PART V.

1: The sect of theLao Tsen, or "Doctors of Reason," whom LANDRESSE regards as a development of Buddhism, prevailed in Thibet and the countries lying between China and India in the fifth and sixth centuries; and FA HIAN always refers to them as the "Clergy of Reason."—Foĕ Kouĕ Ki, chap. xxxviii.

In the character of the Singhalese people there is to be traced much of the genius of their religion. The same passiveness and love of ease which restrain from active exertion in the labours of life, find a counterpart in the adjustment by which virtue is limited to abstinence, andworship to contemplation; with only so much of actual ceremonial as may render visible to the eye what would be otherwise inaccessible to the mind. The same love of repose which renders sleep and insensibility the richest blessings of this life, anticipates torpor, akin to extinction, as the supremest felicity of the next. In common with all other nations they deem some form of religious worship indispensable, but, contrary to the usage of most, they are singularly indifferent as to what that particular form is to be; leaving it passively to be determined by the conjunction of circumstances, the accident of locality, and the influence of friends or worldly prospects of gain. Still, in the hands of the Christian missionary, they are by no means the plastic substance which such a description would suggest—capable of being moulded into any form, or retaining permanently any casual impression—but rather a yielding fluid which adapts its shape to that of the vessel into which it may happen to be poured, without any change in its quality or any modification of its character.

From this unexcitable temperament of the people, combined with the exalted morals which form the articles of their belief, result phenomena which for upwards of three hundred years have more or less baffled the exertions of all who have laboured for the overthrow of their national superstition and the elevation of Christianity in its stead. The precepts of the latter, when offered to the natives apart from the divinity of their origin, present something in appearance so nearly akin to their own tenets that they were slow to discern the superiority. If Christianity requires purity and truth, temperance, honesty and benevolence, these are already discovered to be enjoined with at least equal impressiveness in the precepts of Buddha. The Scripture commandment forbidding murder is supposed to be analogous to the Buddhist prohibition to kill[1];and where the law and the Gospel alike enforce the love of one's neighbour as the love of one's self, Buddhism insists upon charity as the basis of worship, and calls on its own followers "to appease anger by gentleness, and overcome evil by good."[2]

1: The order of Buddha not to take away life is imperative and unqualified as regards the priesthood; but to mankind in general it forms one of his "Sikshupada," oradvices, and admits of modification under certain contingencies. A priest who should take away the life of an animal, or even an insect, under any circumstances, would be guilty of the offence denominatedPachittvya, and subject to penal discipline; but to take away human life, to be accessory to murder, or to encourage to suicide, amounts to the sin ofParajika, and is visited with permanent expulsion from the order. As regards the laity, the use of animal food is not forbidden, provided the individual has not himself been an agent in depriving it of life. The doctrine of prohibition, however, although thus regulated, like many others of the Buddhists, by subtleties and sophistry, has proved an obstacle in the way of the Missionaries; and, coupled with the permission in the Scriptures "to slay and eat," it has not failed to operate prejudicially to the spread of Christianity.2: From the Singhalese book, the "Dharmma Padan," or Footsteps of Religion, portions of which are translated in "The Friend," Colombo, 1840.

2: From the Singhalese book, the "Dharmma Padan," or Footsteps of Religion, portions of which are translated in "The Friend," Colombo, 1840.

Thus the outward concurrence of Christianity in those points on which it agrees with their own religion, has proved more embarrassing to the natives than their perplexity as to others in which it essentially differs; till at last, too timid to doubt and too feeble to inquire, they cling with helpless tenacity to their own superstition, and yet subscribe to the new faith simply by adding it on to the old.

Combined with this state of irresolution a serious obstacle to the acceptance of reformed Christianity by the Singhalese Buddhists has arisen from the differences and disagreements between the various churches by whose ministers it has been successively offered to them. In the persecution of the Roman Catholics by the Dutch, the subsequent supercession of the Church of Holland by that of England, the rivalries more or less apparent between the Episcopalians and Presbyterians, and the peculiarities which separate the Baptists from the Wesleyan Methodists—all of whom have their missions and representatives in Ceylon—the Singhalese can discover little more than that they are offered something still doubtful and unsettled, in exchange for which they are pressed to surrender theirown ancient superstition. Conscious of their inability to decide on what has baffled the wisest of their European teachers to reconcile, they hesitate to exchange for an apparent uncertainty that which has been unhesitatingly believed by generations of their ancestors, and which comes recommended to them by all the authority of antiquity; and even when truth has been so far successful as to shake their confidence in their national faith, the choice of sects which has been offered to them leads to utter bewilderment as to the peculiar form of Christianity with which they may most confidingly replace it.[1]

1: A narrative of the efforts made by the Portuguese to introduce Christianity, and by the Dutch to establish the reformed Religion, will be found in Sir J. EMERSON TENNENT'SChristianity in Ceylon; together with an exposition of the systems adopted by the European and American missions, and their influence on the Hindu and Buddhist races, respectively.Those who seek to pursue the study of Buddhism, its tenets and economies, as it exhibits itself in Ceylon, will find ample details in the two profound works published by Mr. R. SPENCE HARDY:Eastern Monachism, Lond. 1850, andA Manual of Buddhism, in its Modern Development, Lond. 1853.

Those who seek to pursue the study of Buddhism, its tenets and economies, as it exhibits itself in Ceylon, will find ample details in the two profound works published by Mr. R. SPENCE HARDY:Eastern Monachism, Lond. 1850, andA Manual of Buddhism, in its Modern Development, Lond. 1853.

Although mysterious rumours of the wealth and wonders of India had reached the Western nations in the heroic ages, and although travellers at a later period returning from Persia and the East had spread romantic reports of its vastness and magnificence, it is doubtful whether Ceylon had been heard of in Europe[1] evenby name till the companions of Alexander the Great, returning from his Indian expedition, brought back accounts of what they had been told of its elephants and ivory, its tortoises and marine monsters.[2]

