152 CEYLON BRANCH ROYAL ASIATIC SOCIETY. 



ancient Greeks, and they have several proverbs in relation to 

 it. Thus they speak of " The monkey that burnt Lanka " (a) 

 and say " Sita's birth was Lanka's destruction " (6). They say 

 also " Rama's arrow was suited to its prey " (c) and " Would 

 you direct Rama's arrow at a small bird ? " (d), In like 

 manner, probably, is the description of coins we are now con-- 

 sidering sometimes call " Ravana's money " and demon cash 5 

 not however, I presume that it was the work or the current 

 money of the demons (by whom we here understand the early 

 inhabitants of Lanka, demon worshippers, not acknowledging the 

 Hindoo gods of the Brahrnanical theogony) but because it had 

 reference to the victory over them in Lanka. 



The figure on the obverse of the coins, is supposed to be 

 Vishnu, of whom Rama was an avatara or incarnation. Vishnu 

 was also, according to the Mahawanso, chap. 7. the tutelary deity 

 of Lanka, so assigned at the settlement of Wijeya and his 

 followers in the island. It is no doubt in the former respect 

 only that he appears on the present coins. By the demons of 

 the story the Veddah people were perhaps intended ; and by the 

 allied forces certain tribes of the coast with the ancestors of 

 the present Singhalese (e) who have adopted, or then actually 

 had, as their own, Rama's god ; and also made, as we find Sa- 

 in an the brother of Rama, the genius loci of Saffragam. It may 

 be also, that the Kusta rajah, whose gigantic figure appears cut 



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(e) The Tibetans, who are Budhists "and acquainted with'the story 

 of Banuman, suppose themselves the descendants of an ape and a 

 lady-demon ; such as the union, on the above supposition, of 

 Wijeya and Kuweni in Ceylon. 



