27. — 1884.] tissamahAkama akch^sology. 



85 



when it is specially denied to the Yakkhas ? On the Buddha's 

 first visit, when the latter were being scorched by the flames 

 (p. 3), they merely ' stood on the shores,' unable to escape by sea. 

 The only reason to be assigned is that sub-stratum of fact on 

 which the whole story rests. These 4 fierce Yakkhas' were evi- 

 dently quite another race. As we find them only in Eastern 

 (and probably Southern) Ceylon, it seems likely that they were 

 either the aborigines, allied perhaps to some of the wild 

 mountain tribes of South India, or possibly, as there is more rea- 

 son to believe, Aryan settlers, long prior to the Magadhese under 

 Wijaya, who came, like the latter, from the North. It is toler- 

 ably certain that they were either people whom the advent of the 

 Dravidian Nagas had driven from the Northern and Western 

 coasts, or settlers who, finding the coasts of Northern Ceylon 

 already claimed by a strong race, had been compelled to travel 

 further south in search of unoccupied lands. In this latter case 

 the so-called Devas, who lived in the central forests and moun- 

 tains, may perhaps have been the aborigines. I think the word 

 cannot be taken in its literal sense ; the Devas are spoken of as 

 human beings (p. 7), who behave like the other natives, but are 

 more peaceably disposed — a disposition which would soon lead to 

 their absorption or extinction by their conquerors. 



However this may be, Wijaya, according to the narrative, 

 arrived in the country inhabited by the Yakkhas, and not the 

 country of the Nagas. Leaving everything else out of considera- 

 tion, the abovementioned particulars of the distribution of the 

 races show that this fact alone affords some evidence that he did 

 not land in Northern or Western Ceylon. But when it is added 

 to the explicit statement of the Dipavaihsa, that his capital (made 

 near his landing-place, to which he returned after capturing 

 the Southern Yakkha settlement of Siriwatthapura) was in the 

 south, and to the equally explicit statement of the Mahavaihsa, 

 that his successor and his successor's queen landed at Gonagama 

 (which is certainly at the mouth of the Kirinde-ganga), this being 

 confirmed by the despatch of the King's ministers 50 or 60 miles 

 southward from Upatissa (that is, 30 or 40 miles south from 

 Anuradhapura) to meet the princess, — it seems to me that my 

 argument cannot easily be controverted. 



As to the identity of Magama with Tambapanni Nuwara, I have 

 found some further evidence. At Mahavaihsa, p. 50, the names 

 of the principal settlements of Wij ay a's followers are mentioned — 

 Anuradhagama, Upatissagama, Uruwelagama, and Wijitagama. 

 The sites of three of these are known, and that of the fourth, 

 Uruwela, is approximately known. Only a few years after the 



