It is now clear that the Barmese version is incorrect; for the seat of the president could not have been placed in the inferior position to the left of the pulpit. I accordingly consider that by some strange mistake the Barmese version has just inverted the position of the president and of the congregation, and as a necessary consequence the distinct statement that the cave was on the southern slope of hill should be corrected and made to state that it was on the northern slope of the mountain.
Making this correction, the Barmese version tallies in every particular with the accounts from the Ceylon records, and with the statement of two independent visitors of the cave, Hwen Thsang and Fa-hian.
In saying that after the proposed correction the Barmese record agrees with Fa-hian and Hwen Thsang's statements, I consider that the expression, "in the northern shade," necessarily places the cave on the northern slope of the hill. I have already combated General Cunningham's ingenious attempt to make out this expression as meaning that the cave faced the south.
The substantial agreement of all the accounts regarding the cave where the synod was held being thus obtained, it is easy to consider that the names Sattapanni, Cheti, and Webhára are all names of the same cave.
The name Webhára is clearly derived from the hill Baibhár, so is Cheti from Chhata, the name of the highest peak in the Baibhár range; the third name, Sattapanni, is derived, Turnour says in his index, from the Sattapanni plant. In accepting his derivation, we necessarily assume that there was some legend or tradition or circumstance connecting the cave with the plant. The assumption, though perfectly possible, is purely gratuitous, and if we can find any derivation for the name which does not involve a gratuitous assumption, it is evidently entitled to more consideration.
Saptaparnna means seven-leaved, and indeed the plant Saptaparnna is so named from its leaf; a cave that was divided into seven sapta by any means would not inaptly be called the Saptaparnna cave.
The cave I now propose as the Saptaparnna cave fulfils this condition. It is a large natural cavern which has been untouched by art, and portions of it have fallen in and over. The cavern is divided by natural septa of rock into compartments, six of which I counted, and there was space between the last one I counted and the vertical face of the ledge
