Ceylon; an Account of the Island Physical, Historical, and Topographical with Notices of Its Natural History Part 101

217.]

Abou-zeyd describes the rendezvous of the s.h.i.+ps arriving from Oman, where they met those bound for the Persian Gulf, as lying half-way between Arabia and China. "It was the centre," he says, "of the trade in aloes and camphor, in sandal-wood, ivory and lead."[1] This emporium he denominates "Kalah," and when we remember that lie is speaking of a voyage which he had not himself made, and of countries then very imperfectly known to the people of the West, we shall not be surprised that he calls it an island, or rather a peninsula.

[Footnote 1: ABOU-ZEYD, _Relation, &c._, vol. i. p. 93; REINAUD, _Disc._ p. lxxiv.]

According to him, it was at that period subject to the Maharaja of Zabedj, the sovereign of a singular kingdom of which little is known, but which appears to have been formed about the commencement of the Christian era; and which, in the eighth and ninth centuries, extended over the groups of islands south and west of Malacca, including Borneo, Java, and Sumatra, which had become the resort of a vast population of Indians, Chinese, and Malays.[1] The sovereign of this opulent empire had brought under his dominion the territory of the King of Comar, the southern extremity of the Dekkan[2], and at the period when Abou-zeyd wrote, he likewise claimed the sovereignty of "Kalah."

[Footnote 1: _Journ. Asiat._ vol. xlix. p. 206; ELPHINSTONE's _India_, b. iii. ch. x. p. 168; REINAUD, _Memoires sur l'Inde_, p. 39; _Introd._ ABOULFEDA, p. cccxc. Baron Walckenaer has ascertained, from the puranas and other Hindu sources, that the Great Dynasty of the Maharaja continued till A.D. 628, after which the islands were sub-divided into numerous sovereignties. See MAJOR's _Introduction to the Indian Voyages in the Fifteenth Century,_ in the _Hakluyt Soc. Publ._ p. xxvii.]

[Footnote 2: Ma.s.sOUDI relates the conquest of the kingdom of Comar by the Maharaja of Zabedj, nearly in the same words as it is told by Abou-zeyd; GILDEMEISTER, _Script. Arab_., pp. 145, 146. REINAUD.

_Memoires sur l'Inde_, p. 225.]

This incident is not mentioned in the Singhalese chronicles, but their silence is not to be regarded as conclusive evidence against its probability; the historians of the Hindus ignore the expedition of Alexander the Great, and it is possible that those of Ceylon, indifferent to all that did not directly concern the religion of Buddha, may have felt little interest in the fortunes of Galle, situated as it was at the remote extremity of the island, and in a region that hardly acknowledged a nominal allegiance to the Singhalese crown.

The a.s.sertion of Abou-zeyd as to the sovereignty of the Maharaja of Zabedj, at Kalah, is consistent with the statement of Soleyman in the first portion of the work, that "the island was in subjection to two monarchs;"[1] and this again agrees with the report of Sopater to Cosmas Indico-pleustes, who adds that the king who possessed the hyacinth was at enmity with the king of the country in which were the harbour and the great emporium.[2]

[Footnote 1: _Relation_, vol. i. p. 6.]

[Footnote 2: [Greek: Duo ie basileis eisin en te neso enantioi allelon, ho eis echon ton huakinthon, kai d eteros to meros to allo en ps esti emporion kai he leine.]

COSMAS INDIC.]

But there is evidence that the subjection of this portion of Ceylon to the chief of the great insular empire was at that period currently believed in the East. In the a "_Garsharsp-Namah_" a Persian poem of the tenth century, by Asedi, a ma.n.u.script of which was in the possession of Sir William Ouseley, the story turns on a naval expedition, fitted out by Delak, whose dominions extended from Persia to Palestine, and despatched at the request of the Maharaja against Baku, the King of Ceylon, and in the course of the narrative, Garsharsp and his fleet reach their destination at Kalah, and there achieve a victory over the "Shah of Serendib."[1]

[Footnote 1: OUSELEY'S _Travels_, vol. i. p. 48.]

It must be observed, that one form of the Arabic letter K is sounded like G, so that Kalah would be p.r.o.nounced _Gala_.[1] The ident.i.ty, however, is established not merely by similarity of sound, but by the concurrent testimony of Cosmas and the Arabian geographers[2], as to the nature and extent of the intercourse between China and Persia, statements which are intelligible if referred to that particular point, but inapplicable to any other.

[Footnote 1: _Kalah_ may possibly be identical with the Singhalese word _gala_, which means an "enclosure," and the deeply bayed harbour of Galle would serve to justify the name. _Galla_ signifies a rock, and this derivation would be equally sustained by the natural features of the place, and dangerous coral reefs which obstruct the entrance to the port.]

