No. 35. — 1887.] TIRUKK^Tl'SVARAM. 



117 



have been in a most flourshing condition in 700 A.C., and 

 naturally so judging from the immense activity displayed 

 about that period by the Tamils, politically and religiously.. 

 They had then become so powerful that the Sinhalese king 

 at Anuradhapura found it prudent to abandon that city and 

 shift his capital to Polonnaruwa. In short, the Raja Ratnd 

 Kara records that, in the ninth or tenth century the domi- 

 nation of the Tamils was so complete that every town and 

 village in the Island teemed with them, and that in the 

 whole Island there were not to be found even five Buddhist 

 priests. 



I must not omit to state that in the Mahdvansa it is 

 recorded that upon prince Vijayo soliciting for himself the 

 hand of the daughter of the Pandian king of Madura, the 

 vast retinue of maidens, courtiers, and servants who accom- 

 panied her to Ceylon disembarked at a place called 

 Mahatirtha. The author of the Mahdvansa says that the 

 place was so called from the circumstance of a great 

 concourse of people landing there. Sir Emerson Tennent, 

 following this authority, translates the name as the " Great 

 ferry." I think that Mahatittha is the Pali form of the Sans- 

 krit Mahatirtha, literally " the great water or river." It is 

 usual for most places of pilgrimage ovstalas to have a tirtha or 

 " sheet of water " where devotees may perform their ablutions 

 and purify themselves. In the case of Tiruk-ketisvaram its 

 tirtha was the Palavi or the adjoining sea ; and as the temple 

 itself was in ruins, the spot at which the princess of Madura 

 landed could not be better identified than by the name of 

 Mahatirtha. 



I do not think that Matoddam is derived from Mahatirtha, 

 but the present name of the town Mantoddai is undoubtedly 

 a compound of Md and toddam, just as Puntoddam (flower 

 garden) is a compound of Pu and toddam, the n intervening 

 according to the laws of Tamil euphony. 



