Royal Asiatic Society of Sri Lanka (RASSL) The Journal of The Ceylon Branch of The Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain & Ireland

PRE-VIJAYAN LEGENDS AND TRADITIONS PERTAINING TO CEYLON
Author(s): S. C. PAUL
Source: The Journal of the Ceylon Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain &
Ireland, Vol. 31, No. 82, Parts I., II., III., and IV. (1929), pp. 263-300
Published by: Royal Asiatic Society of Sri Lanka (RASSL)
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NO. 82. - 1929] PRE -VIJ AY AN LEGENDS AND TRADITIONS 263
PRE-VI JAYAN LEGENDS AND TRADI-

TIONS PERTAINING TO CEYLON.
BY
Dr. S. C. PAUL, m.d.
Legends and myths have a certain value in the elucidation

of pre-history where other data are not available. Instead
of discarding them as worthless, as some people are inclined
to do, it is now recognised that a critical examination of the
legends relating to any particular place or country, gathered
from various sources and investigated in the light of common
sense with the help, if possible, of contemporary history
or traditions, and any available ethnological evidence,
will yield valuable results. ''The European Ethnologist "
says Perry in his book " Children of the Sun" (p. 104) "is
frequently too apt to discredit tradition." It is an axiom
that all tradition is based on fact ; while the details may
be wrong, the main stem is generally right. In this, local
colouring is one of the chief things to guard against. The
local colouring is very often due to religious enthusiasm and
bias, or to the glorification of a popular hero. Poetical
licence in eastern countries is very much more pronounced
than in the West. Poets are very prone to shower extravagant
praise on their patrons or heroes, however mediocre they
might be. Traditions of much earlier date are fostered
on their heroes, and chronological sequence is very often
set at naught. A careful scrutiny of these poems would
enable us to disassociate the earlier legends and fix them in
their proper chronological setting. In the East the custodian-
ship of legendary lore was limited to certain families and they
did not willingly communicate such knowledge to any and
every one, but only did so either on their death bed, to a
favourite disciple, or, in exceptional cases, to one whose
knowledge and position entitled him to respect.
The authentic history of Ceylon may be said to begin
about the beginning of the fourth century after Christ,
when the Dipavamsa was composed.
264 JOURNAL, R.A.S. (CEYLON) [VOL. XXXI.
There was in existence at the time an earlier work,

the Atthakathā Mahāvamsa, which embodied the oral tradi-
tions and legends current at the time when the first
Buddhist monks arrived in Ceylon. Some of these legends
and traditions were known to Tamil authors of the second
century. Both in Manimekalai and Chilappadikāram, two
Tamil poems of the second century, references are made to
the legendary visits of the Buddha to the Nāga King of
Jaffna which tally with the accounts given in the Dīpavamsa
and Mahāvamsa. They supplement the information given in
the Ceylon Chronicles by mentioning that the jewel throne
which formed the subject of dispute between the two rival
Nāga sovereigns, became an object of veneration to Buddhists
not only in Ceylon and India, but even of far distant Java.
In the Manimekalai there is an account of a visit of a King
of Java to Manipallavam or Jaffna, to pay his homage to
this very throne.
Legends relating to the Pre- Vij ay an period are to be

found in such Indian works as the Rãmãyana and the Skanda
Purāņa.
The Vijayan legends are referred to in the Vaipava

Malai with a distinct local colouring. This work was composed
in 1739 A.D. by one Mailvāgana Pulavar at the request of
the then Dutch Governor of Jaffna, who realised that a work
of this nature was of paramount importance, as most of the
historical documents were lost when the Portuguese in their
excessive religious zeal burnt and razed to the ground the
Hindu temples of Jaffna, where most of these books were
kept. The Kailasa Malai, a poem written to commemorate
the building of the Kandasãmy Temple at Nallore in Jaffna,
also has a reference to a legend which has a close resemblance
to the Vijayan legends in many details, but differs in the
chronological setting, as it is attributed to a king of a later
Sinhalese dynasty. There is a good deal of uncertainty
about the date of the composition of this poem, but internal
evidence of the poem suggests that it was composed within
a few years after the completion of the temple. If so, one
NO. 82. - 1929] PRE -VI JAYAN LEGENDS AND TRADITIONS 265
may safely say that the date of its composition was the 9th
century. Two other minor works, the Vaya Pãçlal and Kalve t tu,
which contain a mass of legends and historical occurrences
but without due care of chronology, also refer to the Vijayan
legends, but with some variations and additional details.
It must be presumed that the authors of the above works
were not cognizant of the existence of the Dlpavamsa and
Mahāvamsa, as these were written in a language with which
they were not familiar, and at that time the existence of these
books were only known to a very few Buddhist monks.
Some oral traditions must have been current then in Jaffna
which were quite indépendant of the Sinhalese traditions.
It is very significant that the two chief Sinhalese
chronicles do not mention Rāvaņa's occupation of Ceylon.
But they mention the fact of this Island being inhabited for
a very long period anterior to the Vijayan Era. In the time
of the first Buddha it was known by the name of Oja-dlpa,
by the name of Vara-dīpa during the time of the second
Buddha, and as Maņ<ļa-dīpa during the time of the third
Buddha. With reference to the last name it is interesting
to observe that Ptolemy says that the Island was once known
by the name of Palasi-Munda. Various conjectures have been
offered as regards the etymology of this word. I venture to
think that this Island was known as Palasi-Munda or the Old-
Muņ<Ja,at a period when it was occupied chiefly by the Mundas,
a Pre-Dravidian race, who are found, even now, in scattered
and isloated units in various parts of India and Assam, and who
are ethnologically related to the Veddas of Ceylon. As
regards the name of Vara-dīpa, the Vāyu Purāņa mentions an
island Varāha D*pa as one of the six islands round Jambudlpa.
The Skanda Purāna speaks of a period when there were
two islands in the southern ocean, one of which is the present
Ceylon, and the other, a much larger and bigger island to
the south-west of it called Mahendra Giri.
This island was then the centre of a powerful civilization

and it is said that the glory of its capital was so great that it
eclipsed the capital city of the gods ; and that one who had
seen this city need not visit any other city in the world,
as its buildings and streets and temples were so grand that
no city in the world could compare with it. It was then ruled
by a powerful monarch, Suran, whose name was dreaded and
feared by all the kings of India, from the Himalayas to Cape
Comorin. He had made several captives of the Celestials
and it was in order to free these distinguished captives that
Skanda, the god of war and the son of Siva, undertook to
raise an army and capture Suran. It is related how Virava hu,
the Captain of the advance force of Skanda, flew through
the air first to Ceylon, and then from there to the Island of
Mahendra Giri to the south-west of Ceylon. Skanda landed
with his mighty forces at Mahendra Giri, defeated and killed
Suran, the King, and on his way back met and married Valli,
the Vedda Princess of Ceylon, and for a time tarried at
Kataragama, which is now regarded as one of the holiest
shrines in India and Ceylon.
The memory of the existence of this larger island is

reflected in the account of the first visit of Gautama Buddha
to Lanka. During the first visit of the Buddha, he is said to
have transferred the terrified Yakkhas to a neighbouring
island, the island of " Giri," to make Lanka a fit place for
the habitation of men. The Dīpavamsa gives a detailed
account of this island, " He (Buddha) then thought of another
island, similar to this, with low ground and high ground,
with many various aspects, beautifully adorned by rivers,
mountains and lakes, the island of Giri, most similar to the
country of Lanka. It was free from danger, well protected,
surrounded by the ocean, full of excellent food and rich grain,
with a well tempered climate, a green grassy land, the beautiful
island of Giri, superior to this island. It was charming and
delightfully cool, adorned by exquisite gardens and fields.
There were trees full of blossoms and fruits. It was empty
and solitary, subject to no mas er. It was situated in
the great sea in the midst of the ocean, and of the
deep waters where the waves incessantly break ; around
it there was a chain of mountains towering and difficult
NO. 82. - 1929] PRE -VI JAYAN LEGENDS ANP TRADITIONS 267
to pass. To enter it against the wishes of the

inhabitants was very difficult. -
Rākshasas and Ye wicked ho

this island which is not far
Giri. May they all inhabit
Gautama by his miraculous
himself. Having joined th
the Buddha transferred the
dwell in Giri Dipa. The eage
thirsty people in summer t
never to return. The Sage t
former place. The highly p
pleased Yakkhas having secu
they desired, all began to la
from this account the my
Buddha, and the miraculous
we may see in it a corrobora
the Mahendra Giri of the
with the island of Giri of t
describe the existence of th
all contemporary account
was evidently a tradition w
and in order to make the visit to the island abound in
miraculous incidents, they have detached it from its proper
chronological setting to a very much later date.
In the Vayu Purāņa, Chapter 8, V. 20-30, there is a

description of the island of Malaya Dipa which corresponds
in situation and scenery to the Mahendra Giri of the Skanda
Purāņa and the Giri island of the Dīpavaņsa. "It is said
about this island that there are many gold mines there, and
the population consists of several classes of Mlëcchas.
" There is a great mountain named Malaya containing

silver mines. Heavenly bliss is obtained on the mountain
on every Parva and Amavasya da}^. The famous Trikūta
mountain is also situated in this island. The mountain is
very extensive and has several very beautiful valleys and
summits. The great City of Lanka is situa ted on one of the
slopes of this mountain. Its length is 100 yojanas while its

