CnAr. ir.] 



ADAM'S PEAK. 



133 



Buddliists of Buddha', by the Climese, of Foe^, by the 

 Gnostics, of leu^, by the Mahometans, of Adam*, whilst 

 the Portuguese authorities were divided between the con- 

 flicting claims of St. Thomas^, and the Eunuch of Candace, 

 Queen of Ethiopia. 



The pliases of this local superstition can be traced 

 wit] I curious accuracy through its successive transmit- 

 ters. In the Buddliist annals, the sojourn of Buddlia 

 in Ceylon, and tlie impression of the " sri-pada" his 

 sacred foot-mark left on departing, are recorded in that 

 portion of the Alahawanso which was written by Malui- 

 naama prior to B.C. 301^, and tlie story is repeated in 

 the other sacred books of the Singhalese. Tlie Rdja- 



spoken of as containing tlie footstep 

 of iidani ; but this is au interpola- 

 tion of the Mahometan translator, 

 and the lianuiyana makes no mention 

 of Adam. The Hindus describe 

 Adam's Peak by the term Sivan- 

 garrhanam, " the ascent to heaven." 



^ AEaliaivanso, ch. i. p. 7. ch. xv. 

 p. 92, ch. xxxii. p. 197. Rajaratna- 

 cari, p. 9. See also the Sadharma- 

 ratnakari. 



^ Fa IIian, Foe-Kove Kl, ch. 

 xxxviii. p. .3.'i2. 



3 Pidis iSophifi, MS. IJrit. Mus. 

 No. 5114, fol. 148. Trans. Schwartze, 

 p. 221. 



* SOLEYMAN, A.D. 851. ReINAUD, 

 Voycujcs Arahes, iS,-c., t. i. p. 5. 



^ " Hand absimile videtur, in eo 

 vestio'io coli Eunachum Candaces 

 yEthiopum Iveginte quem Dorotheas 

 Tj'ri Episcopus in Taprobana Christi 

 Evangelium promulgasse testatur." 

 Maffei, Ilistor. Lulic, lib. iii. p. 01. 

 But De Couto pleads more earnestly 

 in favour of St Thomas, " nos parece 

 que podera ser do bemaventurado 

 Apostolo S. Thome," because it 

 appears that in the time of the 

 Portuguese, there was a stone in a 

 quany at Colombo deeply impressed 

 ■with the VKtrk of ihe knees of this 

 saint, and closely resembling a simi- 

 lar indentation on a rock at Melia- 

 pore, and believed to be equally the 

 physical result of his devotions. The 



I'ock at INIeliapore is described by 

 Andrea Corsali in his letter to 

 Julian de Medicis, 5th January, 1515 : 

 what stone at Colombo De Couto 

 means, it is not easy to conjecture, as 

 no such relic is to be found tliere at 

 present ; but possibly he may allude 

 to the alleged existence of a foot- 

 step at Kalany, which however is 

 supposed to be covered by the waters 

 of the river. De Couto fortifies hi.s 

 own theory by a2)peals to the many 

 similar phenomena in Christendom, 

 such as the hollows worn in the steps 

 of the Santa Casa of Jerusalem on 

 the spot covered by the church of the 

 Ascension at the ]Mount of Olives, 

 and on the rock on wliich the thrte 

 disciples reclined in the garden of 

 Gethsemane. De Couto, Asia, ^'-c, 

 dec. V. lib. y'\. ch. ii. 



'^ In the work edited by Wagex- 

 FELDT in 1887, professing to be the 

 l'ha?niciau Ilistoiy of Sanclioniathon 

 in the Greek version of I'hilo, allu- 

 sion is made to the footstep of Dauth 

 (Buddha) still extant in Ceylon, ''^c 



Kcil lYrof trrrii' Iv role opou-." — SaN- 



CHONiATnox, lib. vii. ch. 12, p. 1(52. 



Moses of Chorene disposes of the 

 pretensions of all other claimants, 

 by pronouncing it to be the footstep 

 of tlie devil, " ibidem Safance lapsum 

 narrant." — Hist. Armenicc et Epitome 

 Geoijr., p. .807. 



K 3 



