CHAP. X.] THE DOMINATION OF THE MALABABS. 401 



Notwithstanding their numbers and their power, it is A.D. 

 remarkable that the Malabars were never identified with 64 - 

 any plan for promoting the prosperity and embellishment 

 of Ceylon, or with any undertaking for the permanent im- 

 provement of the island. Unlike the Gangetic race, who 

 were the earliest colonists, and with whom originated 

 every project for enriching and adorning the country, the 

 Malabars aspired not to beautify or enrich, but to impo- 

 verish and defkCe ; and nothing can more strikingly 

 bespeak the inferiority of the southern race than the 

 single fact that everything tending to exalt and to civilise, 

 in the early condition of Ceylon, was introduced by the 

 northern conquerors, whilst all that contributed to ruin 

 and debase is distinctly traceable to the presence and 

 influence of the Malabars. 



The Singhalese, either paralysed by dread, ma*de feeble 

 efforts to rid themselves of the invaders ; or fascinated by 

 their military pomp, endeavoured to conciliate them by 

 alliances. Thus, when the king of Pandya over-ran the A D 

 north of Ceylon, A.D. 840, plundered the capital and 840. 

 despoiled its temples, the unhappy sovereign had no other 

 resource than to purchase the evacuation of the island by 

 a heavy ransom. 1 Yet such was the influence still exer- 

 cised by the Malabars, that within a very few years his 

 successor on the throne lent his aid to the son of the same 

 king of Pandya in a war against his father, and conducted 

 the expedition in person. 2 His army was, in all proba- 

 bility, composed chiefly of Damilos, with whom he over- 

 ran the south of the Indian peninsula, and avenged the 

 outrage inflicted on his own kingdom in the late reign 

 by bearing back the plunder of Madura. 



This exploit served to promote a more intimate inter- 

 course between the two races, and after the lapse of a 



1 TTTRNOUR'S Epitome, p. 35 j Ha- I 2 A.D. 858 ; Rajaratnacari, p. 84. 

 faratnacari, p. 79. 



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