Note 94 — VIII.

The legend relating to these relics, about which so many wars were waged, goes back as far as the third century of the Christian era, when Mahasana, a true believer, having become King of Ceylon, purchased these teeth for numerous valuable presents, of one of his kindred, a Calinga king in Bengal, who sent them over by his princes. The tooth Dahata Wahansa immediately achieved a miracle—it illumined the entire island, and supplanted all heretical teaching. It was forthwith enveloped in a hundred cloths, and a temple erected to enshrine it, since which it has been regarded as the Palladium of Ceylon. When, in 1560, this tooth was transferred to the temple at Manaar by the Portuguese under Constantin de Braganza, the king offered the Portuguese bigots 600,000 pieces of gold by way of ransom. Braganza judged it more advisable to destroy the tooth. But he little knew the adroitness and subtlety of the Buddhist priesthood. The very next morning the tooth, that had been supposed to be destroyed was marvellously found in a Lotos leaf in the temple, where it had been deposited by Buddha himself!