CHAP. I.] 



GEOGRAPHICAL POSITION. 



tion of such occurrences, at least 'within the historic 

 period ; no records of them exist in the earliest writings of 

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

 traditions survived, would eagerly have chronicled 

 catastrophes so appalling. 1 Geologic analogy, so far as 

 an inference is derivable from the formation of the 

 adjoining coasts, both of India and Ceylon, is opposed 

 to this theory ; and not only plants, but animals, 

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

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

 Indian continent. 2 



$c., of the Borderers, Mountaineers, 

 and Islanders of Asia. Works, vol. i. 

 p. 120. The Portuguese, on their 

 arrival in Ceylon in the sixteenth cen- 

 tury, found the natives fully impressed 

 by the traditions of its former extent 

 and partial submersion; and their 

 belief in connection therewith will be 

 found in the narratives and histories 

 ofDEBABJios andUiooo DE COUTO, 

 from which they have been transferred, 

 almost without abridgment, to the 

 pages of Y ALENTYN - The substance 

 of the native legends will be found in 

 the Mahawanso, c. xxii. p. 131 ; and 

 Raja rali, pp. 180, 190. 



1 The first disturbance of the coast 

 by which Ceylon is alleged to have 

 been severed from the main land is 

 said by the Buddhists to have taken 

 place B.C. 2387 ; a second commotion 

 is ascribed to the age of Panduwasa, 

 B.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. 

 The event is thus recorded in the 

 Rajavali, one of the sacred books of 

 Ceylon : " In these days the sea was 

 seven leagues from Kalany ; but on 

 account 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 during the epoch 

 called dmvapaivrayaga on account of 



the wickedness of Rawana, 25 palaces 

 and 400,000 streets were all over-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 swallowed up 

 by the sea." Rajavali, UPITAM'S ver- 

 sion, vol. ii., pp. 180, 190. 



FOEBES observes the coincidence 

 that the legend of the first rising 

 of the sea in 2387 B.C., very nearly 

 coincides with 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 Mahawanso, was en- 

 gulfed. Of this the dangerous rocks 

 called the Great and Little Basses 

 are believed to be remnants. 

 Mahawanso, c. i. 



A resume of the disquisitions which 

 have appeared at various tunes as to 

 the submersion of a part of Ceylon, 

 will be found in a Memoir sur la 

 Geographic ancienne de Ccyhm, in 

 the Journal Asiatique for January, 

 1857, 5th ser., vol. ix. p. 12. See also 

 TuRNOUn's Introd. to the Mahaicanso, 

 p. xxxiv. 



2 See Vol. I. p. 13. Some of the 

 mammalia peculiar to the island 

 are enumerated at p. 160 ; birds 



B 4 



