two Vibhangas of the Bhagavâ[50] from the Vinaya ... altering their
meaning and misquoting their contents." In the opinion of the
Mahâvihâra both the Abhayagiri and Jetavana were schismatical, but the
laity appear to have given their respect and offerings to all three
impartially and the Mahâvamsa several times records how the same
individual honoured the three Confraternities.

With the death of Mahâsena ends the first and oldest part of the
Mahâvamsa, and also in native opinion the grand period of Sinhalese
history, the subsequent kings being known as the Cûlavaṃsa or minor
dynasty. A continuation[51] of the chronicle takes up the story and
tells of the doings of Mahâsena's son Sirimeghavaṇṇa.[52] Judged
by the standard of the Mahâvihâra, he was fairly satisfactory. He
rebuilt the Lohapasâda and caused a golden image of Mahinda to be made
and carried in procession. This veneration of the founder of a
local church reminds one of the respect shown to the images of
half-deified abbots in Tibet, China and Japan. But the king did not
neglect the Abhayagiri or assign it a lower position than the
Mahâvihâra for he gave it partial custody of the celebrated relic
known as the Buddha's tooth which was brought to Ceylon from Kalinga
in the ninth year of his reign and has ever since been considered the
palladium of the island.

2


It may not be amiss to consider here briefly what is known of the
history of the Buddha's relics and especially of this tooth. Of the
minor distinctions between Buddhism and Hinduism one of the sharpest
is this cultus. Hindu temples are often erected over natural objects