1: Nothing is more strikingly suggestive of the extended renown of Ceylon and of the different countries which maintained an intercourse with the island, than the number and dissimilarity of the names by which it has been known at various periods throughout Europe and Asia. So remarkable is this peculiarity, that LASSEN has made "the names of Taprobane" the subject of several learned disquisitions (De Taprobane Insula veter. cogn. Dissert. sec. 2, p. 5;Indische Alterthumskunde, vol. i. p. 200, note viii. p. 212, &c.); and BURNOUF has devoted two elaborate essays to their elucidation,Journ. Asiat. 1826, vol. viii. p. 129.Ibid., 1857, vol. xxxiii. p. 1.In the literature of the Brahmans, Lanka, from having been the scene of the exploits of Rama, is as renowned as Ilion in the great epic of the Greeks. "Taprobane," the name by which the island was first known to the Macedonians, is derivable from the Pali "Tamba panni." The origin of the epithet will be found in theMahawanso, ch. vii. p. 56. and it is further noticed in the present work, Vol. I. P. 1. ch. i. p. 17, and P. III. ch. ii. p. 330.—It has likewise been referred to the Sanskrit "Tambrapani;" which, according to LASSEN, means "the great pond," or "the pond covered with the red lotus," and was probably associated with the gigantic tanks for which Ceylon is so remarkable. In later times Taprobane was exchanged for Simundu, Palai-simundu, and Salike, under which names it is described by PTOLEMY, the author of thePeriplus, and by MARCIANUS of Heraclæa.Palai-simundu, LASSEN conjectures to be derived from the SanskritPali-simanta, "the head of the sacred law," from Ceylon having become the great centre of the Buddhist faith (De Taprob., p. 16;Indische Alter. vol. i. p. 200); andSalikehe regards merely as a seaman's corruption of "Sinhala or Sihala," the name chosen by the Singhalese themselves, and signifying "the dwelling place of lions." BURNOUF suggests whether it may not beSri-Lanka, or "Lanka the Blessed."Sinhala, with the suffix of "diva," or "dwipa" (island), was subsequently converted into "Silan-dwipa" and "Seren-diva," whence the "Serendib" of the Arabian navigators and their romances; and this in later times was contracted into Zeilan by the Portuguese, Ceylan by the Dutch, and Ceylon by the English. VINCENT, in hisCommentary on the Periplus of the Erythræan Sea, vol. ii. p. 493, has enumerated a variety of other names borne by the island; and to all these might be further added those assigned to it in China, in Siam, in Hindustan, Kashmir, Persia, and other countries of the East. The learned ingenuity of BOCHART applied a Hebrew root to expound the origin of Taprobane (Geogr. Sac.lib. ii. ch. xxviii.); but the later researches of TURNOUR, BURNOUF, and LASSEN have traced it with certainty to its Pali and Sanskrit origin.2: GOSSELIN, in hisRecherches sur la Géographie des Anciens, tom. iii. p. 291, says that Onesicritus, the pilot of Alexander's fleet, "avoit visité la Taprobane pendant un nouveau voyage qu'il eut ordre de faire." If so, he was the first European on record who had seen the island; but I have searched unsuccessfully for any authority to sustain this statement of GOSSELIN.

In the literature of the Brahmans, Lanka, from having been the scene of the exploits of Rama, is as renowned as Ilion in the great epic of the Greeks. "Taprobane," the name by which the island was first known to the Macedonians, is derivable from the Pali "Tamba panni." The origin of the epithet will be found in theMahawanso, ch. vii. p. 56. and it is further noticed in the present work, Vol. I. P. 1. ch. i. p. 17, and P. III. ch. ii. p. 330.—It has likewise been referred to the Sanskrit "Tambrapani;" which, according to LASSEN, means "the great pond," or "the pond covered with the red lotus," and was probably associated with the gigantic tanks for which Ceylon is so remarkable. In later times Taprobane was exchanged for Simundu, Palai-simundu, and Salike, under which names it is described by PTOLEMY, the author of thePeriplus, and by MARCIANUS of Heraclæa.Palai-simundu, LASSEN conjectures to be derived from the SanskritPali-simanta, "the head of the sacred law," from Ceylon having become the great centre of the Buddhist faith (De Taprob., p. 16;Indische Alter. vol. i. p. 200); andSalikehe regards merely as a seaman's corruption of "Sinhala or Sihala," the name chosen by the Singhalese themselves, and signifying "the dwelling place of lions." BURNOUF suggests whether it may not beSri-Lanka, or "Lanka the Blessed."

Sinhala, with the suffix of "diva," or "dwipa" (island), was subsequently converted into "Silan-dwipa" and "Seren-diva," whence the "Serendib" of the Arabian navigators and their romances; and this in later times was contracted into Zeilan by the Portuguese, Ceylan by the Dutch, and Ceylon by the English. VINCENT, in hisCommentary on the Periplus of the Erythræan Sea, vol. ii. p. 493, has enumerated a variety of other names borne by the island; and to all these might be further added those assigned to it in China, in Siam, in Hindustan, Kashmir, Persia, and other countries of the East. The learned ingenuity of BOCHART applied a Hebrew root to expound the origin of Taprobane (Geogr. Sac.lib. ii. ch. xxviii.); but the later researches of TURNOUR, BURNOUF, and LASSEN have traced it with certainty to its Pali and Sanskrit origin.

2: GOSSELIN, in hisRecherches sur la Géographie des Anciens, tom. iii. p. 291, says that Onesicritus, the pilot of Alexander's fleet, "avoit visité la Taprobane pendant un nouveau voyage qu'il eut ordre de faire." If so, he was the first European on record who had seen the island; but I have searched unsuccessfully for any authority to sustain this statement of GOSSELIN.

So vague and uncertain was the information thus obtained, that STRABO, writing upwards of two centuries later, manifests irresolution in stating that Taprobane was an island[1]; and POMPONIUS MELA, who wrote early in the first century of the Christian era, quotes as probable the conjecture of HIPPARCHUS, that it was not in reality an island, but the commencement of a south-eastern continent[2]; an opinion which PLINY records as an error that had prevailed previous to his own time, but which he had been enabled to correct by the information received from the ambassador who had been sent from Ceylon to the Emperor Claudius.[3]

1: STRABO, l. ii. c.i.s. 14, c.v.s. 14, [Greek: einai phasi nêson]; l. xv. c.i.s. 14. OVID was more confident, and sung of—" ... SyeneAut ubi Taprobanen Indica cingit aqua."Epst. ex Ponto, l. 802: "Taprobanen aut grandis admodum insula aut prima pars orbis alterius Hipparcho dicitur."—P. MELA, iii. 7. "Dubitare poterant juniores num revera insula esset quam illi pro veterum Taprobane habebant, si nemo eousque repertus esset qui eam circumnavigasset: sic enim de nostra quoque Brittania dubitatum est essetne insula antequam illam circumnavigasset Agricola."—Dissertatio de Ætate et Amtore Peripli Maris Erythræi; HUDSON,Geographiæ Veter. Scrip. Grac. Min.., vol. i. p. 97.3: PLINY, 1. vi. c. 24.

1: STRABO, l. ii. c.i.s. 14, c.v.s. 14, [Greek: einai phasi nêson]; l. xv. c.i.s. 14. OVID was more confident, and sung of—

" ... SyeneAut ubi Taprobanen Indica cingit aqua."Epst. ex Ponto, l. 80

" ... Syene

Aut ubi Taprobanen Indica cingit aqua."

Epst. ex Ponto, l. 80

2: "Taprobanen aut grandis admodum insula aut prima pars orbis alterius Hipparcho dicitur."—P. MELA, iii. 7. "Dubitare poterant juniores num revera insula esset quam illi pro veterum Taprobane habebant, si nemo eousque repertus esset qui eam circumnavigasset: sic enim de nostra quoque Brittania dubitatum est essetne insula antequam illam circumnavigasset Agricola."—Dissertatio de Ætate et Amtore Peripli Maris Erythræi; HUDSON,Geographiæ Veter. Scrip. Grac. Min.., vol. i. p. 97.

3: PLINY, 1. vi. c. 24.

In the treatiseDe Mundo, which is ascribed to ARISTOTLE[1], Taprobane is mentioned incidentally as of less size than Britain; and this is probably the earliest historicalnotice of Ceylon that has come down to us[2] as the memoirs of Alexander's Indian officers, on whoseauthority Aristotle (if he be the author of the treatise "De Mundo") must have written, survive only in fragments, preserved by the later historians and geographers.

