150 SPOLIA ZEYLANICA, 
mantapam containing the throne-dais of the Perumal borne upon 
the back of a colossal tortoise. I had the good fortune to visit this 
place at the beginning of 1905 and took particular note of the 
Kurmasana or tortoise throne.* 
The Kurmavatara, or tortoise incarnation of Vishnu, which is 
frequently presented in the form of ivory statuettes and in damascene 
work asin the kuftgari of Travancore, is the third of the regular 
series or the eleventh of the extended series according to the 
Bhagavata Purana, where 22 avataras are enumerated, and is the 
subject matter of the Sanskrit writing called the Kurma-purana. 
‘Tn his eleventh incarnation, the Lord in the form of a tortoise 
supported on his back the churning mountain [Mandara] when the 
gods [Suras| and Asuras were churning the ocean.” + 
In the earlier mythology we learn that Prajapati, who issued from 
the golden egg of Brahma, was similarly transformed: ** Having 
assumed the form of a tortoise, Prajapati created offspring. That 
which he created he made (akarot); hence the word kurma. Kasyapa 
means tortoise; hence men say all creatures are descendants of 
Kasyapa.”t From this quotation it appears that there are two 
Sanskrit words meaning tortoise, the one (kurma) designating the 
real tortoise, the other (Kasyapa) being a personal appellation.§ 
Among the translations from the Pali of “‘ The Jataka or Stories 
of the Buddha’s Former Births” are included several tortoise 
manifestations or Kacchapa-jataka.|| 
It is not only in Hindu cosmogony that the tortoise has been 
employed as a symbol of mundane and celestial power and influence. 
In discussing the origin of the rock engravings or petroglyphs of 
Guiana, Sir E. F. im Thurn§ referred incidentally to ‘* some picture- 
writing from a rock near ‘Lake Superior, in which are rudely repre- 
sented five canoes, containing in all fifty-one men, a kingfisher, 
a man on horseback, a land tortoise, and a figure made up of three 
concentric semicircles arched over three small circles.” In this 
drawing the tortoise denotes land which was reached by the canoes 
* Compare Simhasana or lion throne of a high priest, so called ** from 
the figure of a lion on the back of the seat.”’ See editorial note on p. 128 
of ‘“‘ Hindu Manners, Customs, and Ceremonies,” by the Abbé J. A. Dubois. 
Oxford, 1899, translated and edited by Henry K. Beauchamp. The word 
asana, meaning a seat, is written asna in Clough’s Sinhalese Dictionary. 
+ J. Muir. Original Sanskrit Texts, vol. IV., 2nd edition, 1873, p. 27. 
See also Christian Lassen, Indische Alterthumskunde, Bd. IV., Leipzig, 
1861, p. 580. Kurma-raja is the tortoise supposed to uphold the world 
(Monier-Williams, Sanskrit Dictionary), 
t J. Muir, op. cit. 
§ See Angelo de Gubernatis. Zoological Mythology, vol. II., 1872, p. 360, 
where the tortoise is called the ‘‘ Lord of the Shores.” 
|The translations are published by the Cambridge University Press 
under the editorship of Professor E. B. Cowell ; see vol. II., translated by 
W.H. D. Rouse, 1895, Nos. 178, 215, and 273. 
*| Among the Indians of Guiana. London, 1883, p. 404, 
