CHAP. V.] 



ELALA. 



353 



1 The term " Malabar " is used 

 throughout 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 Mahaivamo, " dami- 

 los" or Tamils, came not only from the 

 south-western tract of the Dekkan, 

 known in modern geography as " Mala- 

 bar," but also from all parts of the 

 peninsula, as far north as Cuttack and 

 Orissa. 



a Mahawamo, ch. xxi. p. 127. 



3 MaJuiwanso, xxi. ; Rajaratnacari, 

 ch. ii. 



4 Chola, or Solee, was the ancient 

 name of Tanjore, and the country 

 traversed by the river Caveri. See 

 Map of India, p. 330. 



5 Mahawmtso, 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 Mahawanso. 



B.C. 



237. 



northern portion of the island, various princes of the B.C. 

 same family occupied themselves in forming settlements 266> 

 in the south and west. Hence, whilst their people 

 were zealously devoted to the service and furtherance 

 of religion, a combination of causes compelled the so- 

 vereign at Anarajapoora to take into his pay a 

 body of Malabars 1 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 Guttika," 2 proved unfaithful to their trust, and 

 after causing the death of the king Suratissa (B.C. 237), 

 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. 3 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 

 Chola 4 country, 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 Mahawanso passes 

 on an infidel usurper, because Elala offered his protection 

 to the priesthood ; and 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." 5 



B.C. 



205. 



B.C. 



161. 



VOL. I. 



A A 



