CHAP. II.] INDIAN, ARABIAN, PERSIAN AUTHORITIES. 605 



The Tamil chieftain exhibited to Ibn Batuta his 

 wealth in "pearls," and under his protection he made 

 the pilgrimage to the summit of Adam's Peak accom- 

 panied by four jyogees who visited the foot-mark every 

 year, " four Brahmans, and ten of the king's companions, 

 with fifteen attendants carrying provisions." The first 

 day he crossed a river, (the estuary of Calpentyn ?) on 

 a boat made of reeds, and entered the city of Manar 

 Mandali (probably the site of the present Minneri 

 Mundal). This was the "extremity of the territory of 

 the infidel king," whence Ibn Batuta proceeded to the 

 port of Salawat (Chilaw), and thence (turning inland) he 

 reached the city of the Singhalese sovereign at Gam- 

 pola, then called Ganga-sri-pura, which he contracts into 

 Kankar or Ganga. 1 



He describes accurately the situation of the ancient 

 capital, in a valley between two hills, upon a bend of 

 the river called, " the estuary of rubies." The emperor 

 he names "Kina," a term I am unable to explain, as 

 the prince who then reigned was probably Bhuwaneka- 

 bahu IV., the first Singhalese monarch who held his court 

 at Gampola. 



The king on feast days rode on a white elephant, 

 his head adorned with very large rubies, which are 

 found in his country, imbedded in "a white stone 

 abounding in fissures, from which they cut it out and 

 give it to the polishers." Ibn Batuta enumerates three 

 varieties, " the red, the yellow, and the cornelian ; " but 

 the last must mean the sapphire, the second the 

 topaz ; and the first refers, I apprehend, to the amethyst ; 

 for in the following passage, in describing the decorations 

 of the head of the white elephant, he speaks of " seven 

 rubies, each of which was larger than a hen's egg," 

 and a saucer made of a ruby as broad as the palm of the 

 hand. 



In the ascent from Gampola to Adam's Peak, he 



1 As he afterwards writes, Galle, " Kaleh.' 

 B R 3 



