ROYAL ASIATIC SOCIETY, 



CEYLON BRANCH. 



THE ANCIENT EMPORIUM OF KALAH IN THE 

 EMPIEE OF ZABEDJ, 



AS A CEYLON PORT, AND THE EARLY COLONIZATION OF THE 

 ISLAND, SUBSEQUENT TO THE WAR OF RAMA AND 

 RAWANA ; WITH 



SOME NOTES ON FA HIAN'S ACCOUNT OF CEYLON. 

 By H.Nevill, Esq., CCS. 



In the very complete compilation of ancient accounts of 

 Ceylon, which Sir E. Tennent gives in the first Volume of his 

 work on the Island, he proceeds (after giving most interesting 

 notices of the emporium in Taprohane, or Serendib, through 

 which the luxuries of Eastern Asia were gathered for the 

 markets of the West) to adduce reasons, which appeared to him 

 plausible, as to the identification of the ancient Kalah with 

 the modern Galle. 



He first clearly shows the errors into which Bertolacci and 

 other authors had fallen, and then suggests the fresh site, in 

 which, as I now hope to prove, he was deceived by a mere 

 similarity of sound. 



In the first place, we at once fail to trace on our 8.W. coast 

 the numerous Islands lining the shore, which form so striking 

 a portion of the description of the earlier writers. 



