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

of place names without regard to chronology or relevant historical
facts is hardly acceptable. As ffrtber evidence of his theory
that there existed an independent kingdom in norbhern Ceylon
in the pre-Christian centuries, Rasanayagani adduces the reference
in the Mahvasa and the Mainikalai to a 1ga kingdom in the
Jaffna district In the Mahvasa there is a legend about two
Nãga kings of NgadTpa who fought over a gem-set throne and were
reconciled through the efforts of the Buddha The same legend
appears in the Taniil Buddhist epic Naim!ka1ai in which the
scene of the event is given as )1aipallavam, which is identified
by Raeanaygam as NgadTpa or the Jaffna district. We agree with
Paranavitana that these legends are not based on any historical
event and that 'in the Mahvaipsa and the Main1kalai, as indeed
in the ancient Sanskrit and Pli literature in general, the
Ngas are never represented as human beings, but as a class of
401
superhuman beings, who inhabited a subterranean world'
' We have
also pointed out earlier that Rasauayagazn's attempts to prove
that the gas of Ceylon were Tamil in language and culture and
that their independent kingdom is referred to in Tamil literature
1. C,Raaanayagam, p. 7 if.
2. Mv., l:kk-70.
3. Maimkalai, XKvII.
1• S.Paranavitana, 'The Arya Kingdom of North Ceylon', p. 181.