CiiAr. I.] 



GEOGRAPHICAL POSITION. 



tion of such an occurrence, at least A\ithin the historic 

 period ; no record of it exists in the earhest writings of 

 the Hindus, the Arabians, or Persians ; wlio, had the 

 tradition survived, would eagerly have chronicled a 

 catastrophe so appalhng.^ Geologic analogy, so far as 

 an inference is derivable from the formation of the 

 adjoining coasts, both of India and Ceylon, is opposed 

 to its probabihty ; and not only plants, but animals, 

 mammaha, birds, reptiles, and insects, exist in Ceylon, 

 which are not to be foimd in the flora or fauna of the 

 Indian continent.^ 



kSJ-c, of the Borderers, 3Ioi(Htaineers, 

 and Islanders of Asia. — AVorks, vol. i. 

 p. 120. 



The Portuguese, on their arrival in 

 Ceylon in the sixteenth ceutiuy, found 

 the natives fully inipressetl hy the 

 traditions of its former extent and 

 partial suhniersion ; and their belief 

 in connection with it, will be found 

 in the narratives and histories of De 

 Barros and Diogo de Couto, from 

 which they have been transferred, 

 almost without abridgment, to the 

 pages of ValentjTi. The substance of 

 the native legends will be found in 

 tlie Mahawanso,'^.c. xxii. p. 131 ; and 

 Rajavali, p. 180, 190. 



^ The first disturbance of the coast 

 by wliich Ceylon is alleged to have 

 been severed from the main land is 

 said by the Buddhists to have taken 

 place B.C. 23875 ^ second commotion 

 is ascribed to the age of Panduwaasa, 

 li.c. 504 ; and the subsidence of the 

 shore adjacent to Colombo is said to 

 have taken place 200 years later, in 

 the reign of Devenipiatissa, B.C. 306. 

 Tlie event is thus recorded in the 

 liaJavaU, one of the sacred books of 

 Ceylon : — " In these days the sea was 

 seven leagues from Kalany ; but on 

 accoimt of what had been done to 

 the teeroonansee (a priest who had 

 been tortured by the king of Kalany), 

 the gods who were charged with the 

 conservation of Ceylon, became en- 

 raged and caused the sea to deluge 

 the land ; and as diuing the epoch 



called duwapawrayaga on account of 

 the wickedness of Eawana, 25 palaces 

 and 400,000 streets were all o^er-run 

 by the sea, so now in this time of 

 Tissa Raja, 100,000 large towns, 910 

 fishers' villages, and 400 villages in- 

 habited by pearl fishers, making to- 

 gether eleven-twelfths of the terri- 

 tory of Kalany, were sAvallowed up 

 bvthe sea." — Rajavali, vol. ii. p. 180, 

 190. 



Forbes observes the coincidence 

 that the legend of the rising of the 

 sea in the age of Panduwaasa, 2378 

 B.C., very nearly coucm's witli the date 

 assigned to the Deluge of Noah, 

 2348. — Eleven Years in Ceylon, vol. 

 ii. p. 258. A tradition is also extant, 

 that a submersion took place .at a 

 remote period on the east coast of 

 Ceylon, whereby the island of Giri- 

 dipo, which is mentioned in the first 

 chapter of the llahawanso, was en- 

 gulfed, and the dangerous rocks 

 called the Great and Little Basses 

 are believed to be renmauts of it. — 

 3Iahcnuanso, c. i. 



A resume of the disquisitions which 

 have appeared at various times as to 

 the submersion of a part of Ceylon, 

 T\-ill be found in a Memoir siir la 

 Geof/rajiliie ancienne de Ccylan, in 

 the Journal Asiatique for January, 

 1857, 5th ser., a-o1. ix. p. 12 ; sec also 

 Tukkoitr's Introd. to the 3I(diaicanso, 

 p. xxxiv. 



^ Some of the mammalia peculiar 

 to the island are enmnerated at p. 



B 4 



