320 
H. Beveridg’e — The Site of Karna Suvarna. 
[No. 4, 
It is unnecessary for me to dwell on the evidence of Raiigamati’s 
having once been a great city. This may be found in the paper of Col. 
Wilford in the 9th volume of the Asiatic Researches, p. 39, and in the 
descriptions by Capt. Layard, and Mr. Long. Capt. Layard’s paper is 
in the 22nd volume of our Society’s Journal, p. 281. He gives the 
name as Kansonapuri or Kurn-sona-ka-gliur, but Lassen * says the 
proper spelling is Karna suvarna gada. As noticed by Capt. Layard 
there is a mound at Rangamati, known as the Demon’s Mount, 
This is probably a Buddhist stupa and should be excavated. There is 
also a story of a large signet-ring having been picked up on or near the 
mount, and having been taken to England. The local legend about 
the prosperity of the place, and the origin of the title Suvarna is 
that Vibhishaua, the brother of Ravana, visited the place on the occasion 
of the king’s son’s first meal of rice, and caused a shower of gold 
to fall on the land. It will be shown hereafter that there are other 
legends connecting the place with Ceylon. The Si-yu-ki goes on to 
tell how Buddhism was introduced into Karna Suvarna. It says that 
at a time when the people did not yet know the religion of Buddha, 
a heretical teacher came from the South of Lidia and “beat the drum 
of discussion.” His belly was covered with plates of copper, and he 
carried a torch on his head.f When asked why he was so attired, 
* III. 766 n. 
t Reinaud in his “ Memoir on India before the Ilth Century,” Paris 1849, p. 293, 
quotes an account from an Arabic work, the Kitdbu’l-fihrist, of an Indian sect who 
took their name from the practice of girding their bodies with iron hoops. Every 
one who wished to enter this sect had to make a vow of sincerity and humility. 
He was obliged to have attained a certain degree of perfection before he could don 
the iron girdle. This girdle, according to the members of the sect, prevented the 
body from bursting with excess of knowledge, and power of contemplation. 
The Kitdbu’l-fihrist was written in 377 A. H , or 987 A. D., but it refers to an 
account of the Indian religions, which had been given by a man who had been sent in 
the last half of the eighth century by Yahya, the son of Khalad the Barmecide, to 
explore India. This account had been copied out by the famous Al-Kindi in 863 A. D . 
[Mr. C. J. Lyall, the President of the Society, has been kind enough to contribute 
the following note on this point : — 
The passage in the Fihrist, to which M. Reinaud refers, is at p. 348, Yol. I, of 
Plugel’s edition, (M. Reinaud wrote long before the publication of the text, and 
relied only on one faulty MS.). It runs thus — 
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