No. 43. — 1892.] ETHNOLOGY OF CEYLON. 



239 



HOW VlJAYA DRIFTS TO CEYLON. 



Vijaya is numbered as the first of Sinhalese kings, and 

 his history, if not entirely a myth, is so mixed with what is 

 not history and what is impossible, that to give it an aspect 

 of clearness and certainty we must apply to it that uncom- 

 promising criticism which Niebuhr brought to the investiga- 

 tion of early Roman traditions. 



That the composition of the Mahdwansa was commenced 

 and continued in the order in which it stands now will not 

 be claimed by any one. We may assume that at, or about, the 

 period at which this historical book was first commenced the 

 idea was conceived of completing the history by going back 

 to the reign of the original king. 



The history of every nation goes back to a cloud land of 

 myth. Romulus and Remus were nursed by a she-wolf ; the 

 Princess Suppadevi cohabited with a lion. The imagination 

 of simple races in primitive times is gratified with such 

 traditions, and they are adopted by the early historians as 

 lending interest to their narratives. 



We have outgrown these literary developments, and at 

 once reject what we know by science and our conscience to 

 be untrue. As we admit the existence of Romulus we may 

 admit the existence of Vijaya. It may be here incidentally 

 mentioned that his parents were said to have been born to a 

 lion and the Princess Suppadevi, who seems clearly to have 

 been a Telugu princess. 



In the first part of the Paper we have tried to prove that 

 at Vijaya's landing in Ceylon there existed an aboriginal 

 population. There had been previous wars and invasions from 

 India. We have observed the reverence for Ravana which is 

 still preserved amongst a race of Tamils in Tinnevelly, and 

 which they have since signified by annual pilgrimages to 

 Kataragama ; the demon-worship these Tamils still keep up in 

 common with the Sinhalese of the Southern Province and the 

 western coast of Ceylon, with the practice of devil-dancing 

 common to both ; the existence amongst the Tamils to this day 

 of Ilavers, or colonists from Ceylon, proving the existence 



