328 
H. Beveridge — The Site of Karna Suvarna. 
[No. 4, 
“ king- of Laiika, which implies either the country of the Maharajah of 
“ Lapagi or Ceylon, hut more probably the first, invaded the country of 
“ Bengal with a powerful fleet and sailed up the Ganges as far as Raiiga- 
“ mati, then called Kusumapnri, and a considerable place where the King 
“or Maharaja often resided. The invaders plundered the country and 
“ destroyed the city. This happened long before the invasion of Bengal 
“by the Musalmans, and seems to coincide with the time of the invasion 
“ of the peninsula by the Maharaja of Lapagi. This information! was 
“ procured at my request by the late Lieutenant Hoare, who was remark- 
“ ably fond of inquiries of this sort, and to whom I am indebted for 
“ several historical inquiries and other particulars relating to the geo- 
“ graphy of the Gangetic provinces.” 
Apparently Lieutenant Hoare is the officer referred to as Captain 
Hoare in the 7th vol. of the Researches, p. 1 75, as having taken part in 
procuring copies of the inscriptions on the Dihli pillar. Wilford 
thought that Lanka might mean Lapagi, i. e., Java, because two Arabian 
travellers of the 9th century mentioned by Ronondot had referred to the 
king of Lapagi’s having devastated the coast of India. But there seems 
no reason for supposing that Laiika ever meant, any other place than 
Ceylon. Layard, writing in 1853, says, he too was told of the Lanka 
expedition, but with a different version. Unfortunately he does not give 
the version, but, perhaps, it was only that the place was Ceylon and not 
Java, Layard objects to Lieutenant Hoare’s account that Raiigamati 
was formerly called Kusumapura, but it is just possible that it was both 
called Kusumapura and Karna Suvarna. Or the Ceylonese may have 
been mistaken, like Lieutenant Hoare, and written Kusumi instead of 
Karna Suvarna. 
