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

vicinity This means that all the other groups of stones at this
site may have originally stood in the form of dolmenoid cists.
Further, the name given to this site by the villagers, who are
Tami].s, is Kura u-paai-eutta-vnrpu ( (The region of) the
margosa tree under which the monkeys mustered). This name seems
to connect these structures with the South Indian do].menoid
date. For, in the Tamil country,the megalithic structures are
known by a remarkably similar name, Kuraiku-paaai, a corruption
of the name Kurakkuppaai, meaning 'a sepulchre or tomb lowered
into the earth' The villagers of Katirav4i, like those of
South India, believe that these stone structures mark the site
where the monkeys of Rma's army encamped before the battle with
Rvaa This is a case of popular etymàlogy based on the element
kuraiku (=monkey), the corruption of kurakku • It is possible
that the later Tamil settlers in the Katirav4i region, having
seen the remarkable similarity between the megaliths of their
South Indian homeland and these structures, used the name Kurakku-patai
or Kuraku-pataai which later became Kuraz5.ku-paai. As no
excavation was carried out at this site, it is not known whether
burials exist here, and, therefore, it is not possible to say
50
1. C.J.Sc. (a), II, p. 95.
2. K.LSrinivaaan, . cit., p. 9.
3. Ibid.; C.J.Sc. (G), 11, p. 95.