NO. 42.-1891.] ANCIENT INDUSTRIES. 



17 



was supposed by some European scholars to contain nothing 

 but romance and myth, but that opinion could no longer 

 be maintained. The Iliad and the Odyssey, the Rdmdyana 

 and the Maha Bhdraia, must be admitted to describe 

 largely events which had actually occurred. Rama, the 

 hero of the Rdmdyana, came to Lanka, which is Ceylon, 

 in order to punish Ravana for the rape of Sita, and the 

 description given of the Island in the Rdmdyana proved 

 the existence of a very advanced type of civilisation. Agri- 

 culture and commerce and various arts and sciences were 

 in a highly flourishing condition. The question was how 

 far anterior was Ravana's age to Wijayo's ? The belief 

 among Tamil and other Hindu scholars was that Rama and 

 Ravana lived several thousand years before Christ, but 

 European savants placed their era in the thirteenth century 

 before Christ. 



Admitting this computation to be the more acceptable 

 to the Members of the Society, there was a period of seven 

 centuries between Ravana and Wijayo. It being recorded 

 in the Rdmdyana that the great army of Rama had de- 

 molished almost every vestige of civilisation in the Island, 

 we are bound to conclude that, though agriculture had been 

 in a very flourishing condition under Ravana, yet Wijayo 

 found the country in a truly primitive state, as recorded in 

 the Mahdwansa. There was no room for inferential argu- 

 ment when it was explicitly stated in that historical work 

 that "Lanka was not habitable for men," and that the rice 

 which the Yakkhini distributed among Wijayo's followers 

 was rice which she had gathered " from the wrecked ship of 

 mariners who had fallen a prey to her." 



The Island was then in the possession of the Yakkos, not 

 the ferocious yet luxurious Rakshasas whom Rama destroyed. 

 The Yakkos were a less turbulent and less advanced commu- 

 nity, and did not deserve the name of men because they 

 devoured men. If the country was as civilised as Mr. Wall 

 contended, the question arose, why the Pandiyan king, with 

 all the paraphernalia of a complete civilisation, including 

 large armies and ships of war, on the adjoining coast of 

 India, within a few hours of sail, did not invade Ceylon ? 

 If he did not it must have been either because the Yakkos 

 had the necessary appliances for resisting invasion, or were 

 in the occupation of a country which then afforded no 

 attractions to a conqueror by reason of its natural resources 

 or the disposition of its inhabitants. The latter alternative 

 is inadmissible, because the Yakkos were easily conquered 

 by a handful of Wijayo's followers. It was quite worth 

 while on the part of a lawless exile like Wijayo to establish 

 himself in a mlechcha country as Ceylon then was, but the 



98—91 c 



