POPULATION.--CASTE.--SLAVERY AND RAJA-KARIYA.
POPULATION.--In no single instance do the chronicles of Ceylon mention
the precise amount of the population of the island, at any particular
period; but there is a sufficiency of evidence, both historical and
physical, to show that it must have been prodigious and dense,
especially in the reigns of the more prosperous kings. Whatever limits
to the increase of man artificial wants may interpose in a civilised
state and in ordinary climates are unknown in a tropical region, where
clothing is an encumbrance, the smallest shelter a home, and sustenance
supplied by the bounty of the soil in almost spontaneous abundance.
Under such propitious circumstances, in the midst of a profusion of
fruit-bearing-trees, and in a country replenished by a teeming harvest
twice, at least, in each year, with the least possible application of
labour; it may readily be conceived that the number of the people will
be adjusted mainly, if not entirely, by the extent of arable land.
The emotion of the traveller of the present time, as day after day he
traverses the northern portions of the island, and penetrates the deep
forests of the interior, is one of unceasing astonishment at the
inconceivable multitude of deserted tanks, the hollows of which are
still to be traced; and the innumerable embankments, overgrown with
timber, which indicate the sites of vast reservoirs that formerly
fertilised districts now solitary and barren. Every such tank is the
landmark of one village at least, and such are the dimensions of some of
them that in proportion to their area, it is probable that hundreds of
villages may have been supported by a single one of these great inland
lakes.
The labour necessary to construct one of these gigantic works for
irrigation is in itself an evidence of local density of population; but
their multiplication by successive kings, and the constantly recurring
record of district after district brought under cultivation in each
successive reign[1], demonstrate the steady increase of inhabitants, and
the multitude of husbandmen whose combined and sustained toil was
indispensable to keep these prodigious structures in productive
activity.
[Footnote 1: The practice of recording the formation of tanks for
irrigation by the sovereign is not confined to the chronicles of Ceylon.
The construction of similar works on the continent of India has been
commemorated in the same manner by the native historians. The memoirs of
the Rajas of Orissa show the number of tanks made and wells dug in every
reign.]
The _Rajavali_ relates that in the year 1301 A.D. King Prakrama III, on
the eve of his death, reminded his sons, that having conquered the
Malabars, he had united under one rule the three kingdoms of the island,
Pihiti with 450,000 villages, Rohuna with 770,000, and Maya with
250,000.[1] A village in Ceylon, it must be observed, resembles a "town"
in the phraseology of Scotland, where the smallest collection of houses,
or even a single farmstead with its buildings is enough to justify the
appellation. In the same manner, according to the sacred ordinances
which regulate the conduct of the Buddhist priesthood, a "solitary
house, if there be people, must be regarded as a village,"[2] and all
beyond it is the forest.
[Footnote 1: _Rajavali_ p. 262. A century later in the reign or
Prakrama-Kotta, A.D. 1410, the _Rajaratnacari_ says, there then were
256,000 villages in the province of Matura, 495,000 in that of Jaffna,
and 790,000 in Oovah.--P. 112.]
[Footnote 2: Hardy's _Eastern Monachism_, ch. xiii. p. 133.]
Even assuming that the figures employed by the author of the _Rajavali_
partake of the exaggeration common to all oriental narratives, no one
who has visited the regions now silent and deserted, once the homes of
millions, can hesitate to believe that when the island was in the zenith
of its prosperity, the population of Ceylon must of necessity have been
at least ten times as great as it is at the present day.
The same train of thought leads to a clearer conception of the means by
which this dense population was preserved, through so many centuries, in
spite of frequent revolutions and often recurring invasions; as well as
of the causes which led to its ultimate disappearance, when intestine
decay had wasted the organisation on which the fabric of society rested.
Cultivation, as it existed in the north of Ceylon, was almost entirely
dependent on the store of water preserved in each village tank; and it
could only be carried on by the combined labour of the whole local
community, applied in the first instance to collect and secure the
requisite supply for irrigation, and afterwards to distribute it to the
rice lands, which were tilled by the united exertions of the
inhabitants, amongst whom the crop was divided in due proportions. So
indispensable were concord and union in such operations, that
injunctions for their maintenance were sometimes engraven on the rocks,
as an inperishable exhortation, to forbearance and harmony.[1]
[Footnote 1: See the inscription on the rock of Mihintala, A. D. 262,
TURNOUR'S _Epitome_, Appendix, p. 90; and a similar one on a rock at
Pollanarrua, ibid., p, 92.]
Hence, in the recurring convulsions which overthrew successive
dynasties, and transferred the crown to usurpers, with a facile
rapidity, otherwise almost unintelligible, it is easy to comprehend that
the mass of the people had the strongest possible motives for passive
submission, and were constrained to acquiescence by an instinctive dread
of the fatal effects of prolonged commotion.
If interrupted in their industry, by the dread of such events, they
retired till the storm had blown over, and returned, after each
temporary dispersion, to resume possession of the lands and their
village tank.
The desolation which now reigns over the plains which the Singhalese
formerly tilled, was precipitated by the reckless domination of the
Malabars, in the fourteenth and following centuries. The destruction of
reservoirs and tanks has been ascribed to defective construction, and to
the absence of spill-waters, and other facilities for discharging the
surplus-water, during the prevalence of excessive rains; but
independently of the fact that vast numbers of these tanks, though
utterly deserted, remain, in this respect, almost uninjured to the
present day, we have the evidence of their own native historians, that
for upwards of fifteen centuries, the reservoirs, when duly attended to,
successfully defied all the dangers to be apprehended from inundation.
Their destruction and abandonment are ascribable, not so much to any
engineering defect, as to the disruption of the village communities, by
whom they were so long maintained. The ruin of a reservoir, when
neglected and permitted to fall into decay, was speedy and inevitable;
and as the destruction of the village tank involved the flight of all
dependent upon it, the water, once permitted to escape, carried
pestilence and miasma over the plains they had previously covered with
plenty. After such a calamity any partial return of the villagers, even
where it was not prevented by the dread of malaria, would have been
impracticable; for the obvious reason, that where the whole combined
labour of the community was not more than sufficient to carry on the
work of conservancy and cultivation, the diminished force of a few would
have been utterly unavailing, either to effect the reparation of the
watercourses, or to restore the system on which the culture of rice
depends. Thus the process of decay, instead of a gradual decline as in
other countries, became sudden and utter desolation in Ceylon.
From such traces as are perceptible in the story of the earliest
immigrants, it is obvious that in their domestic habits and civil life
they brought with them and perpetuated in Ceylon the same pursuits and
traits which characterised the Aryan races that had colonised the valley
of the Ganges. The Singhalese Chronicles abound, like the ancient Vedas,
with allusions to agriculture and herds, to the breeding of cattle and
the culture of grain. They speak of village communities and of their
social organisation, as purely patriarchal. Women were treated with
respect and deference; and as priestesses and queens they acquired a
prominent place in the national esteem. Rich furniture was used in
dwellings and costly textures for dress; but these were obtained from
other nations, whose ships resorted to the island, whilst its
inhabitants, averse to intercourse with foreigners, and ignorant of
navigation, held the pursuits of the merchant in no esteem.
_Caste_.--Amongst the aboriginal inhabitants _caste_ appears to have
been unknown, although after the arrival of Wijayo and his followers the
system in all its minute subdivisions, and slavery, both domestic and
prædial, prevailed throughout the island. The Buddhists, as dissenters,
who revolted against the arrogant pretensions of the Brahmans, embodied
in their doctrines a protest against caste under any modification. But
even after the conversion of the Singhalese to Buddhism, and their
acceptance of the faith at the hands of Mahindo, caste as a national
institution was found too obstinately established to be overthrown by
the Buddhist priesthood; and reinforced, as its supporters were, by
subsequent intercourse with the Malabars, it has been perpetuated to the
present time, as a conventional and social, though no longer as a sacred
institution. Practically, the Singhalese ignore three of the great
classes, theoretically maintained by the Hindus; among them there are
neither Brahmans, Vaisyas, nor Kshastryas; and at the head of the class
which they retain, they place the _Goi-wanse_ or _Vellalas_, nominally
"tillers of the soil." In earlier times the institution seems to have
been recognised in its entirety, and in the glowing description given in
the _Mahawanso_ of the planting of the great Bo-tree, "the sovereign the
lord of chariots directed that it should be lifted by the four high
caste tribes and by eight persons of each of the other castes."[1] In
later times the higher ranks are seldom spoken of in the historical
books but by specific titles, but frequent allusion is made to the
Chandalas, the lowest of all, who were degraded to the office of
scavengers and carriers of corpses.[2]
[Footnote 1: _Mahawanso_, ch. xix. p. 116.]
[Footnote 2: Ibit., ch. x. p. 66. The Chandala in one of the Jatakas is
represented as "one born in the open air, his parents not being
possessed of a roof; and as he lies amongst the pots when his mother
goes to cut fire-wood, he is suckled by the bitch along with her
pups."--HARDY'S _Buddhism_, ch. iii. p. 80.]
_Slavery_.--The existence of slavery is repeatedly referred to, and in
the absence of any specific allusion to its origin in Ceylon, it must be
presumed to have been borrowed from India. As the Sudras, according to
the institutes of Menu, were by the laws of caste consigned to helpless
bondage, so slavery in Ceylon was an attribute of race[1]; and those
condemned to it were doomed to toil from their birth, with no requital
other than the obligation on the part of their masters to maintain them
in health, to succour them in sickness, and apportion their burdens to
their strength.[2] And although the liberality of theoretical Buddhism
threw open, even to the lowest caste, all the privileges of the
priesthood, the slave alone was repulsed, on the ground that his
admission would deprive the owner of his services.[3]
[Footnote 1: In later times, slavery was not confined to the low castes;
insolvents could be made slaves by their creditors--the chief frequently
buying the debt, and attaching the debtor to his followers. The children
of freemen, by female slaves, followed the status of their mothers.]
[Footnote 2: HARDY'S _Buddhism_, ch. x. p. 482.]
[Footnote 3: HARDY'S _Eastern Monachism_, ch. iv. p. 18.]
Like other property, slaves could be possessed by the Buddhist
monasteries, and inscriptions, still existing upon the rocks of
Mihintala and Dambool, attest the capacity of the priests to receive
them as gifts, and to require that as slaves they should be exempted
from taxation.
