On Yuan Chwang's Travels in India, 629–645 A.D. v2.c22.3

v2.c22.3

Of the legends about Ceylon related by the pilgrim the first tells how a princess of South India was carried off by a lion into the woods. To this lion the princess became mother of a son and a daughter, and in the course of time the son secretly carried off his mother and sister to the native place of the mother. Thereupon the lion, utterly distressed and enraged by the loss of his family, committed dreadful havoc in the land, and the son for the reward offered by the king killed his own father. When the king learned the circumstances, he banished the patricide, sending him away in a boat which brought him to Ceylon. Here the young man settled, and marrying a trader's daughter, he introduced order and government, and his descendants gave him the name Lion-catcher, which they applied also to the country. This was the story in the popular accounts. The second legend is from the Buddhist scriptures. This tells of the 500 merchants being taken captive by the Rākshasīs of Ceylon, and of their chief and some of the others being carried away from destruction by the "Heaven-Horse".