Ceylon; an Account of the Island Physical, Historical, and Topographical with Notices of Its Natural History Part 91

There was likewise an imperial tax upon produce, originally a tenth, but subject to frequent variation.[1] For instance, in consideration of the ill-requited toil of felling the forest land. In order to take a crop of dry grain, the soil being unequal to sustain continued cultivation, the same king seeing that "those who laboured with the bill-hook In clearing th.o.r.n.y jungles, earned their livelihood distressfully," ordained that this _chena_ cultivation, as it is called, should be for ever exempted from taxation.

[Footnote 1: Rock inscription at Pollanarrua, A.D. 1187.]

_Army and Navy._--The military and naval forces of Ceylon were chiefly composed of foreigners. The genius of the native population was at all times averse to arms; from the earliest ages, the soldiers employed by the crown were mercenaries, and to this peculiarity may be traced the first encouragement given to the invasion of the Malabars. These were employed both on land and by sea In the third century before Christ[1]; and it was not till the eleventh century of our era, that a marine was organised for the defence of the coast.[2]

[Footnote 1: _Mahawanso_, ch. xxi. p. 127.]

[Footnote 2: _Ibid_., ch. x.x.xix.; TURNOUR'S MS. Transl. p. 269.]

The mode of raising a national force to make war against the invaders, is described in the _Mahawanso[1];_ the king issuing commands to ten warriors to enlist each ten men, and each of this hundred in turn to enrol ten more, and each of the new levy, ten others, till "the whole company embodied were eleven thousand one hundred and ten."

[Footnote 1: _Ibid_., ch. xxiii. p. 144.]

The troops usually consisted of four cla.s.ses: the "riders on elephants, the cavalry, then those in chariots, and the foot soldiers,"[1] and this organisation continued till the twelfth century.[2]

[Footnote 1: _Rajavali_, p. 208, The use of elephants in war is frequently adverted to in the _Mahawamso_, ch. xxv. p. 151-155, &c.]

[Footnote 2: See the inscription on the tablet at Pollanarrua, A.D.

1187.]

Their arms were "the five weapons of war," swords, spears, javelins, bows, and arrows, and a rope with a noose, running in a metal ring called _narachana._[1] The archers were the main strength of the army, and their skill and dexterity are subjects of frequent eulogium.[2]

[Footnote 1: _Mahawanso_, ch, vii 48; ch. xxv p. 155.]

[Footnote 2: One of the chiefs in the army of Dutugaimunu, B.C. 160, is described as combining all the excellences of the craft, being at once a "sound archer," who shot by ear, when his object was out of sight; "a lightning archer," whose arrow was as rapid as a thunderbolt; and a "sand-archer," who could send the shaft through a cart filled with sand and through hides "an hundred-fold thick."--_Mahawanso,_ ch. xxiii. p.

143. In one of the legends connected with the early life of Gotama, before he attained the exaltation of Buddhahood, he is represented as displaying his strength by taking "a bow which required a thousand men to bend it, and placing it against the toe of his right foot without standing up, he drew the string with his finger-nail."--HARDY'S _Manual of Buddhism,_ ch. vii. p. 153. It is remarkable that at the present day this is the att.i.tude a.s.sumed by a Veddah, when anxious to send an arrow with more than ordinary force. The following sketch is from a model in ebony executed by a native carver.

[Ill.u.s.tration: VEDDAH DRAWING HIS BOW]

I am not aware that examples of this mode of drawing the bow are to be found on any ancient monument, Egyptian, a.s.syrian, Grecian, or Roman; but that it was regarded as peculiar to the inhabitants of India is shown by the fact that ARRIAN describes it as something remarkable in the Indians in the age of Alexander. "[Greek: Hoplisios de tes Indon ouk houtos eis tropos, all oi men pezoi autoisi toxon te echousin, isomekes tps ph.o.r.eonti to toxon, kai touto kato epi ten gen thentes kai tps podi tps aristerps antibantes, outos ektoxeuousi, ten neuren epi mega opiso apagagontes."--ARRIAN, _Indica_, lib, xvi. Arrian adds that such was the force with which their arrows travelled that no substance was strong enough to resist them, neither shield, breast-plate, nor armour, all of which they penetrated. In the account of Brazil, by Kidder and Fletcher, Philad. 1850, p. 558, the Indians of the Amazon are said to draw the bow with the foot, and a figure is given of a Caboclo archer in the att.i.tude; but, unlike the Veddah of Ceylon, the American uses both feet.]