Unrelaxed in its assertion of abstract right, but mitigated in the forms
of its practical enforcement, slavery endured in Ceylon till
extinguished by the fiat of the British Government in 1845.[1] In the
northern and Tamil districts of the island, its characteristics differed
considerably from its aspect in the south and amongst the Kandyan
mountains. In the former, the slaves were employed in the labours of the
field and rewarded with a small proportion of the produce; but amongst
the pure Singhalese, slavery was domestic rather than prædial, and those
born to its duties were employed less as the servants, than as the suite
of the Kandyan chiefs. Slaves swelled the train of their retainers on
all occasions of display, and had certain domestic duties assigned to
them, amongst which was the carrying of fire-wood, and the laying out of
the corpse after death. The strongest proof of the general mildness of
their treatment in all parts of the island, is derived from the fact,
that when in 1845, Lord Stanley, now the Earl of Derby, directed the
final abolition of the system, slavery was extinguished in Ceylon
without a claim for compensation on the part of the proprietors.
[Footnote 1: An account of slavery in Ceylon, and the proceedings for
its suppression, will be found in PRIDHAM'S _Ceylon_, vol. i. p. 223.]
_Compulsory Labour_.--Another institution, to the influence and
operation of which the country was indebted for the construction of the
works which diffused plenty throughout every region, was the system of
Raja-kariya, by which the king had a right to employ, for public
purposes, the compulsory labour of the inhabitants. To what extent this
was capable of exaction, or under what safeguards it was enforced in
early times, does not appear from the historical books. But on all
occasions when tanks were to be formed, or canals cut for irrigation,
the _Mahawanso_ alludes--almost in words of course--to the application
of Raja-kariya for their construction[1], the people being summoned to
the task by beat of drum.[2]
[Footnote 1: The inscription engraven on the rock at Mihintala, amongst
other regulations for enforcing the observance by the temple tenants of
the conditions on which their lands were held, declares that "if a fault
be committed by any of the cultivators; the adequate fine shall be
assessed according to usage; or in lieu thereof, the delinquent shall be
directed _to work at the lake_ in making an excavation not exceeding
sixteen cubits in circumference and one cubit deep."-- TURNOUR'S
_Epitome_, &c., Appendix, p. 87.]
[Footnote 2: _Mahawanso_, ch. xxv. p. 149.]
The only mention of the system which attracts particular attention, is
the honour awarded to the most pious of the kings, who, whilst
maintaining Raja-kariya as an institution, nevertheless stigmatised it
as "oppression" when applied to non-productive objects; and on the
occasion of erecting one of the most stupendous of the monuments
dedicated to the national faith, felt that the merit of the act would be
neutralised, were it to be accomplished by "unrequited" labour.[1]
[Footnote 1: Ibid., ch. xxvii. pp. 163, 165. King Tissa, A. D. 201, in
imitation of Dutugaimunu. caused the restorations of monuments at the
capital "_to be made with paid labour_."--Ibid., ch. xxxvi. p. 226. See
ante Vol. I. Pt. III. ch. v. p. 357.]
CHAP. II.
AGRICULTURE.--IRRIGATION.--CATTLE AND CROPS.
AGRICULTURE.--Prior to the arrival of the Bengalis, and even for some
centuries after the conquest of Wijayo, before the knowledge of
agriculture had extended throughout the island, the inhabitants appear
to have subsisted to a great extent by the chase.[1] Hunting the elk and
the boar was one of the amusements of the early princes; the "Royal
Huntsmen" had a range of buildings erected for their residence at
Anarajapoora, B.C. 504[2], and the laws of the chase generously forbade
to shoot the deer except in flight.[3] Dogs were trained to assist in
the sport[4] and the oppressed aborigines, driven by their conquerors to
the forests of Rohuna and Maya, are the subjects of frequent
commendation in the pages of the _Mahawanso_, from their singular
ability in the use of the bow.[5]
[Footnote 1: _Mahawanso_, ch. x. p. 59; ch, xiv. p. 78; ch. xxiii. p.
142. The hunting of the hare is mentioned 161 B.C. _Mahawanso_, ch.
xxiii. p. 141.]
[Footnote 2: Ibid., ch. x. p. 66.]
[Footnote 3: Ibid., ch. xiv. p. 78. King Devenipiatissa, when descrying
the elk which led him to the mountain where Mahindo was seated,
exclaimed, "It is not fair to shoot him standing!" he twanged his
bowstring and followed him as he fled, See ante, p. 341, n.]
[Footnote 4: Ibid., ch. xxviii p. 166.]
[Footnote 5: Ibid., ch. xxxiii. pp. 202, 204, &c.]
Before the arrival of Wijayo, B.C. 543, agriculture was unknown in
Ceylon, and grain, if grown at all, was not systematically cultivated.
The Yakkhos, the aborigines, subsisted, as the Veddahs, their lineal
descendants, live at the present day, on fruits, honey, and the products
of the chase. Rice was distributed by Kuweni to the followers of Wijayo,
but it was "rice procured from the wrecked ships of mariners."[l] And
two centuries later, so scanty was the production of native grain, that
Asoca, amongst the presents which he sent to his ally Devenipiatissa,
included "one hundred and sixty loads of hill paddi from Bengal."[2]
[Footnote 1: _Mahawanso_, ch. vii. p. 49.]
[Footnote 2: Ibid., ch. xi. p. 70.]
A Singhalese narrative of the "Planting of the Bo-tree," an English
version of which will be found amongst the translations prepared for Sir
Alexander Johnston, mentions the fact, that rice was still imported into
Ceylon from the Coromandel coast[1] in the second century before Christ.
[Footnote 1: UPHAM, _Sacred Books of Ceylon,_ vol. iii. p. 231.]
_Irrigation_.--It was to the Hindu kings who succeeded Wijayo, that
Ceylon was indebted for the earliest knowledge of agriculture, for the
construction of reservoirs, and the practice of irrigation for the
cultivation of rice.[1]
[Footnote 1: A very able report on irrigation in some of the districts
of Ceylon has been recently drawn up by Mr. BAILEY, of the Ceylon Civil
Service; but the author has been led into an error in supposing that,
"it cannot be to India that we must look for the origin of tanks and
canals in Ceylon," and that the knowledge of their construction was
derived through "the Arabian and Persian merchants who traded between
Egypt and Ceylon." Mr. Bailey rests this conclusion on the assertion
that the first Indian canal of which we have any record dates no farther
back than the middle of the fourteenth century. There was nothing in
common between the shallow canals for distributing the periodical
inundation of the Nile over the level lands of Egypt (a country in which
rice was little known), and the gigantic embankments by which hills were
so connected in Ceylon as to convert the valleys between them into
inland lakes; and there was no similarity to render the excavation of
the one a model and precedent for the construction of the other.
Probably the lake Moeris is what dwells in the mind of those who ascribe
proficiency in irrigation to the ancient Egyptians; but although
Herodotus asserts it to have been an excavation, _cheiropoiêtoz kai
oruktê_ (lib. ii. 149), geologic investigation has shown that Moeris is
a natural lake created by the local depression of that portion of the
Arsinoite nome. Neither Strabo nor Pliny, who believed it to be
artificial, ascribed its origin to anything connected with irrigation,
for which, in fact, its level would render it unsuitable. Nature had
done so much for irrigation in Egypt, that art was forestalled; and even
had it been otherwise, and had the natives of that country been adepts
in the science, or capable of teaching it, the least qualified imparters
of engineering knowledge would have been the Arab and Persian mariners,
whose lives were spent in coasting the shores of the Indian Ocean. It is
true that in Arabia itself, at a very early period, there is the
tradition of the great artificial lake of Aram, in Yemen, about the time
of Alexander the Great (SALE'S _Koran_, Introd. p.7); and evidence still
more authentic shows that the practice of artificial irrigation was one
of the earliest occupations of the human race. The Scriptures; in
enumerating the descendants of Shem, state that "unto Eber were born two
sons, and the name of one was Peleg, for in his days the earth was
divided." (_Genesis,_ ch. x. ver. 25.) In this passage according to
CYRIL C. GRAHAM, the term _Peleg_ has a profounder meaning, and the
sentence should have been translated--"_for in his days the earth was
cut into canals" (Cambridge Essay_,1858.)
But historical testimony exists which removes all obscurity from the
inquiry as to who were the instructors of the Singhalese. The most
ancient books of the Hindus show that the practice of canal-making was
understood in India at as early a period as in Egypt. Canals are
mentioned in the _Rayamana_, the story of which belongs to the dimmest
antiquity; and when Baratha, the half-brother of Rama, was about to
search for him in the Dekkan, his train is described as including
"labourers, with carts, bridge-builders, carpenters, and diggers of
canals." (_Ramayana_, CARY'S Trans., vol. iii. p. 228.) The _Mahawanso,_
removes all doubt as to the person by whom the Singhalese were
instructed in forming works for irrigation, by naming the Brahman
engineer contemporary with the construction of the earliest tanks in the
fourth century before the Christian era. (_Mahawanso_, ch. x.) Somewhat
later, B.C. 262, the inscription on the rock at Mihintala ascribes to
the Malabars the system of managing the water for the rice lands, and
directs that "according to the supply of water in the lake, the same
shall be distributed to the lands of the wihara _in the manner formerly
regulated by the Tamils._" (_Notes to_ TURNOUR'S _Epitome_, p. 90.) To
be convinced of the Tamil origin of the tank system which subsists to
the present day in Ceylon, it is only necessary to see the tanks of the
Southern Dekkan. The innumerable excavated reservoirs or _colams_ of
Ceylon will be found to correspond with the _culams_ of Mysore; and the
vast _erays_ formed by drawing a bund to intercept the water flowing
between two elevated ridges, exhibit the model which has been followed
at Pathavie, Kandelai, Menery, and all the huge constructions of Ceylon,
But whoever may have been the original instructors of the Singhalese in
the formation of tanks, there seems every reason to believe that from
their own subsequent experience, and the prodigious extent to which they
occupied themselves in the formation of works of this kind, they
attained a facility unsurpassed by the people of any other country. It
is a curious circumstance in connection with this inquiry, that in the
eighth century after Christ, the King of Kashmir despatched messengers
to Ceylon to bring back workmen, whom he employed in constructing an
artificial lake. (_Raja-Tarangini_, Book iv. sl. 505.) If it were
necessary to search beyond India for the origin of cultivation in
Ceylon, the Singhalese, instead of borrowing a system from Egypt, might
more naturally have imitated the ingenious devices of their own
co-religionists in China, where the system of irrigation as pursued in
the military colonies of that country has been a theme of admiration in
every age of their history. (See _Journal Asiatique,_ 1850, vol. lvi.
pp. 341, 346.) And as these colonies were planted not only in the centre
of the empire but on its north-west extremities towards Kaschgar and the
north-east of India, where the new settlers occupied themselves in
draining marshes and leading streams to water their arable lands, the
probabilities are that their system may have been known and copied by
the people of Hindustan.]
