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SCIENCES AND SOCIAL ARTS. 



[PART IV. 



chatties, and tradition, with perfect correctness, assigns 

 them to the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, when the 

 kings of that period are believed to have had a mint at 

 Dambedenia. 



A quantity of coins similar in every respect to those 

 dug up in Ceylon have been found at Dipaldenia or 

 Amarawati, on the continent of India, near the mouth of 

 the Kistna ; a circumstance which might be accounted 

 for by the frequent intercourse between Ceylon and the 

 coast, but which is possibly referable to the fact re- 

 corded in the Mahawanso that Prakrama I., after his 

 successful expedition against the King of Pandya, caused 

 money to be coined in his own name before returning to 

 Ceylon. 1 



Hook-money. No ancient silver coin has yet been 

 found, but specimens are frequently brought to light of 

 the ridis, pieces of twisted silver wire, which from their 

 being sometimes bent with a considerable curve have 

 been called " Fish-hook money." These are occasionally 

 impressed with a legend, and for a time the belief 

 obtained that they were a variety of ring-money 

 peculiar to Ceylon. 2 Of late this error has been 

 corrected ; the letters where they occur have been 



1 Mahawanso, ch. Ixxvi. pp. 298, 

 299, UPHAM'S Trans. The circum- 

 stance is exceedingly curious of 

 coins of Prakrama, " identical " with 

 those found at Dambedenia, in Cey- 

 lon, having also been discovered at 

 Dipaldenia, on the opposite con- 

 tinent ; and it goes far to confirm the 

 accuracy of the Mahawanso as to the 

 same king having coined money in 

 both places. Those found in the 

 latter locality form part of the Mac- 

 kenzie Collection, and have been 

 figured in the Asiat. Researches, 

 xvii. 697, and afterwards by Mr. 

 PRINSEP in the Journ. of the Asiat. 

 Soc. of Bengal, vi. 301. See also a 

 notice of Ceylon coins, in the Journ. 

 As. Soc. Bcna. iv. 673, vi. 218 ; CASIE 

 CHITTT, in the Journ. of the Ceylon 

 Asiat. Soc., 1847, p. 9, has given an 

 account of a hoard of copper coins 



found at Calpentyn in 1839 j and 

 Mr. Justice STARKE, in the same 

 journal, p. 149, has given a resume 

 of the information generally pos- 

 sessed as to the ancient coins of the 

 island. PRINSEP'S paper on Ceylon 

 Coins will be found in vol. i. of the 

 recent reprint of his Essays on In- 

 dian Antiquities, p. 419. Lond. 1858. 

 2 This error may be traced to the 

 French commentator on RIBEYRO'S 

 History of Ceylon, who describes the 

 fish-hook money in use in the king- 

 dom of Kandy, whilst the Portuguese 

 held the low country, as so sim- 

 ple in its form that every man might 

 make it for himself: "Le Roy de 

 Candy avoit aussi permis a ses peu- 

 ples de se servir d'une monnaye que 

 chacun peut fabriquer." Ch. x. p. 

 81. 



