Chapter I

CEYLON AS KNOWN TO THE GREEKS AND ROMANS.

First heard of by the companions of Alexander the Great Various ancient names of Ceylon (note) Early doubts whether it was an island or a continent Mentioned by Aristotle Alleged mention of Ceylon in the Samaritan Pentateuch (note) Onesicritus's account Megasthenes' description Ælian's account borrowed from Megasthenes (note) Ceylon known to the Phoenicians and to the Egyptians (note) Hippalus discovers the monsoons Effect of this discovery on Indian trade Pliny's account of Ceylon Story of Jambulus by Diodoros Siculus (note) Embassy from Ceylon to Claudius Narrative of Rachias, and its explanation (note) Lake Megisba, a tank Early intercourse with China The Veddahs described by Pliny Interval between Pliny and Ptolemy Ptolemy's account of Ceylon Explanation of his errors Ptolemy discriminates bays from estuaries (note) v9 Identification of Ptolemy's names His map His sources of information Agathemerus, Marcianus of Heraclea Cosmas Indicopleustes Palladius--St. Ambrosius (note) State of Ceylon when Cosmas wrote Its commerce at that period In the hands of Arabs and Persians v4 Ceylon as described by Cosmas Story of his informant Sopater Translation of Cosmas The gems and other productions of Ceylon--"a gaou" (note) Meaning of the term "Hyacinth" (note) The great ruby of Ceylon, its history traced (note) Cosmas corroborated by the Peripius Horses imported from Persia Export of elephants Note on Sanchoniathon

CHAP. II.

INDIAN, ARABIAN, AND PERSIAN AUTHORITIES.

Absurd errors of the Hindus regarding Ceylon Their dread of Ceylon as the abode of demons Rise of the Mahometan power Persians and Arabs trade to India Story in Beladory of the first invasion of India by the Mahometans (text and note) Character of the Arabian geographers Their superiority over the Greeks Greek Paradoxical literature A.D. 851. The two Mahometans Their account of Ceylon Adam's Peak Obsequies of a king Councils on religion and history Toleration Carmathic monument at Colombo (note) Galle, the seat of ancient trade Claim of Mantotte disproved Greek fire (note) "_Kalah_" is Galle The Maharaja of Zabedj help possession of Galle Evidence of this in the Garsharsp-Namah Derivation of "Galle" (text and note) Aversion of the Singhalese to commerce Identification of the modern Veddahs with the ancient Singhalese Their singular habits, as described by Robert Knox, Ribeyro, and Valentyn By Albyrouni By Palladius By Fa Hian By the Chinese writers (note) By Pliny For this reason the coast only known to strangers Arabian authors who describe Ceylon Albateny and Massoudi Tabari (note) Sinbad the Sailor Edrisi Kazwini Cinnamon, no mention of Was cinnamon a native of Ceylon? No mention by Singhalese authors No mention of by Latin writers The _Regio Cinnamomifera_ was in Africa (note) No mention by Arabs or Persians First noticed in Ceylon by Ibn Batuta By Nicola di Conti (note) Ibn Batuta describes Ceylon His Travels

CHAP. III.

CEYLON AS KNOWN TO THE CHINESE.

Early Chinese trade with Ceylon Early Chinese travellers in India Chinese translations of M.S. Julien List of Chinese authors relating to Ceylon (note) Their errors as to its form and site Their account of Adam's Peak and its gems Chinese names for Ceylon Curious habit of its traders They describe the two races, Tamils and Singhalese Origin of the cotton "Comboy" Costume of Ceylon Early commerce Works for irrigation noticed Island of Junk-Ceylon Galle resorted to by Chinese ships Vegetable productions Elephants, ivory, and jewels Skill of Singhalese goldsmiths and statuaries Pearls and gems sent to China No mention of cinnamon Chinese account of Buddhism in Ceylon Monasteries for priests first founded in Ceylon Cities of Ceylon in the sixth century Patriotism of Singhalese kings Domestic manners of the Singhalese Embassies from China to Ceylon Chinese travels prior to the sixth century Fa Hian's travels in sixth century First embassy from Ceylon to China, A.D. 405 Narrative of the image which it bore (note) Ceylon tributary to China in sixth century Hiouen-Thsang describes Ceylon in the seventh century (note) Events in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries King of Ceylon carried captive to China, A.D. 1405 Last embassy to China, A.D. 1459 Traces of the Chinese in Ceylon Evidences of their presence found by the Portuguese Modern Chinese account of Ceylon (note)

CHAP. IV.