1: I have elsewhere disposed of the alleged allusions of Sanchoniathon to an island which was obviously meant for Ceylon. (SeeNote (A)end of this chapter.) The authenticity of the treatiseDe Mundo, as a production of ARISTOTLE, is somewhat doubtful (SCHOELL,Literat. Grecque, liv. iv. c. xl.); and it might add to the suspicion of its being a modern composition, that Aristotle should do no more than mention the name and size of a country of which Onesicritus and Nearchus had just brought home accounts so surprising; and that he should speak of it with confidence as an island; although the question of its insularity remained somewhat uncertain at a much later period.2: Fabricius, in the supplemental volume of hisCodex Pseudepigraphi veteris Testamenti,Hamb., A.D. 1723, says: "Samarita, Genesis, viii. 4, tradit Noæ arcam requievisse super montem [Greek: tês] Serendib sive Zeylan."—P. 30; and it was possibly upon this authority that it has been stated in Kitto'sCyclopoedia of Biblical Literature,vol. i. p. 199, as "a curious circumstance that in Genesis, viii. 4, the Samaritan Pentateuch has Sarandib, the Arabic name of Ceylon," instead of Ararat, as the resting place of the ark. Were this true, it would give a triumph to speculation, and serve by a single but irresistible proof to dissipate doubt, if there were any, as to the early intercourse between the Hebrews and that island as the country from which Solomon drew his triennial supplies of ivory, apes, and peacocks (1 Kings, x. 22). Assuming the correctness of the opinion that the Samaritan Pentateuch is as old as the separation of the tribes in the reign of Rehoboam, B. C. 975-958, this would not only furnish a notice of Ceylon far anterior to any existing authority; but would assign an antiquity irreconcilable with historical evidence as to its comparatively modern name of "Serendib." The interest of the discovery would still be extraordinary, even if the Samaritan Pentateuch be referred to the later date assigned to it by Frankel, who adduces evidence to show that its writer had made use of the Septuagint. The author of the article in theBiblical Cyclopoediais however in error. Every copy of the Samaritan Pentateuch, both those printed in the ParisPolyglotand in that of Walton, as well as the five MSS. in the Bodleian Library at Oxford, which contain the eighth chapter of Genesis, together with several collations of the Hebrew and Samaritan text, make no mention of Sarandib, but all exhibit the word "Ararat" in its proper place in the eighth chapter of Genesis. "Ararat" is also found correctly in BLAYNET'SPentat, Hebroeo-Samarit.,Oxford, 1790.But there is another work in which "Sarandib" does appear in the verse alluded to. PIETRO DELLA VALLE, in that most interesting letter in which he describes the manner in which he obtained at Damascus, in A.D. 1616, a manuscript of the Pentateuch on parchment in the Hebrew language, but written in Samaritan characters; relates that along with it he procuredanotheron paper, in which not only the letters, but the language, was Samaritan—"che non solo è seritto con lettere Samaritane, ma in lingua anche propria de' Samaritani, che è un misto della Ebraica e della Caldea."—Viaggi, &c.,Lett. da Aleppo, 15. di Giugno A.D. 1616.The first of these two manuscripts is the Samaritan Pentateuch, the second is the "Samaritan version" of it. The author and age of the second are alike unknown; but it cannot, in the opinion of Frankel, date earlier than the second century, or a still later period. (DAVISON'SBiblical Criticism,vol. i, ch. xv. p. 242.) Like all ancient targums, it bears in some particulars the character of a paraphrase; and amongst other departures from the literal text of the original Hebrew, the translator, following the example of Onkelos and others, has substituted modern geographical names for some of the more ancient, such asGerizimfor Mount Ebal (Deut. xxvii. 4),Paneasfor Dan, andAscalonfor Gerar; and in the 4th verse of the viiith chapter of Genesis he has made the ark to rest "upon the mountains of Sarandib." Onkelos in the same passage hasKarduin place of Ararat. See WALTON'SPolyglot, vol. i. p. 31; BASTOW,Bibl. Dict.1847, vol. i. p. 71.According to theMahawanso, the epithet of Sihale-dwipa, theisland of lions, was conferred upon Ceylon by the followers of Wijayo, B.C. 543 (Mahawanso, ch. vii. p. 51), and from this was formed, by the Arabian seamen, the names Silan-dip and Seran-dib. The occurrence of the latter word, therefore, in the "Samaritan Pentateuch," if its antiquity be referable to the reign of Rehoboam, would be inexplicable; whereas no anachronism is involved by its appearance in the "Samaritanversion," which was not written till many centuries after the Wijayan conquest.There is another manuscript, written on bombycine, in the Bodleian Library, No. 345, described as an Arabic version of the Pentateuch, written between the years 884 and 885 of the Hejira, A.D. 1479 and 1480, and ascribed to Aba Said, son of Abul Hassan, "in eo continetur versio Arabica Pentateuchi quæ ex textu Hebræico-Samaritanonon ex versione ilia quæ dialecto quadam peculieri Samaritanis quondam vernacula Scripta est."—Cat. Orient. MSS.vol. I. p. 2. In this manuscript, also, the wordSarendipinstead of Ararat, occurs in the passage in Genesis descriptive of the resting of the ark.

2: Fabricius, in the supplemental volume of hisCodex Pseudepigraphi veteris Testamenti,Hamb., A.D. 1723, says: "Samarita, Genesis, viii. 4, tradit Noæ arcam requievisse super montem [Greek: tês] Serendib sive Zeylan."—P. 30; and it was possibly upon this authority that it has been stated in Kitto'sCyclopoedia of Biblical Literature,vol. i. p. 199, as "a curious circumstance that in Genesis, viii. 4, the Samaritan Pentateuch has Sarandib, the Arabic name of Ceylon," instead of Ararat, as the resting place of the ark. Were this true, it would give a triumph to speculation, and serve by a single but irresistible proof to dissipate doubt, if there were any, as to the early intercourse between the Hebrews and that island as the country from which Solomon drew his triennial supplies of ivory, apes, and peacocks (1 Kings, x. 22). Assuming the correctness of the opinion that the Samaritan Pentateuch is as old as the separation of the tribes in the reign of Rehoboam, B. C. 975-958, this would not only furnish a notice of Ceylon far anterior to any existing authority; but would assign an antiquity irreconcilable with historical evidence as to its comparatively modern name of "Serendib." The interest of the discovery would still be extraordinary, even if the Samaritan Pentateuch be referred to the later date assigned to it by Frankel, who adduces evidence to show that its writer had made use of the Septuagint. The author of the article in theBiblical Cyclopoediais however in error. Every copy of the Samaritan Pentateuch, both those printed in the ParisPolyglotand in that of Walton, as well as the five MSS. in the Bodleian Library at Oxford, which contain the eighth chapter of Genesis, together with several collations of the Hebrew and Samaritan text, make no mention of Sarandib, but all exhibit the word "Ararat" in its proper place in the eighth chapter of Genesis. "Ararat" is also found correctly in BLAYNET'SPentat, Hebroeo-Samarit.,Oxford, 1790.

But there is another work in which "Sarandib" does appear in the verse alluded to. PIETRO DELLA VALLE, in that most interesting letter in which he describes the manner in which he obtained at Damascus, in A.D. 1616, a manuscript of the Pentateuch on parchment in the Hebrew language, but written in Samaritan characters; relates that along with it he procuredanotheron paper, in which not only the letters, but the language, was Samaritan—"che non solo è seritto con lettere Samaritane, ma in lingua anche propria de' Samaritani, che è un misto della Ebraica e della Caldea."—Viaggi, &c.,Lett. da Aleppo, 15. di Giugno A.D. 1616.