[Footnote 2: DULAURIER, in the _Journal Asiatique_ for Sept. 1846, vol.

xlix. p. 209, has brought together the authorities of Aboulfeda, Kazwini, and others to show that Kalah be situated in Ceylon, and he has combated the conjecture of M. Alfred Maury that it may be identical with Kedsh in the Malay Peninsula.--REINAUD, _Relation, &c. Disc._, pp.

xli.--lx.x.xiv., _Introd._ ABOULFEDA, p. ccxviii.]

Coupled with these considerations, however, the ident.i.ty of name is not without its significance. It was the habit of the Singhalese to apply to a district the name of the princ.i.p.al place within it; thus Lanka, which in the epic of the Hindus was originally the capital and castle of Ravana, was afterwards applied to the island in general; and according to the _Mahawanso_, Tambapani, the point of the coast where Wijayo landed, came to designate first the wooded country that surrounded it, and eventually the whole area of Ceylon.[1] In the same manner _Galla_ served to describe not only the harbour of that name, but the district north and east of it to the extent of 600 square miles, and De Barros, De Couto, and Ribeyro, the chroniclers of the Portuguese in Ceylon, record it as a tradition of the island, that the inhabitants of that region had acquired the name of the locality, and were formerly known as "Gallas."[2]

[Footnote 1: _Mahawanso_, ch. vii. p. 50.]

[Footnote 2: A notice of this tribe will be found in another place. See Vol. II. Pt. VII. ch. ii.]

Galle therefore, in the earlier ages, appears to have occupied a position in relation to trade of equal if not of greater importance than that which attaches to it at the present day. It was the central emporium of a commerce which in turn enriched every country of Western Asia, elevated the merchants of Tyre to the rank of princes, fostered the renown of the Ptolemies, rendered the wealth and the precious products of Arabia a gorgeous mystery[1], freighted the Tigris with "barbaric pearl and gold," and identified the merchants of Bagdad and the mariners of Ba.s.sora with a.s.sociations of adventure and romance. Yet, strange to say, the native Singhalese appear to have taken no part whatever in this exciting and enriching commerce; their name is never mentioned in connection with the immigrant races attracted by it to their sh.o.r.es, and the only allusions of travellers to the indigenous inhabitants of the island are in connection with a custom so remarkable and so peculiar as at once to identify the tribes to whom it is ascribed with the remnant of the aboriginal race of Veddahs, whose descendants still haunt the forests in the east of Ceylon.

[Footnote 1: " ... intactis opulentior Thesauris Arab.u.m, et divitis Indiae." HORACE.]

Such is the aversion of this untamed race to any intercourse with civilised life, that when in want of the rude implements essential to their savage economy, they repair by night to the nearest village on the confines of their hunting-fields, and indicating by well-understood signs and models the number and form of the articles required, whether arrow-heads, hatchets, or cloths, they deposit an equivalent portion of dried deer's flesh or honey near the door of the dealer, and retire unseen to the jungles, returning by stealth within a reasonable time, to carry away the manufactured articles, which they find placed at the same spot in exchange.

This singular custom has been described without variation by numerous writers on Ceylon, both in recent and remote times. To trace it backwards, it is narrated, nearly as I have stated it, by Robert Knox in 1681[1]; and it is confirmed by Valentyn, the Dutch historian of Ceylon[2]; as well as by Ribeyro, the Portuguese, who wrote somewhat earlier.[3] Albyrouni, the geographer, who in the reign of Mahomet of Ghuznee, A.D. 1030, described this singular feature in the trade with the island, of which he speaks under the name of Lanka, says that it was the belief of the Arabian mariners that the parties with whom they held their mysterious dealings were demons or savages.[4]

[Footnote 1: KNOX, _Historical Relation, &c._, part iii. ch. i. p. 62.]

[Footnote 2: VALENTYN, _Oud en Nieuw Oost-Indien_, ch. iii. p. 49.]

[Footnote 3: "Lorsqu'ils ont besoin de haches on de fleches, ils font un modele avec des feuilles d'arbre, et vont la nuit porter ce modele, et la moitie d'un cerf on d'un sanglier, a la porte d'un armurier, qui voyant le matin cette viande pendue a sa porte, scait ce que cela veut dire: il travaille aussi-tot et 3 jours apres il pend les fleches ou les haches au meme endroit ou etoit la viande, et la nuit suivante le Beda les vient prendre."--RIBEYRO, _Hist. de Ceylan_, A.D. 1686, ch. xxiv. p.

179.]

