled Acquire the compulsory labour of temple-tenants Impulse thus given to cultivation And to the construction of enormous tanks Tanks conferred on the temples The great tank of Minery formed, A.D. 272 Subserviency of the kings to the priesthood Large possessions of the temples at the present day Cultivation of flowers for the temples Their singular profusion Fruit trees planted by the Buddhist sovereigns Edicts of Asoca CHAP. VII. FATE OF THE ABORIGINES. Aborigines forced to labour for the new settlers Immensity of the structures erected by them Slow amalgamation of the natives with the strangers The worship of snakes and demons continued Treatment of the aborigines by the kings Their formal disqualification for high office Their rebellions They retire into the mountains and forests Their singular habits of seclusion Traces of their customs at the present day CHAP. VIII. EXTINCTION OF THE GREAT DYNASTY. B.C. 104 Walagam-bahu I His wars with the Malabars The South of Ceylon free from Malabar invasion The Buddhist doctrines first formed into books The formation of rock-temples Apostacy of Chora Naga Ceylon governed by queens Schisms in religion Buddhism tolerant of heresy but intolerant of schism Illustrations of Buddhist toleration Tolerance enjoined by Asoca The Wytulian heresy Corruption of Buddhism by the impurities of Brahnmanism A.D. 275. Recantation and repentance of King Maha Sen End of the Solar race State of Ceylon at that period Prosperity of the North Description of Anarajapoora in the fourth century Its municipal organisation Its palaces and temples Popular error as to the area of the city (note) Multitudes of the priesthood described by Fa Hian CHAP. IX KINGS OF THE LOWER DYNASTY. Sovereigns of the Lower Dynasty, a feeble race Kings who were sculptors, physicians, and poets Earliest notice of Foreign Embassies to Rome and to China Notices of Ceylon by Chinese Historians Fa Hian visits Ceylon A.D. 413 Anecdote related by Fa Hian (note) History of "the Sacred Tooth" Murder of the king Dhatu Sena, A.D. 459 Infamous conduct of his son The fortified rock Sigiri CHAP. X. DOMINATION OF THE MALABARS.