540* Sir A. Johnstox's Account of an Inscription found near Trincomalee. 



waters were distributed amongst the proprietors of the adjacent fields ; the 

 number and extent of the fields to which its waters could be conducted ; and 

 the quantity of rice which could be raised in them. 



The third is, that it contains the heads of the original laws, both civil and 

 criminal, according to which the two kings of Solamandelum, Manumathy 

 Candesolam and his son Kalocata Maharasa, ordained in the five-hundred 

 and twelfth year of the Cali-yug, or about 4,400 years ago, that the Hindu 

 people of the northern and eastern parts of the island of Ceylon should be 

 governed, and upon the faith of which the original Hindu settlers had, on 

 the invitation of those sovereigns, come over from the peninsula of India, 

 and established themselves in the different provinces of Ceylon. 



However contradictory these traditions may be as to the meaning which 

 tliey attacli to the inscription, I think it may safely be concluded, both from 

 them and from all the different histories which I have in my possession, that 

 the race of people who inhabited the whole of the northern and eastern 

 provinces of tlie island of Ceylon, at the period of their greatest agricultural 

 prosperity spoke the same language, used the same written character, and 

 had the same origin, religion, castes, laws, and manners, as that race of peo- 

 ple who at the same period inhabited the southern peninsula of India ; and 

 that it is tiiercfore probable that some information as to the character and 

 language in which the inscription is written may be derived from the ancient 

 histories and traditions of that part of India, many of which I procured 

 from the Brahmans of Ramisserum, Trichendore, Madura, Seringham, 

 Combeconum, Chillcmbrum, Congeveram, and Tripetty, while I was 

 travelling in the peninsula in I8O7 and 1817- 



I have the honour to be. Sir, 



Your most obedient servant, 



ALEXANDER JOHNSTON. 

 Great Cuniberland Place, 



\%th .My 1827. 