The first of these two manuscripts is the Samaritan Pentateuch, the second is the "Samaritan version" of it. The author and age of the second are alike unknown; but it cannot, in the opinion of Frankel, date earlier than the second century, or a still later period. (DAVISON'SBiblical Criticism,vol. i, ch. xv. p. 242.) Like all ancient targums, it bears in some particulars the character of a paraphrase; and amongst other departures from the literal text of the original Hebrew, the translator, following the example of Onkelos and others, has substituted modern geographical names for some of the more ancient, such asGerizimfor Mount Ebal (Deut. xxvii. 4),Paneasfor Dan, andAscalonfor Gerar; and in the 4th verse of the viiith chapter of Genesis he has made the ark to rest "upon the mountains of Sarandib." Onkelos in the same passage hasKarduin place of Ararat. See WALTON'SPolyglot, vol. i. p. 31; BASTOW,Bibl. Dict.1847, vol. i. p. 71.

According to theMahawanso, the epithet of Sihale-dwipa, theisland of lions, was conferred upon Ceylon by the followers of Wijayo, B.C. 543 (Mahawanso, ch. vii. p. 51), and from this was formed, by the Arabian seamen, the names Silan-dip and Seran-dib. The occurrence of the latter word, therefore, in the "Samaritan Pentateuch," if its antiquity be referable to the reign of Rehoboam, would be inexplicable; whereas no anachronism is involved by its appearance in the "Samaritanversion," which was not written till many centuries after the Wijayan conquest.

There is another manuscript, written on bombycine, in the Bodleian Library, No. 345, described as an Arabic version of the Pentateuch, written between the years 884 and 885 of the Hejira, A.D. 1479 and 1480, and ascribed to Aba Said, son of Abul Hassan, "in eo continetur versio Arabica Pentateuchi quæ ex textu Hebræico-Samaritanonon ex versione ilia quæ dialecto quadam peculieri Samaritanis quondam vernacula Scripta est."—Cat. Orient. MSS.vol. I. p. 2. In this manuscript, also, the wordSarendipinstead of Ararat, occurs in the passage in Genesis descriptive of the resting of the ark.

From their compilations, however, it appears that the information concerning Ceylon collected by the Macedonian explorers of India, was both meagre and erroneous. ONESICRITUS, as he is quoted by Strabo and Pliny, propagated exaggerated statements as to the dimensions of the island[1] and the number of herbivorous cetacea[2] found in its seas; the elephants he described as far surpassing those of continental India both in courage and in size.[3]

1: These early errors as to the and position of Ceylon will be found explained elsewhere. SeeVol. I. P. 1. ch. i. p. 81.2: STRABO, xv. p. 691. The animal referred to by the informants of Onesicritus was the dugong, whose form and attitudes gave rise to the fabled mermaid. See Ælian, lib. xvi. ch. xviii., who says it has the face of a woman and spines that resemble hair.3: PLINY, lib. vi. ch. 24.

1: These early errors as to the and position of Ceylon will be found explained elsewhere. SeeVol. I. P. 1. ch. i. p. 81.

2: STRABO, xv. p. 691. The animal referred to by the informants of Onesicritus was the dugong, whose form and attitudes gave rise to the fabled mermaid. See Ælian, lib. xvi. ch. xviii., who says it has the face of a woman and spines that resemble hair.

3: PLINY, lib. vi. ch. 24.

MEGASTHENES, twenty years after the death of Alexander the Great, was accredited as an ambassador from Seleucus Nicator to the court of Sandracottus, or Chandra-Gupta, the King of the Prasii, from whose country Ceylon had been colonised two centuries before by the expedition under Wijayo.[1] It was, perhaps,from the latter circumstance and the communication subsequently maintained between the insular colony and the mother country, that Megasthenes, who never visited any part of India south of the Ganges, and who was, probably, the first European who ever beheld that renowned river[1], was nevertheless enabled to collect many particulars relative to the interior of Ceylon. He described it as being divided by a river (the Mahawelli-ganga?) into two sections, one infested by wild beasts and elephants, the other producing gold and gems, and inhabited by a people whom he called Palæogoni[2], a hellenized form ofPali-Putra,"the sons of the Pali," the first Prasian colonists.

1: SeeVol. I. P. III. ch. iii. p. 336.2: ROBEBTSON'SAncient India,sec. ii.3: SCHWANBECK'SMegasthenes, Fragm.xviii.; SOLINUS POLYHISTOR, lii. 3; PLINY, lvi. ch. 24. ÆLIAN, in compiling hisNatura Animalium,has introduced the story told by MEGASTHENES, and quoted by STRABO, of cetaceous animals in the seas of Ceylon with heads resembling oxen and lions; and this justifies the conjecture that other portions of the same work referring to the island may have been simultaneously borrowed from the same source. SCHWANBECK, apparently on this ground, has included among theFragmenta incertathose passages from ÆLIAN, lib, xvi. ch. 17, 18, in which he says, and truly, that in Taprobane there were no cities, but from five to seven hundred villages built of wood, thatched with reeds, and occasionally covered with the shells of large tortoises. The sea coast then as now was densely covered with palm-trees (evidently coco-nut and Palmyra), and the forests contained elephants so superior to those of India that they were shipped in large vessels and sold to the King of Calinga (Northern Circars). The island, he says, is so large that "those in the maritime districts never hunted in the interior, and those in the interior had never seen the sea."

1: SeeVol. I. P. III. ch. iii. p. 336.

2: ROBEBTSON'SAncient India,sec. ii.

3: SCHWANBECK'SMegasthenes, Fragm.xviii.; SOLINUS POLYHISTOR, lii. 3; PLINY, lvi. ch. 24. ÆLIAN, in compiling hisNatura Animalium,has introduced the story told by MEGASTHENES, and quoted by STRABO, of cetaceous animals in the seas of Ceylon with heads resembling oxen and lions; and this justifies the conjecture that other portions of the same work referring to the island may have been simultaneously borrowed from the same source. SCHWANBECK, apparently on this ground, has included among theFragmenta incertathose passages from ÆLIAN, lib, xvi. ch. 17, 18, in which he says, and truly, that in Taprobane there were no cities, but from five to seven hundred villages built of wood, thatched with reeds, and occasionally covered with the shells of large tortoises. The sea coast then as now was densely covered with palm-trees (evidently coco-nut and Palmyra), and the forests contained elephants so superior to those of India that they were shipped in large vessels and sold to the King of Calinga (Northern Circars). The island, he says, is so large that "those in the maritime districts never hunted in the interior, and those in the interior had never seen the sea."

