Ceylon; an Account of the Island Physical, Historical, and / Topographical with Notices of Its Natural History, Antiquities and / Productions, Volume 1

CHAP. IX

KINGS OF THE LOWER DYNASTY.

• Sovereigns of the Lower Dynasty, a feeble race 385
• Kings who were sculptors, physicians, and poets 386
• Earliest notice of Foreign Embassies to Rome and to China 387
• Notices of Ceylon by Chinese Historians 387
• Fa Hian visits Ceylon A.D. 413 387
• Anecdote related by Fa Hian (note) 388
• History of "the Sacred Tooth" 388
• Murder of the king Dhatu Sena, A.D. 459 389
• Infamous conduct of his son 391
• The fortified rock Sigiri 392

CHAP. X.

DOMINATION OF THE MALABARS.

• Origin of the Malabar invaders of Ceylon 395
• The ancient Indian kingdom of Pandya 395
• Malabar mercenaries enlisted in Ceylon 395
• B.C. 237. Revolt of Sena and Gutika 395
• B.C. 205. Usurpation of Elala 396
• B.C. 103. Second Malabar invasion 396
• A.D. 110. Third Malabar invasion 396
• Jewish evidence of Malabar conquest (note)396
• A.D. 433. Fourth Malabar invasion 397
• The influence of the Malabars firmly established 398
• Distress of the Singhalese in the 7th century, as described by Hiouen Thsang 399
• A.D. 642. Anarajapoora deserted, and Pollanarrua built 400
• The Malabars did nothing to improve the island 401
• A.D. 840. A fresh Malabar invasion 401
• The Singhalese seek to conciliate them by alliances 402
• A.D. 990. Another Malabar invasion 402
• Extreme misery of the island 402
• A.D. 1023. The Malabars seize Pollanarrua and occupy the entire north of the island 403

CHAP. XI.

THE REIGN OF PRAKRAMA BAHU.

• A.D. 1071. Recovery of the island from the Malabars 404
• Wijayo Bahu I. expels the Malabars 405
• Birth of the Prince Prakrama 405
• His character and renown 405
• Immense public works constructed by him 406
• Restores the order of the Buddhist priesthood 406
• Intercourse between Siam and Ceylon 406
• Temples and sacred edifices built by Prakrama 407
• The Gal-Wihara at Pollanarrua 407
• Ruins of Pollanarrua 408
• Extraordinary extent of his works for irrigation 409
• Foreign wars of Prakrama 409
• His conquests in India 410
• The death of Prakrama Bahu 410

CHAP. XII.

FATE OF THE SINGHALESE MONARCHY.

ARRIVAL OF THE PORTUGUESE, A.D. 1505.

• Prakrama Baku, the last powerful king 411
• Anarchy follows on his decease 411
• A.D. 1197. The Queen Leela-Wattee 412
• A.D. 1211. Return of the Malabar invaders 412
• The Malabars establish themselves at Jaffna 413
• Early history of Jaffna 413
• A.D. 1235. The new capital at Dambedenia 413
• Extending ruin of Ceylon 414
• Kandy founded as a new capital 414
• Successive removals of the seat of Government to Yapahoo, Kornegalle, Gampola, Kandy, and Cotta 415
• Ascendancy of the Malabars 415
• A.D. 1410. The King of Ceylon carried captive to China 416
• Ceylon tributary to China 417
• Arrival of the Portuguese in Ceylon 418

PART IV.

SCIENCES AND SOCIAL ARTS.

CHAPTER I.

POPULATION, CASTE, SLAVERY, AND RAJA-KARIYA.

• Population encouraged by the fertility of Ceylon 421
• Evidence of its former extent in the ruins of the tanks and canals 422
• Means by which the population was preserved 423
• Causes of its dispersion—the ruin of the tanks 424
• Domestic life similar to that of the Hindus 425
• Respect shown to females 425
• Caste perpetuated in defiance of religious prohibition 425
• Particulars in which caste in Ceylon differs from caste in India 425
• Slavery, borrowed from Hindustan 425
• Compulsory labour or Raja-kariya 426
• Mode of enforcing it 427

CHAP. II.

