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JOUKNAL, K.A.S. (CEYLON). 



[Vol. X. 



able to find any record of this event ; but within the last 

 hundred years there have been at least two considerable 

 encroachments of the sea in this neighbourhood ; and I find 

 no difficulty in admitting the tradition to be true, which also 

 alleges that when Tirukketisvaram was built, the island of 

 Mannar, which is now separated from it by about four miles 

 of shallow water (or mud and sand, as it is in the south-west 

 monsoon), formed part of the mainland. 



It is alleged by Suntaramurtti Nayanar, who sang, or is 

 said to have sung, in the sixth century, that the city was 

 " close to the sea where there are plenty of ships," and if this 

 was so there must have been much deeper water than now. 

 The Mannar channel is said to have been artificially formed, 

 and it is not difficult to understand how its construction may 

 have assisted the encroachment of the sea in both monsoons. 



Of the great antiquity of this abode of wisdom and beauty 

 there can be no doubt. From its close proximity to the 

 continent, and the facility of communication by water in 

 both monsoons with Ramesvaram, which at that time was 

 part of the continent of India, the colonisation of this part of 

 Ceylon must have taken place at a very early date. 



It is one of the sixty-four sacred places of the Hindus. Its 

 temple rivalled that of Ramesvaram, and was probably built 

 about the same period. 



The Sinhalese refer to it at a very early date as Mahatirtha. 

 Tirukketisvaram was, I think, its most ancient name, for it can 

 scarcely be doubted but that Ceylon was first colonised from 

 Southern India, and there was built the great temple dedi- 

 cated to Siva, as the name implies. Subsequently, when the 

 Aryan invader who had landed in the south made his way 

 northwards and met the Dravidian, the great Siva had to 

 make way for " Tathagata," and the place came to be called 

 Mahatirtha or Mantoddai. Whether the present name Mantoddai 

 is the Sinhalese name, or the Tamil word which means either 

 " great garden" or "mango garden," I am not sure. I think 

 it more probable that it is the former. But, as the date of its 

 foundation is lost in obscurity, so also is that of its destruction. 



