I. The Chinese Pilgrim Hiuen Tsang Has
The Same Tale.
According to him, the circuit was 7000 li, or 1400 miles.
We see from Marco's curious notice of the old charts (G.T. "selonc qe se
treuve en la mapemondi des mariner de cel mer") that travellers had begun
to find that the dimensions were exaggerated.
The real circuit is under
700 miles!
On the ground that all the derivations of the name SAILAN or CEYLON from
the old Sinhala, Serendib, and what not, seem forced, Van der Tuuk has
suggested that the name may have been originally Javanese, being formed
(he says) according to the rules of that language from Sela, "a precious
stone," so that Pulo Selan would be the "Island of Gems." [Professor
Schlegel says (Geog. Notes, I. p. 19, note) that "it seems better to
think of the Sanskrit sila, 'a stone or rock,' or saila, 'a mountain,'
which agree with the Chinese interpretation." - H.C.] The Island was really
called anciently Ratnadvipa, "the Island of Gems" (Mem. de H.Y., II.
125, and Harivansa, I. 403); and it is termed by an Arab Historian of
the 9th century Jazirat al Yakut, "The Isle of Rubies." [The (Chinese)
characters ya-ku-pao-shih are in some accounts of Ceylon used to express
Yakut. (Ma-Huan, transl. by Phillips, p. 213.) - H.C.] As a matter of
fact, we derive originally from the Malays nearly all the forms we have
adopted for names of countries reached by sea to the east of the Bay of
Bengal, e.g. Awa, Barma, Paigu, Siyam, China, Japun, Kochi
(Cochin China), Champa, Kamboja, Maluka (properly a place in the
Island of Ceram), Suluk, Burnei, Tanasari, Martavan, etc. That
accidents in the history of marine affairs in those seas should have led
to the adoption of the Malay and Javanese names in the case of Ceylon also
is at least conceivable. But Dr. Caldwell has pointed out to me that the
Pali form of Sinhala was Sihalan, and that this must have been
colloquially shortened to Silan, for it appears in old Tamul inscriptions
as Ilam.[1] Hence there is nothing really strained in the derivation of
Sailan from Sinhala. Tennent (Ceylon, I. 549) and Crawford (Malay
Dict. p. 171) ascribe the name Selan, Zeilan, to the Portuguese, but this
is quite unfounded, as our author sufficiently testifies. The name
Sailan also occurs in Rashiduddin, in Hayton, and in Jordanus (see next
note). (See Van der Tuuk, work quoted above (p. 287), p. 118; J. As.
ser. IV., tom. viii. 145; J. Ind. Arch. IV. 187; Elliot, I. 70.)
[Sinhala or Sihala, "lions' abode," with the addition of "Island,"
Sihala-dvipa, comes down to us in Cosmas [Greek: Sielediba]
(Hobson-Jobson).]
NOTE 3. - The native king at this time was Pandita Prakrama Bahu III., who
reigned from 1267 to 1301 at Dambadenia, about 40 miles north-north-east
of Columbo. But the Tamuls of the continent had recently been in
possession of the whole northern half of the island.
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 312 of 701
Words from 162059 to 162567
of 370046
