NO. 42. — 1891.] ANCIENT INDUSTRIES. 



19 



On the other hand, the fact that the names of the leading 

 mountains and rivers in Ceylon were Sanskrit — except where 

 the Tamils had permanently established their power — 

 seemed to prove that the people whom Wijayo and his 

 followers conquered were akin to the conquerors in blood 

 and language ; and, if so, it was surely a very curious 

 phenomenon that such a race should be found in such a 

 position a thousand miles away from their Aryan brethren 

 in Northern India. They must not forget, however, that 

 with all the value of the Mahdivansa, its early chapters 

 were (as Bishop Copleston had pointed out, when he and 

 Mr. Wall had previously discussed this question) largely 

 mythical, and that the historic period did not commence for 

 some centuries after the era of Wijayo. He (Mr. Ferguson) 

 had been astonished at two things : Mr. Wall's mention of 

 Gautama Buddha's visits to Ceylon, as if there was not full 

 evidence that Gautama never was in the Island ; and that 

 Mr. Ramanathan should have based what he deemed the 

 authentic history of Ceylon so far back as 1300 B.C., on the 

 myths of the Rdmdyana, seeing it was certain that the 

 Indian prince Rama had never set foot in Ceylon. This he 

 felt safe in asserting, although Mr. Ramanathan had Forbes on 

 his side as well as such names of places in Ceylon as Sitavaka. 



Mr. C. E. H. CORE A said that if Mr. Ramanathan looked 

 closely 3 ito the matter he would find that the king of Pandiya 

 referred to by him was not a Tamil king. The balance of 

 evidence of which the honourable gentleman spoke pointed 

 to the fapt that the Pandiyan country at the time of Wijayo 

 was an Aryan principality, governed by an Aryan dynasty. 

 And further, there was every historical evidence to show 

 that Madura itself, its capital, had been founded by an 

 Aryan prince. If then the Pandiyan throne was occupied by 

 a,n Aryan prince, it was but rational to conclude that he had 

 Aryan subjects. And more especially as the Mahdivansa 

 distinctly says that it was from the royal family and the 

 nobility that Wijayo's colony was supplemented. 



Nothing was clearer than that if South India had any 

 claims to the credit of the civilisation of the Wijayan,times, 

 such claim belonged not to the Dravidian, but to the Aryans 

 who had settled there, and who were of the same blood and 

 family as Wijayo's followers. 



Mr. Ramanathan wondered why the Pandiyan king did 

 not invade Ceylon. Sufficient reason was to be found in 

 the fact of the comity which existed between the Pandiyan 

 kingdom and Wijayo's fatherland, and also the probable 

 kinship of the two princes. 



As regarded the engineering skill of the Sinhalese, which 

 Mr. Ferguson challenged one of that people to defend, they 



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