of the Malabars, although
adverse to Buddhism, was characterised by justice and impartiality.
Possibly they recognised to some extent their pretensions, as founded on
their relationship to the legitimate sovereigns of the island, and hence
they bore their sway without impatience.[2]

[Footnote 1: TURNOUR'S _Epitome_, p. 17; _Mahawanso_, ch. xxi. p. 128;
_Rajavali_, p. 188.]

[Footnote 2: See _ante_, p. 360, n.]

The majority of the subsequent invasions of Ceylon by the Malabars
partook less of the character of conquest than of forays, by a restless
and energetic race, into a fertile and defenceless country. Mantotte, on
the northwest coast, near Adam's Bridge, became the great place of
debarcation; and here successive bands of marauders landed time after
time without meeting any effectual resistance from the unwarlike
Singhalese.

The _second_ great invasion took place about a century after the first,
B.C. 103, when seven Malabar leaders effected simultaneous descents at
different points of the coast[1], and combined with a disaffected
"Brahman prince" of Rohuna, to force Walagam-bahu I. to surrender his
sovereignty. The king, after an ineffectual show of resistance, fled to
the mountains of Malaya; one of the invaders carried off the queen to
the coast of India; a third despoiled the temples of Anarajapoora and
retired, whilst the others continued in possession of the capital for
nearly fifteen years, till Walagam-bahu, by the aid of the Rohuna
highlanders, succeeded in recovering the throne.

[Footnote 1: TURNOUR'S _Epitome_, p. 16. The _Mahawanso_ says they
landed at "Mahatittha."--_Mantotte_, ch. xxxiii. p. 203.]

[Sidenote: A.D. 515.]

The _third_ great invasion on record[1] was in its character still more
predatory than those which preceded it, but it was headed by a king in
person, who carried away 12,000 Singhalese as slaves to Mysore. It
occurred in the reign of Waknais, A.D. 110, whose son Gaja-bahu, A.D.
113, avenged the outrage by invading the Solee country with an
expedition which sailed from Jaffnapatam, and brought back not only the
rescued Singhalese captives, but also a multitude of Solleans, whom the
king established on lands in the Alootcoor Corle, where the Malabar
features are thought to be discernible to the present day.[2]

[Footnote 1: This incursion of the Malabars is not mentioned in the
_Mahawanso_, but it is described in the _Rajavali_, p. 229, and
mentioned by TURNOUR, in his _Epi