o designate it by writers of the Western
and Eastern worlds. Serendib is a corruption of the Sanskrit
_Sinhaladvipa_. Like most oriental countries, Ceylon possesses a great
mass of ancient records, in which fact is so confused with fable that
they are difficult to distinguish. The labours of George Turnour
(1799-1843), however, helped to dissipate much of this obscurity, and
his admirable edition (1836) of the _Mahavamsa_ first made it possible
to trace the main lines of Sinhalese history.

The Sinhalese inscriptional records, to which George Turnour first
called attention, and which, through the activity of Sir William Gregory
in 1874, began to be accurately transcribed and translated, extend from
the 2nd century B.C. onwards. Among the oldest inscriptions discovered
are those on the rock cells of the Vessagiri Vihara of Anuradhapura, cut
in the old Brahma-lipi character. The inscriptions show how powerful was
the Buddhist hierarchy which dominated the government and national life.
The royal decrees of successive rulers are mainly concerned with the
safeguarding of the rights of the hierarchy, but a few contain
references to executive acts of the kings, as in a slab inscription of
Kassapa V. (c. A.D. 929-939). In an edict ascribed to Mahinda IV. (c.
A.D. 975-991) reference is made to the Sinhalese palladium, the famous
tooth-relic of Buddha, now enshrined at Kandy, and the decree confirms
tradition as to the identity of the fine stone temple, east of the
Thuparama at Anuradhapura, with the shrine in which the tooth was first
deposited when brought from Kalinga in the reign of Kirti Sri Meghavarna
(A.D. 304-324).

The earliest inhabitants of Ceylon were probably the ancestors of the
modern Veddahs, a small tribe of primitive hunters who inhabit the
eastern jungles; and the discovery of palaeolithic stone implements
buried in some of their caves points to the fact that they represent a
race which has been in the island for untold ages. As to subsequent
immigrations, the great Hindu epic, the _Ramayana_, tells the story of
the conquest of part of the island by the hero Rama and his followers,
who took the capital of its king Rawana. Whatever element of truth there
may be in this fable, it certainly represents no permanent occupation.
The authentic history of Ceylon, so far as it can be traced, begins with
the landing in 543 B.C. of Vijaya, the founder of the Sinhalese dynasty,
with a small band of Aryan-speaking follower