The first tank in Ceylon was formed by the successor of Wijayo, B.C.
504, and their subsequent extension to an almost incredible number is
ascribable to the influence of the Buddhist religion, which, abhorring
the destruction of animal life, taught its multitudinous votaries to
subsist exclusively upon vegetable food. Hence the planting of gardens,
the diffusion of fruit-trees and leguminous vegetables[1], the sowing of
dry grain[2], the formation of reservoirs and canals, and the
reclamation of land "in situations favourable for irrigation."
[Footnote 1: Beans, designated by the term of _Masá_ in the _Mahawanso_,
were grown in the second century before Christ, ch, xxiii. p, 140,]
[Footnote 2: The "cultivation of a crop of hill rice" is mentioned in
the _Mahawanso_ B.C. 77, ch. xxxiv. p. 208.]
It is impossible to over-estimate the importance of this system of water
cultivation, in a country like the north of Ceylon, subject to
periodical droughts. From physical and geological causes, the mode of
cultivation in that section of the island differs essentially from that
practised in the southern division; and whilst in the latter the
frequency of the rains and abundance of rivers afford a copious supply
of water, the rest of the country is mainly dependent upon artificial
irrigation, and on the quantity of rain collected in tanks; or of water
diverted from streams and directed into reservoirs.
As has been elsewhere[1] explained, the mountain ranges which tower
along the south-western coast, and extend far towards the eastern, serve
in both monsoons to intercept the trade winds and condense the vapours
with which they are charged, thus ensuring to those regions a plentiful
supply of rain. Hence the harvests in those portions of the island are
regulated by the two monsoons, the _yalla_ in May and the _maha_ in
November; and seed-time is adjusted so as to take advantage of the
copious showers which fall at those periods.
[Footnote 1: See Vol. I. Part I. ch. ii p. 67.]
But in the northern portions of Ceylon, owing to the absence of
mountains, this natural resource cannot be relied on. The winds in both
monsoons traverse the island without parting with a sufficiency of
moisture; droughts are of frequent occurrence and of long continuance;
and vegetation in the low and scarcely undulated plains is mainly
dependent on dews and whatever damp is distributed by the steady
sea-breeze. In some places the sandy soil rests upon beds of madrepore
and coral rock, through which the scanty rain percolates too quickly to
refresh the soil; and the husbandman is entirely dependent upon wells
and village tanks for the means of irrigation.
In a region exposed to such vicissitudes the risk would have been
imminent and incessant, had the population been obliged to rely on
supplies of dry grain alone, the growth of which must necessarily have
been precarious, owing to the possible failure or deficiency of the
rains. Hence frequent famines would have been inevitable in those
seasons of prolonged dryness and scorching heat, when "the sky becomes
as brass and the earth as iron."
What an unspeakable blessing that against such, calamities a security
should have been found by the introduction of a grain calculated to
germinate under water; and that a perennial supply of the latter, not
only adequate for all ordinary purposes, but sufficient to guard against
extraordinary emergencies of the seasons, should have been provided by
the ingenuity of the people, aided by the bounteous care of their
sovereigns. It is no matter of surprise that the kings who devoted their
treasures and their personal energies to the formation of tanks and
canals have entitled their memory to traditional veneration, as
benefactors of their race and country. In striking contrast, it is the
pithy remark of the author of the _Rajavali_, mourning over the
extinction of the Great Dynasty and the decline of the country, that
"_because the fertility of the land was decreased_ the kings who
followed were no longer of such consequence as those who went
before."[1]
[Footnote 1: _Rajavali_, p. 238]
Simultaneously with the construction of works for the advancement of
agriculture, the patriarchal village system, copied from that which
existed from the earliest ages in India[1], was established in the newly
settled districts; and each hamlet, with its governing "headman" its
artisans, its barber, its astrologer and washerman, was taught to
conduct its own affairs by its village council; to repair its tanks and
watercourses, and to collect two harvests in each year by the combined
labour of the whole village community.
[Footnote 1: _Mahawanso_, ch. x. p.67.]
Between the agricultural system of the mountainous districts and that of
the lowlands, there was at all times the same difference which still
distinguishes the tank cultivation of Neuera-kalawa and the Wanny from
the hanging rice lands of the Kandyan hills. In the latter, reservoirs
are comparatively rare, as the natives rely on the certainty of the
rains, which seldom fail at their due season in those lofty regions.
Streams are conducted by means of channels ingeniously carried round the
spurs of the hills and along the face of acclivities, so as to fertilise
the fields below, which in the technical phrase of the Kandyans are
"_assoedamised_" for the purpose; that is, formed into terraces, each
protected by a shallow ledge over which the superfluous water trickles,
from the highest level into that immediately below it; thus descending
through all in succession till it escapes in the depths of the valley.
For the tillage of the lands with which the temples were so largely
endowed in all quarters of the island, the sacred communities had
assigned to them certain villages, a portion of whose labour was the
property of the wihara[1]: slaves were also appropriated to them, and an
instance is mentioned in the fifth century[2], of the inhabitants of a
low-caste village having been bestowed on a monastery by the king
Aggrabodhi, "in order that the priests might derive their service as
slaves."[3] Sharing in a prerogative of royalty, some of the temples
had, moreover, a right to the compulsory labour of the community; and in
one of the inscriptions carved on the rock at Mihintala, the
"Raja-kariya writer" is enumerated in the list of temple officers.[4]
The temple lands were occasionally let to tenants whose rent was paid
either in "land-fees," or in kind.[5]
[Footnote 1: _Ibid_., ch. xxxvii. p. 247.]
[Footnote 2: Rock inscriptions at Mihintala and at Dambool.]
[Footnote 3: _Mahawanso_ ch, xlii. TURNOUR, MS. translation.]
[Footnote 4: TURNOUR'S _Epitome, Appendix,_ p. 88.]
[Footnote 5: _Ibid_ pp. 86, 87.]
_Farm-stock._--The only farm-stock which appears to have been kept for
tillage purposes, were buffaloes, which, then as now, were used in
treading the soft mud of the irrigated rice-fields, preparatory to
casting in the seed. Cows are alluded to in the _Mahawanso_, but never
in connection with labour; and although butter is spoken of, it is only
that of the buffalo.[1]
[Footnote 1: _Mahawanso_, ch. xxvii p. 163.]
_Gardens_.--Probably the earliest enclosures attempted in a state of
incipient civilisation, were gardens for the exclusion of wild animals
from fruit trees and vegetables, when these were first cultivated for
the use of man; and to the present day, the frequent occurrence of the
termination "_watte_" in the names of places on the map of Ceylon, is in
itself an indication of the importance attached to them by the
villagers. The term "garden," however, conveys to an European but an
imperfect idea of the character and style of these places; which in
Ceylon are so similar to the native gardens in the south of India, as to
suggest a community of origin. Their leading features are lines of the
graceful areca palms, groves of oranges, limes, jak-trees, and bread
fruit; and irregular clumps of palmyras and coconuts. Beneath these,
there is a minor growth, sometimes of cinnamon or coffee bushes; and
always a wilderness of plaintains, guavas and papaws; a few of the
commoner flowers; plots of brinjals (egg plants) and other esculents;
and the stems of the standard trees are festooned with climbers, pepper
vines, tomatas, and betel.
_The Coco-nut Palm_.--It is curious and suggestive as regards the
coco-nut, which now enters so largely into the domestic economy of the
Singhalese, that although it is sometimes spoken of in the _Mahawanso_
(but by no means so often as the palmyra), no allusion is ever made to
it as an article of diet, or an element in the preparation of food, nor
is it mentioned, before the reign of Prakrama I., A.D. 1153[1], in the
list of those fruit-trees, the planting of which throughout the island
is repeatedly recorded, as amongst the munificent acts of the Singhalese
kings.
[Footnote 1: _Mahawanso_, ch. lxxii.]
As the other species of the same genus of palms are confined to the New
World[1], a doubt has been raised whether the coco-nut be indigenous in
India, or an importation. If the latter, the first plant must have been
introduced anterior to the historic age; and whatever the period at
which the tree may have been first cultivated, a time is indicated when
it was practically unknown in Ceylon by the fact, that a statue, without
date or inscription, is carved in high relief in a niche hollowed out of
a rock to the east of Galle, which tradition says is the monument to the
Kustia Raja, an Indian prince, whose claim to remembrance is, that he
_first_ taught the Singhalese the use of the coco-nut.[2]
[Footnote 1: BROWN'S _Notes_ to TUCKEY'S _Expedition to the Congo_, p.
456.]
[Footnote 2: The earliest mention of the coco-nut in Ceylon occurs in
the _Mahawanso_, which refers to it as known at Rohuna to the south, B.
c, 161 ( ch. xxv. p. 140). "The milk of the small red coco-nut" is
stated to have been used been used by Dutugaimunu in preparing cement
for building the Ruanwellé dagoba (_Mah_. ch. xxx. p. 169). The
south-west of the island, and especially the _margin of the sea_ is
still the locality in which the tree is found in greatest abundance in
Ceylon. Hither, if originally self-sown, it must have been floated and
flung ashore by the waves; and as the north-east coast, though washed by
a powerful current, is almost altogether destitute of these palms, it is
obvious that the coco-nut; if carried by sea from some other shore, must
have been brought during the south-west monsoon from the coast near Cape
Comorin, ÆLIAN notices as one of the leading peculiarities in the
appearance of the sea coast of Ceylon, that the palm trees (by which, as
the south of the island was the place of resort, he most probably means
the coco-nut palms) grew in regular quincunxes, as if planted by skilful
hands in a well ordered garden. [Greek: "HÊ nêsos, hên kalousi
Taprobanên, echei phoinikônas men thaumastês pephuteumenous eis
stoichon, hôsper oun en tois habrois tôn paradeisôn oi toutôn meledônoi
phuteuousi ta dendra ta skiadêphora."]--Lib. xvi. cp. 18. The
comparative silence of the _Mahawanso_ in relation to the coco-nut may
probably be referable to the fact that its author resided and wrote in
the interior of the island; over which, unlike the light seeds of other
plants, its ponderous nuts could not have been distributed accidentally,
where down to the present time it has been but partially introduced, and
nowhere in any considerable number. Its presence throughout Ceylon is
always indicative of the vicinity of man, and at a distance from the
shore it appears in those places only where it has been planted by his
care. The Singhalese believe that the coco-nut will not flourish "unless
you walk under it and talk under it:" but its proximity to human
habitations is possibly explained by the consideration that if exposed
in the forest, it would be liable, when young, to be forced down by the
elephants, who delight in its delicate leaves. See DAVY'S _Angler in the
Lake Districts, p._ 245.]