AGRICULTURE, IRRIGATION, CATTLE, AND CROPS.

• Agriculture unknown before the arrival of Wijayo 429
• Rice was imported into Ceylon in the second century B.C. 429
• The practice of irrigation due to the Hindu kings 430
• Who taught the science of irrigation to the Singhalese (note) 430
• The first tank constructed B.C. 504 431
• Gardens and fruit-trees first planted 432
• Value of artificial irrigation in the north of Ceylon 432
• In the south of the island the rains sustain cultivation 432
• Two harvests in the year in the south of the island 432
• In the north, where rains are uncertain, tanks indispensable 432
• Irrigation the occupation of kings 434
• The municipal village-system of cultivation 434
• "Assoedamising" of rice lands in the mountains 434
• Temple villages and their tenure 434
• Farm-stock buffaloes and cows 435
• A Singhalese garden described 435
• Coco-nut palm rarely mentioned in early writings 436
• Doubt whether it be indigenous to Ceylon 436
• The Mango and other fruits 437
• Rice and curry mentioned in the second century B.C. 437
• Animal food used by the early Singhalese 438
• Betel, antiquity of the custom of chewing it 438
• Intoxicating liquors known at an early period 439

CHAP. III.

EARLY COMMERCE, SHIPPING, AND PRODUCTIONS.

• Trade entirely in the hands of strangers 440
• Native shipping unconnected with commerce 440
• Same indifference to trade prevails at this day 441
• Singhalese boats all copied from foreign models 442
• All sewn together and without iron 442
• Romance of the "Loadstone Island" 443
• The legend believed by Greeks and the Chinese 443
• Vessels with two prows mentioned by Strabo 444
• Foreign trade spoken of B.C. 204 444
• Internal traffic in the ancient city of Ceylon 445
• Merchants traversing the island 445
• Early exports from Ceylon,—gems, pearls, &c. 445
• The imports, chiefly manufactures 446
• Horses and carriages imported from India 447
• Cloth, silk, &c., brought from Persia 447
• Kashmir, intercourse with 447
• Edrisi's account of Ceylon trade in the twelfth century 448

CHAP. IV.

MANUFACTURES.

• Silk not produced in Ceylon 450
• Coir and cordage 450
• Dress; unshaped robes 450
• Manual and Mechanical Arts—Weaving 451
• Priest's robes spun, woven, and dyed in a day 452
• Peculiar mode of cutting out a priest's robe 452
• Bleaching and dyeing 452
• Earliest artisans, immigrants 452
• Handicrafts looked down on 453
• Pottery 453
• Glass 454
• Glass mirrors 454
• Leather 454
• Wood carving 454
• Chemical Arts—Sugar 455
• Mineral paints 455

CHAP. V.

WORKING IN METALS.

• Early knowledge of the use of iron 457
• Steel 457
• Copper and its uses 457
• Bells, bronze, lead 458
• Gold and silver 458
• Plate and silver ware 458
• Red coral found at Galle (note) 459
• Jewelry and mounted gems 459
• Gilding.—Coin 460
• Coins mentioned in the Mahawanso 460
• Meaning of the term "massa" (note) 460
• Coins of Lokiswaira 461
• General device of Singhalese coins 461
• Indian coinage of Prakrama Bahu 462
• Fish-hook money 463

CHAP. VI.

ENGINEERING.

• Engineering taught by the Brahmans 464
• Rude methods of labour 464
• Military engineering unknown 465
• Early attempts at fortification 465
• Fortified rock of Sigiri 465
• Forests, their real security 466
• Thorns planted as defences 466
• Bridges and ferries 466
• Method of tying cut stone in forming tanks 467
• Tank sluices 467
• Defective construction of these reservoirs 467
• The art of engineering lost 468
• The "Giants' Tank" a failure 468
• An aqueduct formed, A.D. 66 469

CHAP. VII.