Such was the scanty knowledge regarding India communicated to Europe by those who had followed the footsteps of conquest into that remote region; and although eighteen centuries elapsed from the death of Alexander the Great before another European power sought to establish its dominion in the East, a new passion had been early implanted, the cultivation of which was in the highest degree favourable to the acquisition and diffusion of geographical knowledge. In an age before the birth of history[1], the adventurous Phoenicians, issuing from the Red Sea, in their ships,had reached the shores of India, and centuries afterwards their experienced seamen piloted the fleets of Solomon in search of the luxuries of the East.[2]

1: A compendious account of the early trade between India and the countries bordering on the Mediterranean will be found in PARDESSUS'sCollection des Lois Maritimes antérieures au XVIII^e siècle, tom. i. p. 9.2: It has been conjectured, and not without reason, that it may possibly have been from Ceylon and certainly from Southern India that the fleets of Solomon were returning when "once in every three years came the ships of Tarshish, bringing gold and silver, ivory, apes, and peacocks."—I Kings, x. 22,II Chron., xx. 21. An exposition of the reasons for believing that the site of Tarshish may be recognised in the modern Point de Galle will be found in a subsequent chapter descriptive of that ancient emporium. See alsoNote Aat the end of this chapter.

2: It has been conjectured, and not without reason, that it may possibly have been from Ceylon and certainly from Southern India that the fleets of Solomon were returning when "once in every three years came the ships of Tarshish, bringing gold and silver, ivory, apes, and peacocks."—I Kings, x. 22,II Chron., xx. 21. An exposition of the reasons for believing that the site of Tarshish may be recognised in the modern Point de Galle will be found in a subsequent chapter descriptive of that ancient emporium. See alsoNote Aat the end of this chapter.

Egypt, under the Ptolemies, became the seat of that opulent trade which it had been the aim of Alexander the Great to divert to it from Syria. Berenice was built on the Red Sea, as an emporium for the ships engaged in Indian voyages, and Alexandria excelled Tyre in the magnitude and success of her mercantile operations.

The conquest of Egypt by Augustus, so far from checking, served to communicate a fresh impulse to the intercourse with India, whence all that was costly and rare was collected in wanton profusion, to minister to the luxury of Rome. A bold discovery of the same period imparted an entirely new character to the navigation of the Indian Ocean. The previous impediment to trade had been the necessity of carrying it on in small vessels, that crept cautiously along the windings of the shore, the crews being too ignorant and too timid to face the dangers of the open sea. But the courage of an individual at length solved the difficulty, and dissipated the alarm. Hippalus, a seaman in the reign of Claudius, observing the steady prevalence of the monsoons[1], which blew over the Indian Ocean alternately from east to west, dared to trust himself to their influence,and departing from the coast of Arabia, he stretched fearlessly across the unknown deep, and was carried by the winds to Muziris, a port on the coast of Malabar, the modern Mangalore.

1: Arabic "maussam." I believe the root belongs to a dialect of India, and signifies "seasons." VINCENT fixes the discovery of the monsoons by Hippalus about the year A.D. 47, although it admits of no doubt that the periodical prevalence of the winds must have been known long before, if not partially taken advantage of by the seamen of Arabia and India.Periplus, &c., vol. ii, pp. 24—57.

An exploit so adventurous and so triumphant, rendered Hippalus the Columbus of his age, and his countrymen, to perpetuate his renown, called the winds which he had mastered by his name.[1] His discovery gave a new direction to navigation, it altered the dimensions and build of the ships frequenting those seas [2], and imparted so great an impulse to trade, that within a very brief period it became a subject of apprehension at Rome, lest the empire should be drained of its specie to maintain the commerce with India. Silver to the value of nearly a million and a half sterling, being annually required to pay for the spices, gems, pearls, and silks, imported through Egypt.[3] An extensive acquaintance was now acquired with the sea-coast of India, and the great work of Pliny, compiled less than fifty years after the discovery of Hippalus, serves to attest the additional knowledge regarding Ceylon which had been collected during the interval.

1:Periplus, &c., HUDSON, p. 32; PLINY, lib. vi, ch. 26. A learned disquisition on the discovery of the monsoons will be found in VINCENT'sCommerce of the Ancients, vol. i. pp. 47, 253; vol. ii. pp. 49; 467; ROBERTSON'sIndia, sec. ii.2: PLINY, lib. vi. ch. 24.3: PLINY, lib. vi. ch. 26. The nature of this rich trade is fully described by the author of thePeriplus of the Erythrean Sea, who was himself a merchant engaged in it.

2: PLINY, lib. vi. ch. 24.

3: PLINY, lib. vi. ch. 26. The nature of this rich trade is fully described by the author of thePeriplus of the Erythrean Sea, who was himself a merchant engaged in it.

Pliny, writing in the first century, puts aside the fabulous tales previously circulated concerning the island[1]; he gives due credit to the truer accounts of Onesicritus and Megasthenes, and refers to the laterworks of ERATOSTHENES and ARTEMIDORUS[2] the geographers, as to its position, its dimensions, its cities, its natural productions, and as to the ignorance of navigation exhibited by its inhabitants. All this, he says, was recorded by former writers, but it had fallen to his lot to collect information from natives of Ceylon who had visited Rome during his own time under singular circumstances. A ship had been despatched to the coast of Arabia to collect the Red Sea revenues, but having been caught by the monsoon it was carried to Hippuros, the modern Kudra-mali, in the north-west of Ceylon, near the pearl banks of Manaar. Here the officer in command was courteously received by the king, who, struck with admiration of the Romans and eager to form an alliance with them, despatched an embassy to Italy, consisting of a Raja and suite of three persons.[3]

1: I have not thought it necessary to advert to the romance of JAMBULUS, the scene of which has been conjectured, but without any justifiable grounds, to be laid in Ceylon; and which is strangely incorporated with the authentic work of DIODORUS SICULUS, written in the age of Augustus. DIODORUS professes to give it as an account of therecent discoveryof an island to which it refers; a fact sufficiently demonstrative of its inapplicability to Ceylon, the existence of which had been known to the Greeks three hundred years before. It is the story of a merchant made captive by pirates and carried to Æthiopia, where, in compliance with a solemn rite, he and a companion were exposed in a boat, which, after a voyage of four months, was wafted to one of the Fortunate Islands, in the Southern Sea, where he resided seven years, whence having been expelled, he made his way to Palibothra, on the Ganges, and thence returned to Greece. In the pretended account of this island given by JAMBULUS I cannot discover a single attribute sufficient to identify it with Ceylon. On the contrary, the traits which he narrates of the country and its inhabitants, when they are not manifest inventions, are obviously borrowed from the descriptions of the continent of India, given by CTESIAS and MEGASTHENES. PRINSEP, in his learned analysis of the Sanchi Inscription, shows that what JAMBULUS says of the alphabet of his island agrees minutely with the character and symbols on the ancient Buddhist lats of Central India.Journ. Asiat. Soc. Ben., vol. vi. p. 476. WILFORD, in hisEssay on the Sacred Isles of the West, Asiat. Res.x. 150, enumerates the statements of JAMBULUS which might possibly apply to Sumatra, but certainly not to Ceylon, an opinion in which he had been anticipated by RAMUSIO, vol. i. p. 176. LASSEN, in hisIndische Alterthumskunde, vol. iii. p. 270, assigns his reasons for believing that Bali, to the east of Java, must be the island in which JAMBULUS laid the scene of his adventures. DIODORUS SICULUS, lib. ii. ch. lv., &c. An attempt has also been made to establish an identity between Ceylon and the island of Panchoea, which Diodoras describes in the Indian Sea, between Arabia and Gedrosia (lib. v. 41, &c.); but the efforts of an otherwise ingenious writer have been unsuccessful. See GROVER'sVoice from Stonehenge, P. i. p. 95.2: PLINY, lib. xxii. ch. liii. iv. ch. xxiv. vii. ch. ii.3: "Legatos quatuor misit principe eoram Rachia."—PLINY, lib. vi. c. 24. This passage is generally understood to indicate four ambassadors, of whom the principal was one named Rachias. CASIE CHITTY, in a learned paper on the earlyHistory of Jaffna, offers another conjecture that "Rachia" may meanArachia, a Singhalese designation of rank which exists to the present day; and in support of his hypothesis he instances the coincidence that "at a later period a similar functionary was despatched by the King Bhuwaneka-Bahu VIII. as ambassador to the court of Lisbon."—Journal Ceylon Asiat. Soc.,p. 74, 1848. The event to which he refers is recorded in theRajavali: it is stated that the king of Cotta, about the year 1540, "caused a figure of the prince his grandson to be made of gold, and sent the same under the care ofSallappoo Arachy, to be delivered to the King of Portugal. The Arachy having arrived and delivered the presents to the King of Portugal, obtained the promise of great assistance," &c.—Rajavali, p. 286. See also VALENTYN,Oud en Nieuw Oost-Indien, ch. vi.; TURNOUR'SEpitome, p. 49; RIBEYRO'SHistory, trans, by Lee, ch. v. But as the embassy sent to the Emperor Claudius would necessarily have been deputed by one of the kings of the Wijayan dynasty, it is more than probable that the rank of the envoy was Indian rather than Singhalese, and that "Rachia" meansrajarather thanarachy.It may, however, be observed that Rackha is a name of some renown in Singhalese annals. Rackha was the general whom Prakrama Bahu sent to reduce the south of Ceylon when in arms in the 12th century (Mahawanso, ch. lxxiii.); and it is also the name of one of the heroes of the Paramas. WILFORD,As. Res., vol. ix. p. 41.

