549 



CHAPTEE I. 



CEYLON AS KNOWN TO THE GREEKS AND EOMANS. 



ALTHOUGH mysterious rumours of the wealth and 

 wonders of India had reached the Western nations in 

 the heroic ages, and though travellers at a later period 

 returning from Persia and the East had spread romantic 

 reports of its vastness and magnificence, it is doubtful 

 whether Ceylon had been heard of in Europe l even 



1 Nothing is more strikingly sug- 

 gestive of the extended renown of 

 Ceylon and of the different countries 

 which maintained an intercourse with 

 the island, than the number and 

 dissimilarity of the names by which 

 it has been known at various periods 

 throughout Europe and Asia. So 

 remarkable is this peculiarity, that 

 LASSEN has made "the names of 

 Taprobane" the subject of several 

 learned disquisitions (De Taprobane 

 Insula veter. cogn. Dissert, sec. 2, p. 

 5; Imlische Alterthumskunde, vol. i. 

 p. 200, note viii..p. 212, &c.) ; and 

 BUBNOUF has devoted two elaborate 

 essays to their elucidation, Journ. 

 Asiat. 1826, vol. viii. p. 129. Ibid., 

 1857, vol. xxxiii. p. 1. 



In the literature' of the Brahmans, 

 Lanka, from having been the scene 

 of the exploits of Rama, is as re- 

 nowned as Ilion in the great epic of 

 the Greeks. " Taprobane," the name 

 by which the island was first known 

 to the Macedonians, is derivable from 

 the Pali " Tamba panni." The ori- 

 gin of the epithet will be found in 

 the Mahaicanso, ch. vii. p. 56 ; and 

 it is further noticed in the present 

 work, Vol. I. P. I. ch. i. p. 17, and 

 P. m. ch. ii. p. 368. It has like- 

 wise been referred to the Sanskrit 

 " Tambrapani ;" which, according to 

 LASSEN, means "the great pond," or 

 "the pond covered with the red 



lotus,'' and was probably associated 

 with the gigantic tanks for which 

 Ceylon is so remarkable. In later 

 times Taprobane was exchanged for 

 Simundu, Palai-simundu, and Salike, 

 under which names it is described 

 by PTOLEMY, the author of the Pen- 

 plm, and by MAECIANTJS of Hera- 

 clsea. Palai-simundu, LASSEN con- 

 jectures to be derived from the San- 

 skrit Pali-simanta, " the head of the 

 sacred law," from Ceylon having be- 

 come the great centre of the Budd- 

 hist faith (De Taprob., p. 16 ; Indi- 

 sche Alter, vol. i. p. 200) ; and Salike 

 he regards merely as a seaman's cor- 

 ruption of " Sinhala or Sihala," the 

 name chosen by the Singhalese them- 

 selves, and signifying " the dwelling 

 place of lions." BTJRNOIJF suggests 

 whether it may not be Sri-Lanka, or 

 " Lanka the Blessed." 



Sinhah, with the suffix of " diva," 

 or "dwipa" (island),was subsequently 

 converted into " Silan-dwipa " and 

 "Seren-diva," whence the " Serendib" 

 of the Arabian navigators and their 

 romances; and this in later times 

 was contracted into Zeilan by the 

 Portuguese, Ceylan by the Dutch, 

 and Ceylon by th'e English. VINCENT, 

 in his Commentary on the Periplus of 

 the Erythraean Sea, vol. ii. p. 493, 

 has enumerated a vai-iety of other 

 names borne by the island; and to 

 all these might be further added 