The mango, the jambo, and several other fruits are particularised, but
the historical books make no mention either of the pine-apple or the
plantain, which appear to have been of comparatively recent
introduction. Pulse is alluded to at an early date under the generic
designation of "Masá."[1]
[Footnote 1: _Mahawanso_, ch. xxiii. p. 140.]
_Rice and Curry._--Rice in various forms is always spoken of as the
food, alike of the sovereign, the priests, and the people; rice prepared
plainly, conjee (the water in which rice is boiled), "rice mixed with
sugar and honey, and rice dressed with clarified butter."[1] Chillies
are now and then mentioned as an additional condiment.[2] The _Rajavali_
speaks of curry in the second century before Christ[3] and the
_Mahawanso_ in the fifth century after.[4]
[Footnote 1: _Ibid_., ch. xxxii. p. 196.]
[Footnote 2: _Ibid_., ch. xxv, p. 158; ch. xxvi. p. 160.]
[Footnote 3: _Rajavali_, pp. 196, 200, 202.]
[Footnote 4: _Mahawanso_, TURNOUR'S MS. translation, ch. xxxix.
KNOX says that curry is a Portuguese word, _carré_ (_Relation_, &c.,
part i. ch. iv. p. 12), but this is a misapprehension. Professor H.H.
WILSON, in a private letter to me, says, "In Hindustan we are accustomed
to consider 'curry' to be derived from, _tarkari_, a general term for
esculent vegetables, but it is probably the English version of the
Kanara and Malayalam _kadi_; pronounced with a hard _r_, 'kari' or
'kuri,' which means sour milk with rice boiled, which was originally
used for such compounds as curry at the present day. The Karnata
_majkke-kari_ is a dish of rice, sour milk, spices, red pepper, &c,
&c."]
Although the taking of life is sternly forbidden in the ethical code of
Buddha, and the most prominent of the obligations undertaken by the
priesthood is directed to its preservation even in the instances of
insects and animalculæ, casuistry succeeded so far as to fix the crime
on the slayer, and to exonerate the individual who merely partook of the
flesh.[1] Even the inmates of the wiharas and monasteries discovered
devices for the saving of conscience, and curried rice was not rejected
in consequence of the animal ingredients incorporated with it. The mass
of the population were nevertheless vegetarians, and so little value did
they place on animal food, that according to the accounts furnished to
EDRISI by the Arabian seamen returning from Ceylon, "a sheep sufficient
to regale an assembly was to be bought there for half a drachm."[2]
[Footnote 1: HARDY'S _Eastern Monachism,_ ch. iv. p. 24; ch. ix. p. 92;
ch. xvi. p. 158. HARDY'S _Buddhism_, ch. vii. p. 327.]
[Footnote 2: EDRISI; _Géographie_, &c., tom. i. p. 73.]
_Betel_--In connection with a diet so largely composed of vegetable
food, arose the custom, which to the present day is universal in
Ceylon,--of chewing the leaves of the betel vine, accompanied with lime
and the sliced nut of the areca palm.[1] The betel (_piper betel_),
which is now universally cultivated for this purpose, is presumed to
have been introduced from some tropical island, as it has nowhere been
found indigenous in continental India.[2] In Ceylon, its use is
mentioned as early as the fifth century before Christ, when "betel
leaves" formed the present sent by a princess to her lover.[3] In a
conflict of Dutugaimunu with the Malabars, B.C. 161, the enemy seeing on
his lips the red stain of the betel, mistook it for blood, and spread
the false cry that the king had been slain.[4]
[Footnote 1: For an account of the medicinal influence of betel-chewing,
see Part I. c. iii. § ii. p. 112.]
[Footnote 2: ROYLE'S _Essay on the Antiquity of Hindoo Medicine, p._
85.]
[Footnote 3: B. C. 504. _Mahawanso_, ch. ix. p. 57. Dutugaimunu, when
building the Ruanwellé dagoba, provided for the labourers amongst other
articles "the five condiments used in mastication." This probably refers
to the chewing of betel and its accompaniments (_Mahawanso_, ch. xxx. p.
175). A story is told of the wife of a Singhalese minister, about A. D.
56, who to warn him of a conspiracy, sent him his "betel, &c., for
mastication, omitting the chunam," hoping that coming in search of it,
he might escape his "impending fate." _Mahawanso_, ch. xxxv. p. 219.]
[Footnote 4: _Rajavali_, p. 221.]
Intoxicating liquors are of sufficient antiquity to be denounced in the
moral system of Buddhism. The use of toddy and drinks obtained from the
fermentation of "bread and flour" is condemned in the laity, and
strictly prohibited to the priesthood[1]; but the Arabian geographers
mention that in the twelfth century, wine, in defiance of the
prohibition, was imported from Persia, and drank by the Singhalese after
being flavoured with cardamoms.[2]
[Footnote 1: HARDY'S _Buddhism_, e., ch. x. p. 474.]
[Footnote 2: EDRISI, _Geographle,_ &c., Trad. JAUBERT, tom. i. p. 73.]
CHAP. III
EARLY COMMERCE, SHIPPING, AND PRODUCTIONS.
TRADE.--At a very early period the mass of the people of Ceylon were
essentially agricultural, and the proportion of the population addicted
to other pursuits consisted of the small number of handicraftsmen
required in a community amongst whom civilisation and refinement were so
slightly developed, that the bulk of the inhabitants may be said to have
had few wants beyond the daily provision of food.
Upon trade the natives appear to have looked at all times with
indifference. Other nations, both of the east and west of Ceylon, made
the island their halting-place and emporium; the Chinese brought thither
the wares destined for the countries beyond the Euphrates, and the
Arabians and Persians met them with their products in exchange; but the
Singhalese appear to have been uninterested spectators of this busy
traffic, in which they can hardly be said to have taken any share. The
inhabitants of the opposite coast of India, aware of the natural wealth
of Ceylon, participated largely in its development, and the Tamils, who
eagerly engaged in the pearl fishery, gave to the gulf of Manaar the
name of Salabham, "the sea of gain."[l]
[Footnote 1: The Tamils gave the same name to Chilaw, which was the
nearest town to the pearl fishery (and which Ibn Batuta calls
_Salawat_); and eventually they called the whole island _Salabham_.]
_Native Shipping._--The only mention made of native ships in the sacred
writings of the Singhalese, is in connection with missions, whether for
the promotion of Buddhism, or for the negotiation of marriages and
alliances with the princes of India.[1] The building of dhoneys is
adverted to as early as the first century, but they were only intended
by a devout king to be stationed along the shores of the island, covered
by day with white cloths, and by night illuminated with lamps, in order
that from them priests, as the royal almoners, might distribute gifts
and donations of food.[2]
[Footnote 1: TURNOUR'S _Epitome_, App. p. 73.]
[Footnote 2: By King Maha Dailiya, A.D. 8. _Mahawanso_, ch. xxxiv. p.
211; _Rajavali_, p. 228; _Rajaratnacari_, p. 52.]
The genius of the people seems to have never inclined them to a
sea-faring life, and the earliest notice which occurs of ships for the
defence of the coast, is in connection with the Malabars who were taken
into the royal service from their skill in naval affairs.[1] A national
marine was afterwards established for this purpose, A.D. 495, by the
King Mogallana.[2] In the _Suy-shoo_, a Chinese history of the Suy
dynasty, it is stated that in A.D. 607, the king of Ceylon "sent the
Brahman Kew-mo-lo with thirty vessels, to meet the approaching ships
which conveyed an embassy from China."[3] And in the twelfth century,
when Prakrama I. was about to enter on his foreign expeditions, "several
hundreds of vessels were equipped for that service within five
months."[4]
[Footnote 1: B.C. 247. _Mahawanso_, ch. xxi. p. 127.]
[Footnote 2: _Mahawanso_, ch. xl. TURNOUR'S MS. Transl.]
[Footnote 3: _Suy-shoo_, b. lxxxi. p. 3.]
[Footnote 4: TURNOUR'S _Epitome_, &c., App. p. 73.]
It is remarkable that the same apathy to navigation, if not antipathy to
it, still prevails amongst the inhabitants of an island, the long
sea-borde of which affords facilities for cultivating a maritime taste,
did any such exist. But whilst the natives of Hindustan fit out
sea-going vessels, and take service as sailors for distant voyages, the
Singhalese, though most expert as fishers and boatmen, never embark in
foreign vessels, and no instance exists of a native ship, owned, built,
or manned by Singhalese.
The boats which are in use at the present day, and which differ
materially in build at different parts of the island, appear to have
been all copied from models supplied by other countries. In the south
the curious canoes, which attract the eye of the stranger arriving at
Point de Galle by their balance-log and outrigger, were borrowed from
the islanders of the Eastern Archipelago; the more substantial canoe
called a _ballam_, which is found in the estuaries and shallow lakes
around the northern shore, is imitated from one of similar form on the
Malabar coast; and the catamaran is common to Ceylon and Coromandel. The
awkward dhoneys, built at Jaffna, and manned by Tamils, are imitated
from those at Madras; while the Singhalese dhoney, south of Colombo, is
but an enlargement of the Galle canoe with its outrigger, so clumsily
constructed that the gunwale is frequently topped by a line of
wicker-work smeared with clay, to protect the deck front the wash of the
sea.[1]
[Footnote 1: The gunwale of the boat of Ulysses was raised by hurdles of
osiers to keep off the waves.
[Greek: Phraxe de min rhipessi diamperes oisuinêsi Kumatos eilar emen
pollên d' epecheuato hulên.] _Od._ v. 256.]
One peculiarity in the mode of constructing the native shipping of
Ceylon existed in the remotest times, and is retained to the present
day. The practice is closely connected with one of the most imaginative
incidents in the medieval romances of the East Their boats and canoes,
like those of the Arabs and other early navigators who crept along the
shores of India, are put together without the use of iron nails[1], the
planks being secured by wooden bolts, and stitched together with cords
spun from the fibre of the coconut.[2]
PALLADIUS, a Greek of the lower empire, to whom is ascribed an account
of the nations of India, written in the fifth century[3], adverts to
this peculiarity of construction, and connects it with the phenomenon
which forms so striking an incident in one of the tales in the _Arabian
Nights' Entertainments_. In the story of the "Three Royal Mendicants,"
the "Third Calender," as he is called in the old translation, relates to
the ladies of Bagdad, in whose house he is entertained, how he and his
companions lost their course, when sailing in the Indian Ocean, and
found themselves in the vicinity of "the mountain of loadstone towards
which the current carried them with violence, and when the ships
approached it they fell asunder, and the nails and everything that was
of iron flew from them towards the loadstone."
