ANIMAL AND PLANT LIFE. 121 
Before passing to a brief detailed investigation of the 
influences roughly classified as above, it may not be out of 
place to examine the historical records that apply to the 
area at the moment under consideration. Thus, we find 
Arugam Bay corresponds to Mardi, or Morduli Portus, in the 
time of Ptolemy. Okanda Bay is the same as Bocana—as 
the sound nearly implies ; Kumuna, according to the Sanskrit, 
is the same as Gonagramuka ; while the Kumbukkan river 
appears in Ptolemy’s time to have been called Baracus fluvius. 
From this it may be inferred that at least two bays on 
our eastern coast, south of Batticaloa, were known to the 
Romans, in addition to the perennial Kumbukkan-aar, and it 
may be deduced with probable certainty that these bays were 
ports of call, while the Kumbukkan river was more than 
likely to have been well known as being the one spot on the 
east coast where fresh water could always be obtained in both 
monsoons, for trading boats of light draught. 
From this circumstance alone it is probable that the traders 
of the Roman period had dealings at Kumuna, while Okanda 
and Arugam Bays both offered a safe anchorage to the traders’ 
vessels. 
The whole of the Panawa Pattu from a point south of 
Komari was included in the region called in Sanskrit times 
Lambakarna, which, according to Pliny and Ptolemy’s map, 
covered Bocani, of which Bocana (= Okanda) was the port. 
Passing to more modern maps, we find about 1681 
Knox gives Pottin for Pottuvil ; Coemena for Kumuna; and 
Konokan-aar for the Kumbukkan, showing that these places 
had, up to that time, sufficient importance to find their 
recognition in maps of the day. Knox, moreover, distinctly 
shows Pannoa or Panova Regnum, implying that that part of 
the country was under a sovereign at that time, insignificant 
though he may have been. 
This evidence, however, which might be elaborated but 
for pressure on the space of this Paper, points to the definite 
conclusion that for a considerable period a large extent of 
our eastern coast was well known, even to the traders of the 
western world, and we must anticipate, therefore, that in 
the course of that trade there would be an exchange of 