[Footnote 4: "Les marins se reunissent pour dire que lorsque les navires sont arrives dans ces parages, quelques uns de l'equipage montent sur des chaloupes et descendent a terre pour y deposer, soit de l'argent, soit des objets utiles a la personne des habitans, tels que des pagnes, du sel, etc. Le lendemain, quand ils reviennent, ils trouvent a la place de l'argent des pagnes et du sel, une quant.i.te de girofle d'une valeur egale. On ajoute que ce commerce se fait avec des genies, ou, suivant d'autres; avec des hommes restes a l'etat sauvage."--ALBYROUNI, _transl.

by_ REINAUD, _Introd. to_ ABOULFEDA, sec. iii. p. ccc. See also REINAUD, _Mem. sur l'Inde_, p. 343. I have before alluded (p. 538, _n_.) to the treatise _De Moribus Brachmanorum_, ascribed to Palladius, one version of which is embodied in the spurious Life of Alexander the Great, written by the Pseudo-Callisthenes. In it the traveller from Thebes, who is the author's informant, states, that when in Ceylon, he obtained pepper from the Besadae, and succeeded in getting so near them as to be able to describe accurately their appearance, their low stature and feeble configuration, their large heads and s.h.a.ggy uncut hair,--a description which in every particular agrees with the aspect of the Veddahs at the present day. His expression that he succeeded in "getting near" them, [Greek: ertasa engus ton kaloumenon Besadon] shows their propensity to conceal themselves even when bringing the articles which they had collected in the woods to sell.--PSEUDO-CALLISTHENES, lib.

iii. ch. vii. Paris, 1846, p. 103.]

Concurrent testimony, to the same effect, is found in the recital of the Chinese Buddhist, Fa Hian, who in the third century describes, in his travels, the same strange peculiarity of the inhabitants in those days, whom he also designates "demons," who deposited, unseen, the precious articles which they come down to barter with the foreign merchants resorting to their sh.o.r.es.[1]

[Footnote 1: "Les marchands des autre royaumes y faisaient le commerce: quand le temps de ce commerce etait venu, les genies et les demons ne paraissaient pas; mais ils mettaient en avant des choses precieuses dont ils marquaient le juste prix,--s'il convenait aux marchands, ceuxci l'acquittaient et prenaient le marchandise."--FA HIAN, _Foe[)e]-kou[)e]-ki. Transl._ ReMUSAT, ch. x.x.xviii. p. 332

There are a mult.i.tude of Chinese authorities to the same effect. One of the most remarkable books in any language is a Chinese Encyclopaedia which under the t.i.tle of _Wen-hian-thoung-khao_, or "_Researches into ancient Monuments_," contains a history of every art and science form the commencement of the empire to the era of the author MA-TOUAN-LIN, who wrote in the thirteenth century. M. Stanislas Julien has published in the _Journal Asiatique_ for July 1836 a translation of that portion of this great work which has relation to Ceylon. It is there stated of the aborigines that when "les marchands des autres royaumes y venaient commercer, _ils ne laissaient pas voir leurs corps_, et montraient au moyen de pierres precieuses le prix que pouvaient valoir les merchandises. Les marchands venaient et en prenaient une quant.i.te equivalente a leurs marchandises."--_Journ. Asiat._ t. xxviii. p. 402; xxiv. p. 41. I have extracts from seven other Chinese works, written between the seventh and the twelfth centuries, in all of which there occurs the same account of Ceylon,--that it was formerly supposed to be inhabited by dragons and demons, and that when "merchants from all nations come to trade with the, they are invisible, but leave their precious wares spread out with an indication of the value set on them, and the Chinese take them at the prices stipulated."--_Leang-shoo_, "History of the Leang Dynasty," A.D. 630, b. liv. p. 13. _Nan-she_, "History of the Southern Empire," A.D. 650, p. x.x.xviii. p. 14.

_Jung-teen_, "Cyclopaedia of History," A.D. 740, b. cxciii. p. 8. The _Tae-ping_, a "Digest of History," compiled by Imperial command, A.D.

983, b. dccxciii. p. 9. _Tsih-foo-yuen-kwei_, the "Great Depositary of the National Archives," A.D. 1012, b. cccclvi. p. 21. _Sin-Jang-shoo_, "New History of the Tang Dynasty," A.D. 1060, b. cxlvi. part ii. p. 10.

_Wan heen-tung-Kwan_, "Antiquarian Researches," A.D. 1319, b.

cccx.x.xviii. p. 24.]

The chain of evidence is rendered complete by a pa.s.sage in Pliny, which, although somewhat obscure (facts relating to the Seres being confounded with statements regarding Ceylon), nevertheless serves to show that the custom in question was then well known to the Singhalese amba.s.sadors sent to the Emperor Claudius, and was also familiar to the Greek traders resorting to the island. The envoys stated, at Rome, that the habit of the people of their country was, on the arrival of traders, to go to "the further side of some river where wares and commodities are laid down by the strangers, and if the natives list to make exchange, they have them taken away, and leave other merchandise in lieu thereof, to content the foreign merchant."[1]

[Footnote 1: PLINY, _Nat. Hist_., lib. vi. ch. xxiv. Transl. Philemon Holland, p. 130. This pa.s.sage has been sometimes supposed to refer to the Serae, but a reference to the text will confirm the opinion of MARTIa.n.u.s and SOLINUS, that Pliny applies it to the Singhalese; and that the allusion to red hair and grey eyes, "rutilis comis" and "caeruleis oculis" applies to some northern tribes whom the Singhalese had seen in their overland journeys to China, "Later travellers," says COOLEY, "have likewise had glimpses, on the frontiers of India, of these German features; but nothing is yet known with certainty of the tribe to which they properly belonged."--_Hist. Inland and Maritime Discovery_, vol. i.

p. 71.]

