No. 36. — 1888.] THE MOORS OF CEYLON. 



253 



there, and states that its earliest apostles were a Sheik and his 

 companions who touched at Granganore about A.C. 822, when 

 on their journey as pilgrims to the sacred footprint on Adam's 

 Peak." 1 The tradition reported by Sir Alexander Johnston 

 may be a wild exaggeration of that mentioned in the Tohfut- 

 ul Mujahidin, or of that which prevails among the Mapillas, 

 to the effect that their conversion was due to the Arab 

 mariners who were wrecked off Beypur in A.C. 844. At any 

 rate, there is a tradition in Ceylon, which is referred to by 

 Casie Chetty 2 (and, so far as the circumstances, but not the 

 years, are concerned, is not at all improbable), that the 

 ancestors of the "Ceylon Moors" formed their first settle- 

 ment in Kayal-paddanam in the ninth century, and that 

 many years afterwards, in the 402nd year of the Hijra, 

 corresponding to A.C. 1024, a colony from that town migrated 

 and settled at Barberyn (Beruwala), I have already called 

 attention to the belief current in South India that Beruwala 

 is a colony of Kayal. 



The discrepancy between the dates of colonisation given 

 in the tradition reported by Casie Chetty and that reported 

 by Sir Alexander Johnston is irreconcilable, as the one 

 refers to the early part of the ninth century and the other to 

 the early part of the eleventh century. In this state of conflict 

 we naturally turn to the history and literature of the Sinha- 

 lese for some light. The Mahdvansa makes no mention 

 whatever of the Moors ( Yonnu, Marahkalayo) ; but the 

 Rdjdvaliya 3 records that a great number of them arrived in 

 1505 from Kayal-paddanam, and attempted to settle by force at 

 Chilaw, and were beaten back by Dharmma Parakrama Bahu. 

 An earlier reference is contained in the Paravi Sandesa 

 ("Pigeon Message"), a poem written by Totagamuwe 

 Rahula Sthaviro, and addressed to the godVishnu at Devundra 

 (Dondra) Devale. The pigeon is made to start from Jaya- 

 wardhana Kotte (the modern Cotta near Colombo), where 



i,Tennent's Ceylon, vol. I., p. 630, note (1). 2 Ceylon Gazetteer, p. 254. 

 3 Upham's translation, p. 274. 



D 2 



