CiiAi'. X.] THE DOMIXATIOX OP THE JIALABARS. 



395 



Ivaliiiga \ now known as the Northern Circars ; his a.d. 

 second wife was the danghter of the king of Pandya, and ^i^- 

 the hidies who accompanied her to Ceylon were given in 

 marriage to his ministers and officers.^ Simihir alli- 

 ances were afterwards frequent ; and the Singhalese 

 annalists allude on more than one occasion to the 

 " dainilo consorts " of their sovereigns,^ Intimate in- 

 tercourse and consanf2;uinitv, were thus established from 

 the remotest period. Adventurers from the opposite 

 coast were encouraged by the previous settlers ; high 

 em]:)loyments were throw^n open to them, Malabars were 

 subsidised both as cavalry and as seamen ; and the 

 lirst abuse of theu* pri\"ileges w^as in the instance of the 

 brothers Sena and Goottika, who, holding naval and 

 military commands, took advantage of their position 

 and seized on the throne, B.C. 237 ; apparently mth such 

 acquiescence on the part of the people, that even the 

 Mahawanso praises the righteousness of their reign, which 

 was prolonged to twenty-two years, wdien they were put 

 to death by the rightfid \\q\i to the throne.^ 



The easy success of the first usurpers encouraged the 

 ambition of fresh aspirants, and barely ten years elapsed 

 till the first regular invasion of the island took place, 

 under the illustrious Elala, who, with an army from 

 Mysore (then called Chola or Soli), subdued the entire 

 of Ceylon, north of the MahaweUi-ganga, and compelled 

 the chiefs of the rest of the island, and the kings of Eohuna 

 and Maya, to acknowledge his supremacy and become 

 his tributaries.^ As in the instance of the previous 

 revolt, the people exhibited such faint resistance to the 

 usurpation, that the reign of Elala extended to forty- 

 four years. It is difficult to conceive that then- quies- 

 cence under a stranger was entirely ascribable to the 



' 3I(iJiawanso, cli. vi. p. 43. 



^ Mahuicanso, ch. vii. p. 53 ; llie 

 Hqjamli (p. 173) sajs they were 

 700 in n umber. 



^ Mahmcmiso, ch. xxxviii. p. 2o3. 



^ 3Iahawanso, clr. xxi. p. 127. 



^ Tttunour's Epitome, p. 17; 3Ia- 

 hawauso, ch. xxi. p. 128 ; Riijavali, 

 p. 188. 