breadth is 30 yojanas." Vader considers that the Maldive
Islands cover up the same position which once was covered
by the Rākshasa-Dīpa of the Rãmâyana and he adduces
several cogent reasons in support of this. The present
Ceylon was known as Sim hala Dipa to the author of the
Mahābhārata, and he describes the kings of Simhala Dvlpa
and of Lanka as two separate entities when he speaks of the
kings of Siņhala, Barbara, Miecha, and Lanka, as doing
the work of serving food to the guests. (Vana Parva, Ch. 51.)
In the Mãrkandeya Purņāa, (Ch. 58, P. 20-29) Lanka and
Simhala are described as separate countries. The Lankā
of the Rãmãyana would thus appear to correspond with the
principal city of the island of Mahendra Giri and not to our
Ceylon. This may explain why the Mahvamsa and
Dīpavamsa in their account of the early history of the island
did not refer to Rāvaņa and Rāma. A further corroboration
of this theory is obtained from Indian astronomical sources.
Alberuni, writing in the latter half of the 10th century in his
book on India, says that Hindu Astronomers determined
the longitude of the inhabitable world by Lanka which lies
in its centre, on the equator. (P. 303 Vol. 1). " They
(the Hindus) say that Lanka is between the two ends of
the inhabitable world, and without latitude. There, Rāvaņa
the demon, fortified himself when he had carried the wife of
Rāma." Further, according to the Hindus its length from
the east to west was 100 yojanas and its breadth from north
to south is 30 yojanas, 30 yojanas its height. The line on
which the astronomical calculations are based (as 0°.
Longitude) passes in a straight line from Lanka to Meru
and passes through the city of Ujjain in Malwa (P. 306-
308). The great astronomer and mathemetician Bhāskarā-
cãrya (born 1115 A.D.) writes in his work called Golãdhyãya
Bhuvanakosa 17 that Lanka is on the equator. Astronomers
call the equatorial region by the name of Nirakas {i.e. 0°
Latitude). In the seventh chapter, further on, he states
that Lanka Puri was on the Equator and that there was
a small difference in the longitude of Ujjain and Lanka.
NO. 82. - 1929] PRE-VIJAYAN LEGENDS AND TRADITIONS 269
Varaha Mihira, a great astronomer of India, giving the

names of the countries of Southern India describes Lanka and
Simhala as two different countries. In Griffith's translation
of Valmiki's Rämäyana, the following verses occur : -
'« Thence hasting on your way behold

The Pandya's gates of pearl and gold ;
There with your task maturely planned
On ocean's shore your feet will stand,
Were by Agastya's high decree
Mahendra, planted in the sea
With tinted peaks against the tide
Rises in solitary pride
And glorious in his golden glow
Spurns back the waves that beat below.
Fair mountain, bright with creeper's bloom
And every tint that trees assume
When Yaksha god and heavenly maid
Meet wandering in the lovely shade."
(Book IV, Chapter XLI).
The gates of pearl and gold of the Pändyas refers to

Komari, the Southern-most Port of India, which was designated
as the Pândya Kavāļa, literally the door of the Pândya -
being the first Port in the Pandyan territory to those vessels
coming from the West.
A considerable amount of discussion has arisen as to
the location of the Lanka of the Rämäyana. A few locate
it in India, in some place on the Vindhya mountain, while
others place it in Assam. Ceylon has by many been regarded
as the Lanka of the Rämäyana. But very strong reasons
have been adduced to locate it on an island in the Indian
Ocean which has now disappeared. Lanka was the name
of the capital city and not of the island. According to the
Skanda Purâna, there was a larger island called Mahendra
Giri to the southwest of Ceylon abounding in untold wealth
whose principal city contained houses several storeys
high, and palaces and temples, the like of which was said
not to be seen even in the City of the gods. The Mahāvamsa

and the Dīpavamsa refer to an island which was larger and
more beautiful than the island of Ceylon, to which the Buddha
transported the Yakkhas. According to the Mahãbhãrata
the Râmãyana, and other Indian works, Lanka was the
name of a city and not of an island, situated on the slopes
of the Trikāta mountain. The Indian astronomers locate
it on the equator, where its meridian passes through Malwa,
the present Ujjain, and their holy mountain, Mount Meru.
From time immemorial to the present day, Indian astronomers
have based their calculations by taking the meridian of Lanka
as the zero longitude. Ujjain was a centre of learning
tilt the tenth century where astronomy and geography were
taught and, although the longitude of Lanka was regarded
as the same as that of Ujjain, which is 75 . 75', the astronomers
of Ujjain, still continued to call it the meridian of Lanka.
The meridian of Ujjain meets the equator now at a point
where there is no island, and at least a degree to the east of
Fua Mulaku, one of the islands of the Maldives on the equator.
The Maladives, together with the Lakkadives and the Chagos
Islands, are regarded as belonging to a submarine mountain
chain on the summits of which coral polyps have built their
reefs. (Geiger on Maldivian Linguistic Studies P.I. Vol.
XXVII, Extra No. Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society C.B.)
There is reason to believe that at one time there was a
large continent in the Southern Seas, the so-called Lemurian
continent which embraced Africa, India south of the Himalayas,
China, Australia, and the Polynesian Islands. Geological
evidence points to an era when the large chain of mountains
beginning with the Pyrenees, the Alps, the Caucasian ranges,
the Hindukush and the Himalaya ranges were non-existent,
and the land area on which they now stand formed the basin
of a large inland sea which circled the globe. Geological
evidence further points to the fact that the Himalayas contain,
in addition to a substratum of rocks, numerous representatives
of marine fossilliferous strata of almost every geological age.
This area remained mostly occupied by ocean, until in tertiary
times the Himalayas were upheaved. The absence of such
NO. 82.- 1929] PRE -VI JAYAN LEGENDS AND TRADITIONS 2JI
beds from the remainder of the Indian peninsula, south of

the Vindhyan range, indicates that this portion of India
has been a continental area ever since the earliest geological
times and is one of the oldest land areas of the globe. The
same remark applies to the mountainous districts of Ceylon.
The general geographical contour of southern India and Ceylon
suggest that the two formed part of the same land area
and that, at various periods, subsidences have occurred in
the intervening areas so as to bring about a separation.
The upheaval of the Himalayas did not take place all at once.
There were three principal phases in this upheaval which
were separated by long distances of time. The last upheaval
appears to have taken place during comparatively recent times.
This tremendous thrust of the Himalayan range, from the
bed of the ocean to the majestic heights it now occupies,
must have produced corresponding depressions in other land
areas, thus bringing forth a separation of the land connections
between Australia, India, and Africa. Primitive peoples of
the palaeolithic period came to be thus isolated in the islands
of the Eastern Archipelago, whose culture never advanced
beyond this period.
Before the final upheaval of the Himalayas there appears
to have been, according to Indian and Ceylon traditions, a
large island occupying the position of the present Maldives
called Mahendra Giri or Malaya Djpa, whose chief city was
called Lanka. In the Vayu Purāņa the following account
occurs about Malaya Dipa, one of the sifc islands round India.
"It is said about this island that there are many gold mines
there and the population consists of several classes of Mlecchas.
There is a great mountain containing silver mines. The
famous Trikūta mountain is also situated in this island.
This mountain is very extensive and has several very beautiful
valleys and summits. The great city of Lanka is founded
on one of the slopes of this mountain/'
After the Rämäyaüa period, seismic disturbances occurred

which caused the disappearance of this island, It is quite
possible that the final thrust of the Himalayas took place at
this time. A tradition incorporated in the Skanda Purāņa

supports this inference. Before the final thrust of the
Himalayan range, the Vindhya formed the highest mountain
range of India. When the final thrust took place, it had to
take a second position. According to the Skanda Purāņa,
" The Vindhyas became proud, and reared its heights so
high as to challenge the Himalayas. The sky was obscured
and the Sun's light was cut off from the earth. The gods
assembled on the Himalayas and invoked the aid of Siva,
who commissioned the Rishi Agastya to press down the
Vindhyas and reduce its height. This Agastya did by
trampling it down with his feet. Ever since that, people
were able to cross the Vindhyas and pass over to the southern
part of India." This tradition enshrines the recollection of
a big seismic disturbance, as the result of which the Himalayas
were thrust ever so much higher than the Vindhyas. This
thrust would involve the depression of land somewhere else.
Indian traditions state that Lanka became immersed in the
ocean owing to the agitation of the waters soon after Rāma
went back to Ayodhyã after the fight.
Vague recollections of the existence of a land continent
to the south of India continued to exist till as late as the
second century A.D. Indian geographers state that the
Island of Ceylon extended on the West as far as Africa and on
the East as far as China. These ideas were also reflected
in the writings of the ancient Greeks and Romans. The
unknown author of the Periplus makes Ceylon almost stretch
to the shores of Africa. Hipparchus conjectured that it was
not even an island, but the commencement of a south-eastern
continent. There is a tradition which had currency among
the early Tamils that the cruel sea swallowed forty-nine Tamil
lands, including the Pahruli river and ths Kumari Peak
with a chain of mountains. (Chilappadikaram, Canto XI.)
The story of the deluge as given in the Bhãgavata Purāņa
probably refers to the submersion of the big Lemurian
continent. " When Satyavrata, a righteous king of Drãviçla,
was offering his oblations in a river, a fish came with the water
in the hollow of his hands. The fish requests protection
which the king gives by putting it into receptacles filled with