THE FINE ARTS.

• Music, its early cultivation 470
• • Harsh character of Singhalese music 470
  • Tom-toms, their variety and antiquity 471
  • Singhalese gamut 472
• Painting.—Imagination discouraged 472
• • Similarity of Singhalese to Egyptian art 472
  • Rigid rules for religious design 473
  • Similar trammels on art in Modern Greece (note) 473
  • And in Italy in the 15th century (n.) 474
  • Celebrated Singhalese painters 475
• Sculpture.—Statues of Buddha 475
• • Built statues 477
  • Painted statues 477
  • Statues formed of gems 477
  • Ivory and sandal-wood carved 477
• Architecture, its ruins exclusively religious 478
• Domestic architecture mean at all times 478
• Stone quarried by wedges 478
• Immense slabs thus prepared 479
• Columns at Anarajapoora 479
• Materials for building 479
• Mode of constructing a dagoba 480
• Enormous dimensions of these structures 480
• Monasteries and wiharas 481
• Palaces 482
• Carvings in stone 483
• Ubiquity of the honours shown to goose 484
• Delicate outline of Singhalese carvings 488
• Temples and their decorations 488
• Cave temples of Ceylon 489
• The Alu-wihara 489
• Moulding in plaster 489
• Claim of the Singhalese to the invention of oil painting 490
• Lacquer ware of the present day 490
• Honey-suckle ornament 491

CHAP. VIII.

SOCIAL LIFE.

• Ancient cities and their organisation 493
• Public buildings, hospitals, shops 493
• Anarajapoora, as it appeared in 7th century 493
• The description of it by Fa Hian 495
• Carriages and Horses 495
• Horses imported from Persia 495
• Furniture of the houses 496
• Form of Government.—Revenue 497
• The Army and Navy 498
• Mode of recruiting 499
• Arms.—Bows 499
• Singular mode of drawing the bow with the foot (note) 499
• Civil Justice 500

CHAP. IX.

SCIENCES.

• Education and schools 501
• Logic 502
• Astronomy and astrology 503
• Medicine and surgery 504
• King Buddha-dasa a physician 504
• Botany 505
• Geometry 505
• Lightning conductors 506
• Notice of a remarkable passage in the Mahawanso 507

CHAP. X.

SINGHALESE LITERATURE.

• The Pali language 512
• The temples the depositaries of learning 512
• Historiographers employed by the kings 512
• Ola books, how prepared 513
• A stile, and the mode of writing 513
• Books on plates of metal (note) 513
• Differences between Elu and Singhalese 513
• Pali works
• • Grammar 514
  • Hardy's list of Singhalese books (note) 515
  • Pali books all written in verse 515
  • The Pittakas 515
  • The Jatakas—resemble the Talmud 516
  • Pali literature generally 516
  • The Milinda-prasna 516
  • Pali historical books and their character 517
  • The Mahawanso 517
  • Scriptural coincidences in Pali books (note) 518
• Sanskrit works:
  • Principally on science and medicine 520
• Elu and Singhalese works:
  • Low tone of the popular literature 520
  • Chiefly ballads and metrical essays 521
  • Exempt from licentiousness 521
  • Sacred poems in honour of Hindu gods 521
  • General literature of the people 522

CHAP. XI.

BUDDHISM AND DEMON-WORSHIP.

