Chap. V. ELALA. 353 



noitlieru poi'tion of the island, various princes of the b.c. 

 same fiimily occupied themselves in forming settlements ^^^• 

 in the south and west ; and hence, whilst their people 

 were zealously devoted to the service and furtherance of 

 religion, the sovereign at Anarajapoora was compelled, 

 through a combination of causes, to take into his pay a 

 body of Malabars^ for the protection both of the coast 

 and the interior. Of the foreigners thus confided in, 

 " two youths, powerful in their cavalry and navy, named 

 Sena and Gottika," ^ proved unfoithful to their trust, and 

 after causing the death of the king Suratissa (b.c. 237), cc. 

 retained the supreme power for upwards of twenty years, '• 

 till overthrown in their turn and put to death by the 

 adherents of the legitimate line.^ Ten years, however, 

 had barely elapsed when the attempt to establish a Tamil 

 sovereign was renewed by Elala, " a Malabar of the 

 illustrious Uju tribe, who invaded the island from the h.c. 

 Chola^ coimtry, killed the reigning king Asela, and ruled '^*^^- 

 the kingdom for forty years, administering justice im- 

 partially to friends and foes." 



Such is the encomium which the Mahaivanso passes b.c. 

 on an infidel usurper, because Elala offered his protection •^^^" 

 to the priesthood ; but the orthodox annalist closes his 

 notice of his reign by the moral reflection that " even he 

 who was an heretic, and doomed by his creed to perdi- 

 tion, obtained an exalted extent of supernatural power 

 from having eschewed impiety and injustice." ^ 



' The term "Malabar" is used 

 tlirog-uliout the following pages in the 

 comprehensive sense in which it is 

 applied in the Singhalese chronicles 

 to the continental invaders of Ceylon ; 

 but it must be observed that the ad- 

 venturers in these expeditions, who 

 are styled in the 3I(ihaw(tnso, " dami- 

 los " or Tamils, came not only from 

 the sputh-westeni tract of the Dek- 

 kan, known in modern geography as 

 " Malabar," but also from all parts of 

 the peninsula, as far north as Cuttack 

 and Orissa. 



^ Mahaivmiso, ch. xxi. p. 127. 



3 Muhuwanso, xxi. ; Rajaratnacari, 

 ch. ii. 



"^ Chola, or Solee, was the ancient 

 name of Tanjore, and the country 

 traversed by the river Caveri. 



^ 3Iahmvanso, xxi. p. 129. The 

 other historical books, the Rajavali, 

 and Rajaratnacari, give a totally 

 different character of Elala, and re- 

 present him as the desecrator of mo- 

 numents and the overthrower of 

 temples. The traditional estimation 

 which has followed his memory is 

 the best attestation of the superior 

 accuracy of the 3Iahawauso. 



VOL. I. A A 



