116 
ON THE ORIGIXAL INHABITANTS 
It is also curious that Eavana is esteemed and acknowledged 
by pious Pandits as a learned man, and is supposed to have 
been the author of a Telugu Grammar.^® 
Though the Raksasas are described in the Eamayana 
and elsewhere as horrible monsters both physically and 
morally, it appears that the condition of being a Raksasa 
depended more upon the sins committed by an individual or 
by his progenitors than upon the accident of birth. If 
this be admitted, the physical monstrosities ascribed to the 
Raksasas must be regarded as the exaggerated creations of 
a morbid and hostile imagination. 
Even the Ramayana extols the beauty and grandeur of 
Lanka, its architectural splendour, and the efficiency of its 
administration. This latter was so excellent, that no thief 
dared to pick up any valuable thing lost in its streets. 
The enemies of Rama coidd hardly, therefore, have been so 
rude and uncivilised as they are generally represented. 
The ancient historical capital of Ceylon went by the 
name of Pulastinagara." If Ravana is regarded as the king 
of Lahka, and perhaps also as the master of Southern India, 
and if the present Pulayar are admitted to be representa- 
tives of the aborigines, the startling similarity of the names 
PuJmtya and Pulayan is at once explained. 
The relationship between the Paulastya Agastya and 
the Paulastya Ravana opens at all events a new and wide per- 
spective. It thus appears that the mind-born sons of Brahma 
should be taken as the progenitors of all the different races 
of India, and that, as all men emanate from one common 
source, no vital difference is acknowledged to exist between 
'8 Compare the AncUu-a Kaumudi in -R hich. the Rdvamya, the Telugu 
Grammar ascribed to Kavana, is repeatedly mentioned. 
Megasthenes calls the Singhalese Fahnogono't and the Feriplm maris 
Uri/thrtci calls Ceylon Palaesimiuidii. See Lassen's Did. Alt., I, p. 240 
(2nd edition) ; compare also Mr. T. W. Khys Davids in the I>idian Aniiqiiani, 
vol. II (1873), p. 286, on Piilastipura. 
