396 



THE SIXGHALESE CHROXICLES. 



[PART III. 



A.D. fact, that the rule of the Malabars, although adverse to 

 515 ' Buddhism, was characterised by justice and impartiality. 

 Possibly they recognised to some extent their pretensions, 

 as founded on their relationship to the legitimate sove- 

 reigns of the island, and hence they bore their sway with- 

 out impatience. 1 



The majority of the subsequent invasions of Ceylon by 

 the Malabars partook less of the character of conquest 

 than of forays, by a restless and energetic race, into a 

 fertile and defenceless country. Mantotte, on the north- 

 west coast, near Adam's Bridge, became the great place of 

 debarcation ; and here successive bands of marauders 

 landed time after time without meeting any effectual resist- 

 ance from the unwarlike Singhalese. 



The second great invasion took place about a century 

 after the first, B.C. 103, when seven Malabar leaders 

 effected simultaneous descents at different points of the 

 coast 2 , and combined with a disaffected "Brahman 

 prince " of Rohuna, to force Walagam-bahu I. to sur- 

 render his sovereignty. The king, after an ineffectual 

 show of resistance, fled to the mountains of Malaya ; one 

 of the invaders carried off the queen to the coast of India ; 

 a third despoiled the temples of Anarajapoora and retired, 

 whilst the others continued in possession of the capital 

 for nearly fifteen years, till Walagam-bahu, by the aid 

 of the Eohuna Highlanders, succeeded in recovering the 

 throne. 



The third great invasion on record 3 was in its cha- 



1 See ante, p. 360, n. 



2 TURNOUTS Epitome, p. 16. The 

 Mahau-anso says they landed at 

 " Miihatitlha." Mantotte, ch. xxxiii. 

 p. 203. 



3 This incursion of the Malahars 

 is not mentioned in the Mafiawanso, 

 but it is described in the Rajavali, p. 

 220, and mentioned by TURXOTTR, in 

 his Epitome, #<?., p. 21. There is 

 evidence of the conscious supremacy 

 of the Malabars over the north of 

 Ceylon, in the fourth century, in a 



very curious document, relating to 

 that period. The existence of a co- 

 lony of Jews at Cochin, in the south- 

 western extremity of the Dekkan, 

 has long been known in Europe, and 

 half a century ago, particulars of 

 their condition and numbers were 

 published by Dr. Claudius Buchanan. 

 (Christian Researches, $c.~) Amongst 

 other facts, he made known their 

 possession of Hebrew MSS. demon- 

 strative of the great antiquity of their 

 settlement iu India, and also of their 