water. The king recognises in the fish the -disguised god
Vishnu. To the enquiry why he had assumed this disguise,
the god replies, " On the seventh day after this the three
worlds shall sink beneath the ocean of the dissolution ; when
the Universe is dissolved in thát ocean, a large ship sent
by me shall come to thee. Taking with thee the plants
and various seeds, surrounded by the seven rishis, and attended
by all existences, thou shall embark on the great ship and
shall without alarm move over the dark ocean."
According to Indian tradition, the present island of Ceylon

played a very minor part in the early days, being merely
an intermediate station on the way to the larger and more
important island situated to the South-west of it, and it
was ruled by a king who was a subsidiary sovereign to the
one who ruled in Mahendřa Giri. Both these islands were
originally occupied by two primitive races, the Australoid
and the Negroid. We have in Ceylon to-day the remnant
of one oí these pre-historic tribes, the Veddas. Ethnically,
the Veddas are related to the Australoid race, which at one
time extended from Australia to India and even further to
Northern Africa and to Europe. Isolated in various ports of
India, and distributed through the Malayan Archipelago
and the Polynesian Islands, we find several types of this race.
In Ceylon to-day we have at present no Negrito race as such
but they have left behind them some of their customs and
traditions. At one time there appears to have been a distinct
remnant of this race in Ceylon. There are traditions among the
Veddas of the Eastern Province relating to this race. They
are described as a cruel and savage people of a very black
complexion, and greatly feared by the Veddas as they
attacked them with their claws, which were said to be long
and of great strength. They built platforms on trees, covered
with a thatch of leaves, and in these they lived. In Cochin,
there is a similar race called Niadis, " who are a
wandering, out-caste, abject race, so impure that hardly
a slave will touch them. They collect roots, but do not
know to snare game, and they eat tortoises and crocodiles.
274 JOURNAL, R.A.S. (CEYLON) [VOL. XXXT .
They also live on tree-tops." These were, probably,

the Nishãdas .of the early Sanskrit writers. They were a
more primitive people than the Veddas. Both were food
gatherers and did not know or practise the arts of agriculture.
The Veddas, however, were expert hunters while the Negritos
were in a more primitive condition, existing on crocodiles,
tortoises, oysters, crabs, etc. Many years ago the ancestors
of the Veddas fought the last remnants of the Negritos
by driving them into a cavern. Before this cavern they
piled firewood and kept up the fire for three days, after
which the race became extinct. As both these races are
very primitive races who have never advanced beyond
the food gathering stage, and cannot have known or practise e
the art of navigation, their presence in such widely distributed
areas of which a great number are isolated islands, separated
by wide expanses of the sea, can only be explained on thd
assumption that by the subsidence of intervening land areas
they have been left isolated in these islands.
Two other races make their entry into these primitive
land areas at a very early date. They are the Nägas and
the Yakkhas. They came into India, Ceylon, and the lost
Island of the Râmâyana from foreign parts. They are not,
as they are held to be, mythical beings, uncivilised and
primitive, but appear to be people of advanced civilization
who appear to have peopled the globe before the Semitic
and Aryan expansion. The Nagas were the earlier emigrants,
and they colonised the lost island of the southern ocean
wielding great power even over their compatriots in India
under their king Sura ; this lost island was the centre of a
great civilization. The Yakkhas under Skanda invaded this
island with a great force, defeated Sura and his Nägas, and
became the paramount lords. Kuvēra was their last king
in this lost island-Kingdom. The wealth of this island at
the time must have been enormous, as Kuvēra is described
as the god of wealth. The Nagas again reasserted their
power and, under the leadership of Ravaņa, who came from
Patāla in the delta of the Indus, sent a challenge to Kuvēra,
Kuvēra was defeated in battle. His aerial car, the Pushpaka
NO. 82. - 1929] PRE - VIJ AY AN LEGENDS AND TRADITIONS 275
was taken over by Rāvaņa who used it in his aerial flights

to India. Kuvēra was probably killed in battle, as Indian
tradition euphemistically describes his death by stating that
"he retired with all his wealth to Mount Kailása, the abode
of the god Siva, who created him as the lord of wealth." The
Nãgas continued in power until Rāvaņa was defeated by
Rāma, a Solar prince. Soon after this event, the larger island
was submerged in the sea, and the smaller island, the present
Island of Ceylon, continued to be inhabited by both the
Nägas and the Yakkhas. After the war of Rāma, the island
appears to have been broken up into small principalities.
At the time of the landing of Vij aya, the island was inhabited
by these two principal races.
The Ceylon chronicles, as well as early Tamil works
of the second century, mention that the western part of the
island was under a Nâga king, whose capital was at Kelaniya,
the Kalyäni of ancient writers. The northern part, including
the peninsula of Jaffna, was under the Nãgas, whose capital
was somewhere on the northern shore of the peninsula.
There was, probably, a third principality in Mantotte, the
Mahātittha of the Mahavamsa, a port of great importance
during the early period of the Christian era. This port had
an iron hanging fort and a lighthouse which gave rise to
fantastic stories about the wrecking of ships on this coast,
The magnetic influence of this hanging fort was said to be
such that the iron nails of the vessels were pulled out when
the vessels were at some distance, and the ships fell to pieces.
This iron fort and tower were destroyed by Karikäla, one of
the Chola Kings. These Nâgas were a maritime people given
to piracy and they were expert navigators. In the Harivamsa,
I>399 to 1401, it is related that " Yadu, the son of Hariasva
who was a son of Ikshāvaku was carried off by the Nâga
Raja Dhuma Varna whose kingdom was beneath the sea.
This kingdom was called Ratnadlpa, and the people there had
ships and trade and fished for pearls." These Nagas were not
inhuman, uncivilised beings as portrayed by Buddhistic and
Brahmanical writers, but were highly civilised, and at one
time they spread over a large area of the world and wielded
great power. They can be traced back to Egypt where,

from predynastic days, it was divided into some 20 administra-
tive districts called by the Greeks " Nomes." The Nomes
were designated by signs either of animals or of plants.
The relationship between the people of the Nome, particularly
the ruling chief of the Nome, was close. The animal of the
Nome was supposed to be the actual incarnation of the
particular guardian spirit of the Nome who guarded the
Nome during peace and marched at the head of the army
during war. A representation of the hooded serpent was
attached to the front of the head-dress of the Pharaohs, who
therefore belonged to this Nome. They traced their descent
from a female ancestor - the race ancestress, and descent
was in the female line, and royal succession was also in the
female line. In the early stages of this matrilinear society,
in order to retain the throne, a son of a king must either
marry a sister, or failing his sister, his mother. Thus we
see Osiris married his sister, Isis, to occupy the throne of
Egypt. About the time of the fifth dynasty a change
took place ; Heliopolis instituted the worship of the Sun
and introduced the Solar Calendar, whereas, previously
to this, the Moon claimed their worship as the representative
of the great mother, and time was calculated by the moon.
The Heliopolitian priests, in order to make the change doubly
effective, conceived the idea of making the king the incarnation
of the Sun, and the Sun became the object of worship, with
the king as the high priest. The followers of this cult were
known as the children of the Sun, and they seem to have
spread through the Mediterranean area to the valley of the
Euphrates and Tigris, and from there their culture passed
on as far as distant China. For the most ancient form of
religion in China and the neighbouring countries is the worship
of the Sun. According to Chinese historians, some of their
early mythological Emperors were half man and half serpent.
The Indian tradition states that the Nägas were the children
of Kadru, a daughter of Daksha. The Garúçlas or the Eagle
tribe were the children of Vinata, a sister of Kadru. It is
said that Kadru compelled the Garufas to convey her sons
NO. 82. - 1929] PRE-VIJAYAN LEGENDS AND TRADITIONS 2JJ
across the sea to a beautiful country in a distant region.

