Chap. VI The Influences Op Buddhism on Civilisation
The Mahawanse or Great Dynasty 360
The Suluwanse or Inferior Dynasty 360
Services rendered by the Great Dynasty 360
Frequent usurpations and the cause 361
Disputed successions 361
Rising influence of the priesthood 362
B.C. 104. Their first endowment with land 363
Rapid increase of the temple estates 364
Their possessions and their vow of poverty reconciled 364
Acquire the compulsory labour of temple-tenants 365
Impulse thus given to cultivation 365
And to the construction of enormous tanks 365
Tanks conferred on the temples 365
The great tank of Minery formed, A.D. 272 365
Subserviency of the kings to the priesthood 366
Large possessions of the temples at the present day 366
Cultivation of flowers for the temples 367
Their singular profusion 367
Fruit trees planted by the Buddhist sovereigns 367
Edicts of Asoca 368