The Cambridge History of India, Vol. I: Ancient India v1.c32.9

v1.c32.9

The Mhv. (VI, VIII) and Dīp. (IX), with which a number of late histories and popular ballads agree more or less, tell a singular story. According to them, a daughter of a King of Vaṅga (Bengal) and a princess of Kaliṅga (Orissa) was carried away by a lion, who begot on her a son, Sīhabāhu ('Lion-Arm'), and a daughter, Sīhasīvalī (in Sinh. ballads Siṃhavallī). After slaying his father, Sīhabāhu reigned at Sīhapura, 'Lion's Town,' in Lāḷa (Lāṭa, i.e. Gujarāt)¹. His son Vijaya, banished for his lawlessness, departed from Sīhapura with a band of adventurers and sailed southward. After stopping at Suppāraka (Çūrpāraka, the modern Sopāra, in the Thāna District, Bombay Presidency), he continued his voyage to Ceylon, where he arrived very shortly before the death of Gautama Buddha, who in a prophetic vision learned of his coming and commended him to the care of the god Sakka (Çakra, or Indra)². He found the island in the possession of *yakkhas*, or fairies. Having overcome the wiles of the Yakkha princess Kuvaṇṇā (in Sinh. Kuveni), he took her to wife, and drove away her kinsmen. When he had established himself, he repudiated her and his children by her—who became the ancestors of the Pulinda tribes of the interior—in order to marry a daughter of the Pāṇḍyan king of Madura, and reigned for 38 years (c. 483–445 B.C.) with much righteousness in the town of Tambapaṇṇi, which he had founded. Anurādhapura, Upatissagāma, Vijitagāma, Uruvelā, and Ujjenī were founded by his followers.