NO. 40—1890.] KURUNEGALA ROCKS. 



379 



Some derive it from the circumstance of a part of its original 

 inhabitants having? come over from Kurukshetra or Kururata (the 

 scene of the bloody wars between the Pandava and the Kaurava 

 princes) and settled there ; others from kuruni, " bushel," and gala, 

 " rock," alleging that the dhatu, or tooth relic of Budha, was concealed 

 in a bushel under the cover of a rock somewhere in the neighbourhood ; 

 some again from the rock Kuru [nit] niydgala, "Beetle rock," on which 

 the Wihare belonging to the place is situated ; but these derivations 

 are fanciful, and grounded on vague traditions. It would appear from 

 the works in the Elu and Pali languages that the name is formed of 

 an Elu compound Kuruna-gala, that is, " Elephant rock," which the 

 Pali writers translate Hastiscula-poora* 



The last name, a misprint for Hastisailapura, is doubtless 



the correct derivation, and that which is most generally 



adopted.f 



From the time when Kurunegala became the capital, and 

 even for hundreds of years after it was abandoned as such, 

 these stupendous rocks were held in great religious 

 veneration by the Sinhalese,<and so impressed were they by 

 their awful aspect that they refer to them in their saunas 

 and other old documents as symbols of eternity. For 

 instance, it was usual to insert a clause in the ancient grants 

 of lands in the District conveyed in perpetuity that such 

 lands were to be held " so long as the sun and moon, so long 

 as Eta-gala and Anda-gala, shall endure.''^ 



These rocks, which are the natural ramparts of the capital, 

 and no doubt once formed the impregnable defences of a 

 royal city, are the means d of sheltering the town from the 

 disagreeable influences of the monsoons, the effects of which 

 are greatly modified by them, so much so that one monsoon 

 can hardly be distinguished from another. In this connection 



* Casie Chitty, " Ceylon Gazetteer," 1834, p. 115. 



f Hasti-saila (-sela) puva (-nagara ), and Kurunegala mean one and 

 the same thing : — 



Hasti, S. kuru, from liar a, E. ''having a hand," meaning proboscis; 

 na, "elephant," saila, S. sela, Y.gala, E. "rock"; pur a, E. nagara, P. and 

 S. "town." 



I Sir J. Emerson Tennent's " Natural History of Ceylon," p. 168. Casie 

 Chitty gives the original and translation of two saunas in the Appendix 

 No. 1 to his work, containing these characteristic clauses. 



8—93 F 



