436 Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal. [N.S., XVIII, 
India. They identify it. with the province of Lata or Latika, 
the Aapiyy of the classical authors. (Mod. Gujarat.) Writing 
in the Cambridge History of India on the History of Ceylon 
Dr. L. D. Barnett has recently endorsed this view and has 
discovered the following nucleus of fact in the story. He 
observes ! :— 
‘ 
and Sopara. The latter band belonged to the Simhalas 
(Sihalas) or Lion tribe, and it was probably they who 
imposed their Aryan tongue on Ceylon. At any rate they 
t 
Sthaladipa), whence derived its later titles, the Arabic 
Sarandip, the Portugese Ceylon, and our Ceylon.’ 
Here I have nothing to Say as regards the theory of the 
learned Doctor. It is possible that Ceylon was colonized by 
coast and another from the Kathiwad peninsula. It is even 
possible that one was mainly Dravidian while the other was 
Aryan. The fact that Vijaya after starting from the Lala 
country at first landed at Surparaka seems to indicate that the 
_ early colonization and settlement of Ceylon probably had some 
connection with the western coast But even granting this 
geographical data contained in the Mahavamsa do not agree 
with this assumption. The story tells us— 
“Alone she went from the house (in the Vanga 
capital) desiring the joy of independent life ; unrecognised 
she joined a caravan travelling to the Magadha country. 
ms the Jala country a lion attacked the caravan in the 
orest.’ 
Gaya Districts. Apparently Lala must be identified with 
Radha which was the name of that part of Old Bengal of which 
the Ganges and its Bhagirathi branch formed the eastern 

1 Chap. XXV, pp. 605-07. ; 
? Mahavamsa, trans. by Geiger and Bode, p. 51 

