Note 1 — CHAP. VI.

: It was the dying boast of Dutugaimunu that he had lived "a slave to the priesthood." The expression was figurative in his case; but so abject did the subserviency of the kings become, and so rapid was its growth, that Bhatiya Tissa, who reigned A.D. 8, rendered it literal, and "dedicated himself, his queen, and two sons, as well as his charger, and state elephant, as slaves to the priesthood." The Mahawanso intimates that the priests themselves protested against this debasement, ch. xxxiv. p. 214.