Ceylon; an Account of the Island Physical, Historical, and Topographical with Notices of Its Natural History Part 1

Ceylon; an Account of the Island Physical, Historical, and Topographical with Notices of Its Natural History, Antiquities and Productions.

by James Emerson Tennent.

Volume 1.

NOTICE TO THE FOURTH EDITION.

The gratifying reception with which the following pages have been honoured by the public and the press, has in no degree lessened my consciousness, that in a work so extended in its scope, and comprehending such a multiplicity of facts, errors are nearly unavoidable both as to conclusions and detail. These, so far as I became aware of them, I have endeavoured to correct in the present, as well as in previous impressions.

But my princ.i.p.al reliance for the suggestion and supply both of amendments and omissions has been on the press and the public of Ceylon; whose familiarity with the topics discussed naturally renders them the most competent judges as to the mode in which they have been treated. My hope when the book was published in October last was, that before going again to press I should be in possession of such friendly communications and criticisms from the island, as would have enabled me to render the second edition much more valuable than the previous one. In this expectation I have been agreeably disappointed, the sale having been so rapid, as to require a fourth impression before it was possible to obtain from Ceylon judicious criticisms on the first. These in due time will doubtless arrive; and meanwhile, I have endeavoured, by careful revision, to render the whole as far as possible correct.

J. EMERSON TENNENT.

NOTICE TO THE THIRD EDITION.

The call for a third edition on the same day that the second was announced for publication, and within less than two months from the appearance of the first, has furnished a gratifying a.s.surance of the interest which the public are disposed to take in the subject of the present work.

Thus encouraged, I have felt it my duty to make several alterations in the present impression, amongst the most important of which is the insertion of a Chapter on the doctrines of Buddhism as it developes itself in Ceylon.[1] In the historical sections I had already given an account of its introduction by Mahindo, and of the establishments founded by successive sovereigns for its preservation and diffusion. To render the narrative complete, it was felt desirable to insert an abstract of the peculiar tenets of the Buddhists; and this want it has been my object to supply. The sketch, it will be borne in mind, is confined to the princ.i.p.al features of what has been denominated "_Southern Buddhism_" amongst the Singhalese; as distinguished from "_Northern Buddhism_" in Nepal, Thibet, and China.[2] The latter has been largely ill.u.s.trated by the labours of Mr. B.H. HODGSON and the toilsome researches of M. CSOMA of Korros in Transylvania; and the minutest details of the doctrines and ceremonies of the former have been unfolded in the elaborate and comprehensive collections of Mr. SPENCE HARDY.[3] From materials discovered by these and other earnest inquirers, Buddhism in its general aspect has been ably delineated in the dissertations of BURNOUF[4] and SAINT HILAIRE[5], and in the commentaries of REMUSAT[6], STANISLAS JULIEN[7], FOUCAUX[8], La.s.sEN[9], and WEBER.[10] The portion thus added to the present edition has been to a great extent taken from a former work of mine on the local superst.i.tions of Ceylon, and the "_Introduction and Progress of Christianity_" there; and as the section relating to Buddhism had the advantage, previous to publication, of being submitted to the Rev. Mr.

GOGERLY, the most accomplished Pali scholar, as well as the most erudite student of Buddhistical literature in the island, I submit it with confidence as an accurate summary of the distinctive views of the Singhalese on the leading doctrines of their national faith.

[Footnote 1: See Part IV., c. xi.]

[Footnote 2: MAX MuLLER; _History of Sanskrit Literature_, p. 202.]

[Footnote 3: _Eastern Monachism_, an account of the origin, laws; discipline, sacred writings, mysterious rites, religious ceremonies, and present circ.u.mstances of the Order of Mendicants, founded by Gotoma Budha. 8vo. Lond. 1850; and _A Manual of Buddhism in its Modern Development_. 8vo. Lond. 1853.]

[Footnote 4: BURNOUF, _Introduction a l'Histoire du Bouddhieme Indien_.

4to. Paris. 1845; and translation of the _Lotus de la bonne Loi_.]

[Footnote 5: J. BARTHELEMY SAINT-HILAIRE _Le Bouddha et sa Religion_.

8vo. Paris. 1800.]

[Footnote 6: Introduction and Notes to the _Fo[)e] Kou[)e] Ki_ of FA HIAN.]

[Footnote 7: Life and travels of HIOUEN THSANG.]

[Footnote 8: Translation of _Lalitavistara_ by M. PH. ED. FOUCAUX.]

[Footnote 9: Author of the _Indische Alterthumskunde;_ &c.]

[Footnote 10: Author of the _Indische Studien_; &c.]

A writer in the _Sat.u.r.day Review_[1], in alluding to the pa.s.sage in which I have sought to establish the ident.i.ty of the ancient Tars.h.i.+sh with the modern Point de Galle[2], admits the force of the coincidence adduced, that the Hebrew terms for "ivory, apes, and peac.o.c.ks"[3] (the articles imported in the s.h.i.+ps of Solomon) are identical with the Tamil names, by which these objects are known in Ceylon to the present day; and, to strengthen my argument on this point, he adds that, "these terms were so entirely foreign and alien from the common Hebrew language as to have driven the Ptolemaist authors of the Septuagint version into a blunder, by which the ivory, apes, and peac.o.c.ks come out as '_hewn and carven stones_.'" The circ.u.mstance adverted to had not escaped my notice; but I forebore to avail myself of it; for, although the fact is accurately stated by the reviewer, so far as regards the Vatican MS., in which the translators have slurred over the pa.s.sage and converted "_ibha, kapi_, and _tukeyim_" into [Greek: "lithon toreuton kai peleketon"] (literally, "stones hammered and carved in relief"); still, in the other great MS. of the Septuagint, the _Codex Alexandrinus_, which is of equal antiquity, the pa.s.sage is correctly rendered by "[Greek: odonton elephantinon kai pithekon kai taonon]." The editor of the Aldine edition[4] compromised the matter by inserting "the ivory and apes," and excluding the "peac.o.c.ks," in order to introduce the Vatican reading of "stones."[5] I have not compared the Complutensian and other later versions.