[Footnote 1: DELAURIER, Études sur la "_Relation des voyages faits par
les Arabes et les Persans dans l'Inde." Journ. Asiat._ tom. xlix. p.
137. See also MALTE BRUN, _Hist. de Géogr._ tom. i. p. 409, with the
references to the Periplus Mar. Erythr., Strabo, Procopius, &c. GIBBON,
_Decl. and Fall_, vol. v. ch. xl.]
[Footnote 2: Boats thus sewn together existed at an early period on the
coast of Arabia as well as of Ceylon. Odoric of Friuli saw them at Ormus
in the fourteenth century (_Hakluyt_, vol. ii. p. 35); and the
construction of ships without iron was not peculiar to the Indian seas,
as Homer mentions that the boat built by Ulysses was put together with
woolen pegs, [Greek: _gomphoisin_], instead of bolts. _Odys_. v. 249.]
[Footnote 3: The tract alluded to is usually known as tne treatise _de
Moribus Brachmanorum_, and ascribed to St. Ambrose. For an account of it
see Vol. I. Pt. v. ch. i. p. 538.]
The learned commentator, LANE, says that several Arab writers describe
this mountain of loadstone, and amongst others he instances El Caswini,
who lived in the latter half of the thirteenth century.[1] EDRISI, the
Arab geographer, likewise alludes to it; but the invention belongs to an
earlier age, and Palladius, in describing Ceylon, says that the magnetic
rock is in the adjacent islands called Maniolæ (Maldives?), and that
ships coming within the sphere of its influence are irresistibly drawn
towards it, and lose all power of progress except in its direction.
Hence it is essential, he adds, that vessels sailing for Ceylon _should
be fastened with wooden instead of iron bolts_.[2]
[Footnote 1: LANE'S _Arabian Nights_, vol. i. ch. iii, p. 72, p. 242.]
[Footnote 2: [Greek: "Esti de idikôs ta diaperônta ploia eis ekeinên tên
megalên nêson aneu sidêrou epiouriois xylinois
kataskeuasmena"]--PALLADIUS, in _Pseudo-Callisthenes_, lib. iii. c. vii.
But the fable of the loadstone mountain is older than either the Arabian
sailors or the Greeks of the lower empire. Aristotle speaks of a
magnetic mountain on the coast of India, and Pliny repeats the story,
adding that "si sint clavi in calciamentis, vestigia avelli in altero
non posse in altero sisti."--Lib. ii. c. 98, lib. xxxvi. c. 25. Ptolemy
recounts a similar fable in his geography. Klaproth, in his _Lettre sur
la Boussole_, says that this romantic belief was first communicated to
the West from China. "Les anciens auteurs Chinois parlent aussi de
montagnes magnétiques de la mer méridionale sur les côtes de Tonquin et
de la Cochin Chine; et disent que si les vaisseaux étrangers qui sont
garnis de plaques de fer s'en approchent ils y sont arrètés et aucun
d'eux ne peut passer par ces endroits."--KLAPROTH, _Lett._ v. p. 117,
quoted by SANTAREM, _Essai sur l'Histo. de Cosmogr._, vol. i. p. 182.]
Another peculiarity of the native craft on the west coast of Ceylon is
their construction with a prow at each extremity, a characteristic which
belongs also to the Massoula boats of Madras, as well as to others on
the south of India. It is a curious illustration of the abiding nature
of local usages when originating in necessities and utility, that
STRABO, in describing the boats in which the traffic was carried on
between Taprobane and the continent, says they were "built with prows at
each end, but without holds or keels."[1]
[Footnote 1: [Greek: "Kateskeuasmenas de amphoterôthen enkoiliôn mêtrôn
chôris."]--Lib xv. c. i. s. 14. Pliny, who makes the same statement,
says the Singhalese adopted this model to avoid the necessity of tacking
in the narrow and shallow channels, between Ceylon and the mainland of
India (lib. vi. c. 24).]
In connection with foreign trade the _Mahawanso_ contains repeated
allusions to ships wrecked upon the coast of Ceylon[1], and amongst the
remarkable events which signalised the season, already rendered
memorable by the birth of Dutugaimunu, B.C. 204, was the "arrival on the
same day of seven ships laden with golden utensils and other goods;"[2]
and as these were brought by order of the king to Mahagam, then the
capital of Rohuna, the incident is probably referable to the foreign
trade which was then carried on in the south of the island[3] by the
Chinese and Arabians, and in which, as I have stated, the native
Singhalese took no part.
[Footnote 1: B.C. 543. _Mahawanso_, ch. vii. p. 49: B.C. 306. Ibid. ch.
xi. p. 68, &c.]
[Footnote 2: _Mahawanso_, ch. xxii. p. 135.]
[Footnote 3: The first direct intimation of trading carried on by native
Singhalese, along the coast of Ceylon, occurs in the _Rajavali_, but not
till the year A.D. 1410,--the king, who had made Cotta his capital,
being represented as "loading a vessel with goods and sending it to
Jaffna, to carry on commerce with his son."--_Rajavali_, p. 289.]
Still, notwithstanding their repugnance to intercourse with strangers,
the Singhalese were not destitute of traffic amongst themselves, and
their historical annals contain allusions to the mode in which it was
conducted. Their cities exhibited rows of shops and bazaars[1], and the
country was traversed by caravans much in the same manner as the drivers
of _tavalams_ carry goods at the present day between the coast and the
interior.[2]
[Footnote 1: B.C. 204, a visitor to Anarajapoora is described as
"purchasing aromatic drugs from the bazaars, and departing by the
Northern Gate" (_Mahawanso_, ch. xxiii. p. 139); and A.D. 8, the King
Maha Dathika "ranged shops on each side of the streets of the
capital."--_Mahawanso_, ch. xxxiv. p. 213.]
[Footnote 2: B.C. 170. _Mahawanso_ ch. xxii. p. 138.]
Whatever merchandise was obtained in barter from foreign ships, was by
this means conveyed to the cities and the capital[1], and the reference
to carts which were accustomed to go from Anarajapoora to the division
of Malaya, lying round Adam's Peak, "to procure saffron and ginger,"
implies that at that period (B.C. 165) roads and other facilities for
wheel carriages must have existed, enabling them to traverse forests and
cross the rivers.[2]
[Footnote 1: In the reign of Elala, B.C. 204, the son of "an eminent
caravan chief" was despatched to a Brahman, who resided near the Chetiyo
mountain (Mihintala), in whose possession there were rich articles,
frankincense, sandal-wood, &c., imported from beyond the
ocean.--_Mahawanso_ ch. xxiii. p. 138.]
[Footnote 2: _Mahawanso_ ch. xxviii. p, 167.]
_Early Exports of Ceylon._--The native historians give an account of the
exports of Ceylon, which corresponds in all particulars with the records
left by the early travellers and merchants, Greek, Roman, Arabian,
Indian, and Chinese. They consisted entirely of natural productions,
aromatic drugs, gems, pearls, and shells; and it is a strong evidence of
the more advanced state of civilisation in India at the same period
that, whilst the presents sent from the kings of Ceylon to the native
princes of Hindustan and the Dekkan were always of this precious but
primitive character, the articles received in return were less
remarkable for the intrinsic value of the material, than for the
workmanship bestowed upon them. Devenipiatissa sent by his ambassadors
to Asoca, B.C. 306, the eight varieties of pearls, viz., _haya_ (the
horse), _gaja_ (the elephant), _ratha_ (the chariot wheel), _maalaka_
(the nelli fruit), _valaya_ (the bracelet), _anguliwelahka_ (the ring),
_kakudaphala_ (the kabook fruit), and _pakatika_, the ordinary
description. He sent sapphires, lapis lazuli[1], and rubies, a right
hand chank[2], and three bamboos for chariot poles, remarkable because
their natural marking resembled the carvings of flowers and animals.
[Footnote 1: Lapis lazuli is not found in Ceylon, and must have been
brought by the caravans from Budakshan. It is more than once mentioned
in the _Mahawanso_, ch. xi. p. 69; ch. xxx. p. 185.]
[Footnote 2: A variety of the _Turbinella rapa_ with the whorls
reversed, to which the natives attach a superstitions value; professing
that a shell so formed is worth its weight in gold.]
The gifts sent by the king of Magadha in return, indicate the advanced
state of the arts in Bengal, even at that early period: they were "a
chowrie (the royal fly flapper), a diadem, a sword of state, a royal
parasol, golden slippers, a crown, an anointing vase, asbestos towels,
to be cleansed by being passed through the fire, a costly howdah, and
sundry vessels of gold." Along with these was sacred water from the
Anotatto lake and from the Ganges, aromatic and medicinal drugs, hill
paddi and sandal-wood; and amongst the other items "a virgin of royal
birth and of great personal beauty."[1]
[Footnote 1: _Mahawanso_ ch, xi. pp. 69, 70.]
_Early Imports_.--Down to a very late period, gems, pearls, and chank
shells continued to be the only products taken away from Ceylon, and
cinnamon is nowhere mentioned in the Sacred Books as amongst the exports
of the island.[1] In return for these exports, slaves, chariots, and
horses were frequently transmitted from India. The riding horses and
chargers, so often spoken of[2], must necessarily have been introduced
from thence, and were probably of Arab blood; but I have not succeeded
in discovering to what particular race the "Sindhawa" horses belonged,
of which four purely white were harnessed to the state carriage of
Dutugaimunu.[3] Gold cloth[4], frankincense, and sandal-wood were
brought from India[5], as was also a species of "clay" and of
"cloud-coloured stone," which appear to have been used in the
construction of dagobas.[6] Silk[7] and vermilion[8] indicate the
activity of trade with China; and woollen cloth[9] and carpets[10] with
Persia and Kashmir.
[Footnote 1: For an account of the earliest trade in cinnamon, see
_post_ Part v. ch. ii. on the Knowledge of Ceylon possessed by the
Arabians.]
[Footnote 2: _Mahawanso_, ch. xxii. p. 134, &c. &c.]
[Footnote 3: _Ibid_., ch. xxiii. p. 142; ch. xxxi. p. 186.]