The _Rajaratnacari_ states that the arrows of the Malabars were sometimes "drenched with the poison of serpents," to render recovery impossible.[1] Against such weapons the Singhalese carried shields, some of them covered with plates of the chank sh.e.l.l[2]; this sh.e.l.l was also sounded in lieu of a trumpet[3], and the disgrace of retreat is implied by the expression that it ill becomes a soldier to "_allow his hair to fly behind_."[4]

[Footnote 1: _Rajaratnacari_, p. 101.]

[Footnote 2: _Rajavali_, p. 217.]

[Footnote 3: _Mahawanso_, ch. xxv. p. 154.]

[Footnote 4: _Rajavali_, p. 213.]

_Civil Justice_.--Civil justice was entrusted to provincial judges[1]; but the King Kirti Nissanga, in the great tablet inscribed with his exploits, which still exists at Pollanarrua, has recorded that under the belief that "robbers commit their crimes through hunger for wealth, he gave them whatever riches they required, thus relieving the country from the alarm of their depredations."[2] Torture was originally recognised as a stage in the administration of the law, and in the original organisation of the capital in the fourth century before Christ, a place for its infliction was established adjoining the place of execution and the cemetery.[3] It was abolished in the third century by King Wairatissa; but the frightful punishments of impaling and crushing by elephants continued to the latest period of the Ceylon monarchy.

[Footnote 1: Inscriptions on the Great Tablet at Pollanarrua.]

[Footnote 2: _Ibid_.]

[Footnote 3: _Mahawanso_, ch. x. p.]

CHAP. IX.

ASTRONOMY, ETC.

EDUCATION.--The Brahmans, as they were the first to introduce the practice of the mechanical arts, were also the earliest instructors of youth in the rudiments of general knowledge. Pandukabhaya, who was afterwards king, was "educated in every accomplishment by Pandulo, a Brahman, who taught him along with his own son."[1] The Buddhist priests became afterwards the national instructors, and a pa.s.sage in the _Rajavali_ seems to imply that writing was regarded as one of the distinctive accomplishments of the priesthood, not often possessed by the laity, as it mentions that the brother of the king of Kalany, in the second century before Christ, had been taught to write by a tirunansi, "and made such progress that he could write as well as the tirunansi himself."[2] The story in the _Rajavali_ of an intrigue which was discovered by "the sound of the fall of a letter," shows that the material then in use in the second century before Christ, was the same as at the present day, the prepared leaf of a palm tree.[3]

[Footnote 1: _Mahawanso_, ch. x. p. 60.]

[Footnote 2: _Rajavali_, p. 189.]

[Footnote 3: _Ibid._]

The most popular sovereigns were likewise the most sedulous patrons of learning. Prakrama I. founded schools at Pollanarrua[1]; and it is mentioned with due praise in the _Rajaratnacari_, that the King Wijayo Bahu III., who reigned at Dambeadinia, A.D. 1240, "established a school in every village, and charged the priests who superintended them to take nothing from the pupils, promising that he himself would reward them for their trouble."[2]

[Footnote 1: _Mahawanso_, ch. lxxii. UPHAM'S version, vol. i. p. 274.]

[Footnote 2: _Rajaratnacari_, p. 99.]

Amongst the propagators of a religion whose leading characteristics are its subtlety and thin abstractions, it may naturally be inferred that argument and casuistry held prominent place in the curriculum of instruction. In the story of Mahindo, and the conversion of the island to Buddhism, the following display of logical ac.u.men is ostentatiously paraded as evidence of the highly cultivated intellect of the neophyte king.[1]

[Footnote 1: _Mahawanso_, ch. xiv. p. 79.]

For the purpose of ascertaining the capacity of the gifted monarch, Mahindo thus interrogated him:--

"O king; what is this tree called?

"The Ambo.

"Besides this one, is there any other Ambo-tree?

"There are many.

"Besides this Ambo, and those other Ambo-trees, are there any other trees on the earth?

"Lord; there are many trees, but they are not Ambo-trees.

"Besides the other Ambo-trees, and the trees that are not Ambo, is there any other?

"Gracious Lord, _this Ambo-tree._

"Ruler of men, thou art wise!

"Hast thou any relations, oh, king?

"Lord, I have many.