The Garucjas, " who also worshipped the Sun," were another
nome of Egypt and were perhaps the first navigators.
Patāla, at the head of the Indus Delta, was regarded as the
headquarters in India of the Näga and Garuda races. Vritra,
the great leader of the serpent tribes against the Aryans,
Kapila Vasudeva, the progenitor of the Sãkya race, and
Ikshvāku from whom the Solar dynasties of India claimed
descent were rajahs of Patāla. From Patāla they extended up
into the Indus valley and spread to the Gangetic valley,
establishing various kingdoms; and they spread South and
occupied Ceylon and the Mahendra island which has since
been submerged. Patāla, the capital of the Nãgas, became
later in Brahmanical literature a synonym for the under-
world, but they had the grace to describe it as " far more
beautiful than the heaven of Indra, infinite in extent, filled
with hundreds of palaces and elegant mansions, with turrets
and domes and gate-ways, abounding with wonderful places
or various games and entertainments. In this under- world
the houses are made of silver and gold, decorated with lapis
lazuli, corals and gems, one of which is indentical with crystal
and with the Sun. These houses are high and close to one
another." Such praise from Brahmanical sources, who at
other times speak of them disdainfully as non-human beings,
is a truer conception of the position of the Nägas at this period.
They seem to have spread from Patāla, their headquarters,
to Java, Sumatra and the Indonesian and Polynesian Islands
in search for gold and pearls, carrying with them where-
ever they went the cult of the Sun and the serpent and the
civilization of which they were the exponents. Cultivation
by irrigation, and the building of stone edifices have been
a feature of their civilization and we can still see the traces
of that civilization all along these islands, although the
people who brought that civilization have disappeared.
The western and southern parts of India were largely peopled
by them and the cities they founded were called Ur, after
their principal city, Ur of the Chaldees. They were skilled
in astronomy. Garga, one of the fathers of Indian astronomy
2 JÜ JOURNAL, R.A.S. (CEYLON) [VOL. XXXI.
having propitiated Sesha Nāga is said to have acquired from

him a knowledge of astronomical science, of the planets
and of the good and evil denoted by the aspect of the heavens.
The central and eastern portions of Ceylon were occupied
by the Yakkhas, who are not to be confounded with the
Veddas, as most writers have done ; the Yakkhas are a
branch of the Turko- Mongolian race, of a yellowish-white
complexion. They brought with them the art of terrace
cultivation. They came from a mountainous region. They
were also matrilinear and practised polyandry, but differed
from the Nāga polyandry by being fraternal in type. They
appear to have entered India from Tibet through the
Brahmaputra valley into Nepal and also, round the Khyber
Pass, into Kashmir. The Chinese called them Yuechi.
They, again, in the ist century, swept into India under the
name of Kushans and gave rise to the Kushan dynasty.
The legends of the Nīlamata in Kashmir reflect the history
of the movements of the different culture elements of the
population of Kashmir. Kashmir was said to be originally
a lake whose water was drained by Siva. "The Nâgas with
NUa, their king, first peopled it. Kãsyapa, Nila's father,
wished to introduce men to whom the Nãgas objected.
Kasyapa cursed and condemned the Nãgas henceforth to
dwell with Pisācas. Nila interceded on behalf of the Nagas.
Kasyapa said there was an Island six yojanas in extent in
the Sand Ocean. Fierce Pisācas, Yakshas and Daitvas live
in that island. Every year Nikumba, the king of the Pisācas,
would lead five crores of Pisācas to Kashmir and live
there six months. The Nägas would live with them the
remaining six months." Regarding the ethnographical
significance of these legends, Grierson writes, "by the
expression, an island in the Sand Ocean, to the North of
Kashmir, the Nilamata can only mean an oasis in the central
Asian desert lately explored by Stein"
Nâgas were the original inhabita

half conquered by Pisäca or Yaks
of the central Asian desert. In
the Mahasamnl Pata, the Mãhãtm
NO. 82. - 1929] PRE-VI JAYAN LEGENDS AND TRADITIONS 279
same story repeated. "The Yakshas or Pisãcas are again

brought into prominence as superseding the Nãgas. The
latter refused to accept the charge of the twenty holy places
of Buddhism. The Yakshas then accept the responsibility
of nineteen, the twentieth, Gosringa in Khotan, being left
to the Nagas." (Indo- Aryan Races by Chanda, pp. 76-77)
The Newars of Nepal, and the Licchavis, were the represen-

tatives, in later years, of this mountain race. "The Panejavas
first come into view with the later Buddhist literature which
recognised the Paņ<Javas as a mountain clan," (P. 253,
Ancient India, Vol. i, Cambridge History of India) and in
P. 258 it is stated thus; "a later age offered various explanatory
excuses for the polyandry of the Paneļus who, however
as a northen hill tribe or family were really polyandrous and
needed no excuse." The same fraternal polyandry exists
in the up-country districts of Ceylon. In Malabar, polyandry
exists, but it is of the promiscuous variety and not fraternal.
There is also a striking similarity, as pointed out by Ferguson,
in the style of Architecture of Cañara, Nepal and Tibet.
The characteristic feature of this is the reverse slope of the
eaves above the verandah. This style of architecture is
that which obtains in the Kandyan districts. The head
measurements of the people of the outer countries, i.e., those
outside the Madhyadesa of India, viz., Western Punjab,
Kashmir, Sind, the Maratha Country, Orissa, Bihar and
Bengal, is mainly brachy -cephalic, and measticephalic, while
the midlands are dolicocephalic. The Telugu, Kodapu and
Kanarese, among the people of Deccan, have a good proportion
of brachy- and measticephalic skulls. Further, the languages
of the outer band present certain peculiarities which are
described as "the Pisächa characteristics/' These character-
istics of the head measurements and peculiarities in the
language, with the polyandrous tendencies of some of those
people, characterise them as originally belonging to the stock
of the Yakshas or Pisäcas who have been superseding the
Nägas in these parts.
28o JOURNAL, R.A.S. (CEYLON) [VOL. XXXI.
Their god was Siva who is painted in a red colour in

contrast to Vishnu, the god of the Nāgas, who is painted dark
or blue black. Siva is represented as riding on a bull:
among the Tibetans even to- day the bull is used for riding.
In the Skanda Purāņa, a Sivite work, he is always described
as being attended by Yakshas, Pisäcas and Bhūtas where
ever he went. Both Siva and his son. Skanda Kumara -
the god of Kataragama - are hill gods and his Southern
Indian counterpart, Muruga, is also a hill god.
The Yakshas, originally a hill tribe, brought with them
their gods aud their customs, and we find them ousting the
Nägas in Ceylon, and, at the time we are now considering,
they occupied the central and eastern portions of the Island
The city of Mahiyangana, the present Alutnuwara, and the
ancient city of Pulastipura, or the present Polonnaruwa, were
their chief cities. The shrine of Kataragama was evidently
their chief shrine and they had constructed a high road from
Kataragama passing through Buttala and Alutnuwara to
Polonnaruwa. Parker, (Ancient Ceylon, P. 240) , states
that this ancient highway, part of which is now in existence,
is called Kalu Gal Bämma and can be seen at Nilagala,
where it is 100 feet broad at the base and 30 to 40 feet broad
on the top and about 20 feet high, and it is said to have been
paved with stones. Both the Brahamin and Buddhist writers
who have in their writings characterised Yakshas as demons
and goblins have, however, unconsciously praised them.
The branch of Y akshas which came over to Lanka had attaine d
such prosperity and wealth that the city which their king
Kuvēra built was said to be so magnificent that there was
no rival to it, either in this world or in the world of the gods,
and this Yaksha king is now worshipped by them as the god
of wealth. A tribute like this paid by writers who have
denounced them in their writings, shows that they must
have been a highly civilised race who had attained great
material prosperity. The air chariot of Rāvaņa was said
originally to belong to Kuvēra.
At the period we refer to, however, both the Nãgas
and Yakshas had declined in their power and influence.
NO. 82. - 1929] PRE-VI J AY AN LEGENDS AND TRADITIONS 281
The Nãgas, however, were still a seafaring people, undertaking

long expeditions both in an easterly and a westerly
direction.
The Buddhistic chronicles open with the three legendary

visits of the Buddha to Ceylon. The Rājaratnākara, alone
of the Buddhistic chronicles, gives a rational explanation of
these legends. It states that, " Before the Buddha came, the
Island was an abode of devils, but when his religion was
preached and followed, it became the abode of men. Some
Buddhas who undertook that service, although they in person
did not leave Jambudvīpa, yet, by their power they expelled
the devils from Ceylon, as the influences and rays of the sun
pervade the darkest recesses. Other Buddhas came in person
to cast out the fiends to make this Island of Lanka a habitation
for men by depositing in consecrated places the dhātu or
bones of the Buddha." According to the Rājaratnākara, the
earlier Buddhas never visited Ceylon, but they influenced
the people of Ceylon by their teachings, and that, while the
Buddha himself never visited Ceylon, he did so indirectly
by the deposition of his sacred relics on three separate occasions.
The first to receive the sacred relics were the Yakkhas of
Mahiyangana, the present Alutnuwara. The Vaipavamalai,
throws an interesting sidelight on this. It states that Vijaya
who was himself a Saivite, invited the Magadhese Buddhists
who had wandered to Assam and Burma in search of an
asylum when they were driven out of India after the death
of the Buddha, by the revival of Brahaminism, to come and
settle in Ceylon and follow their religion without any let,
or hindrance ; various crowds of men and women came and
were settled in different parts. If, as I hope to prove,
Vijaya landed in the South, as suggested by Parker, and not
on the West, as is commonly believed, the first advance
settlement of Vijaya's colonists would have settled round
Mahiyangana, one of the chief cities of the Yakshas, and on
the highroad from Māgama to Anuradhapura. The Buddhist
colonists, probably, brought with them the relics of Buddha's
hair and his right collar bone, over which they raised the
Mahiyangana Dāgoba.
Five years after this, the Nägas of Jaffna or Nāgadīpa,

as it was then called, were converted to the Buddhist faith,
and, as a token of their reverence to the new faith, the
two Näga kings, Mahodara and Cūlodara, who were contesting
the ownership of a jewelled throne, agreed to consecrate it
to Buddha. This throne remained as a sacred object of
worship for some centuries, and occupied very much the same
position that the tooth of Buddha does to-day. Three years
after this the Nägas of Kalyãni were converted to Buddhism
and, as South India has not become a Buddhist country at
this period, it is more than probable that the Nägas embraced
Buddhism through the efforts of the Buddhist Colonies in
the Yaksha territories of Ceylon.
It will thus be seen that Ceylon had accepted Buddhism

long before the arrival of Mahinda. The Sinhalese kings
before Devänampiyatissa continued to be Hindus while a
good number of their subjects had been converted to
Buddhism. Devänampiyatissa was the first Sinhalese
monarch to embrace the new faith and when Mahinda visited
Ceylon a great number of the people of Ceylon had already
become Buddhists and it was after the arrival of Mahinda
that Buddhism became the State Religion of Ceylon. The
legends connected with the three visits of Buddha are,
therefore, according to the author of the Rajaratnakara,
to be explained, not by the assumption that Buddha actually
visited the Island in person, but that he, by means of his
relics, influenced the spread of his religion in Ceylon.
Previous to the present Buddha the Island had been visited

by three other Buddhas. This, according to the Räjaratnä-
kara is to be explained by the fact that the teachings of these
Buddhas had reached Ceylon and influenced their beliefs.
The Jains and Buddhists hold that there have been several
avatars of the Buddha of which Mahāvīra of the Jains and
Gautama of the Buddhists are the greatest and chief avatars.
The first of such Buddhas whose teachings influenced Ceylon
was called Kakusandha and in his time the Island was known
by the name ot Ojadīpa. The second Buddha was called
Konagama and in his time the Island was called Varadīpa.

