The following stanza is a fair sample of the poem: මාලා වතංස සමකා ගිරයො සමන්තා Like canopies and garlands fair became the rocks around; Robert Knox, in that most interesting account he has given of Ceylon in the narrative of his twenty years' captivity in the interior, during the reign of Rája Sinha II., makes *The author of Samantakúṭa-wannaná is generally believed to have been one WE'DE'HA, the chief priest of a temple called Patiraja Piriwena, who also wrote the Pali work Padya-madhu, and to whom is generally attributed the authorship of the Sidat Sangaráwa, the oldest known Grammar of the Sinhalese language. He lived in the reign of king Pandita-Parakkramabáhu IV. A. D. 1320-1347. The Samantakúṭawannaná is a poem containing upwards of 500 stanzas, and describes, in flowing Pali verse, the legends which narrate the circumstances that led to the impression of Buddha's foot-print upon the summit of the Samantakúta. Vide Introduction to the Sidat Sangaráwa, by JAMES D'ALWIS. pp. clxxxii, clxxxiii, and cclxxxi. Colombo, 1852. frequent mention of Adam's Peak.* He says, "The land is full of hills, but exceedingly well watered, there being many pure and clear rivers running through them... The main river of all is called Mavelagonga; which proceeds out of the mountain, called Adam's Peak (of which more hereafter); it runs through the whole land northward, and falls into the sea at Trenkimalay...... On the south side of Conde Uda is a hill, supposed to be the highest on this Island, called, in the Chingulay language, Hamalell; † but by the Portuguese and the European nations, Adam's Peak. It is sharp, like a sugar loaf, and on the top a flat stone with the print of a foot like a man's on it, but far bigger, being about two feet long. The people of this land count it meritorious to go *"An Historical relation of the Island of Ceylon in the East Indies; together with an account of the detaining in Captivity the Author, and divers other Englishmen now living there; and of the Author's miraculous escape. By ROBERT KNOX, a captive there near twenty years. [1659-1679]. Edit. 1817." This work was first printed in 1681. Captain Ribeyro's History was not presented to the king of Portugal until 1685; and remained unpublished till 1701; but as he lived in Ceylon, and took part in the occurrences he describes, previous to Knox's captivity, his account of the Peak is given first in order of time in the text. "The learned BRYANT, in his Analysis of Ancient Mythology, lays great weight upon this name; he says 'The Pike of Adam is properly the summit sacred to Ad Ham, the king or deity Ham, the Amon of Egypt. This is plain, to a demonstration, from another name given to it by the native Singalese, who live near the mountain, and call it Hamal-el: this, without any change, is Ham-eel-El, (Ham, the Sun,) and relates to the ancient religion of the Island. In short, every thing in and worship this impression; and generally, about their new year, which is in March, they, men, women and children, go up this vast and high mountain to worship: the manner of which I shall write hereafter, when I come to describe their religion. Out of this mountain arise many fine rivers, which run through the land, some to the westward,* some to the southward,† and the main river, viz. Mavelagonga before mentioned to the northward." "There is another great god, whom they call Buddou, unto whom the salvation of souls belongs. Him they believe once to have come upon the earth; and, when he was here, that he did usually sit under a large shady tree, called Bogahah, which trees ever since are accounted holy, and under which, with great solemnities, they do, to this day, celebrate the ceremonies of his worship. He departed from the earth from the top of the highest mountain on the Island, called Pico Adam; where there is an impression like a foot, which they say is his, as hath been mentioned before." these countries savours of Chaldaic and Egyptian institution.""-DAVY'S Account of the Interior of Ceylon, p. 348. But Dr, Davy shews that Bryant's explanation is entirely erroneous; that the sound of S and H being indiscriminately used by the Sinhalese, the mountain is called by them either Hamanala or Samanala, i. e. the rock of Saman; and that in Pali its name is Somané-kúța, and in Sanskrit Samanta-kúṭa-parwata, the meaning, in each of the three languages, being exactly the same. * Forming the Kelani-ganga. Forming the Kalu-ganga. KNOX here followed the current native tradition. took place near the city Kusinára, in the year 543 B. C. Buddha's death "His great festival is in the month of March, at their New Year's tide. The places where he is commemorated are two, not temples-but the one a mountain, and the other a tree;* either to the one or the other they at this time go with their wives and children, for dignity and merit-one being esteemed equal with the other. "The mountain is at the south end of the country, called Hammalella; but, by Christian people, Adam's Peak, the highest in the whole island; where, as has been said before, is the print of the Buddou's foot, which he left on the top of that mountain in a rock, from whence he ascended to heaven; upon this footstep they give worship, light up lamps, and offer sacrifices, laying them upon it as upon an altar. The benefit of the sacrifices that are offered here do belong unto the Moors pilgrims, who come over from the other coast to beg, this having been given them heretofore of this city has not yet been fixed. Different authorities suppose it to have been in the Province of Assam, the kingdom of Nepal, or at Hurdwar near Delhi. * The Bo-tree at Anuradhapura, the oldest historical tree in the world, planted B. c. 288. "A beautiful pagoda formerly stood upon the top of this hill, respecting which many traditions are circulated, and many stories told. They say that it was the abode of Bhood, who was a disciple of the apostle Thomas. They add, that he stood with one foot upon this hill, and another upon a hill upon the coast of Madura, when such a flood of water burst forth, as to separate the island of Ceylon from the main land."PHILALETHES, p. 210. by a former king; so that, at that season, there are great numbers of them always waiting there to receive their accustomed fees."* The Rev. Philip Baldæus, "Minister of the word of God in Ceylon," in his "True and exact Description of Malabar, Coromandal, and also of the Island of Ceylon, &c.," printed at Amsterdam in 1672, added but little to the stock of information already known respecting the sacred foot-print. In March, 1654, he states, that some Dutchmen, who had gone purposely to examine it, were shewn by the Buddhist priests a representation of it in gold, and of similar dimensions, on which different images were engraven, which had before been exhibited upon the impression of the foot in the rock. But, said they, when these images had been pourtrayed in gold, they vanished from the stone.† * KNOX has here, as in some other places, described the Hindus as Moors. He refers in this instance to the Aandiyás, who from about 1590 to 1750, were the custodians of the Peak (see ante, page 39). In their dress these fakeers somewhat resembled the Mohammadans, but smeared their foreheads with ashes. Elsewhere, Knox particularly distinguishes the Moors "who are Mohammadans by religion." †This, according to a Buddhist tradition, implicitly believed by many of the people, was not the first time impressions vanished from the surface of that sacred rock. Each of the three Buddhas who preceded Gautama Buddha left the impression of his foot-print on the spot; and each time an impression was made, the former one sank through the rock to the bottom of the mountain, where it still remains, and would be clearly visible, if only the mountain could be turned upside down to exhibit it. |