CEYLON AS KNOWN TO THE MOORS, GENOESE, AND VENETIANS.

The Moors of Ceylon Their origin The early Mahometans in India Arabians anciently settled in Ceylon Real descent of the modern "Moormen" Their occupation as traders, ancestral Their hostilities with the Portuguese They might have been rulers of Ceylon Indian trade prior to the route by the Cape The Genoese and Venetians in the East Rise of the Mongol empire Marco Polo, A.D. 1271 Visits Ceylon Friar Odoric, A.D. 1318 Jordan de Severac, A.D. 1323 (note) Giov. de Marignola, A.D. 1349 (note) Nicola di Conti, A.D. 1444 The first traveller who speaks of Cinnamon Jerome de Santo Stefano (note) Ludov. Barthema, A.D. 1506 Odoardo Barbosa, A.D. 1509 Andrea Corsali, A.D. 1515 (note) Cesar Frederic, A.D. 1563 Course of trade changed by the Cape route Irritation of the Venetians

ILLUSTRATIONS IN THE FIRST VOLUME

MAPS.

"Gobbs" on the East Coast By ARROWSMITH "Gobbs" on the "West Coast ARROWSMITH Ceylon, according to the Sanskrit and Pali authors SIR J. EMERSON TENNENT Map of Ancient India LASSEN Position of Colombo, according to Ptolemy and Pliny SIR J. EMERSON TENNENT Ceylon, according to Ptolemy and Pliny SIR J. EMERSON TENNENT

PLANS AND CHARTS.

Geological System By Currents in the N.E. Monsoon Currents in the N.W. Monsoon Diagram of Rain in India and in Ceylon DR. TEMPLETON Diagram of the Anthelia DR. TEMPLETON Plan of a Fish-corral Summit of a Dagoba, with Lightning apparatus

WOOD ENGRAVINGS.

Marriage of the Fig-tree and the Palm By MR. A. NICHOLL Fig-tree on the Ruins of Pollanarrua MR. A. NICHOLL The "Snake-tree" MR. A. NICHOLL The _Loris_ M.H. SYLVAT The _Uropeltis grandis_ M.H. SYLVAT A _Chironectes_ M.H. SYLVAT Method of Fishing in Pools From KNOX The _Anabas_ of the dry Tanks By DR. TEMPLETON Eggs of the Leaf Insect M.H. SYLVAT _Cermatia_ DR. TEMPLETON The Calling Crab Eyes and Teeth of the Land Leech DR. TEMPLETON Land Leeches DR. TEMPLETON Upper and under Surfaces of the _Hirudo sanguisorba_ DR. TEMPLETON The Bo-tree at Anarajapoora MR. A. NICHOLL A Dagoba at Kandy From a Photograph Ruins of the Brazen Palace By MR. A. NICHOLL The Alu Wihara MR. A. NICHOLL The fortified Rock of Sigiri MR. A. NICHOLS Coin of Queen Leela-Wattee Coin showing the _Trisula_ Hook-money Ancient and Modern Tom-tom Beaters From the JOINVILLE MSS. A Column from Anarajapoora Sacred Goose from the Burmese Standard Hansa, from the old Palace at Kandy Honeysuckle Ornament From FERGUSSON'S _Handbook of Architecture_ Egyptian Yoke and Singhalese Pingo Veddah drawing the Bow with his Foot By MR. R. MACDOWALL Method of Writing with a Style MR. R. MACDOWALL The "Comboy," as worn by both Sexes MR. A. FAIRFIELD

NOTICE TO THE FOURTH EDITION.

The gratifying reception with which the following pages have been honoured by the public and the press, has in no degree lessened my consciousness, that in a work so extended in its scope, and comprehending such a multiplicity of facts, errors are nearly unavoidable both as to conclusions and detail. These, so far as I became aware of them, I have endeavoured to correct in the present, as well as in previous impressions.

