CHAP. II.] INDIAN, ARABIAN, PERSIAN AUTHORITIES. 



579 



national poem the Ramayana 1 , which is probably the 

 most ancient epic in existence, although its main incidents 

 turn upon the invasion of Lanka (Ceylon) from India, 

 evinces not the most remote evidence of acquaintance 

 with even the physical features of an island within sight 

 from their shores. Eama, the hero of the poem, son to 

 Dasartha, the King of Ayodhya (the modern Oude), has 

 the misfortune to have his wife Sita carried off by Eawana, 

 the sovereign of Ceylon ; and the Ramayana, like the 

 Iliad, is devoted to a description of the expedition and 

 siege which he conducted for her recovery. In the course 

 of it, the great causeway of Adam's Bridge was con- 

 structed, for the passage of the army, by Hanuman, the 

 monkey deity 2 ; and one of the most calamitous incidents 

 of the war is the conflagration of the capital, owing to the 

 demons having maliciously set fire to Hanuman's tail. 3 The 

 author of the Ramayana speaks of Ceylon as of prodigious 

 dimensions, and separated from India by seas of infinite 

 width. lie describes the island as covered by forests of 

 surpassing luxuriance, adorned with magnificent buildings, 

 and protected by a fortified capital, whose battlemented 

 castles and formidable bulwarks bade defiance to all as- 

 sailants. The whole narrative is an illustrative specimen 

 of eastern romance, unrelieved by a single incident to im- 

 part to it an air of reality, except some allusions to the 

 gems of the island, its chank shells, and fishery of pearls. 4 

 But the century in which Cosrnas wrote witnessed the rise 

 of a power whose ascendant energy diffused a new character 



1 An English version of the first 

 and second books of this remarkable 

 poem was published by CAREY and 

 MAESHMAN at Serampore in 1806-10; 

 and translations more or less com- 



flete have been since published in 

 talian by GOKRESIO, in Modern Greek 

 by DEMETRIUS GALANOS, and in 

 French by FATTCHE, 8vo. Paris, 1857. 

 The story of the poem will be found 

 in Mrs. SPIERS' Ancient Ittdia, Sfc. } ck. 



iv., and in the Westminster Review 

 for October, 1848. 



2 See a quotation from this passage. 

 Vol. II. p. 554. 



3 FAT7CHE,tom.vi.sec.xlix.,p.335. 



Hanuman is described approach- 

 ing Lanka. " Cette ville, que pro- 

 tege une mer, riche en mines variees 

 de pierreries, jonchee aux phases de 

 la lune par des arnas de conques et 

 huitres a perles." FAUCIIE, torn. vi. 

 p. 09. 