• Buddhism as it exists in Ceylon 523
• Which was the more ancient, Brahmanism or Buddhism 523
• Various authorities (note) 523
• Buddhism, its extreme antiquity 524
• Its prodigious influence 524
• Sought to be identified with the Druids (note) 524
• Buddhism an agent of civilisation 525
• Its features in Ceylon 526
• The various forms elsewhere 527
• Points that distinguish it from Brahmanism 528
• Buddhist theory of human perfection 528
• Its treatment of caste 530
• Its respect for other religions 530
• Anecdote, illustrative of (note) 530
• Its cosmogony 531
• Its doctrine of "necessity" 532
• Transmigration 533
• Illustration from Lucan (note) 533
• The priesthood and its attributes 534
• Buddhist morals 534
• Prohibition to take life 534
• Form of worship 535
• Brahmanical corruptions 536
• Failure of Buddhism as a sustaining faith 537
• Its moral influence over the people 538
• Demon-worship 539
• Trees dedicated to demons (note) 540
• Devil priests and their orgies 541
• Ascendency of these superstitions 542
• Buddhism as an obstacle to Christianity 543
• Difficulties presented by the morals of Buddhism 544
• Prohibition against taking away life (note) 544

PART V.

MEDIÆVAL HISTORY.

CHAPTER I.

CEYLON AS KNOWN TO THE GREEKS AND ROMANS.

• First heard of by the companions of Alexander the Great 549
• Various ancient names of Ceylon (note) 549
• Early doubts whether it was an island or a continent 550
• Mentioned by Aristotle 550
• Alleged mention of Ceylon in the Samaritan Pentateuch (note) 551
• Onesicritus's account 552
• Megasthenes' description 552
• Ælian's account borrowed from Megasthenes (note) 552
• Ceylon known to the Phoenicians and to the Egyptians (note) 552
• Hippalus discovers the monsoons 553
• Effect of this discovery on Indian trade 554
• Pliny's account of Ceylon 555
• Story of Jambulus by Diodoros Siculus (note) 556
• Embassy from Ceylon to Claudius 556
• Narrative of Rachias, and its explanation (note) 557
• Lake Megisba, a tank 557
• Early intercourse with China 558
• The Veddahs described by Pliny 558
• Interval between Pliny and Ptolemy 558
• Ptolemy's account of Ceylon 559
• Explanation of his errors 559
• Ptolemy discriminates bays from estuaries (note) 559
• Identification of Ptolemy's names 560
• His map 560
• His sources of information 561
• Agathemerus, Marcianus of Heraclea 562
• Cosmas Indicopleustes 562
• Palladius—St. Ambrosius (note) 562
• State of Ceylon when Cosmas wrote 563
• Its commerce at that period 563
• In the hands of Arabs and Persians 564
• Ceylon as described by Cosmas 565
• Story of his informant Sopater 566
• Translation of Cosmas 567
• The gems and other productions of Ceylon—"a gaou" (note) 567
• Meaning of the term "Hyacinth" (note) 568
• The great ruby of Ceylon, its history traced (note) 568
• Cosmas corroborated by the Peripius 570
• Horses imported from Persia 570
• Export of elephants 570
• Note on Sanchoniathon 571

CHAP. II.

INDIAN, ARABIAN, AND PERSIAN AUTHORITIES.

• Absurd errors of the Hindus regarding Ceylon 578
• Their dread of Ceylon as the abode of demons 578
• Rise of the Mahometan power 579
• Persians and Arabs trade to India 579
• Story in Beladory of the first invasion of India by the Mahometans (text and note) 580
• Character of the Arabian geographers 581
• Their superiority over the Greeks 581
• Greek Paradoxical literature 582
• A.D. 851. The two Mahometans 583
• Their account of Ceylon 583
• Adam's Peak 583
• Obsequies of a king 584
• Councils on religion and history 584
• Toleration 585
• Carmathic monument at Colombo (note) 585
• Galle, the seat of ancient trade 586
• Claim of Mantotte disproved 587
• Greek fire (note) 588
• "Kalah" is Galle 589
• The Maharaja of Zabedj help possession of Galle 589
• Evidence of this in the Garsharsp-Namah 590
• Derivation of "Galle" (text and note) 591
• Aversion of the Singhalese to commerce 592
• Identification of the modern Veddahs with the ancient Singhalese 593
• Their singular habits, as described by Robert Knox, Ribeyro, and Valentyn 593
• • By Albyrouni 593
  • By Palladius 593
  • By Fa Hian 594
  • By the Chinese writers (note) 594
  • By Pliny 594
• For this reason the coast only known to strangers 595
• Arabian authors who describe Ceylon 595
• • Albateny and Massoudi 595
  • Tabari (note) 595
  • Sinbad the Sailor 596
  • Edrisi 597
  • Kazwini 598
• Cinnamon, no mention of 599
• Was cinnamon a native of Ceylon? 599
• No mention by Singhalese authors 600
• No mention of by Latin writers 600
• The Regio Cinnamomifera was in Africa (note) 600
• • No mention by Arabs or Persians 600
  • First noticed in Ceylon by Ibn Batuta 601
  • By Nicola di Conti (note) 601
• Ibn Batuta describes Ceylon 604
• • His Travels 605

