Note 1 — Chapter I

: According to the Mahawanso "Tamba-panni," one of those names by which Ceylon was anciently called, originated in an incident connected with the invasion of Wijayo, B.C. 543, whose followers, "exhausted by sea-sickness and faint from weakness, sat down at the spot where they had landed out of the vessels, supporting themselves on the palms of their hands pressed to the ground, whence the name of Tamba-pannyo, 'copper-palmed,' from the colour of the soil. From this circumstance that wilderness obtained the name of Tamba-panni; and from the same cause also this renowned land became celebrated under that name."—TURNOUR'S Mahawanso, ch. vi. p. 50. From Tamba-panni came the Greek name for Ceylon, Taprobane. Mr. de Alwis has corrected an error in this passage of Mr. Turnour's translation; the word in the original, which he took for Tamba-panniyo, or "copper-palmed," being in reality tamba-vanna, or "copper-coloured." Colonel Forbes questions the accuracy of this derivation, and attributes the name to the tamana trees; from the abundance of which he says many villages in Ceylon, as well as a district in southern India, have been similarly called. (Eleven Years in Ceylon, vol. i. p. 10.) I have not succeeded in discovering what tree is designated by this name, nor does it occur in MOON'S List of Ceylon Plants. On the southern coast of India a river, which flows from the ghats to the sea, passing Tinnevelly, is called Tambapanni. Tambapanni, as the designation of Ceylon, occurs in the inscription on the rock of Girnar in Guzerat, deciphered by Prinsep, containing an edict by Asoka relative to the medical administration of India for the relief both of man and beast, (Asiat. Soc. Journ. Beng. vol. vii. p. 158.)