No. 29.— 1884.] 



KALI KOVILA. 



343 



this temple in his Paravisandesa, where, in an elegant stanza 

 descriptive of the charms of the nautch girls attached to 

 the temple, he directs the pigeon he was sending with a 

 message to Vishnu, at Dondra, to refresh himself with a 

 little rest at the Kali Kovila, on the other side of the 

 Bentota river, telling the bird, in another stanza, to sleep 

 for the night at the Wanawasa Vihara, which is about half 

 a mile from the supposed site of the Kali Kovila. 



We have therefore the fact, well-supported, of the exis- 

 tence at Bentota, many centuries back, of a temple known 

 as the Kali Kovila; and I can see no reason why the site 

 that tradition has fixed upon for it should be rejected. For 

 the fact of its being reached only after Totagamuwa's pigeon 

 had crossed the river, and of its being nearer the ferry than 

 the Wanawasa Vihara, places it somewhere between the 

 ferry and the vihara; and the site now claimed for the 

 kovila exactly fulfils that requirement. 



The etymological meaning of the name " Bentota," a 

 corruption of the Pali BhimatUtha, or " fearful ferry," is also 

 referred by some local pandits to the awe that the existence 

 on its bank of a temple dedicated to a demon is calculated 

 to inspire on the native mind. 



But the more obvious explanation, as urged by others, of 

 the river being indebted for this name to a dangerous 

 current or eddy that may have existed in times past, opposes 

 a very serious objection to the acceptance of this hypothesis. 

 It is none the less true, however, that it is only on the Kalu- 

 tara side that the river for a few fathoms from the shore 

 attains a dangerous depth, the remaining portion — more 

 than two-thirds of the entire width of the river — being one 

 long sandbank, not more than knee-deep, for a very great 

 part of the year. And yet the village on the Kalutara bank, 

 when etymologically examined, discloses no clue that would 

 go to warn the intending wayfarer of the danger of the 

 stream before him. It is only after he has crossed it, 

 and has almost waded over the sandbank, that he comes 

 upon a village which is supposed to apprise him of the 

 dangers which he has just safely passed, — a coincidence so rare 



