Chap. IV.] 



TTTR RODIYA!^. 



187 



nel under the liill, and the Kandy mail drives through an 

 arcliway in the rock.^ 



A Uttle beyond the top of the pass, where tlie road 

 begins to descend towards the Mahawelh-ganga, a colony 

 of the degraded tribe, the Eodiyas, have estabhshed one 

 of their hamlets or kuppiyames^ meaning literally a " col- 

 lection of huts ; " for, as one of the incidents of their 

 mfamy, they were not permitted to call their places of 

 residence, villages. The condition of the Pariahs, the 

 Niadis, Porleahs, and other debased races in India, pre- 

 sents nothing more dreadful than the unresisting degra- 

 dation of this abhorred community. 



Their expulsion from the pale of society took ]:)lace in 

 an age so remote, that even the traditions as to its cause 

 are confused or forgotten.^ One legend describes them 

 as a branch of the Veddahs, condemned to never-endinsf 

 degradation for having supphed a king's table with hu- 

 man flesh instead of venison^; but a difference in their 

 height and figure suggests the more probable idea that 

 they may have been immigrants from the coast of India, 

 of the Chandala blood ^^5 a people so degraded, that water 

 over which their shadows had passed was held to be 

 defiled till purified by sunlight. 



The language of the Eodiyas, mingled w^ith corrupted 

 Singhalese, contains unintelligible words inchcative of a 

 foreign descent. They are found only in the Kandyan 

 districts ; at SafTragam, Doombera, and Wallepane and a 

 few other places in the interior ; their numbers do not 

 probably exceed a thousand, and are said to be decreasing. 



XovvTOQ' rfj fxlv yap tTifXf 7rr^;^( Tzpixj 

 Tovtva,r)j c iiWy TraXo' ofioiiog Kpixjrh' 

 ETfpov (^laXfyKTl'ni. — Pior*. SiC. lib. ii 

 ^ jNIore than ten years were occu- 

 pied in the construction of the Kandv 

 road, which was bejiun in 1H20, and 

 not thoroughly completed till ]8.'}1. 

 A column, erected on the face of the 

 cliff, commemorates tlie services of 

 the officer under wliose immetliate 

 care tl>e road was formed, and whose 

 premature death was accelerated liy 

 exposure durino- its prop:ress. The 

 pedestal hears the inscription : 



CAPTAIN DAWSON. 



During the government of Sir Kiluard Barnes. 



K.c.B. Ac. 



Commaiuiing Royal Engineers. Ceylon, 



whose science and skill planned and executed 



this Koad, 



and other works of puhlic utility. 



Died at Colombo, 2Kth March, If 29. 



l?y subscription this Monument was erected 



to liis memory by his friends and admirers. 



^ The liajavnli mentions Ilodivas 

 204 B.C. (p. 188); and the Maha- 

 u-ciiiso, A.D. 589 (ch. xlii.) 



^ Knox, pt. iii. ch. ii. p. 70. 



■* The 31(1 ha ira /ISO mentions a vil- 

 lage of outcasts in Ceylon, A.D. 487, 

 of Hindu origin (cli. x. p. GO). 