The fact, thus established, of the aversion to commerce, immemorially evinced by the southern Singhalese, and of their desire to escape from intercourse with the strangers resorting to trade on their coasts, serves to explain the singular scantiness of information regarding the interior of the island which is apparent in the writings of the Arabians and Persians, between the eighth and thirteenth centuries. Their knowledge of the coast was extensive, they were familiar with the lofty mountain which served as its landmark, they dwell with admiration on its productions, and record with particularity the objects of commerce which were to be found in the island; but, regarding the Singhalese themselves and their social and intellectual condition, little, if any, real information is to be gleaned from the Oriental geographers of the middle ages.

ALBATENY and Ma.s.sOUDI, the earliest of the Arabian geographers[1], were contemporaries of Abou-zeyd, in the ninth century, and neither adds much to the description of Ceylon, given in the narratives of "_The two Mahometans_." The former a.s.signs to the island the fabulous dimensions ascribed to it by the Hindus, and only alludes to the ruby and the sapphire[2] as being found in the rivers that flow from its majestic mountains. Ma.s.sOUDI a.s.serts that he visited Ceylon[3], and describes, from actual knowledge, the funeral ceremonies of a king, and the incremation of his remains; but as these are borrowed almost verbatim from the account given by Soleyman[4], there is reason to believe that he merely copied from Abou-zeyd the portions of the "_Meadows of Gold_"[5] that have relation to Ceylon.

[Footnote 1: Probably the earliest allusion to Ceylon by any Arabian or Persian author, is that of Tabari, who was born in A.D. 838; but he limits his notices to an exaggerated account of Adam's Peak, "than which the whole world does not contain a mountain of greater height."--OUSELLY'S _Travels_, vol i. p. 34, _n_.]

[Footnote 2: "Le rubis rouge, et la pierre qui est couleur de ciel."

ALBATENY, quoted by Reinaud, _Introd_. ABOULFEDA p. ccclx.x.xv.]

[Footnote 3: Ma.s.sOUDI in Gildemeister, _Script. Arab_. p. 154.

Gildemeister discredits the a.s.sertion of Ma.s.soudi, that he had been in Ceylon. (_Ib._ p. 154, _n_.) He describes Kalah as an island distinct from Serendib.]

[Footnote 4: ABOU-ZEYD, _Relation, &c_., p. 50.]

[Footnote 5: A translation of Ma.s.sOUDI'S _Meadows of Gold_ in English was begun by Dr. Sprenger for the "Oriental Translation Fund," but it has not advanced beyond the first volume, which was published in 1841.]

In the order of time, this is the place to allude to another Arabian mariner, whose voyages have had a world-wide renown, and who, more than any other author, ancient or modern, has contributed to familiarise Europe with the name and wonders of Serendib. I allude to "Sindbad of the Sea," whose voyages were first inserted by Galland, in his French translation of the "_Thousand-and-one Nights_." Sindbad, in his own tale, professes to have lived in the reign of the most ill.u.s.trious Khalif of the Abba.s.sides,--

"Sole star of all that place and time;-- And saw him, in his golden prime, The good Haroun Alraschid."

But Haroun died, A.D. 808, and Sindbad's narrative is so manifestly based on the recitals of Abou-zeyd and Ma.s.soudi, that although the author may have lived shortly after, it is scarcely possible that he could have been a contemporary of the great ruler of Bagdad.[1]

[Footnote 1: REINAUD notices the _Ketab-ala-jayb_, or "Book of Wonders,"

of Ma.s.sOUDI, as one of the works whence the materials of Sindbad's Voyages were drawn. (_Introd_. ABOULFEDA, vol. i. p. lxxvii.) HOLE published in 1797 A.D. his learned _Remarks on the Origin of Sindbad's Voyages_, and in that work, as well as in LANGLE'S edition of Sindbad; and in the notes by LANE to his version of the "_Arabian Nights'

Entertainment_," Edrisi, Kazwini, and many other writers are mentioned whose works contain parallel statements. But though Edrisi and Kazwini wrote in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, it does not follow that the author of Sindbad lived later than they, as both may have borrowed their ill.u.s.trations from the same early sources.]