[Footnote 1: Novemb. 19, 1859, p. 612.]

[Footnote 2: _See_ Vol. II. Pt. VII., c. i. p. 102.]

[Footnote 3: 1 _Kings_, x. 22.]

[Footnote 4: Venice, 1518.]

[Footnote 5: [Greek: Kai odonton elephantinon kai pithekon kai lithon].

[Greek: BASIA TRITe]. x. 22. It is to be observed, that Josephus appears to have been equally embarra.s.sed by the unfamiliar term _tukeyim_ for peac.o.c.ks. He alludes to the voyages of Solomon's merchantmen to Tars.h.i.+sh, and says that they brought hack from thence gold and silver, _much_ ivory, apes, _and aethiopians_--thus subst.i.tuting "slaves" for pea-fowl--"[Greek: kai polus elephas, Aithiopes te kai pithekoi]."

Josephus also renders the word Tars.h.i.+sh by "[Greek: en te Tarsike legomene thalatte]," an expression which shows that he thought not of the Indian but the western Tars.h.i.+sh, situated in what Avienus calls the _Fretum Tartessium_, whence African slaves might have been expected to come.--_Antiquit. Judaicae_, l. viii. c. vii sec. 2.]

The Rev. Mr. CURETON, of the British Museum, who, at my request, collated the pa.s.sage in the Chaldee and Syriac versions, a.s.sures me that in both, the terms in question bear the closest resemblance to the Tamil words found in the Hebrew; and that in each and all of them these are of foreign importation.

J. EMERSON TENNENT.

LONDON: November 28th, 1859.

NOTICE TO THE SECOND EDITION.

The rapidity with which the first impression has been absorbed by the public, has so shortened the interval between its appearance and that of the present edition, that no sufficient time has been allowed for the discovery of errors or defects; and the work is re-issued almost as a corrected reprint.

In the interim, however, I have ascertained, that Ribeyro's "Historical Account of Ceylon," which it was heretofore supposed had never appeared in any other than the French version of the Abbe Le Grand, and in the English translation of the latter by Mr. Lee[1], was some years since printed for the first time in the original Portuguese, from the identical MS. presented by the author to Pedro II. in 1685. It was published in 1836 by the Academia Real das Sciencias of Lisbon, under the t.i.tle of "_Fatalidade Historica da Ilka de Ceilo_;" and forms the Vth volume of the a "_Colleco de Noticias para a Historia e Geograjia das Naces Ultramarinas_" A fac-simile from a curious map of the island as it was then known to the Portuguese, has been included in the present edition.[2]

[Footnote 1: See Vol. II. Part vi. ch. i. p.5, note.]

[Footnote 2: Ibid. p. 6.]

Some difficulty having been expressed to me, in identifying the ancient names of places in India adverted to in the following pages; and mediaeval charts of that country being rare, a map has been inserted in the present edition[1], to supply the want complained of.

[Footnote 1: See Vol. I. p. 330.]

The only other important change has been a considerable addition to the Index, which was felt to be essential for facilitating reference.

J E.T.

INTRODUCTION.

There is no island in the world, Great Britain itself not excepted, that has attracted the attention of authors in so many distant ages and so many different countries as Ceylon. There is no nation in ancient or modern times possessed of a language and a literature, the writers of which have not at some time made it their theme. Its aspect, its religion, its antiquities, and productions, have been described as well by the cla.s.sic Greeks, as by those of the Lower Empire; by the Romans; by the writers of China, Burmah, India, and Kashmir; by the geographers of Arabia and Persia; by the mediaeval voyagers of Italy and France; by the annalists of Portugal and Spain; by the merchant adventurers of Holland, and by the travellers and topographers of Great Britain.

But amidst this wealth of materials as to the island, and its vicissitudes in early times, there is an absolute dearth of information regarding its state and progress during more recent periods, and its actual condition at the present day.

I was made sensible of this want, on the occasion of my nomination, in 1845, to an office in connection with the government of Ceylon. I found abundant details as to the capture of the maritime provinces from the Dutch in 1795, in the narrative of Captain PERCIVAL[1], an officer who had served in the expedition; and the efforts to organise the first system of administration are amply described by CORDINER[2], Chaplain to the Forces; by Lord VALENTIA[3], who was then travelling in the East; and by ANTHONY BERTOLACCI[4], who acted as auditor-general to the first governor, Mr. North, afterwards Earl of Guilford. The story of the capture of Kandy in 1815 has been related by an anonymous eye-witness under the pseudonyme of PHILALETHES[5], and by MARSHALL in his _Historical Sketch_ of the conquest.[6] An admirable description of the interior of the island, as it presented itself some forty years ago, was furnished by Dr. DAVY[7], a brother of the eminent philosopher, who was employed on the medical staff in Ceylon, from 1816 till 1820.

[Footnote 1: _An Account of the Island of Ceylon_, &c., by Capt. R.