2: PLINY, lib. xxii. ch. liii. iv. ch. xxiv. vii. ch. ii.

3: "Legatos quatuor misit principe eoram Rachia."—PLINY, lib. vi. c. 24. This passage is generally understood to indicate four ambassadors, of whom the principal was one named Rachias. CASIE CHITTY, in a learned paper on the earlyHistory of Jaffna, offers another conjecture that "Rachia" may meanArachia, a Singhalese designation of rank which exists to the present day; and in support of his hypothesis he instances the coincidence that "at a later period a similar functionary was despatched by the King Bhuwaneka-Bahu VIII. as ambassador to the court of Lisbon."—Journal Ceylon Asiat. Soc.,p. 74, 1848. The event to which he refers is recorded in theRajavali: it is stated that the king of Cotta, about the year 1540, "caused a figure of the prince his grandson to be made of gold, and sent the same under the care ofSallappoo Arachy, to be delivered to the King of Portugal. The Arachy having arrived and delivered the presents to the King of Portugal, obtained the promise of great assistance," &c.—Rajavali, p. 286. See also VALENTYN,Oud en Nieuw Oost-Indien, ch. vi.; TURNOUR'SEpitome, p. 49; RIBEYRO'SHistory, trans, by Lee, ch. v. But as the embassy sent to the Emperor Claudius would necessarily have been deputed by one of the kings of the Wijayan dynasty, it is more than probable that the rank of the envoy was Indian rather than Singhalese, and that "Rachia" meansrajarather thanarachy.

It may, however, be observed that Rackha is a name of some renown in Singhalese annals. Rackha was the general whom Prakrama Bahu sent to reduce the south of Ceylon when in arms in the 12th century (Mahawanso, ch. lxxiii.); and it is also the name of one of the heroes of the Paramas. WILFORD,As. Res., vol. ix. p. 41.

The Singhalese king of whom this is recorded was probably Chanda-Mukha-Siwa, who ascended the throne A.D. 44, and was deposed and assassinated by his brother A.D. 52. He signalised his reign by the construction of one of those gigantic tanks which still form the wonders of the island.[1] From his envoys Pliny learned that Ceylon then contained five hundred towns (or more properly villages), of which the chief was Palæsimunda, the residence of the sovereign, with a population of two hundred thousand souls.

1:Mahawanso, ch. xxx. p. 218; TURNOUR'SEpitome, p. 21; AMMIANUS MARCELLINUS mentions another embassy which arrived from Ceylon in the reign of the Emperor Julian, l. xx. c. 7, and which consequently must have been despatched by the king Upa-tissa II. I have elsewhere remarked, that it was in this century that the Singhalese appear to have first commenced the practice of sending frequent embassies to distant countries, and especially to China. (See chapter on theKnowledge of Ceylonpossessed by the Chinese.)

They spoke of a lake called Megisba, of vast magnitude, and giving rise to two rivers, one flowing by the capital and the other northwards, towards the continent of India, which was most likely an exaggerated account of some of the great tanks, possibly that of Tissaweva, in the vicinity of Anarajapoora. They described the coral which abounds in the Gulf of Manaar; and spoke of marble, with colours like the shell of the tortoise; of pearls and precious stones; of the luxurianceof the soil, the profusion of all fruits except that of the vine, the natural wealth of the inhabitants, the mildness of the government, the absence of vexatious laws, the happiness of the people, and the duration of life, which was prolonged to more than one hundred years. They spoke of a commerce with China, but it was evidently overland, by way of India and Tartary, the country of the Seres being visible, they said, beyond the Himalaya mountains.[1] The ambassadors described the mode of trading among their own countrymen precisely as it is practised by the Veddahs in Ceylon at the present day[2]; the parties to the barter being concealed from each other, the one depositing the articles to be exchanged in a given place, and the other, if they agree to the terms, removing them unseen, and leaving behind what they give in return.

It is impossible to read this narrative of Pliny without being struck with its fidelity to truth in many particulars; and even one passage, to which exception has been taken as an imposture of the Singhalese envoys, when they manifested surprise at the quarters in which the sun rose and set in Italy, has been referred[3] to the peculiar system of the Hindus, in whose maps north and south are left and right; but it may be explained by the fact of the sun passing overhead in Ceylon, in his transit to the northern solstice; instead of hanging about the south, as in Italy, after acquiring some elevation above the horizon.

1: "Ultra montes Emodos Seras quoque ab ipsis aspici notos etiam commercio."—PLINY, lib. vi. c. 24.2: See the chapter on the Veddahs, Vol. II. Part II. ch. iii.3: See WILFORD'SSacred Islands of the West, Asiat. Res., vol. x. p. 41.

1: "Ultra montes Emodos Seras quoque ab ipsis aspici notos etiam commercio."—PLINY, lib. vi. c. 24.

2: See the chapter on the Veddahs, Vol. II. Part II. ch. iii.

3: See WILFORD'SSacred Islands of the West, Asiat. Res., vol. x. p. 41.