CHAP. III.

CEYLON AS KNOWN TO THE CHINESE.

• Early Chinese trade with Ceylon 607
• Early Chinese travellers in India 607
• Chinese translations of M.S. Julien 608
• List of Chinese authors relating to Ceylon (note) 608
• Their errors as to its form and site 609
• Their account of Adam's Peak and its gems 609
• Chinese names for Ceylon 610
• Curious habit of its traders 611
• They describe the two races, Tamils and Singhalese 611
• Origin of the cotton "Comboy" 612
• Costume of Ceylon 612
• Early commerce 613
• Works for irrigation noticed 613
• Island of Junk-Ceylon 614
• Galle resorted to by Chinese ships 614
• Vegetable productions 614
• Elephants, ivory, and jewels 615
• Skill of Singhalese goldsmiths and statuaries 615
• Pearls and gems sent to China 615
• No mention of cinnamon 616
• Chinese account of Buddhism in Ceylon 616
• Monasteries for priests first founded in Ceylon 616
• Cities of Ceylon in the sixth century 617
• Patriotism of Singhalese kings 617
• Domestic manners of the Singhalese 617
• Embassies from China to Ceylon 618
• Chinese travels prior to the sixth century 619
• Fa Hian's travels in sixth century 620
• First embassy from Ceylon to China, A.D. 405 620
• Narrative of the image which it bore (note) 620
• Ceylon tributary to China in sixth century 620
• Hiouen-Thsang describes Ceylon in the seventh century (note) 621
• Events in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries 621
• King of Ceylon carried captive to China, A.D. 1405 623
• Last embassy to China, A.D. 1459 625
• Traces of the Chinese in Ceylon 626
• Evidences of their presence found by the Portuguese 626
• Modern Chinese account of Ceylon (note) 626

CHAP. IV.

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

• The Moors of Ceylon 629
• Their origin 629
• The early Mahometans in India 629
• Arabians anciently settled in Ceylon 630
• Real descent of the modern "Moormen" 631
• Their occupation as traders, ancestral 632
• Their hostilities with the Portuguese 633
• They might have been rulers of Ceylon 633
• Indian trade prior to the route by the Cape 634
• The Genoese and Venetians in the East 634
• Rise of the Mongol empire 635
• Marco Polo, A.D. 1271 635
• Visits Ceylon 636
• Friar Odoric, A.D. 1318 636
• Jordan de Severac, A.D. 1323 (note) 637
• Giov. de Marignola, A.D. 1349 (note) 637
• Nicola di Conti, A.D. 1444 637
• • The first traveller who speaks of Cinnamon 638
• Jerome de Santo Stefano (note) 639
• Ludov. Barthema, A.D. 1506 639
• Odoardo Barbosa, A.D. 1509 640
• Andrea Corsali, A.D. 1515 (note) 640
• Cesar Frederic, A.D. 1563 641
• Course of trade changed by the Cape route 642
• Irritation of the Venetians 643

ILLUSTRATIONS IN THE FIRST VOLUME

MAPS.

PLANS AND CHARTS.

WOOD ENGRAVINGS.