The third teacher was called Kassapa and in his time the
Island was called Maņcļadīpa.
From the Indian and Ceylon traditions we learn that the
two earliest races that entered India and contested each
other for mastery were the Yákshas and Nagas. Tó the
Aryans who entered India about 1500 B.C. the two races
appeared as sister races and they were described as being
descendants of Pulastya ; Rāvaņa, king of the Nägas,
and Kuvēra, king of the Yakshas, were said to behalf brothers.
As both these were matrilinear races, as opposed to the
patrilinear Aryans, the Aryan people must have regarded
them as closely related races although ethnically they belonged
to two distinct types of the human race. The Nâgas were,
probably, a branch of the large Mediterranean race which,
originating somewhere on the shores of the Mediterranean,
had penetrated into Europe and Asia in the early neolithic
period. They were a dolichocephalic race with a narrow
nose, and buried their dead and practised promiscuous
polyandry, and were divided into clans who adopted the
name of some animal or plant as their totems. The Yakshas
were a brachycephalic race probably allied to, or possibly,
the early representatives of the proto-alpine race, who
moving from the Tibetan plateau had, in early times descended
into India, and also passed westward along the Iranian
Tableland and then moved into Europe entering in part by
the Balkan peninsula, but mainly around the northern side
of the Black Sea, and spreading along the northern
edge of the European Highlands. The civilisation that
existed in the Indus Valley during the third millennium
before Christ, was, probably, au offshoot of this branch of
the human family. The Indus civilisation had reached
a very high level, aud was far ahead of the Babylonian
civilisation at the beginning of the third millenium. The
vast cities, with the regular streets, houses, aud temples with
all the amenities of the city life such as drains and baths,
remind one of the descriptions of the Yaksha cities in Indian
tradition. It is said that the people of the Indus civilisation
284 JOURNAL, R.A.S. (CEYLON) [VOL. XXXT .
practised cremation, and they deposited the ashes in cinerary

urns or in small brick shrines. But in one case at Mohenjo
Darò a skull had been ritually buried without the other bones
of the skeleton but accompanied with vases and offerings.
This skull was markedly brachycephalic. The alabaster
statuettes found here also give the impression of a brachyce-
phalic race.
Professor Ernst Herzfeld, in some recent articles contri-
buted to the " Illustrated London News," has drawn attention
to the fact that Susa in Elam had close cultural relations
with a Neolithic civilisation of the Iranian Peninsula and
differed materially with the civilisation of Sumer, and was
probably older than it. The Elamites were a mountainous
race and were brachycephalic, while the Snmerians were a
dolichocephalic people. The later Babylonian civilisation
appears to have been due to a mingling of these two
civilisations. I am tempted to regard these two civilisations
as corresponding to the Yaksha and Naga civilisations of the
Indian traditions. Some great calamity appears to have
overtaken the cities of the Indus Valley shortly after 3000
B.C., when they were completely abandoned, and that civili-
sation disappeared long before the Aryans entered India
and Indian historical traditions had enshrined the memories
of this civilisation in their legends. These two races have
been found in early neolithic times even in Britain. The
Iberian basis of the Welsh people is revealed by the numerous
local nicknames prevalent in modern Wales which were
probably old totems such as the pigs of Anglesey, the dogs
of Denbigh and the cats of Ruthin. The Iberian was short,
dark and long skulled. He had no iron implements, but his
ground and polished flint weapons and arrow head axes and
knives show that in stone he was a proficient and deft worker.
His sepulchre, the long barrow which can still be seen, was
fashioned in the model of his dwelling. The basis of Iberian
society was tribal and totemistic. This section of the British
population agrees in its description with that of the
Mediterranean race elsewhere and with the Nâgas of
India.
g
F
u S
M
< >V
t-f
P H
(-H
GQ U1
H
f
l>
fei z
tf
W
►
s
»
fcl
" The early Britons were said to wear their hair long,
shaving all the body except the head and upper lip. Ten
or twelve men have their wives in common, brothers very
commonly with brothers and parents with children. The
offspring of each wife is reckoned to belong to the husband
who first married her." (" Story of Nations, Early Britain."
P. 5.)
This section of the British race may be traced from the
practice of its fraternal polyandry to the Proto-alpine race
which, in Indian tradition, is called the Yakshas.
PART II.
THE VIJAYAN LEGENDS
The Dipavamsa begins with the account of a lion living

with the daughter of the Vanga king in the forest ; and, as
a result of the union, two children were born. No mention
is made of the running away of the Vanga princess
with a Magadhese caravan, nor is any mention made of the
children of the lion being married to each other. When
the young prince attained his sixteenth year, he is said to
have left his cave dwelling, and to have built a city called
Simhapura, from where he reigned over his kingdom of
Lālarattha. Then follows an account of sixteen twins being
born to this prince ; the eldest of whom, Vijaya, was sent
adrift with his companions on account of a series of fearful
and most wicked deeds against the people of the country.
They, their wives and children were sent in three separate
vessels. The ship in which the children sailed reached
Naggadīpa, the naked island, identified by some with the
Nicobar Islands. The wives drifted to the country of
Mahilā Rata, probably the delta of the Godãvari on the
eastern cost, Ilia being the Tamil name of Lanka. Ceylon,
a southern Lanka, was said to be colonized from Janasthan
in the Godãvari district. But the men were said to have
drifted to Suppāra, a leading sea port on the western coast,
where they were hospitably entertained by its people. Vijaya
and his followers abused the hospitality of the inhabitants
of Suppāra, and being again convicted of drink, theft,
adultery and falsehood, they were obliged to leave for fear
of being murdered and went to the next port, Bharukaccha,
where they tarried three months. They were still unregene-

rate and were obliged to leave Bharukaccha for similar
offences, and were driven by the violence of the winds to the
shores of Lanka, where they landed at Tambapaņņi which
was so called on account of the red colour of the earth.
No mention is made of Vijaya's marriage, either with the
Yakkha princess, Kuveni, or with the Madura princess.
Tambapaņņi, the city of Vij aya, was built in the South on
the most lovely bank of the river. It is further stated that
many people, crowds of men and women, came together
and, hence, each of the princes who came with Vij aya was
able to found separate towns in different parts of the Island
and that, when seven years of his reign had passed, the land
was crowded with people. In this connection it is interesting
to note that, according to the Vaipavamalai, Vijaya is said
to have invited Indian settlers, but no one was willing to
come to the land of the Râkshasas as they were afraid, and,
therefore, Vijaya invited the Magadhese Buddhists, who had
wandered to Assam and Burmah in search of an asylum
as the result of Brahamanical persecution after the death
of the Buddha, and settled them in various parts of the
Island with full liberty to follow their own faith.
The Mahavamsa, which is the later work, gives more
details about the parentage of the Vanga princess ; her
father was a Vanga prince and the mother was a Ralinga
princess. She is said to have been an amorous girl, so much
so that her parents were disgusted with her. She ran away,
disguised probably as a boy, with a caravan going to Magadha.
On their way a lion attacked them when the others fled
in all directions, but the princess flew in the direction from
which the lion came. She made love to the lion who took
her on his back to the cave and lived with her,. As the
result of the union a male child was born with hands and
feet like those of a lion. Then followed a baby girl. At
the age of sixteen, he, with his mother and sister, left the
cave during the absence of the lion and came to Vanga,
where their mother was recognized by her cousin, who
took her to his home and married her, The lion, who was
stricken with sorrow at the loss of his wife and children
raided the border villages. The king offered a large sum
of money to whoever would kill the lion. The prince
offered to kill the lion and, after the third attempt, killed
it and brought its head to the king and received the blood-
money. On the death of the King the people offered the
kingdom to this prince, but he waived his claim in favour
of his step-father and went to the land of his birth and
founded the city of Simhapura and married his own sister,
and had sixteen twins of whom Vij aya was the eldest.
Vij aya with his 700 followers was banished from the kingdom
for his misdeeds and he landed in the Tambapaņņi division
of Lanka after touching Supäraka on the way. Their
wives and their children were sent adrift in two other boats.
Vij aya and his followers were blessed on their landing by
Indra who came in the form of an ascetic. Then they met
with the Yakkha Princess, Kuveni, whom the prince weds
and through whom he gets the sovereignty of Lanka. When
they were gathered together in a big marriage feast at the
Yakkha city of Sirīsavatthu, he was able, with her help, to
destroy the Yakkha princes and to assume the sovereignty
of Lanka. He then built the town of Tambapaņņi which
he made his capital. After living for some time with the
Yakkha princess and after two children were born, he put
her away and married a princess from South Madura.
The Rājāvali account agrees in the main with the
Mahavamsa account, giving as many details. It further
mentions that the Vanga king built a new city in the country
of Lada Desa and made the prince the king of this country
in recognition of his having killed the lion. The marriage
of the brother to the sister is mentioned and the banishment
of Vijaya, the eldest son, with 700 of his followers, who were
said to be born on the same day as Vijaya, were banished
for their misdeeds and sent on board ship. The Rãjãvali
mentions particularly that the exiles perceived Adam's
Peak when their ship was sailing towards Rune Rata or
Rohana, the Southern division of the Island, and they
landed at Tammanna Tota. The Kuveni incident is related
No. 82. - 1929] PRE-VIJAYAN LEGENDS AND TRADITIONS 289
in more detail and it is said that the town of Tambapaņņi