The rapid progress of navigation and discovery in the Indian seas, within the interval of sixty or seventy years which elapsed between the death of Pliny and the compilation of the great work of Ptolemy is in no instance more strikingly exhibited than on comparing the information concerning Taprobane, which is given by the latter in his "System of Geography,"[1] with themeagre knowledge of the island possessed by all his predecessors. From his position at Alexandria and his opportunites of intercourse with mariners returning from their distant voyages, he enjoyed unusual facilities for ascertaining facts and distances, and in proof of his singular diligence he was enabled to lay down in his map of Ceylon the position of eight promontories upon its coast, the mouths of five principal rivers, four bays, and harbours; and in the interior he had ascertained that there were thirteen provincial divisions, and nineteen towns, besides two emporiums on the coast; five great estuaries which he terms lakes[2],two bays, and two chains of mountains, one of them surrounding Adam's Peak, which he designates as Maloea—the name by which the hills that environ it are known in theMahawanso. He mentions the recent change of the name to Salike (which Lassen conjectures to be a seaman's corruption of the real name Sihala[3]); and he notices, in passing, the fact that the natives wore their hair then as they do at the present day, in such length and profusion as to give them an appearance of effeminacy, "[Greek: mallois gynaikeiois eis hapan anadedemenos]."[4]

1: PTOLEMY,Geog. lib. vii. c. 4, tab. xii, Asiæ. In one important particular a recent author has done justice to the genius and perseverance of Ptolemy, by demonstrating that although mistaken in adopting some of the fallacious statements of his predecessors, he has availed himself of better data by which to fix the position of Ceylon; so that the western coast in the Ptolemaic map coincides with the modern Ceylon in the vicinity of Colombo. Mr. COOLEY, in his learned work onClaudius Ptolemy and the Nile, Lond. 1854, has successfully shown that whilst forced to accept those popular statements which he had no authentic data to check, Ptolemy conscientiously availed himself of the best materials at his command, and endeavoured to fix his distances by means of the reports of the Greek seamen who frequented the coasts which he described, constructing his maps by means of their itineraries and the journals of trading voyages. But a fundamental error pervades all his calculations, inasmuch as he assumed that there were but 500 stadia (about fifty geographical miles) instead of sixty miles to a degree of a great circle of the earth; thus curtailing the globe of one sixth of its circumference. Once apprised of this mistake, and reckoning Ptolemy's longitudes and latitudes from Alexandria, and reducing them to degrees of 600 stadia, his positions may be laid down on a more correct graduation; otherwise "his Taprobane, magnified far beyond its true dimensions, appears to extend two degrees below the equator, and to the seventy-first meridian east of Alexandria (nearly twenty degrees too far east),whereas the prescribed reduction brings it westward and northward till it covers the modern Ceylon, the western coasts of both coinciding at the very part near Colombo likely to have been visited by shipping."—Pp. 47, 53, See also SCHOELL,Hist, de la Lit. Grecque, l. v. c. lxx.Position of Colombo according to Ptolemy2: It is observable that Ptolemy in his list distinguishes those indentations in the coast which he described asbays, [Greek: kolpos], from the estuaries, to which he gives the epithet of "lakes," [Greek: limên]. Of the former he particularises two, the position of which would nearly correspond with the Bay of Trincomalie and the harbour of Colombo. Of the latter he enumerates five, and from their position they seem to represent the peculiar estuaries formed by the conjoint influence of the rivers and the current, and known by the Arabs by the term of "gobbs." A description of them will be found at Vol. I. Part I. ch. i. p. 43.3: May it not have an Egyptian origin "Siela-Keh," thelandofSiela?4: The description of Taprobane given by Ptolemy proves that the island had been thoroughly circumnavigated and examined by the mariners who were his informants. Not having penetrated the interior to any extent, their reports relative to it are confined to the names of the principal tribes inhabiting the several divisions and provinces, and the position of the metropolis and seat of government. But respecting the coast, their notes were evidently minute and generally accurate, and from them Ptolemy was enabled to enumerate in succession the bays, rivers, and harbours, together with the headlands and cities on the seaborde in consecutive order; beginning at the northern extremity, proceeding southward down the western coast, and returning along the east to Point Pedro. Although the majority of the names which he supplies are no longer susceptible of identification on the modern map, some of them can be traced without difficulty—thus hisGangesis still the Mahawelli-ganga; hisMaagrammumwould appear, on a first glance, to be Mahagam, but as he calls it the "metropolis," and places it beside the great river, it is evidently Bintenne, whose ancient name was "Maha-yangana" or "Ma-ha-welli-gam." HisAnurogrammum, which he calls [Greek: Basileion], "the royal residence," is obviously Anarajapoora, the city founded by Anuradha five hundred years before Ptolemy was born (Mahawanso, ch. vii. p. 50, x. 65, &c.). It may have borne in his time the secondary rank of a village or a town (gamorgramma), and afterwards acquired the higher epithet of Anuradha-porra, the "city" of Anuradha, after it had grown to the dimensions of a capital. The province of theModuttiin Ptolemy's list has a close resemblance in name, though not in position, to Mantotte; the people of Rayagam Corle still occupy the country assigned by him to theRhogandani—hisNaga dibiiare identical with the Nagadiva of theMahawanso; and the islet to which he has given the name ofBassa, occupies nearly the position of the Basses, which it has been the custom to believe were so called by the Portuguese—"Baxos" or "Baixos,"sunken rocks. It is curious that the position in which he has placed the elephant plains or feeding grounds, [Greek: elephantôn nomoi], to the south-east of Adam's Peak, is the portion of the island about Matura, where, down to a very recent period, the Portuguese, the Dutch, and the English successively held their annual battues, not only for the supply of the government studs, but for export to India. Making due allowance for the false dimensions of the island assumed by Ptolemy, but taking his account of the relative positions of the headlands, rivers, harbours, and cities, the accompanying map affords a proximate idea of his views of Taprobane and its localities as propounded in his Geography.Post-scriptum.Since the above was written, and the map it refers to was returned to me from the engraver, I have discovered that a similar attempt to identify the ancient names of Ptolemy with those now attached to the supposed localities, was made by Gosselin; and a chart so constructed will be found (No. xiv.) appended to hisRecherches sur la Géographie des Anciens, t. iii. p. 303. I have been gratified to find that in the more important points we agree; but in many of the minor ones, the want of personal knowledge of the island involved Gosselin in errors which the map I have prepared will, I hope, serve to rectify.—J.E.T.

Position of Colombo according to Ptolemy

2: It is observable that Ptolemy in his list distinguishes those indentations in the coast which he described asbays, [Greek: kolpos], from the estuaries, to which he gives the epithet of "lakes," [Greek: limên]. Of the former he particularises two, the position of which would nearly correspond with the Bay of Trincomalie and the harbour of Colombo. Of the latter he enumerates five, and from their position they seem to represent the peculiar estuaries formed by the conjoint influence of the rivers and the current, and known by the Arabs by the term of "gobbs." A description of them will be found at Vol. I. Part I. ch. i. p. 43.

3: May it not have an Egyptian origin "Siela-Keh," thelandofSiela?

