rian 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. The Singhalese
Chronicle represents Prakrama to have recovered it from them, but they are
so soon again found in full force that the completeness of this recovery
may be doubted. There were also two invasions of Malays (_Javaku_) during
this reign, under the lead of a chief called _Chandra Banu_. On the second
occasion this invader was joined by a large Tamul reinforcement. Sir E.
Tennent suggests that this Chandra Banu may be Polo's _Sende-main_ or
_Sendernaz_, as Ramusio has it. Or he may have been the Tamul chief in the
north; the first part of the name may have been either _Chandra_