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JOURNAL, R.A.S. (CEYLON). [VOL. XII. 



Pandiyan king thought it wise to refrain from wasting his 

 energies on the redemption of a people who were given to 

 black magic and cannibalism. His Tamil subjects could not 

 possibly coalesce with such a community, even if he con- 

 quered them. 



Under these circumstances Mr, Ramanathan contended 

 that the balance of evidence was with the Mahdwansa and 

 Sir J, Emerson Tennent on the issue whether agriculture 

 was pursued or not by the Yakkos at the time of Wijayo's 

 landing in Ceylon. Wijayo might have received his supplies 

 of rice from the traders of the Pandiyan kingdom just as 

 easily as he secured brides for himself and his courtiers 

 from that king. 



Mr. A. M. Ferguson, c.m.g., pointed out that it was not 

 merely Sir J. Emerson Tennent but the Mahdwansa which 

 Mr. Wall impeached in disputing the inference to be drawn 

 from the statement that Kuveni was compelled to resort to 

 rice from wrecked vessels wherewith to feed Wijayo and 

 his followers. It seemed incredible, too, that if the ab- 

 origines were so numerous and so advanced as Mr. Wall con- 

 tended, they should have been so easily conquered by a 

 party of 700 invaders. As regarded the accounts given 

 respecting wealth in precious stones and pearls, they all knew 

 what Oriental exaggeration was in such matters. 



His (Mr. Ferguson's) inclination was in favour of Sir J. 

 Emerson Tennent's views, and those of the writers who 

 believed that Dra vidian influence could be traced in the 

 irrigation works and other monuments of an ancient civili- 

 sation in Ceylon. It seemed probable that from the Pandiyan 

 kingdom, whence successive monarchs of Ceylon obtained 

 their wives, they might also obtain the assistance of men 

 skilled in hydraulic engineering. The one qualification 

 of his belief in this theory was the high opinion entertained 

 of the engineering and architectural skill of the Sinhalese 

 by a gentleman of so much learning and ability as Mr. Henry 

 Parker. On the other hand, Fergusson, the great writer on 

 Indian Architecture, had pointed out that the design for the 

 Brazen Palace at Anuradhapura, said to be of celestial 

 origin — nine superimposed circular stories and all of similar 

 size — was simply impossible. He (Mr. Ferguson) would be 

 glad if any one of the Sinhalese gentlemen present would 

 break a lance with him on the subject. It was certainly 

 now the opinion of Oriental scholars that Dravidian civilisa- 

 tion had made great advances prior to the flow of the 

 Aryan wave from Central Asia into Northern India. The 

 Dravidians, it was now kno,wn, possessed what was sup- 

 posed to be a peculiarly Aryan institution, the village 

 community. 



