fciEYlON BRANCH ROYAL ASIATIC SOCIETY. 1$ 



who reigned after him until the end of the thirteenth century* 

 We are, nevertheless, able to state from what has been recorded 

 by the Greek and Arabian writers, that during this long in« 

 terval the kingdom of Jaflna enjoyed considerable prosperity 

 arising chiefly from a very extensive commerce which was car* 

 ried on with its ports at first by the Greeks and Romans,* and 

 subsequently by the Persians and Arabians; and M. D' Anville -f' 

 supposes that the royal city mentioned by Pliny, under the name 

 of Palcesimundum and the King of which sent an Embassy to» 

 Claudius, J represented JafTnapatauii 



graphy ; the words for " sand " and " river " are spelt respec- 

 tively with a hard n } } and hard r ( while in the nameMa- 



fiaar the soft n {$sr^ and soft r {n ^) ar e employed, and by this al- 

 teration a total difference of signification is produced, and it is found 

 to convey no definite idea but merely a vague reference to some 

 unknown foes. 



* There can be no doubt that the commercial intercourse of the 

 Greeks and Romans with, Ceylon was confined to the northern 

 and north-western parts, and I suppose this to have been the 

 reason why their writers did not notice Cinnamon amongst the 

 products of the Island, the plant being found only on the south- 

 west Coast and in the interior. As a further confirmation of this 

 opinion it may be added that traces of their visits have hitherto 

 been only discovered on the northern Coast. We learn from Va- 

 lentyn that in the year 1574 or 1575, when some houses were be- 

 ing built at Mantotta, there were discovered the remains of a Roman 

 building, and an iron chain of a wonderful and magnificent pattern 

 besides three copper coins and a gold one, which latter proved to 

 be of the Emperor Claudius. Sir Alexander Johnston states that 

 in the ruins of the same place " a great number of Roman coins 

 of different Emperors, particularly of the Antonines; specimens of 

 the finest pottery, and seme Roman gold and silver chains have 

 been found." Transactions of the Royal Asiatic Society, vol. 1, 

 p. 546. Mr. Roberts, in his Oriental Illustrations of the Sacred 

 Scriptures, p. 54 i, notices the discovery by a Toddy drawer of se- 

 veral Grecian coins in Jaffna, on one of which he found in an- 

 cient Greek characters, Konobobryza. f Compendium of Ancient 

 Geography, vol, ii. p. 552. % Pliny's Nat. Hist. Lib. vi. Cap* xxiL 

 Major Forbes, in his Eleven Years in Ceylon, vol. 1. p. 262, 

 2d Edition, is likewise of opinion that the Embassy in question 

 proceeded from some of the Malabar settlers or tributaries anil 

 not from the Singhalese sovereign. He thinks that the Machia, 