was built by Vij aya in fulfilment of a promise made to
Kuveni when she restored the 700 followers of Vij aya,
who, through her spell, had been bound and put into a tank.
The Rājaratnākara gives a very short account of the elope-
ment of the Vanga princess into the wilderness when she
met and married a lion, and a son was born as the result
of that union. No mention is made of a daughter nor of
the marriage of the daughter with the son. No mention
is made of the killing of the lion by the son. In his six-
teenth year the young prince builds the city of Simhapura
over which he reigned ; of the 32 sons born to him the eldest
prince, Vij aya, is given a good character unlike as in the
other chronicles. He is said to be fair, mild and beautiful,
and in accordance with a prophecy made by Buddha that,
on his death, Vijaya would go forth from Jambudvlpa to
Ceylon and become its king, Prince Vijaya with 700 others
embarked on board after being blessed and sprinkled with
holy water by the god Vishnu. They arrived in Ceylon
and travelled into the interior and rested in a place where
the dust on their hands was the colour of copper. They
built a city on the spot and called it Tambapaņņi Nuvara.
No mention is made of Vijaya meeting with Kuveni or of
his marriage with the Pandya s daughter.
A common sense view of all these legends and traditions of
the Ceylonese chronicles would be to regard Vijaya as having
been a descendant of a race of people called Simhas whose
nome or totem was the lion. A romantic marriage took place
between a princess of Vanga and a prince of the Simha race.
It is apparent that this was not a marriage that was arranged
by the parents of the young people, nor was it a run-away
marriage between the two young people. The princess,
according to three accounts, ran away of her own accord,
probably disguised, in the wake of a caravan, which raises
in one's mind the picture of a number of tents and followers.
A prince of the Simha dynasty meets her at some place
away from home. Either he falls in love with her, or, ac-
cording to some accounts, she falls in love with him and
2gO JOURNAL, R.À.S. (CEYLON) [VoL. XXXI.
they marry each other. Their first residence is in a cave-

like dwelling very similar, perhaps, to the Jain caves in the
Orissa country. The Hãthi Gumphā Cave in Orissa consists
of two storeys each with a verandah, the lower 43 feet long
with three cells behind and the upper 63 feet long with four
cells behind. In addition, there are chambers of irregular
plan in the wings to the right and left of the verandah. In
both storeys, the facades of the cells are enriched with
pilasters and highly ornate freizes. (See Ancient India,
Cambridge History of India, P.640). Ancient India and
Ceylon were rich in such cave dwellings and it is not incon-
ceivable that a prince of a small tribe had a cave dwelling
of superior workmanship as the one described as his first
palace. Whether Vij aya went of his own accord or was
banished is not quite certain. The story of the wives being
sent on ships which reached Mahilarata and the children
drifting to Nagga Dipa may be given the interpretation
that these regions were colonized by younger branches of the
same family. Oldenberg has pointed out that the Pāli
of the Buddhist Scriptures is widely divergent from Mãgadhi,
and is essentially the same as the dialect of the old
inscriptions found in Maharashtra and Ralinga. Bandarkar
is of opinion that the Aryans went to Ralinga not by the
Eastern but by the Southern route and this would lead to
the inference that Ralinga was a settlement from Maha-
rashtra. I am of opinion that Rãçlha or, as it was then known,
Gangarat»tha, was another of their settlements.
This legend of Vijaya appears in the Railāsamalai,
a poem composed in Jaffna about the ninth century in
commemoration of the building of a temple to Randasãmy
or the Skanda Rumara, son of Siva, at Nallore, which was
regarded as another Railasam, the abode of Siva. The
legend, however, is related in connection with a later king
of the Sinhalese dynasty who made a gift of the peninsula
of Jaffna to a lutist. This disassociation of the legend
from its proper chronological setting and its transference
down the sands of time to a later period is not an uncommon
failing with Indian poets. They often attempted to give
NO. 82. - 1929] PRE -VI J AY AN LEGENDS AND TRADITIONS 29I
a halo of glory to their patrons by associating them with

events that happened ages ago in connection with more
ancient and renowned kings. Similar references are made
to this legend in the Vaipavamalai, Vaypa<Jal and Kalvettu.
These legends as related in the Jaffna histories bear a strik-
ing similarity to the Vijayan legends of the Sinhalese
Chronicles. The authors of the Kailasamalai and the
Vaipavamalai were not probably aware of the existence
of the DIpavamsa and Mahāvamsa which were written in
Pali and known only to a few Buddhist priests.
We must therefore conclude that these traditions
existed in Jaffna from sources independent of the Mahā-
vamsa and DIpavamsa. The Kailasamalai's legend runs
as follows : - " A Chola princess was advised to bathe in
the Keerimalai springs to cure her of a deformity of the
face. She arrives and camps out at Keerimalai in a part
which, unto this day, is known as Kumarathi Paliam or
the valley of the princess. One day, while she was asleep
in her tent surrounded by her guards, the powerful male
lion with the lion face who lived at Kadiramalai, or Katara-
gama, in the country of Senkãçiu, or the red forest, came
and, crossing through the guards, carried her away to his
old beautiful mountain cave and married her. To them
was born, first a male child who was given the name of
Varasinharājan Mahārājarājan Narasinharājan. He was of
human shape with a beautiful tail and with a beautiful profu-
sion of hair on the top of his head. He was called the lion
with a beautiful face like the moon and eyes which shone
like diamonds. After him was born a daughter. They
were both brought up with all care as two precious children.
When they were grown up, they were married to each other
on an auspicious day and crowned with the crown of nine
gems, while he thus reigned, receiving tribute from various
kings, there arrived in his court Yalpanan, the prince
among poets " etc.
The Vaipavamalai relates practically the same legend,
but the husband who sought the hand of the lady at Keeri
malai is a human king by the name of Ukkirarãjasinham
2Ç2 JOURNAL, R.A.S. (CEYLON) [VOL. XXXI.
who took her forcibly from her camp at Keerimalai to

Kadiramalai or Kataragam. He subsequently moved
to Senkâçiu Nagar, or the city of the red forest. While
reigning there, a son was born to them as beautiful as Man-
mathan, the god of love, but with the tail of a lion. He
was called Narasinharãjan Jayatungarãjan. A daughter
was subsequently born who was named Senpahavalli. They
married the two to each other. The Vaya Pā<ļal gives
the same details but more succintly ; it has this
variation, that the lady after bathing at Keerimalai went to
Kataragama to worship Skandar, the son of Siva, when
she met the king Ukkirasinha and married him. He built
a lovely palace for her in Varavettimalai. Then to him
was born a son, very beautiful, but with the face and tail
of a lion. On the death of his father he became king.
Vibhisana installed him as king of all Ceylon, giving him
the crown which was given him by Rāma, the magical sword
and the disc, and the club weapons which will subdue all
enemies, and bring the whole world under his feet, and the
gold ring which he wore on his hands. This king sent
ambassadors to Sinhaketu, king of Madura, asking for
the hand of his daughter, Somathuth. The king of Madura
complied with his request and sent his daughter with the
company of 60 Vanniars.
The Kalve^u agrees, in the main, with the description
given in Vãya Pâçial. There is no consensus of opinion as
to whether Vij aya came from the West or East coast of
India. Although he is represented to have been born and
bred in the neighbourhood of Bengal, yet all chronicles
agree that he first touched at Bharukaccha and Suppãraka,
two ports on the western coast. Neither is there any
agreement as to which coast of Ceylon he landed on. Neville
was of opinion that he landed on the west coast and he
has identified the village of Tammanna in the neighbour-
hood of Puttalam, while others have regarded as Mantotte
as the probable place of landing. If Vij aya came from Bengal,
it was more likely that he landed at Mahatotta or Mãn-
totta ; but, if he came from the west coast, then Tammanna,
near Puttalam, may have been the port. The Portuguese

