tooth did not, according to Sinhalese tradition, form part of the
relics distributed after the cremation of the Buddha. Seven bones,
including four teeth,[67] were excepted from that distribution and
the Sage Khema taking the left canine tooth direct from the funeral
pyre gave it to the king of Kalinga, who enshrined it in a gorgeous
temple at Dantapura[68] where it is supposed to have remained 800
years. At the end of that period a pious king named Guhasiva
became involved in disastrous wars on account of the relic, and, as
the best means of preserving it, bade his daughter fly with her
husband[69] and take it to Ceylon. This, after some miraculous
adventures, they were able to do. The tooth was received with great
ceremony and lodged in an edifice called the Dhammacakka from which it
was taken every year for a temporary sojourn[70] in the Abhayagiri
monastery.

The cultus of the tooth flourished exceedingly in the next few
centuries and it came to be regarded as the talisman of the king and
nation. Hence when the court moved from Anuradhapura to Pollunaruwa it
was installed in the new capital. In the troubled times which followed
it changed its residence some fifteen times. Early in the fourteenth
century it was carried off by the Tamils to southern India but was
recovered by Parakrama Bahu III and during the commotion created by
the invasions of the Tamils, Chinese and Portuguese it was hidden in
various cities. In 1560 Dom Constantino de Braganca, Portuguese
Viceroy of Goa, led a crusade against Jaffna to avenge the alleged
persecution of Christians, and when the town was sacked a relic,
described as the tooth of an ape mounted in gold, was found in a
temple and carried off to Goa. On this Bayin Naung, King of Pegu,
offered an enormous ransom to redeem it, which the secular government
wished to accept, but the clergy and inquisition put such pressure on
the Viceroy that he rejected the proposal. The archbishop of Goa
pounded the tooth in a mortar before the viceregal court, burned the
fragments and scattered the ashes over the sea.[71]

But the singular result of this bigotry was not to destroy one sacred
tooth but to create two. The king of Pegu, who wished to marry a
Sinhalese princess, sent an embassy to Ceylon to arrange the match.
They were received by the king of Cotta, who bore the curiously
combined name of Don Juan Dharmapala. He had no daughter of his own
but palmed off the daughter of a chamberlain. At