396 



JYoiices of Books. 



[Oct. 



system to M a gc >dh a, while there exist materials to shew, that Bauddlias 

 came over from Ceylon into the Pandiya and Sora, or Chola, countries; 

 or the districts surrounding Tanjore, Trichinopoly and Madura. This 

 question requires to he further pursued in order to be fully cleared up, 

 and the doing so is of some subordinate consequence. The illustrations 

 of Bauddhism itself, contained in the Mahawanso, are valuable; so also 

 will the local history of Ceylon itself doubtless prove. The Yakkas 

 (or as we have it in India yacshas) Mr. Tumour may be fully assured 

 were not demons ; but, as he appears to intimate, human beings. With 

 the Brahmans, and their followers, all races and tribes of people, not of 

 recognized Hindu descent, are asuras, nag as, yacshas, or racshasas, the 

 supernatural attributes and character with which these are invested, in 

 Hindu books, are all quite in keeping with the narrative. In a Tamil 

 work professing to give an account of the family and lineage oiBavana, 

 the people of his race are expressly said to have been Ydcshas and 

 Racshasas; and the difference in appellation between two kindred 

 families is fancifully traced up to a particular conformation of the 

 organs of speech : so that while one tribe or family pronounced a word 

 propounded to them rdchsa, another sounded it ydchsa. It seems that 

 the identity of Lanca with Ceylon can be traced on the spot: this 

 circumstance that Tamil writings speak of yacshas as of Havana's 

 lineage, while Pali writings mention the yakkas as inhabiting Ceylon, 

 is a further confirmation. But the fact is quite undoubted in this penin- 

 sula : evidence in abundance the writer has heretofore placed before 

 the public ; more could be added were the doing so needful. 



The statement, therefore, quoted by Mr. Tumour, on the authority of 

 Colonel Tod, that the Pandits of the north-west of India " scouted" the 

 idea of Ceylon being Lanca is simply, like many other odd or unac- 

 countable things, which have been stated on the authority of Pandits ; 

 or must, in this case, be ascribed to the local distance, and mental ignor- 

 ance, of these individual Pandits, without disparagement to their body. 

 It may be a digression from the main subject ; but, in passing, the refe- 

 rence to Colonel Tod's notice of Jaina MSS. at Jessulmer, leads on to 

 a bold statement by Lieut. Webb, appended as a note to the Proceedings 

 of the Bengal Asiatic Society in April 1835, to the effect that we are all 

 in the dark, and must be content to declare our ignorance of Hindu 

 literature, until the libraries of Patan in Rajputana, Jessulmer and 

 Cambay, with private libraries of Jaina teachers, have been explored. 

 There is doubtless a measure of truth in this statement. From the 

 era of Asaca verdhana of Mdgadha, down to the foundation of Vijeya- 

 nagaram, or in round numbers from about B. C. 300, to A. D. 1200, a 

 long sweep of 1500 years, an accurate knowledge of all Jaina records 

 would be inestimable. Whether records of antecedent times, from 



