113992242-Dravidian-Settlements-in-Ceylon-and-the-Beginnings-of-the-Kingdom-of-Jaffna-By-Karthigesu-Indrapala-Complete-Phd-Thesis-University-of-London-1965

a Ca stronghold. The bulk of the Tainil place namea in this
221
area are probably of later origin, possibly of the fourteenth
and fifteenth centuries when, according to some Sinhalese works,
several Tamils were settled in this area
In the light of all the above strands of evidence,
we have to loeate a number of Tamil settlements of this period
in the northern regions of Dakkhiadeaa. With the evidence that
we have it is not possible to determine the nature or strength
of these settlements. They may have arisen partly as a result
of the establishment of C 1a fortresses in this region to
protect Rjaraha from the attacks of the Rohaa princes.
Perhaps some of them were natural extensions of possible
settlements of South Indian pearl fishers along the Chilaw
coast. In the absence of any evidence to this effect, one has
to be contented with mere conjectures.
In the western littoral north of Dakk4adesa only
one place has yielded a Tainil inscription which may be
assigned to this perio This place is Virandagoa, about
ten diiles south-east of Pomparippu. Even at }1.ntai, where
inscriptions of the Za period have been found, no Tamil epigraph
of this period has come to ii ht. Since there were Tamil
1. Unpublished - Inscription 916 of the epigraphica]. list
in the Archaeological De artment, Ceylon.