[Footnote 4: A.D.459. _Mahawanso_, ch. xxxviii. p. 258.]
[Footnote 5: _Ibid_, ch. xxiii. p. 138.]
[Footnote 6: _Ibid_, ch. xxix. p. 169; ch. xxx. p. 179.]
[Footnote 7: _Ibid_., ch. xxiii. p. 139; _Rajaratnacari_, p. 49.]
[Footnote 8: _Ibid_, ch. xxix. p. 169; _Rajaratnacari_ p. 51.]
[Footnote 9: _Mahawanso_, ch. xxx. p. 177; _Rajavali_, p. 269. Woollen
cloth is described as "most valuable"--an epithet which indicates its
rarity, and probably foreign origin.]
[Footnote 10: _Mahawanso_, ch. xiv. p. 82; ch. xv. p. 87; ch. xxv. p.
151; carpets of wool, _ib_. ch. xxvii. p. 164.]
_Intercourse with Kashmir._--Possibly the woollen cloths referred to may
have been shawls, and there is evidence in the _Rajatarangini_[1], that
at a very early period the possession of a common religion led to an
intercourse between Ceylon and Kashmir, originating in the sympathies of
Buddhism, but perpetuated by the Kashmirians for the pursuit of
commerce. In the fabulous period of the narrative, a king of Kashmir is
said to have sent to Ceylon for a delicately fine cloth, embroidered
with golden footsteps.[2] In the eighth century of the Christian era,
Singhalese engineers were sent for to construct works in Kashmir[3]; and
Kashmir, according to Troyer, took part in the trade between Ceylon and
the West.[4]
[Footnote 1: The _Rajatarangini_ resembles the _Mahawanso_, in being a
metrical chronicle of Kashmir written at various times by a series of
authors, the earliest of whom lived in the 12th century. It has been
translated into French by M. Troyer, Paris, 1840.]
[Footnote 2: _Rajatarangini_, b. i. sl. 294.]
[Footnote 3: _Rajatarangini_, b. iv. sl. 502, &c.]
[Footnote 4: "La communication entre Kachmir et Ceylan n'a pas eu lieu
seulement par les entreprises guerrières que je viens de rappeler, mais
aussi par un commerce paisible; c'est du cette ile que venaient des
artistes qu'on appelait Rakchasas à cause du merveilleux de leur art; et
qui exécutaient des ouvrages pour l'utilité et pour l'ornement d'un pays
montagneux et sujet aux inondations. Ceci confirme ce que nous
apprennent les géographes Grecs, que Ceylan, avant et après le
commencement de notre ère, était un grand point de réunion pour le
commerce de l'Orient et de l'Occident."--_Rajatarangini_, vol. ii. p.
434.]
Of the trade between Ceylon and Kashmir and its progress, the account
given by Edrisi, the most renowned of the writers on eastern geography,
who wrote in the twelfth century[1], is interesting, inasmuch as it may
be regarded as a picture of this remarkable commerce, after it had
attained its highest development.
[Footnote 1: Abou-abd-allah Mahommed was a Moor of the family who
reigned over Malaga after the fall of the Kalifat of Cordova, in the
early part of the 11th century, and his patronymic of Edrisi or Al
Edrissy implies that he was descended from the princes of that race who
had previously held supreme power in what is at the present day the
Empire of Morocco. He took up his residence in Sicily under the
patronage of the Norman king, Roger II., A.D. 1154, and the work on
geography which he there composed was not only based on the previous
labours of Massoudi, Ibn Haukul, Albyrouni, and others, but it embodied
the reports of persons commissioned specially by the king to undertake
voyages for the purpose of bringing back correct accounts of foreign
countries. See REINAUD'S _Introduction to the Geography of Abulfeda_, p.
cxiii.]
Edrisi did not write from personal knowledge, as he had never visited
either Ceylon or India; but compiling as he did, by command of Roger H.,
of Sicily, a compendium, of geographical knowledge as it existed in his
time, the information which he has systematised may be regarded as a
condensation of such facts as the eastern seamen engaged in the Indian
trade had brought back with them from Ceylon.
"In the mountains around Adam's Peak," says Edrisi, "they collect
precious stones of every description, and in the valleys they find those
diamonds by means of which they engrave the setting of stones on rings."
"The same mountains produce aromatic drugs perfumes, and aloes-wood, and
there too they find the animal, the civet, which yields musk. The
islanders cultivate rice, coco-nuts, and sugar-cane; in the rivers is
found rock crystal, remarkable both for brilliancy and size, and the sea
on every side has a fishery of magnificent and priceless pearls.
Throughout India there is no prince whose wealth can compare with the
King of Serendib, his immense riches, his pearls and his jewels, being
the produce of his own dominions and seas; and thither ships of China,
and of every neighbouring country resort, bringing the wines of Irak and
Fars, which the king buys for sale to his subjects; for he drinks wine
and prohibits debauchery; whilst other princes of India encourage
debauchery and prohibit the use of wine. The exports from Serendib
consist of silk, precious stones, crystals, diamonds, and perfumes."[1]
[Footnote 1: Edrisi, _Géographie_, Trad. JAUBERT, tom. i. p. 73.]
CHAP. IV.
MANUFACTURES.
The silk alluded to in the last chapter must have been brought from
China for re-exportation to the West. Silk is frequently mentioned in
the _Mahawanso_[1] but never with any suggestion of its being a native
product of Ceylon.
[Footnote 1: Silk is mentioned 20 B.C. _Rajaratnacari_, p. 49.
_Mahawanso_, ch. xxiii. p. 139.]
_Coir and Cordage._--EDRISI speaks of cordage made from the fibre of the
coco-nut, to prepare which, the natives of Oman and Yemen resorted to
Ceylon[1]; so that the Singhalese would appear to have been instructed
by the Arabs in the treatment of coir, and its formation into ropes; an
occupation which, at the present day, affords extensive employment to
the inhabitants of the south and south-western coasts. Ibn Batuta
describes the use of coir, for sewing together the planking of boats, as
it was practised at Zafar in the fourteenth century[2]; and the word
itself bespeaks its Arabian origin, as ALBYROUNI, who divides the
Maldives and Laccadives into two classes, calls the one group the
_Dyvah-kouzah_, or islands that produce _cowries_; and the other the
_Dyvah-kanbar_, or islands that produce _coir_.[3]
[Footnote 1: EDRISI, t. i. p. 74.]
[Footnote 2: _Voyages_, &c., vol. ii. p. 207. Paris, 1854.]
[Footnote 3: ALBYROUNI, in REYNAUD, _Fragm. Arabes, &c.,_ pp, 93, 124
The Portuguese adopted the word from the Hindus, and CASTANEDA, in
_Hist. of the Discovery of India,_ describes the Moors of Sofalah sewing
their boats with "_cayro"_ ch. v, 14, xxx. 75.]
_Dress_.--The dress of the people was of the simplest kind, and similar
to that which is worn at the present day. The bulk of the population
wore scanty cloths, without shape or seam, folded closely round the body
and the portion of the limbs which it is customary to cover; and the
Chinese, who visited the island in the seventh century, described the
people as clothed in the loose robe, still known as a "comboy," a word
probably derived from the Chinese _koo-pei_, which signifies cotton.[1]
[Footnote 1: See Part v. ch. iii. on the Knowledge of Ceylon possessed
by the Chinese.]
The wealthier classes indulged in flowing robes, and Bujas Dasa the
king, who in the fourth century devoted himself to the study of medicine
and the cure of the sick, was accustomed, when seeking objects for his
compassion, to appear as a common person, simply "disguising himself by
gathering his cloth up between his legs."[1] Robes with flowers[2], and
a turban of silk, constituted the dress of state bestowed on men whom
the king delighted to honour.[3] Cloth of gold is spoken of in the fifth
century, but the allusion is probably made to the kinbaub of India.[4]
[Footnote 1: _Mahawanso,_ ch. xxxvii. p.245.]
[Footnote 2: By the ordinances of Buddhism it was forbidden to the
priesthood "to adorn the body with flowers," thus showing it to have
been a practice of the laity. HARDY'S _Eastern Monachism_, ch. iv. p.24;
ch. xiii p.128.]
[Footnote 3: _Mahawanso_, ch. xxiii. p.139.]
[Footnote 4: _Ibid._, ch. xxxviii. p.258.]
MANUAL AND MECHANICAL ARTS. _Weaving_.--The aborigines practised the art
of weaving before the arrival of Wijayo. Kuweni, when the adventurer
approached her, was "seated at the foot of a tree, spinning thread;"[1]
cotton was the ordinary material, but "linen cloth" is mentioned in the
second century before Christ.[2] White cloths are spoken of as having
been employed, in the earliest times, in every ceremony for covering
chairs on which persons of rank were expected to be seated; whole "webs
of cloth" were used to wrap the _carandua_ in which the sacred relics
were enclosed[3], and one of the kings, on the occasion of consecrating
a dagoba at Mihintala, covered with "white cloth" the road taken by the
procession between the mountain and capital, a distance of more than
seven miles.[4]
[Footnote 1: _Mahawanso_, ch. vii. p.48; _Rajavali_, p.173.]
[Footnote 2: _Mahawanso_, ch, xxv. p.152.]
[Footnote 3: _Rajaratnacari_, p.72.]
[Footnote 4: A.D. 8. _Rajavali,_ p. 227; _Mahawanso_, ch. xxxiv. p.
213.]
In later times a curious practice prevailed, which exists to the present
day;--on occasions when it is intended to make offerings of yellow robes
to the priesthood, the cotton was plucked from the tree at daybreak, and
"cleaned, spun, woven, dyed, and made into garments" before the setting
of the sun. This custom, called _Catina Dhawna,_ is first referred to in
the _Rajaratnacari_ in the reign of Prakrarna I.[1], A.D. 1153.
[Footnote 1: See _ante_, Vol. II p. 35. _Rajaratnacari_, pp. 104, 109,
112, 135; _Rajavali_, p. 261; HARDY'S _Eastern Monachism_, ch. xii. pp.
114, 121.]
The expression "made into garments" alludes to the custom enjoined on
the priests of having the value of the material destroyed, before
consenting to accept it as a gift, thus carrying out their vow of
poverty. The robe of Gotama Buddha was cut into thirty pieces, these
were again united, so that they "resembled the patches of ground in a
rice field;" and hence he enjoined on his followers the observance of
the same practice.[1]
[Footnote 1: HARDY'S _Eastern Monachism,_ ch. xii. p. 117. See _ante_,
Vol. I. Pt. III. ch. iv. p. 351.]
