No. 11.— 1858-9.] SINHALESE MYTHOLOGY. 



23 



3. The chief of all the infernal deities, the SUMMANAS 

 or Pluto of the west, has, in one point of view, much resem- 

 blance to our Yama, as exercising a sovereignty over the 

 dead, and as being the king of Hell ; whilst in another, as 

 the chief of the infernal deities, he is identical with our 

 TeSaMUNI, or the Indian Kuvera. The poet embodies his 

 various names in the following verses : 



He is the lord of wealth, and is thence named Danindu or 

 Panada, a name which has some resemblance to Pluto's Latin 

 designation, Dis, signifying "wealth." He is represented 

 as extremely deformed, as indeed his Grecian parallel is 

 described " blind and lame ;" and hence he is called Jcu, " vile" 

 and vera, " body" — Kuvdra. From the circumstance of one 

 of his cities being called Visana, he is named Vesamani, 

 although some suppose that it means " Son of Visa/' He 

 is called Yak-rada, that is, Summanas, or chief of all the 

 Fakhos, or the infernal deities of the Greeks. 



Kawm\ni-koriUdcti> 

 In the Vana Parva of the " Mahabharata," it is stated that 

 Kuvera, the son of Pulastya, by his attentions to his 

 grandfather Brahma, was made immortal, and appointed 

 the god of wealth ; that his capital Was Lanka or Ceylon ; 

 and that his attendants were demons. It is doubtless 

 his tale which induced the ancient historians of this 

 island to regard its inhabitants before the arrival of Vijaya 

 as "supernatural" "non-human" beings or "demons." 

 But I am reminded by my pandit, that this notion of 

 "demoniac inhabitants," whom Vijaya found on his arrival 

 in Ceylon, may be also traced to the fact that Havana 

 the ancient king of Ceylon is mentioned in the JJttara 

 Rdmdyana and Pad ma Pur ana as the progenitor of the 



