INTRODUCTORY NOTICE. 423
In his journey he passes MANAR MANDALI,1 and the port of SALAWAT,2 and then crosses extensive plains abounding in elephants. These however did no harm to pilgrims and foreigners,3 owing to the benignant influence exercised over them by the Shaikh Abu Abdallah, who first opened the road to the Holy Footmark. He then reached KUNAiAR4 as he calls it, the residence of the lawful King of Ceylon, who was entitled Kuwâr, and possessed a white elephant. Close to this city was the pool called the Pool of Precious Stones, out of which some of the most valuable gems were extracted. His description of the ascent to the summit is vivid and minute, and probably most of the sites which he speaks of could be identified by the aid of those who act as guides to Mahomedan pilgrims, if such there still be. He descends on the opposite side (towards Ratnapura), and proceeds to visit DINwAR, a large place on the sea, inhabited by merchants (Devi-neuera or Dondera), where a vast idol temple then existed, GALLE (which he calls Kali), and COLUMBO (Kalanbu), so returning by the coast to Patlam. Columbo is
commenced his career long before the date in the Ceylonese annals, as Ibn Batuta shows him established with royal authority at Patlam in 1344 (Tumour's Epitome of the History of Ceylon, Cotta Ch. M. Press, 1836, p. 47; Pridham, pp. 77-78 ; Upham's Eajavali, 264-269). Tennent supposes the Pandyan invaders to have come from Jaffnapatam, where they were already established, and not from the continent. Indeed we see from Ibn Batuta that the original Pandyan territory was now in Musulman hands.
1 Il inneri Mandel of Tennent's Map, on the coast immediately abreast of Patlam.
2 Chilaw of our maps.
3 See Odoric, p. 100.
4 Sir J. Emerson Tennent considers this to be Gampola, called classically Ganga-sri-pura, the name which he supposes to be aimed at in Ibn Batuta's Kunakf r. With all respect for such an authority I think that it more probably represents Kurunaigalla or Kornegalle, which was the capital of the lawful sovereigns of Ceylon from about 1319 till some year after 1347. During this period the dynasty was in extreme depression, and little is recorded except the names of the kings, Bhuwaneka Bahu II, Pandita Prakrama Bahu IV, Wanny Bhuwaneka Bahu III, Wijayabahu V. It must have been in the reign of one or other of the two last that Ibn Batuta visited the capital. The name Kundr applied to him by the traveller is perhaps the Sanskrit Kunwar, The Prince". (See Turnour's Epitome, quoted above).
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