The arts of bleaching and dyeing were understood as well as that of
weaving, and the _Mahawanso_, in describing the building of the
Ruanwellé dagoba, at Anarajapoora, B.C. 161, tells of a canopy formed of
"eight thousand pieces of cloth of every hue."[1]
[Footnote 1: _Mahawanso_, ch. xxx. p. 179, See also ch. xxxviii. p.
258.]
_Earliest Artisans._--VALENTYN, writing on the traditional information
acquired from the Singhalese themselves, records the belief of the
latter, that in the suite of the Pandyan princess, who arrived to marry
Wijayo, were artificers from Madura, who were the first to introduce the
knowledge and practice of handicrafts amongst the native population.
According to the story, these were goldsmiths, blacksmiths,
brass-founders, carpenters, and stone-cutters.[1]
[Footnote 1: VALENTYN, _Oud en Niew Oost-Indien_, chap. iv. p. 267.]
The legend is given with more particularity in an historical notice of
the Chalia caste, written by Adrian Rajapaxa, one of their chiefs, who
describes these immigrants as Peskare Brahmans, who were at first
employed in weaving gold tissues for the queen, but who afterwards
abandoned that art for agriculture. A fresh company were said to have
been invited in the reign of Devenipiatissa, and were the progenitors of
"Saleas, at present called Chalias," who inhabit the country between
Galle and Colombo, and who, along with their ostensible occupation as
peelers of cinnamon, still employ themselves in the labours of the
loom.[1] All handicrafts are conventionally regarded by the Singhalese
as the occupations of an inferior class; and a man of high caste would
submit to any privation rather than stoop to an occupation dependent on
manual skill.
[Footnote 1: A History of the Chalias, by ADRIAN RAJAPAXA. _Asiatic
Res_. vol. vii. p. 440. _Ib_., vol. x. p. 82.]
_Pottery_.--One of the most ancient arts, the making of earthenware
vessels, exists at the present day in all its pristine simplicity, and
the "potter's wheel," which is kept in motion by an attendant, whilst
the hands of the master are engaged in shaping the clay as it revolves,
is the primitive device which served a similar purpose amongst the
Egyptians and Hebrews.[1]
[Footnote 1: Pottery is mentioned in the _Mahawanso_, B.C. 161, ch.
xxix. p. 173: the allusion is to "new earthen vases," and shows that the
people at that time, like the Hindus of today, avoided where possible
the repeated use of the same vessel.]
A "potter" is enumerated in the list of servants and tradesmen attached
to the temple on the Rock of Mihintala, A.D. 262, along with a
sandal-maker, blacksmiths, carpenters, stone-cutters, goldsmiths, and
"makers of strainers" through which the water for the priests was
filtered, to avoid taking away the life of animalculæ. The other
artisans on the establishment were chiefly those in charge of the
buildings, lime-burners, plasterers, white-washers, painters, and a
chief builder.
_Glass_.--Glass, the knowledge of which existed in Egypt and in
India[1], was introduced into Ceylon at an early period; and in the
_Dipawanso_, a work older than the _Mahawanso_ by a century and a half,
it is stated that Saidaitissa, the brother of Dutugaimunu, when
completing the Ruanwellé dagoba, which his predecessor had commenced,
surmounted it with a "glass pinnacle." This was towards the end of the
second century before Christ. Glass is frequently mentioned at later
periods; and a "glass mirror" is spoken of[2] in the third century
before Christ, but how made, whether by an amalgam of quicksilver or by
colouring the under surface, is not recorded.
[Footnote 1: Dr. ROYLE'S _Lectures on the Arts and Manufactures of
India_, 1852, p. 221. PLINY says the glass of India being made of
pounded crystal, none other can compare with it. (Lib. xxxvi, c. 66.)]
[Footnote 2: _Mahawanso_, ch. xv. p. 99, ch. xxx. p. 182.]
_Leather_.--The tanning of leather from the hide of the buffalo was
understood so far back as the second century before Christ, and
"coverings both for the back and the feet of elephants" were then formed
of it.[1]
[Footnote 1: _Ibid_., ch. xxv. p. 152, ch. xxix. p. 169.]
_Wood-carving_.--Carving in sandal-wood and inlaying with ivory, of
which latter material "state fans and thrones" were constructed for the
Brazen Palace[1], are amongst the mechanical arts often alluded to; and
during the period of prosperity which signalised the era of the "Great
Dynasty," there can be little doubt that skilled artificers were brought
from India to adorn the cities and palaces of Ceylon.
[Footnote 1: _Ibid_., ch. xxvii. p. 163, 164.]
_Chemical Arts_.--A rude knowledge of chemical manipulation was required
for the extraction of camphor[1] and the preparation of numerous
articles specified amongst the productions of the island, aromatic
oils[2], perfumes[3], and vegetable dyes.
[Footnote 1: _Rajaratnacari_, p. 133. Dr. ROYLE doubts whether camphor
was known to the Hindus at this early period, but "camphor oil" is
repeatedly mentioned in the Singhalese chronicles amongst the articles
provided for the temples.--ROYLE'S _Essay on Hindoo Medicine_, p. 140;
_Rajaculi_, p. 190.]
[Footnote 2: _Mahawanso_, ch. xxv. p. 157.]
[Footnote 3: B.C. 161. _Mahawanso_, ch. xxx. p. 180.]
_Sugar_.--Sugar was obtained not only from the Palmyra and Kittool
palms[1], but also from the cane; which, besides being a native of
India, was also indigenous in Ceylon.[2] A "sugar mill" for expressing
its juice existed in the first century before Christ in the district of
the "Seven Corles,"[3] where fifteen hundred years afterwards a Dutch
governor of the island made an attempt to restore the cultivation of
sugar.
[Footnote 1: "Palm sugar," as distinguished from "cane sugar," is spoken
of in the _Mahawanso_ in the second century B.C. ch. xxvii. p. 163.]
[Footnote 2: "Cane sugar" is referred to in the _Mahawanso_ B.C. 161,
ch. xxvii. p. 162, ch. xxxi. p. 192.]
[Footnote 3: A.D. 77. _Mahawanso_, ch. xxxiv. p. 208.]
_Mineral Paints_.--Mineral preparations were made with success. Red
lead, orpiment, and vermilions are mentioned as pigments; but as it is
doubtful whether Ceylon produces quicksilver, the latter was probably
imported from. China[1] or India, where the method of preparing it has
long been known.
[Footnote 1: See _ante_, Vol. I. Part I. ch. i. p. 29. n. Both
quicksilver and vermilion are mentioned in the _Rajaratnacari_, p. 51,
as being in use in the year 20 B.C. Vermilion is also spoken of B.C. 307
in the _Mahawanso_, ch. xxvii. p. 162, c. The two passages in which
_vermilion_ is spoken of in the Old Testament, Jerem. xxii. 14, and
Ezek. xxiii. 14, both refer to the painting of walls and woodwork, a
purpose to which it would be scarcely suitable, were not the article
alluded to the opaque bisulphuret of mercury; and the same remark
applies to the vermilion used by the Singhalese. The bright red obtained
from the insect coccus (the _vermiculus_, whence the original term
"vermilion" is said to be derived) would be too transparent to be so
applied.]
There is likewise sufficient evidence in these and a number of other
preparations, as well in the notices of perfumes, camphor, and essential
oils, to show that the Singhalese, like the Hindus, had a very early
acquaintance with chemical processes and with the practice of
distillation, which they retain to the present day.[1] The knowledge of
the latter they probably acquired from the Arabs or Chinese.
[Footnote 1: "I was frequently visited by one old man, a priest, who had
travelled through Bengal, Burmah, Siam, and many other countries, and
who prided himself on being able _to make calomel_ much better than the
European doctors, as his preparation did not cause the falling out of
the teeth, soreness of the mouth, or salivation. He learnt the secret
from an ancient sage whom he met with in a forest on the continent of
India; and often when listening to him I was reminded of the mysteries
and crudities of the alchemists."--HARDY'S _Eastern Monachism_, Lond.
1850, ch. xxiii. p. 312.]
CHAP. V.
WORKING IN METALS.
METALS. _Iron_.--Working in metals was early understood in Ceylon.
Abundance of iron ore can be extracted from the mountains round Adam's
Peak; the black oxide is found on the eastern shore in the state of
iron-sand; and both are smelted with comparative ease by the natives.
Iron tools were in use for the dressing of stones; and in the third
century before Christ, the enclosed city of Wijittapoora was secured by
an "iron gate." [1]
[Footnote 1: _Mahawanso_, ch. xxv. p. 152.]
_Steel_.--The manufacture of arms involved the use of steel, the method
of tempering which was derived from the Hindus, by whom the _wootz_ was
prepared, of which, the genuine blades of Damascus are shown to have
been made, the beauty of their figuring being dependent on its peculiar
crystallisation. Ezekiel enumerates amongst the Indian imports of Tyre
"_bright iron_, calamus and cassia."[1]
[Footnote 1: ROYLE _on the Antiquity of Hindoo Medicine_, p. 98.
EZEKIEL, ch. xxvii. 19.]
_Copper_.--Copper was equally in demand, but, like silver and gold, it
is nowhere alluded to as a production of the island. In ancient, as in
modern, times, therefore, the numerous articles formed from this metal
were probably imported from India. The renowned Brazen. Palace of
Anarajapoora was so named from the quantity of copper used in its
construction. Bujas Raja, A.D. 359, covered a building at Attanagalla
with "tiles made of copper, and gilt with gold,"[1] and "two boats built
of brass," were placed near the Bo-Tree at the capital "to hold food for
the priests."[2] Before the Christian era, armour for elephants[3], and
vessels of large dimensions, cauldrons[4], and baths[5], were formed of
copper. The same material was used for the lamps, goblets[6], kettles,
and cooking utensils of the monasteries and wiharas.
[Footnote 1: _Rajaratnacari_, p. 73.]
[Footnote 2: _Ibid_., p. 60.]
[Footnote 3: _Rajavali_, p. 214.]
[Footnote 4: B.C. 204. _Rajavali_, p. 190.]
[Footnote 5: A.D. 1267, _Rajartnacari_, p. 104.]
[Footnote 6: _Rajaratnacari_, pp. 104, 134.]
_Bells_.--Bells were hung in the palaces[1], and bell-metal is amongst
the gifts to the temples recorded on the rock at Pollanarrua, A.D.
1187.[2]
[Footnote 1: _Mahawanso_, ch. xxi. pp. 128, 129.]
[Footnote 2: TURNOUR'S _Epitome, &c.,_ Appx. p. 91.]