But my principal reliance for the suggestion and supply both of amendments and omissions has been on the press and the public of Ceylon; whose familiarity with the topics discussed naturally renders them the most competent judges as to the mode in which they have been treated. My hope when the book was published in October last was, that before going again to press I should be in possession of such friendly communications and criticisms from the island, as would have enabled me to render the second edition much more valuable than the previous one. In this expectation I have been agreeably disappointed, the sale having been so rapid, as to require a fourth impression before it was possible to obtain from Ceylon judicious criticisms on the first. These in due time will doubtless arrive; and meanwhile, I have endeavoured, by careful revision, to render the whole as far as possible correct.

J. EMERSON TENNENT.

NOTICE TO THE THIRD EDITION.

The call for a third edition on the same day that the second was announced for publication, and within less than two months from the appearance of the first, has furnished a gratifying assurance of the interest which the public are disposed to take in the subject of the present work.

Thus encouraged, I have felt it my duty to make several alterations in the present impression, amongst the most important of which is the insertion of a Chapter on the doctrines of Buddhism as it developes itself in Ceylon.[1] In the historical sections I had already given an account of its introduction by Mahindo, and of the establishments founded by successive sovereigns for its preservation and diffusion. To render the narrative complete, it was felt desirable to insert an abstract of the peculiar tenets of the Buddhists; and this want it has been my object to supply. The sketch, it will be borne in mind, is confined to the principal features of what has been denominated "_Southern Buddhism_" amongst the Singhalese; as distinguished from "_Northern Buddhism_" in Nepal, Thibet, and China.[2] The latter has been largely illustrated by the labours of Mr. B.H. HODGSON and the toilsome researches of M. CSOMA of Körrös in Transylvania; and the minutest details of the doctrines and ceremonies of the former have been unfolded in the elaborate and comprehensive collections of Mr. SPENCE HARDY.[3] From materials discovered by these and other earnest inquirers, Buddhism in its general aspect has been ably delineated in the dissertations of BURNOUF[4] and SAINT HILAIRE[5], and in the commentaries of REMUSAT[6], STANISLAS JULIEN[7], FOUCAUX[8], LASSEN[9], and WEBER.[10] The portion thus added to the present edition has been to a great extent taken from a former work of mine on the local superstitions of Ceylon, and the "_Introduction and Progress of Christianity_" there; and as the section relating to Buddhism had the advantage, previous to publication, of being submitted to the Rev. Mr. GOGERLY, the most accomplished Pali scholar, as well as the most erudite student of Buddhistical literature in the island, I submit it with confidence as an accurate summary of the distinctive views of the Singhalese on the leading doctrines of their national faith.

[Footnote 1: See Part IV., c. xi.]

[Footnote 2: MAX MÜLLER; _History of Sanskrit Literature_, p. 202.]

[Footnote 3: _Eastern Monachism_, an account of the origin, laws; discipline, sacred writings, mysterious rites, religious ceremonies, and present circumstances of the Order of Mendicants, founded by Gotoma Budha. 8vo. Lond. 1850; and _A Manual of Buddhism in its Modern Development_. 8vo. Lond. 1853.]

[Footnote 4: BURNOUF, _Introduction à l'Histoire du Bouddhieme Indien_. 4to. Paris. 1845; and translation of the _Lotus de la bonne Loi_.]

[Footnote 5: J. BARTHELEMY SAINT-HILAIRE _Le Bouddha et sa Religion_. 8vo. Paris. 1800.]

[Footnote 6: Introduction and Notes to the _Fo[)e] Kou[)e] Ki_ of FA HIAN.]

[Footnote 7: Life and travels of HIOUEN THSANG.]

[Footnote 8: Translation of _Lalitavistára_ by M. PH. ED. FOUCAUX.]

[Footnote 9: Author of the _Indische Alterthumskunde;_ &c.]

[Footnote 10: Author of the _Indische Studien_; &c.]

