No. 24.— 1881.] ANCIENT KALAH, ETC. 63 



This Baku may have been only a General, or he may have 

 been the Parakrama Pandi or Bdhu, who in 1059 was "Viceroy 

 of Ruhuoa according to the Mahawansa, which also refers to 

 the Solian conquest and frequent irruption of foreigners 

 during the end of the 10th century. 



Baku in either case is no doubt a corrupt spelling of Bahu, 



Still later in 1347 Ibn Batuta visited the district where the 

 traders went for cinnamon, and landing at a place called 'Bat- 

 tala' (either Puttalam or some port nearer the Battala-oya) 

 whence he crossed a river (the Deduru-oya) and reached the 

 port of 'Salawat,' still called in Sinhalese by that name, a 

 little on the Battala side of which the infidel King's territory 

 ceased, thence turning inland he reached i Kankar' (? Ganga 

 sripura), either Gampola or one of the Sabaragamuwa towns on 

 the Kelani-ganga, and ascending Adam's Peak he descended 

 to 1 Dinaur' (Dew-mtwara, Devunclarci), or Anglice Dondra, 

 whence he returned by e Kali' and ' Kolambu/ then a flourishing 

 port, to 1 Battala.'* 



This route would have been from Dondra, by the ancient 

 port of Weligam and the village of Hinidum, through the 

 Walallawiti-korale to Kalutara, and not Galle ; and 1 Kali,' 

 doubtless is a corruption of the word Kalu-ganga-tara= Kalu- 

 tara, i. e. the ferry over the black (kalu) river. 



I would here invite special attention to the expression " the 

 infidel King" used by Ibn Batuta, when contrasting the 

 King of the district in which was the port with the Buddhist 

 King who ruled the rest of Ceylon. Its use by the Arabian 

 in this contect shows the King of Kalah was not a Buddhist, 

 but of a religion hostile to that of the priestly annalists, who 

 drew up the chronicles of the Kings of Anuradhapura and 

 Polonnaruwa, and' accounts for their silence upon the flourishing 

 port and busy commerce settled in the maritime state of 



♦Lee's "Travels of Ibn Batuta," 1829, pp. 183—191. 