_Bronze_.--Bronze was cast into figures of Buddha[1], and the
_Mahawanso_, describing the reign of Dhatu-Sena, A.D. 459, makes mention
of "sixteen bronze statues of virgins having the power of
locomotion."[2]
[Footnote 1: A.D. 275. _Mahawanso_, ch. xxxvii. p. 236; _Rajavali_, p.
l35.]
[Footnote 2: _Mahawanso_, ch. xxxviii. p. 257.]
_Lead_.--Lead was used during the wars of Dutugaimunu and Elala, and
poured molten over the attacking elephants during the siege of
Wijittapoora.[1] As lead is not a native product of Ceylon, it must have
been brought thither from Ava or Malwa.
[Footnote 1: _Mahawanso_, ch. xxv. p. 152.]
_Gold and Silver._--Ceylon, like the continent of India, produces no
silver and gold, save in the scantiest quantities.[1] The historical
books, in recording the splendour of the temples and their riches, and
the wealth lavished by the kings upon the priesthood, describe in
perpetually recurring terms, the multitude of ornaments and vessels made
of silver and gold. In early times the most precious of these were
received as gifts from the princes of India, and in the second century
before Christ the _Mahawanso_ records the arrival of ships in the south
of the island, "laden with golden utensils." The import of these might
possibly have been a relic of the early trade with the Phoenicians, whom
Homer, in a passage quoted by Strabo (l. xvi. c. 2. s. 24.), describes
as making these cups, and carrying across the sea for sale in the great
emporiums visited by these ships.[2] A variety of articles of silver are
spoken of at very early periods. Dutugaimunu, when building the great
dagoba, caused the circle of its base to be described by "a pair of
compasses made of silver, and pointed with gold;"[3] parasols, vases,
caranduas and numerous other regal or religious paraphernalia, were made
from this precious material. Gold was applied in every possible form and
combination to the decoration and furnishing of the edifices of
Buddhism;--"trees of gold with roots of coral,"[4] flowers formed of
gems with stems of silver[5], fringes of bullion mixed with pearls;
umbrellas, shields, chains, and jewelled statuettes[6], are described
with enthusiasm by the annalists of the national worship.
[Footnote 1: Amongst the miracles which signalised the construction of
the Ruanwellé dagoba at Anarajapoora was the sudden appearance in a
locality to the north-east of the capital of "sprouts" of gold above and
below the ground, and of silver in the vicinity of Adam's
Peak.--_Mahawanso_, ch. xxviii. pp. 166, 167.]
[Footnote 2: _Mahawanso_, ch. xxii. p. 153. [Greek]--Iliad, xxiii. 745.]
[Footnote 3: _Mahawanso_, ch. xxx. p. 172.]
[Footnote 4: Red coral, equal in its delicacy of tint to the
highly-prized specimens from the Mediterranean, is found in small
fragments on the sea-shore north of Point-de-Galle.]
[Footnote 5: _Mahawanso_, ch. xxx. p. 179.]
[Footnote 6: _Mahawanso_, ib. p. 180.]
The abundance of precious stones naturally led to their being
extensively mounted in jewelry, and in addition to those found in
Ceylon, diamonds[1] and lapis lazuli [2] (which must have been brought
thither from India and Persia) are classed with the sapphire and the
topaz, which are natives of the island.
[Footnote 1: _Rajaratnacari_, p. 61.]
[Footnote 2: _Mahawanso_, ch. xxx. p. 182.]
The same passion existed then, as now, for covering the person with
ornaments; gold, silver, and gems were fashioned into rings for the
ears, the nose, the fingers, and toes, into plates for the forehead, and
chains for the neck, into armlets, and bracelets, and anklets, and into
decorations of every possible form, not only for the women, but for men,
and, above all, for the children of both sexes. The poor, unable to
indulge in the luxury of precious metals, found substitutes in shells
and glass; and the extravagance of the taste was defended on the ground
that their brilliancy served to avert the malignity of "the evil eye"
from the wearer to the jewel.
_Gilding_.--Gilding was likewise understood by the Singhalese in all its
departments, both as applied to the baser metals and to other
substances--wood-work was gilded for preaching places[1] as was also
copper for roofing, cement for decorating walls, and stone for statuary
and carving.[2]
[Footnote 1: _Rajaratnacari_, p. 60.]
[Footnote 2: Rock inscription at Pollanarrua, A.D. 187--196.]
_Coin_.--Although the Singhalese through their sacred writings had a
knowledge of coined money, and of its existence in India from a period
little subsequent to the death of Gotama Buddha[1]; and although their
annalists give the names of particular coins in circulation[2], at
various times, no Singhalese money has yet been discovered of a date
antecedent to the eleventh century. The Chinese in the fifteenth century
spoke with admiration of the gold pieces struck by the kings of Ceylon,
which they found in circulation on their frequent visits to the emporium
at Galle[3]; but of these only a few very rare examples have been
preserved, one of which bears the effigy and name of Lokaiswaira[4], who
usurped the throne during a period of anarchy about A.D. 1070. Numbers
of small copper coins of the eleventh and twelfth centuries have from
time to time been dug up both in the interior and on the coast of the
island[5]. A quantity of these which were found in 1848 by Lieutenant
Evatt, when in command of a pioneer corps near the village of Ambogamoa,
were submitted to Mr. Vaux of the British Museum, and prove to belong to
the reign of Wijayo Bahu, A.D. 1071, Prakrama I., A.D. 1153, the Queen
Lilawatte, A.D. 1197, King Sahasamallawa, A.D. 1200, Darmasoka, A.D.
1208, and Bhuwaneka Bahu, A.D. 1303. These coins have one and all the
same device on the obverse,--a rude standing figure of the Raja holding
the _trisula_ in his left hand, and a flower in the right. His dress is
a flowing robe, the folds of which are indicated rather than imitated by
the artist; and on the reverse the same figure is seated, the name in
Nagari characters being placed beside the face[6].
[Footnote 1: The _Mahawanso_ mentions the existence of coined metals in
India in the tenth year of the reign of Kalasoka, a century from the
death of Buddha, ch. iv. p. 15. According to Hardy, in the most ancient
laws of the Buddhists the distinction is recognised between coined money
and bullion,--_Eastern Monachism,_ vol. vii. p. 66.]
[Footnote 2: The coins mentioned in the _Mahawanso, Rajaratnacari, and
Rajavali_ are as follows: B.C. 161, the _kahapanan (Mahawanso_, ch. xxx.
pp. 157, 175), which TURNOUR says was a gold coin worth ten _massakan_
or _massa_. The latter are "the pieces of gold formerly current in
Ceylon," a heap of which, according to the _Rajaratnacari_ (p. 48), was
seen by King Bhatia Tissa when he was permitted to penetrate into the
chamber of the Ruanwellé dagoba, A.D. 137. The silver massa, according
to TURNOUR, was valued at eightpence. These are repeatedly mentioned in
the _Rajaratnacari_ (A.D. 201, p. 60, A.D. 234, p. 62, A.D. 1262, p.
102, A.D. 1301, p. 107, A.D. 1462, p. 113). The _Rajavali_ speaks of
"gold massa" as in circulation in the time of Dutugaimunu, B.C. 161 (p.
201). The word _masa_ in Singhalese means "pulse," or any description of
"beans;" and it seems not improbable that the origin of the term as
applied to money may be traced to the practice in the early Indian
coinage of stamping small _lumps_ of metal to give them authentic
currency. It can only be a coincidence that the Roman term for an ingot
of gold was "_massa_" (Pliny, L. xxxiii. c. 19). These Singhalese massa
were probably similar to the "punched coins," having rude stamps without
effigies, and rarely even with letters, which have been turned up at
Kanooj, Oujein, and other places in Western India. A copper coin is
likewise mentioned in the fourteenth century, in the _Rajavali_, where
it is termed _carooshawpa_; the value of which UPHAM, without naming his
authority, says was "about a pice and a half."--p. 136.]
[Footnote 3: _Woo hëö pëen_ "Records of the Ming Dynasty," A.D. 1522, B.
lxviii. p. 5. _Suh Wan heen tung kaou_, "Antiquarian Researches," B.
ccxxxvi. p. 11.]
[Footnote 4: Two gold coins of Lokaiswaira are in the collection of the
British Museum, and will be found described by Mr. VAUX in the 16th vol.
of the _Numismatic Chronicle_, p. 121.]
[Footnote 5: There is a Singhalese coin figured in DAVY'S _Ceylon_, p.
245, the legend on which is turned upside down, but when reversed it
reads "_Sri Pa-re-kra-ma Bahu_."]
[Footnote 6: _Numismatic Chronicle_, vol. xvi. p. 124]
[Illustration]
The Kandyans, by whom these coins are frequently found, give the copper
pieces the name of Dambedenia _challies_, and tradition, with perfect
correctness, assigns them to the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, when
the kings of that period are believed to have had a mint at Dambedenia.
A quantity of coins similar in every respect to those dug up in Ceylon
have been found at Dipaldinia or Amarawati, on the continent of India,
near the mouth of the Kistna; a circumstance which might be accounted
for by the frequent intercourse between Ceylon and the coast, but which
is possibly referable to the fact recorded in the _Mahawanso_ that
Prakrama I., after his successful expedition against the King of Pandya,
caused money to be coined in his own name before retiring to Ceylon.[1]
[Footnote 1: _Mahawanso_, ch. lxxvi. pp. 298, 299, UPHAM's _Trans_. The
circumstance is exceedingly curious of coins of Prakrama, "identical"
with those found at Dambedenia, in Ceylon, having also been discovered
at Dipaldinia, on the opposite continent; and it goes far to confirm the
accuracy of the _Mahawanso_ as to the same king having coined money in
both places. Those found in the latter locality form part of the
Mackenzie Collection, and have been figured in the _Asiat. Researches_,
xvii. 597, and afterwards by Mr. PRINSEP in the _Journ. of the Asiat.
Soc. of Bengal_, vi. 301. See also a notice of Ceylon coins, in the
_Journ. As. Soc. Beng._ iv. 673, vi. 218; CASIE CHITTY, in the _Journ.
of the Ceylon Asiat. Soc.,_ 1847, p. 9, has given an account of a hoard
of copper coins found at Calpentyn in 1839; and Mr. Justice STARKE, in
the same journal, p. 149, has given a _resumé_ of the information
generally possessed as to the ancient coins of the island. PRINSEP's
paper on _Ceylon Coins_ will be found in vol. i. of the recent reprint
of his _Essays on Indian Antiquities_, p. 419. Lond. 1858.]