A writer in the _Saturday Review_[1], in alluding to the passage in which I have sought to establish the identity of the ancient Tarshish with the modern Point de Galle[2], admits the force of the coincidence adduced, that the Hebrew terms for "ivory, apes, and peacocks"[3] (the articles imported in the ships of Solomon) are identical with the Tamil names, by which these objects are known in Ceylon to the present day; and, to strengthen my argument on this point, he adds that, "these terms were so entirely foreign and alien from the common Hebrew language as to have driven the Ptolemaist authors of the Septuagint version into a blunder, by which the ivory, apes, and peacocks come out as '_hewn and carven stones_.'" The circumstance adverted to had not escaped my notice; but I forebore to avail myself of it; for, although the fact is accurately stated by the reviewer, so far as regards the Vatican MS., in which the translators have slurred over the passage and converted "_ibha, kapi_, and _tukeyim_" into [Greek: "lithôn toreutôn kai pelekêtôn"] (literally, "stones hammered and carved in relief"); still, in the other great MS. of the Septuagint, the _Codex Alexandrinus_, which is of equal antiquity, the passage is correctly rendered by "[Greek: odontôn elephantinôn kai pithêkôn kai taônôn]." The editor of the Aldine edition[4] compromised the matter by inserting "the ivory and apes," and excluding the "peacocks," in order to introduce the Vatican reading of "stones."[5] I have not compared the Complutensian and other later versions.

[Footnote 1: Novemb. 19, 1859, p. 612.]

[Footnote 2: _See_ Vol. II. Pt. VII., c. i. p. 102.]

[Footnote 3: 1 _Kings_, x. 22.]

[Footnote 4: Venice, 1518.]

[Footnote 5: [Greek: Kai odontôn elephantinôn kai pithêkôn kai lithôn]. [Greek: BASIA TRITÊ]. x. 22. It is to be observed, that Josephus appears to have been equally embarrassed by the unfamiliar term _tukeyim_ for peacocks. He alludes to the voyages of Solomon's merchantmen to Tarshish, and says that they brought hack from thence gold and silver, _much_ ivory, apes, _and Æthiopians_--thus substituting "slaves" for pea-fowl--"[Greek: kai polus elephas, Aithiopes te kai pithêkoi]." Josephus also renders the word Tarshish by "[Greek: en tê Tarsikê legomenê thalattê]," an expression which shows that he thought not of the Indian but the western Tarshish, situated in what Avienus calls the _Fretum Tartessium_, whence African slaves might have been expected to come.--_Antiquit. Judaicæ_, l. viii. c. vii sec. 2.]

The Rev. Mr. CURETON, of the British Museum, who, at my request, collated the passage in the Chaldee and Syriac versions, assures me that in both, the terms in question bear the closest resemblance to the Tamil words found in the Hebrew; and that in each and all of them these are of foreign importation.

J. EMERSON TENNENT.

LONDON: November 28th, 1859.

NOTICE TO THE SECOND EDITION.

The rapidity with which the first impression has been absorbed by the public, has so shortened the interval between its appearance and that of the present edition, that no sufficient time has been allowed for the discovery of errors or defects; and the work is re-issued almost as a corrected reprint.

In the interim, however, I have ascertained, that Ribeyro's "Historical Account of Ceylon," which it was heretofore supposed had never appeared in any other than the French version of the Abbe Le Grand, and in the English translation of the latter by Mr. Lee[1], was some years since printed for the first time in the original Portuguese, from the identical MS. presented by the author to Pedro II. in 1685. It was published in 1836 by the Academia Real das Sciencias of Lisbon, under the title of "_Fatalidade Historica da Ilka de Ceilão_;" and forms the Vth volume of the a "_Colleção de Noticias para a Historia e Geograjia das Nações Ultramarinas_" A fac-simile from a curious map of the island as it was then known to the Portuguese, has been included in the present edition.[2]

[Footnote 1: See Vol. II. Part vi. ch. i. p.5, note.]

[Footnote 2: Ibid. p. 6.]

Some difficulty having been expressed to me, in identifying the ancient names of places in India adverted to in the following pages; and mediæval charts of that country being rare, a map has been inserted in the present edition[1], to supply the want complained of.

[Footnote 1: See Vol. I. p. 330.]

The only other important change has been a considerable addition to the Index, which was felt to be essential for facilitating reference.

J E.T.