216 J. HORNELL ON 



island of Ceylon and India is full of shallows not more than six paces in depth, but in 

 some channels so deep that no anchors can find the bottom. For this reason ships 

 are built with prows at each end^ for turning about in channels of extreme narrow- 

 ness." ' 



Now the large single outrigger type of canoe, called kullan or kiilla in Tamil, used 

 universally by Sinhalese fishermen at the present day, in common with several 

 Polynesian varieties of the same general design, is notable among our local boats 

 for this same strange peculiarity. In such craft the single outrigger must be always 

 upon the weather side to exercise the counterpoise needful to prevent capsizing 

 through the thrust to leeward of the wind upon the sail. The heavy outrigger 

 of these large canoes cannot be changed at sea from one side to another, as it has to 

 be permanently secured on one side ; whenever the wind changes in direction or a 

 course contrary to the one preceding has to be steered, the difficulty involved is 

 overcome by moving the steering paddle to the opposite end of the boat, thus 

 changing what was before the bow into the stern. By this means the outrigger float 

 remains on the weather side.' From this fact I identify Pliny's " ships with prows 

 at each end ' ' with outrigger vessels closely akin in form to the yatra dhoni of the 

 present-day Ce3don coasting trade and with the kolandia of the Periplus. 



The reason given for these boats having reversible ends is, of course, wrong, but 

 this is immaterial. 



The kolandia of the first century probably had also fairly close kinship with the 

 two-masted Javanese outrigger ships of the Boro Budur sculptures {circa 8th or 9th 

 century) seeing that the Periplus distinctly states that the kolandia traded to Chryse, 

 generally identified with the Malay Peninsula ; the islands of Sumatra and Java, 

 where Indian missionaries were at that early period already busy spreading Indian 

 religion and prestige, were undoubtedly included in this region of the Golden Cher- 

 sonese. 



It is somewhat curious that no descriptions of sea-going vessels appear to have 

 survived in the Tamil classics ; all that Bishop Caldwell could say was that at a very 

 early date, besides "canoes" and "boats," the Dravidians had "ships" in the sense 

 of small-decked coasting vessels. 



Thanks, however, to the Periplus and to Pliny, we do possess evidence that 

 they had in addition oversea trading vessels and that some of these were probably out- 

 rigger ships. That other large ships, most likely from more northern sections of the 

 east coast of India, were without outriggers, either then or at a date not much later, 

 is certain from the fact that various Andhra and Kurumbar coins bear rude but un- 

 mistakable representations of two-masted ships without outriggers ; all appear pointed 

 at both ends, and were steered by a quarter oar on each side.'^ 



1 Pliny, VI, 22, M'Crindle's translation. 



2 Pitt-Rivers states that this system is also pursued in Fiji, in parts of New Guinea, and, northward, in the Kings- 

 mill Islands. The Evolution of Culture and other Essays, Oxford, 1906, p. 222. 



3 Schoff, loc. cit., p. 243, states that these coin ships present points of detail resembling those of " the Gujarati 

 ships of Boroboedor." In reality, the converse is the case. The Indian ships have pole masts, the sails are without 