writers assert that it was on the east coast. Parker has
made out a strong case in favour of Kirindi on the South
coast as the probable place of landing.
Barnett thinks that there were two streams of
immigration, one from Gujarat, from the modern Singor,
and the other from Orissa. Vij aya would, therefore, not be an
individual, but would represent the union of two immigrant
streams from the East and West which had subsequently
blended to give the subsequent Sinhalese race. There is
a good deal to be said in favour of this view. The Sinhalese
language has a peculiarity of substituting H in place of S,
a feature which is characteristic of Iranian and of the border
tribes of the Indus. The Sinhas of Punjab are still known
as a separate entity, while in Bengal there is at present no
such race. But there is evidence that Rãdha or Lādha
was in the sixth century bounded on the east by the
Ganges ; on the west it extended to the western limits
Manbhum and Sinhbum, and on the south it was bounded
by the sea. It was also known by the name of Gangär ästra.
Manbhūmi and Sinhbhūmi were also known by the name
of Vijaya Bhūmi and comprised the modern Chota Nagpur
division of the province of Bihar and Orissa. Vijaya Bhūmi
and Sinhbhūmi may at first suggest a connection with
king Vijaya and his Sinhas. But these names, however,
appear to have reference to Mahavira, the founder of the
Jains. Vijaya Bhumi means the country of the conquest
where Mahavira, the 24th Tirthankara of the Jains, made
a conquest of his passions and became a " Jina," or conqueror.
Manbhum is a corruption of Mänya-Bhumi which means
the venerable country, and it evidently derived its
name from Mahavira who was called the " venerable ascetic
Mahãvira." Sinhbum is a corruption of Sinhabhūmi,
which means the country of the lion, and it derived its name
from Mahavira who was compared to a lion and whose
symbol was the lion (Kesarisinha). The whole tradition
of Vijaya's connection with Bengal may have evidently
been due to a confusion with the Jain traditions. According
294 JOURNAL, R.A.S . (CEYLON) [VOL. XXXI.
to the Tamil traditions we find that it was not Vij aya who
landed in Ceylon, but it was his grandfather or great
grandfather who had landed in the vicinity of Kataragama
where he had established a small principality, having as
his residence a cave palace in one of the hills that
surrounds Kataragama. If that is so, this agrees with
Parker's identification of the landing of the first Sinhalese
colony in Kirinda. This is also supported by the statement
in the Dipavamsa that the capital, Tāmraparņī, was built
in the South, and with the statement in the Räj avalia
that the colonists saw Adam's Peak as they were sailing
in the sea bordering Ruhuna. Adam's Peak is visible from
the sea in the neighbourhood of Kirinda. Parker has further
pointed out that Gonagama, the port at which Pançluvasa
Deva landed at the mouth of the Kandura river, is
no other thań Kirinda. Kirinda in the Mahāvamsa is
referred to as the Maha Kandara river. The Mahāvamsa also
mentions a Kappa Kandara river which is identified as
the Kumbakan river. Reference is also made to a Kappa
Kandara village as well as to Uda and Maha Kandara.
Kirinda, which was known as Karinda, may have been called
Kandara by metathesis. The Tamil authors called the
district round Kataragama Senkãçlu or red forest, and
the town which Vijaya built " Senkãçlu Nagara or Senkaçlaga
Nagara," or " the city of the red forest." Senkãçlu
is a Tamil form of the Pali Tambapaņņi. If so, the division
of Tambapaņņi referred to in the Mahāvamsa was originally
the district comprised between the Kandara or Kirinda
river and the Kappa Kandara or the Kumbakanaru.
The name Tamraparni was subsequently applied to the
whole of Ceylon and it was known by this name in the times
of Onesicritus who was on the staff of Alexander and of
Megasthenes an ambassador in the court of Chandragupta.
Asoka refers to Ceylon as Tambapaņņi in his rock Edict
XIII. Reference is also made in the Mahäbhärata to the
island of Tambapaņņi while, in other parts, it is referred to
as Simhala D¡pa. Simhala must therefore be a term applied
to Ceylon after Ptolemy's time, i.e., 150 A.D., as he refers
NO. 82. - 1929] PRE -VI J AY AN LEGENDS AND TRADITIONS 295
to Ceylon as the island of Tamrapani. Simhala in the

Mahābhārata is probably an interpolation of later date.
The Tamil traditions certainly support the views of Parker
that the landing place of the first colonists was in the South.
Parker, however, has identified it with Tissamahārāma.
But from the Mahāvamsa it would appear that it must have
been further south on the bank of the river, as it is expressly
stated that on the death of Kākavaņņa Tissa at Tissamahā-
äma, his body was taken by his queen to Mãgama. From
Māgama there was a road through Tissamahâràma to Buttala
from where it ran up to Mahiyangana and thence to the
Amba Ferry at the crossing of the Mahaveliganga.
The Nâgas of the Southern and Western coasts of the

Island were a maritime people, with ships of their own,
and it is not conceivable that a party of ship-wrecked people
could have landed with any safety, much less founded a
Kingdom on the Western or Northern shores of the Island.
That the Nâgas continued to hold this position till at least
the second century after Christ is proved from contemporary
records. Resconst rue ting the history from all available
sources, it is conceivable that the Southern part of Ceylon
was colonized by an Aryan speaking people between the
7th and 6th century, B.C. The Yakshas do not appear
to have been a maritime nation ; all their chief cities were
inland, and the coast was unprotected. It was, therefore,
possible for any enterprising colonists to have settled on
the Southern coast without much opposition. According
to Sir Bhandarkar and other eminent Indian authorities
there was a large movement of colonization from Sindh
and Punjab about the 7th century B.C. (Vaidya, History
of Mediaeval India, Vol. I. p.79). Particular mention
must be made of one clan called the Räshtras in Sanskrit,
and Rat^has in Prakrit, who appear to have moved South
along the Western coast, first settling down in Gurjara
Rasura or the modern Gujarat, Surarästra the modern
Surat, and Maharasfra the coastal districts South of Bombay,
at present known as the country of the Maharattas or,
shortly, Marathas. Expeditions were undertaken to far distant
lands such as Java. Traditions are still current in Gujarat

with regard to these expeditions. A Gujarati proverb
runs thus, " He who goes to Java never comes back, but
if he does return, his descendants for seven generations live
at ease," (Bombay Gazeteer I, 402). The log books of
the Rarotongans, Maoris, Tahitians, &c, mention that
their ancestors left India and settled in the Polynesian
Islands about the year 450 B.C. (Children of the Sun, Perry,
P. 104). We have reason to believe that even the Southern
extremity of the Indian Peninsula was colonized by the
same band. Madura was named after Mathurā in Northern
India, and the Tinnevelly district, with its principal river,
the Vaigai, was known by the name of Tāmraparņī. The
port of Kumari near Cape Comarin would be the port from
which embarkations to more distant lands in the East would
have taken place, as it possessed a fine harbour.
The first port of call on the Ceylon coast after leaving

Cape Comarin would appear to be Galle, which in ancient
times was known as Kalah and is akin to Kalah in Sinhalese
and Kälai in Tamil, which has the significance of an enclosure
for cattle, particularly for cart bulls, which are untethered
at intervals at various places on a long journey. By a
transference of idea, the name came to be applied to ports
of call, and we meet with these names in Ceylon, in Galle
and Tangalle ; in the Malayan Archipelago every port of
call is called Kalah. Looking at the south coast map of
Ceylon, we come across these names, Galle, Matara, and
Tangalle. Matara reminds one of Madura, and we meet
this name again in Madura in Java. Tangalle is akin to
Tangala, a town in the Tinnevelly district, which is mentioned
as one of the inland towns of the land of Pandion by Ptolemy.
If, as is believed, the first Aryan colonists landed and settled
in the south, and called the land Tāmbraparņi from the
copper coloured soil, we have a further coincidence that
the Tinnevelly district, which was known by the name of
Tamraparni, should have contributed one other name to
the settlements in Southern Ceylon. At the mouth of
the Kirinda river there is still a village called Gonagama
NO. 82. - 1929] PRE - VIJ AY AN LEGENDS AND TRADITIONS 297
Villa, beyond which is a port with a nice harbour and

plentiful supply of good water ; it was probably the last
port in Ceylon, touched by the sailing vessels of old, before
they went on their long expeditions to Java. Kataragama,
the famous shrine worshipped by Hindus from the Hi-
malayas to Cape Comorin, was only a few miles from this
place. According to the Jaffna tradition, an ancestor of
Vij aya first established his kingdom in this part, living
in one of the caves in the Kataragama hills, and subsequently
built a city which he called Senkâçiu Nagara or the City
of the Red Forest. According to the Sinhalese chronicles,
Vij aya built the town of Tammanna in the South on the
lovely bank of a river, and the whole Island was given the
name of Tāmraparņi and was known as such during the
time of Chandragupta and Asoka.
The particular branch of the Rateas who occupied

