549 



CHAPTEE I. 



CEYLON AS KNOTN^ TO THE GREEKS AND ROMANS. 



Although mysterious rumours of the wealth and 

 wonders of India had reached the Western nations in 

 the heroic ages, and although travellers at a later period 

 returning fi^om Persia and the East had spread romantic 

 reports of its vastness and magnificence, it is doubtfid 

 whether Ceylon had been heard of in Europe ' even 



^ Nothing is more strikingly sug- 

 gestive of the extended renown of 

 Ceylon and of the different countries 

 which maintained an intercourse with 

 the island, than the number and 

 dissimilarity of the names by which 

 it has been lmo■^^l at various periods 

 throughout Em-ope and Asia. So 

 remarkable is this peculiarity, that 

 Lassex has made " the names of 

 Taprobane" the subject of several 

 learned disquisitions (De Taprohane 

 Insida refer, cogn. Dissert, sec. 2, p. 

 5 ; Indische Alterthuinskunde, vol. i. 

 p. 200, note viii. p. 212, &c.) ; and 

 Bttenouf has devoted two elaborate 

 essays to their elucidation, Journ. 

 Asiat. 1826, vol. viii. p. 129. Ihid., 

 1857, vol. xxxiii. p. 1. 



In the literatm-e of the Brahmans, 

 Lanlia, from having been the scene 

 of the exploits of Eama, is as re- 

 nowned as Ilion in the great epic of 

 the Greeks. " Taprobane," the name 

 by which the island was first known 

 to the Macedonians, is derivable from 

 the Pali " Tamba panni." The ori- 

 gin of the epithet will be foimd in 

 the Mahmcanso, ch. vii. p. 56 f and 

 it is further noticed in the present 

 work. Vol. I. P. I. ch. i. p. 17, and 

 P. III. ch. ii. p. 330. — It has like- 

 wise been referred to the Sanskrit 

 " Tambrapaiii;^' which, according to 

 Lassen, means "the great pond," or 

 *' the pond covered with the red 



lotus," and was probably associated 

 with the gigantic tanks for which 

 Ceylon is so remarkable. In later 

 times Taprobane was exchanged for 

 Simimdu, Palai-simimdu, and Salike, 

 mider which names it is described 

 by Ptolemy, the author of the Pen- 

 plus, and by Mahciantjs of Hera- 

 claja. Palai-simundu, Lassen con- 

 jectm-es to be derived from the San- 

 skrit Pcdi-simanta, " the head of the 

 sacred law," from Ceylon having be- 

 come the great centre of the Budd- 

 hist faith (De Taprob., p. 16 ; Indi- 

 sche Alter, vol. i. p. 200) ; and Salike 

 he regards merely as a seaman's cor- 

 ruption of " Sinhala or Sihala," the 

 name chosen by the Singhalese them- 

 selves, and signifying " the dwelling 

 place of lions." Bttrnouf suggests 

 whether it may not be Sri-Lanka, or 

 "Lanka the Blessed." 



Sinhala, ■with the suffix of " diva," 

 or "dwipa" (island), was subsequently 

 converted into " Silan-dwipa " and 

 "Seren-diva," whence the " Serendib" 

 of the Arabian na^-igators and their 

 romances ; and this in later times 

 was contracted into Zeilan by the 

 Portuguese, Ceylan by the Dutch, 

 and Ceylon by the English. Yixcent, 

 in his Commentary on tlie Periplus of 

 the Erythrcean Sea, vol. ii. p. 493, 

 has enumerated a variety of other 

 names borne by the island; and to 

 all these migiit be further added 