4: The description of Taprobane given by Ptolemy proves that the island had been thoroughly circumnavigated and examined by the mariners who were his informants. Not having penetrated the interior to any extent, their reports relative to it are confined to the names of the principal tribes inhabiting the several divisions and provinces, and the position of the metropolis and seat of government. But respecting the coast, their notes were evidently minute and generally accurate, and from them Ptolemy was enabled to enumerate in succession the bays, rivers, and harbours, together with the headlands and cities on the seaborde in consecutive order; beginning at the northern extremity, proceeding southward down the western coast, and returning along the east to Point Pedro. Although the majority of the names which he supplies are no longer susceptible of identification on the modern map, some of them can be traced without difficulty—thus hisGangesis still the Mahawelli-ganga; hisMaagrammumwould appear, on a first glance, to be Mahagam, but as he calls it the "metropolis," and places it beside the great river, it is evidently Bintenne, whose ancient name was "Maha-yangana" or "Ma-ha-welli-gam." HisAnurogrammum, which he calls [Greek: Basileion], "the royal residence," is obviously Anarajapoora, the city founded by Anuradha five hundred years before Ptolemy was born (Mahawanso, ch. vii. p. 50, x. 65, &c.). It may have borne in his time the secondary rank of a village or a town (gamorgramma), and afterwards acquired the higher epithet of Anuradha-porra, the "city" of Anuradha, after it had grown to the dimensions of a capital. The province of theModuttiin Ptolemy's list has a close resemblance in name, though not in position, to Mantotte; the people of Rayagam Corle still occupy the country assigned by him to theRhogandani—hisNaga dibiiare identical with the Nagadiva of theMahawanso; and the islet to which he has given the name ofBassa, occupies nearly the position of the Basses, which it has been the custom to believe were so called by the Portuguese—"Baxos" or "Baixos,"sunken rocks. It is curious that the position in which he has placed the elephant plains or feeding grounds, [Greek: elephantôn nomoi], to the south-east of Adam's Peak, is the portion of the island about Matura, where, down to a very recent period, the Portuguese, the Dutch, and the English successively held their annual battues, not only for the supply of the government studs, but for export to India. Making due allowance for the false dimensions of the island assumed by Ptolemy, but taking his account of the relative positions of the headlands, rivers, harbours, and cities, the accompanying map affords a proximate idea of his views of Taprobane and its localities as propounded in his Geography.

Post-scriptum.Since the above was written, and the map it refers to was returned to me from the engraver, I have discovered that a similar attempt to identify the ancient names of Ptolemy with those now attached to the supposed localities, was made by Gosselin; and a chart so constructed will be found (No. xiv.) appended to hisRecherches sur la Géographie des Anciens, t. iii. p. 303. I have been gratified to find that in the more important points we agree; but in many of the minor ones, the want of personal knowledge of the island involved Gosselin in errors which the map I have prepared will, I hope, serve to rectify.—J.E.T.

CEYLON, ACCORDING TO PTOLEMY AND PLINYCEYLON, ACCORDING TO PTOLEMY AND PLINY

CEYLON, ACCORDING TO PTOLEMY AND PLINY

The extent and accuracy of Ptolemy's information is so surprising, that it has given rise to surmises as to the sources whence it could possibly have been derived.[1] But the conjecture that he was indebted to ancient Phoenician or Tyrian authorities whom he has failed to acknowledge, is sufficiently met by the consideration that these were equally accessible to his predecessors. The abundance of his materials, especially those relating to the sea-borde of India and Ceylon, is sufficient to show that he was mainly indebted for his facts to the adventurous merchants of Egypt and Arabia, and to works which, like thePeriplus of the Erythroean Sea(erroneously ascribed to ARRIAN the historian, but written by a merchant probably of the same name), were drawn up by practical navigators to serve as sailing directions for seamen resorting to the Indian Ocean.[2]

1: HEEREN,Hist. Researches, vol. ii. Appendix xii.2: LASSEN,De Taprob. Ins.p. 4. From the error of Ptolemy in making the coast of Malabar extend from west to east, whilst its true position is laid down in thePeriplus, VINCENT concludes that he was not acquainted with thePeriplus, as, anterior to the invention of printing, cotemporaries might readily be ignorant of the productions of each other (VINCENT, vol. ii. p. 55). Vincent assigns the composition of thePeriplusto the reign of Claudius or Nero, and Dodwell to that of M. Aurelius, but Letronne more judiciously ascribes it to the period of Severus and Caracalla, A.D. 198,210, fifty years later than Ptolemy. The author, a Greek of Alexandria and a merchant, never visited Ceylon, though he had been as far south as Nelkynda (the modern Neliseram), and the account which he gives from report of the island is meagre, and in some respects erroneous. ARRIANIPeriplus Maris Eryth.;HUDSON, vol. i. p. 35; VINCENT, vol. ii. p. 493.

1: HEEREN,Hist. Researches, vol. ii. Appendix xii.

2: LASSEN,De Taprob. Ins.p. 4. From the error of Ptolemy in making the coast of Malabar extend from west to east, whilst its true position is laid down in thePeriplus, VINCENT concludes that he was not acquainted with thePeriplus, as, anterior to the invention of printing, cotemporaries might readily be ignorant of the productions of each other (VINCENT, vol. ii. p. 55). Vincent assigns the composition of thePeriplusto the reign of Claudius or Nero, and Dodwell to that of M. Aurelius, but Letronne more judiciously ascribes it to the period of Severus and Caracalla, A.D. 198,210, fifty years later than Ptolemy. The author, a Greek of Alexandria and a merchant, never visited Ceylon, though he had been as far south as Nelkynda (the modern Neliseram), and the account which he gives from report of the island is meagre, and in some respects erroneous. ARRIANIPeriplus Maris Eryth.;HUDSON, vol. i. p. 35; VINCENT, vol. ii. p. 493.

So ample was the description of Ceylon afforded by Ptolemy, that for a very long period his successors, AGATHEMERUS, MARCIANUS of Heraclea, and other geographers, were severally contented to use the facts originally collected by him.[1] And it was not till the reign of Justinian, in the sixth century, that COSMAS INDICO-PLEUSTES, by publishing the narrative of Sopater, added very considerably to the previous knowledge of the island.

1: AGATHEMERUS,Hudson Geog., l. ii. c. 7,8.; MARCIANUS HERACLEOTA,Periplus, Hudson,p. 26. STEPHANUS BYZANTINUS,in verbo"Taprobane." Instead of the expression of PTOLEMY that Taprobane [Greek: ekaleito palai Simoundon], which MARCIANUS had rendered [Greek: Palaisimioundou], STEPHANUS transposes the words as if to guard against error, [Greek: palai men ekaleito Simoundou], &c. The prior authority of PTOLEMY, however, serves to prolong the mystery, as he calls the capital Palæsimundum.

As Cosmos is the last Greek writer who treats of Taprobane[1], it may be interesting, before passing to hisaccount of the island, to advert to what has been recorded by the Singhalese chroniclers themselves, as to its actual condition at the period when Cosmas described it, and thus to verify his narrative by the test of historical evidence. It has been shown in another chapter that between the first and the sixth centuries, Ceylon had undergone all the miseries of frequent invasions: that in the vicissitudes of time the great dynasty of Wijayo had expired, and the throne had fallen into the hands of an effeminate and powerless race, utterly unable to contend with the energetic Malabars, who acquired an established footing in the northern parts of the island. The south,too wild and uncultivated to attract these restless plunderers, and too rugged and inaccessible to be overrun by them, was divided into a number of petty principalities, whose kings did homage to the paramount sovereign north of the Mahawelli-ganga. Buddhism was the national religion, but toleration was shown to all others,—to the worship of the Brahmans as well as to the barbarous superstition of the aboriginal tribes. At the same time, the productive wealth of the island had been developed to an extraordinary extent by the care of successive kings, and by innumerable works for irrigation and agriculture provided by their policy. Anarajapoora, the capital, had expanded into extraordinary dimensions, it was adorned with buildings and monuments, surpassing in magnitude those of any city in India, and had already attracted pilgrims and travellers from China and the uttermost countries of the East.

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