Southern India and Ceylon were known as Simhas. At
the head of the Tāmraparūi river in the Tinnevelly district
is a town known by the name of Vikrama Singha Pura.
These Sinhas originally came from Simha Pura in the
Punjab near the present Multan, which was subsequently
the seat of a famous Buddhist shrine. They next founded
a city of similar name in Gujarat, then in Southern India ;
we meet with a Simha Pura in Orissa and another in the
present Singapore of the Malayan peninsula. The Battas
of Sumatra say that their first great king was Singha Maha-
rajah, (Children of the Sun, Perry, P166). About the time
of the Buddha there were a people called Gangaridae and
their country was called Ganga Rāshtra or Ganga Râçlha
or Ganga Rattha. The name was subsequently shortened
to Rãçlha. The R was changed to L and the country then
came to be known as Lâdha and Lata. While one band of
colonists went further East and colonized the Malay peninsula,
Java and Sumatra, another band appears to have gone to
the Eastern coast of India and formed settlements in the
Ralinga and Bengal districts. One of the Tamil traditions
states that a Chola or, more probably, a Bengal princess
same to Kataragama after bathing first in the springs of
Keerimalai to pay her vows and that, while she was camping
out, the Lion King of Kataragama carried her off to his cave
dwelling. This princess may have been a descendant of
one of the same clan of Rajput princes who had settled
in the Ganga Rattha division of Bengal. To them was born
a son and daughter who, when they were grown up were
married to each other. This brother and sister marriage
is quite foreign to Aryans and was looked upon with disgust
by them. But this form of marriage was common among
the ruling families of the Solar race, or, the Children of
the Sun. The Sirpha clan, who called themselves descendants
of the Solar-race, were therefore originally a branch of the
Children of the Sun or the Mediterranean race who had
become Aryanized at this period. A son was born to them
who was called Jayatunga Raja, according to the Tamil
traditions and Vij aya according to the Sinhalese traditions.
Jaya and Vijaya both signify victory and are, therefore,
identical. They sought for him the hand of the Princess
of Madura. The King of Madura readily complied with
this request. Such ready compliance suggests a previous
connection of the two houses and, as I have already pointed
out, there is reason to believe that the throne of Madura
was then occupied by members of the same clan. The
tradition of Vijaya with 700 of his followers sent adrift
on the sea was perhaps based on another legend. The
bards in Marwar have a legend that Bhoj Rajah, the great
Puar chief of Ujjain, in anger drove away his son Chandrabhan
who sailed to Java. (Bombay Gazetter, I, 448). The
marriage with Kuveni is not mentioned by the Dīpavamsa
nor by the Tamil traditions. May it be that the marriage
of Kuveni was not to Vijaya, but to Vijaya's great grand-
father ? If we assume that it was Vijaya's great grand-
father who came to Ceylon and settled in the South, and
married a Yaksha princess, then it is easy to understand
how a good part of the Yaksha kingdom would have come
under his sway without much bloodshed. Both among
the Nâgas and the Yakshas the right of succession to the
throne was through the female line, as it obtains even to-day
in Travancore and Cochin. Among some matri-linear

races, the husband of the daughter of the house generally
succeeded to the throne. Vijaya's great grandfather having
married the Yaksha princess would become the ruler on
the demise of the reigning king. Their son married a Bengal
princess, probably the daughter of the king of the Singha
clan who had, by now, established itself in the Ganga Ratta
division of Bengal. All the legends of the Ceylon chronicles
of the runaway match of the Bengal princess would be
naturally explained if the Tamil traditions be true. The
cave palace of the Ceylon king in the vicinity of Katara-
gama, and the encamping of the princess round about the
Kataragama shrine in camps would suggest all the materials
for the Ceylon legend.
According to the Tamil legends, Vij aya was himself a

Saivite, and he invited and sent for the Magadhese Buddhists
who after the death of Buddha had wandered into Burma
and Siam in search of an asylum, as they were driven out
of India by the Brahmans. They probably settled in
Mahiyangana which had by this time perhaps become the
chief seat of Government. There they enshrined the collar
bone of Buddha which they brought with them in the great
dagoba. The first visit of Buddha to Ceylon is thus easily
explained, that the first relic of the Buddha to be
enshrined in Ceylon was in the Yaksha country at Mahiyan-
gana. The statement that Vij aya was a Saivite, according
to the Tamil tradition, is supported by C. V. Vaidya's
statement that Siva worship was most predominant in
those days. The Rajput families, almost all of whom
established powerful kingdoms at this time, were worshippers
of Siva. (History of Mediaeval India, Vol. II - Rajputs-by
C. V. Vaidya).
When Vij aya died without issue, the kingdom was

taken over by the junior branch of the Singha clan which
had established itself in Bengal.
The Sengar Rajputs, who are now scattered about

Oudh and Agra, have a tradition that an ancestor of theirs
Bhoja Raja by name, migrated from Burdwan in Rãçlha

to Ceylon and became the first Sengar king of the Island.
A family bard of the Sengar Rajputs, while singing the
eulogies of his forefathers, reminds him of Sengars having
once ruled in Siiphala Dvlpa, and in doing so he calls him
a Singhel (Sinhala) down to the present day. (The Indian
Historical Quarterly, Vol. Ill, No. 2, 404, 405).
If we assume that Paņcjuvasudeva was a descendant,
of a Simha clan which had established itself in Râçiha
a division of Bengal and that he was not literally the younger
brother of Vij aya, but a descendant of a junior branch of
the clan, the confusion of the Vijayan tradition in the Ceylon
chronicles can be explained. The first band came from
the West, and in their wandering, they had touched at
the ports of Bharukaccha and Supära, well known ports of
that period, in the West. A junior branch of the same
family had gone to Bengal and settled down there and
called their country Ganga Raddha or, shortly, Raddha,
in the same way as their forefathers called the country
they settled in on the Western coast Guja Rash^ra, and
Sura Râshtra and Maha Râshtra. A descendant of this
junior branch came over and assumed the sovereignty
when Vij aya died without issue. As suggested by Barnett
there were two streams of immigration. This accords
with the Tamil tradition and the tradition of the Sengar
Rajputs, and this view gives a more rational explanation
of the Vijayan occupation of Ceylon.
A survey of all the traditions from Sinhalese, Tamil

and Indian sources would lead to a more correct reconstruc-
tion of the History of Ceylon of this period, than when
viewed only from Sinhalese sources.
5. Gate Mudaliyar W. F. Gunawardhana, Dr. Joseph Pearson

Dr. P. E. Pieris, Mr. F. A. Tissa varasingha and the Chairman offered
remarks.
6. Dr. Paul replied.

7. Votes of thanks to the lecturer and Dr. Pearson, proposed
by the Chairman and to the Chair, proposed by Dr. P. E. Pieris. were
carried with acclamation.

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PRE-VIJAYAN LEGENDS AND TRADITIONS PERTAINING TO CEYLON

PRE-VI JAYAN LEGENDS AND TRADI-

Dr. S. C. PAUL, m.d.

Legends and myths have a certain value in the elucidation

There was in existence at the time an earlier work,

Legends relating to the Pre- Vij ay an period are to be

The Vijayan legends are referred to in the Vaipava

This island was then the centre of a powerful civilization

The memory of the existence of this larger island is

to pass. To enter it against the wishes of the

Rākshasas and Ye wicked ho

In the Vayu Purāņa, Chapter 8, V. 20-30, there is a

" There is a great mountain named Malaya containing

slopes of this mountain. Its length is 100 yojanas while its

Varaha Mihira, a great astronomer of India, giving the

'« Thence hasting on your way behold

The gates of pearl and gold of the Pändyas refers to

not to be seen even in the City of the gods. The Mahāvamsa

beds from the remainder of the Indian peninsula, south of

After the Rämäyaüa period, seismic disturbances occurred

this time. A tradition incorporated in the Skanda Purāņa

which the king gives by putting it into receptacles filled with

According to Indian tradition, the present island of Ceylon

They also live on tree-tops." These were, probably,

was taken over by Rāvaņa who used it in his aerial flights

great power. They can be traced back to Egypt where,

across the sea to a beautiful country in a distant region.

having propitiated Sesha Nāga is said to have acquired from

Nâgas were the original inhabita

same story repeated. "The Yakshas or Pisãcas are again

The Newars of Nepal, and the Licchavis, were the represen-

Their god was Siva who is painted in a red colour in

The Nãgas, however, were still a seafaring people, undertaking

The Buddhistic chronicles open with the three legendary

Five years after this, the Nägas of Jaffna or Nāgadīpa,

It will thus be seen that Ceylon had accepted Buddhism

Previous to the present Buddha the Island had been visited

Konagama and in his time the Island was called Varadīpa.

practised cremation, and they deposited the ashes in cinerary

THE VIJAYAN LEGENDS

The Dipavamsa begins with the account of a lion living

where they tarried three months. They were still unregene-

in more detail and it is said that the town of Tambapaņņi

they marry each other. Their first residence is in a cave-

a halo of glory to their patrons by associating them with

who took her forcibly from her camp at Keerimalai to

near Puttalam, may have been the port. The Portuguese

to Ceylon as the island of Tamrapani. Simhala in the

The Nâgas of the Southern and Western coasts of the

lands such as Java. Traditions are still current in Gujarat

The first port of call on the Ceylon coast after leaving

Villa, beyond which is a port with a nice harbour and

The particular branch of the Rateas who occupied

in Travancore and Cochin. Among some matri-linear

According to the Tamil legends, Vij aya was himself a

When Vij aya died without issue, the kingdom was

The Sengar Rajputs, who are now scattered about

Bhoja Raja by name, migrated from Burdwan in Rãçlha