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



The Devas in the Central Province. In Anuradhapura both Devas and 

 Nagas. The Indian Nagas also possessed the means of passing over the 

 seas. See Nagapatnam and Nagarcoil on the Coromandel and Malabar 

 coasts, respectively, and the Naga temples in those places. See also 

 the small Naga temples and Vishnu temples attached to some Buddhist 

 temples in Ceylon. See the town of Devapatnam in India. The 

 queens of the kings of Kandy were termed Devi. See the names 

 Asoka, Devanampiya, and Panduwasa Deva. Considerations like 

 these will supply materials for another Paper. This note is only to 

 suggest the separate origin of the people of the Northern and Eastern 

 Provinces on the one hand, then of the people of the Central Provinces, 

 and to distinguish both from those of the Southern and other parts 

 of Ceylon. 



3. The following remarks by Mr. KASSIPILLAI TisSANA- 

 YAGAM were read by Mr. F. H. M. Corbet by permission of 

 the Meeting : — 



I AGREE in the main with the learned Advocate, but I beg 

 to make the following observations : — 



Havana's Period. 



(1.) The author of the Ramdyana calls Ceylon Lanka, and 

 its people Rakshasas. Lanka means an island. Rakshasas and 

 Vanaras are not Aryans ; still, their names such'as Hanuman, 

 Vibishana, Indrajit, Maricha, &c, seem to be Sanskritic. 

 According to the History of Madura, Rama is said to have 

 passed through the Madura country during the reign of 

 Anantakuna Pandiyan, who lived about 2,200 B.C. 



(2.) The pre-Vijayan Ceylon was known to the ancient 

 Tamils as Ilam (ffl^ld). This corresponds to the Sinhalese 

 word Elu. The correspondence is most striking. The 

 people who are most likely to know much about ancient 

 Ceylon are its immediate neighbours, the Tamils. The 

 History of Madura, written in the eleventh century, and 

 the Ramdyana (the greater part of which must have 

 been elaborated from the inner consciousness of the Indian 

 Homer) do not afford sufficient information as to the 

 nationality of the original inhabitants of Ceylon. 



Vijayan Epoch. 



(3.) There never lived in Ceylon a people who called them- 

 selves Yakkas. On account of their resemblance to the 

 barbarous tribes in some parts of Bengal, Vijaya and his 

 followers called the aborigines by that name, as the 



