160 



CEYLON BRANCH 



labars both here and on the coast, in much the same way as 

 was the tale of Troy and the house of Agamemnon among the 

 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" (b). They say 

 also " Kama'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 considering, 

 sometimes called " Havana's money" and demon cash ; not how- 

 ever, I presume that it was the work or the current money 

 of the demons (by whom we here understand the early inha- 

 bitants of Lanka, demon worshippers, not acknowledging the 

 Hindoo gods of the Brahmanical 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 re- 

 spect 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 ances- 

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

 actually had, as their own, Rama's god ; and also made, as we 

 find Saman, the brother of Kama, the genius loci of Saffragam. 

 It may be also, that the Kusta rajah, whose gigantic figure 



(a) $60lE16G)<B5GG)lU<ff : <frLL-L- (&j!T!El(Sj 



(c) @(Tf)S&g,(¥ ) <5<$jE& jrrrLQ&rrLB 



(d) Qwfr&@(Jf)s£lQLfiQ<so jriTLnurr<o6vri5 QsjtrQs&eorrLurr 



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

 story of Hanuman, 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. 



