The mango, the jambo, and several other fruits are particularised, but the historical books make no mention either of the pine-apple or the plantain, which appear to have been of comparatively recent introduction.  Pulse is alluded to at an early date under the generic designation of “Masa."[1]

[Footnote 1:  Mahawanso, ch. xxiii. p. 140.]

Rice and Curry.—­Rice in various forms is always spoken of as the food, alike of the sovereign, the priests, and the people; rice prepared plainly, conjee (the water in which rice is boiled), “rice mixed with sugar and honey, and rice dressed with clarified butter."[1] Chillies are now and then mentioned as an additional condiment.[2] The Rajavali speaks of curry in the second century before Christ[3] and the Mahawanso in the fifth century after.[4]

[Footnote 1:  Ibid., ch. xxxii. p. 196.]

[Footnote 2:  Ibid., ch. xxv, p. 158; ch. xxvi. p. 160.]

[Footnote 3:  Rajavali, pp. 196, 200, 202.]

[Footnote 4:  Mahawanso, TURNOUR’S MS. translation, ch. xxxix.

KNOX says that curry is a Portuguese word, carre (Relation, &c., part i. ch. iv. p. 12), but this is a misapprehension.  Professor H.H.  WILSON, in a private letter to me, says, “In Hindustan we are accustomed to consider ‘curry’ to be derived from, tarkari, a general term for esculent vegetables, but it is probably the English version of the Kanara and Malayalam kadi; pronounced with a hard r, ‘kari’ or ‘kuri,’ which means sour milk with rice boiled, which was originally used for such compounds as curry at the present day.  The Karnata majkke-kari is a dish of rice, sour milk, spices, red pepper, &c, &c.”]

Although the taking of life is sternly forbidden in the ethical code of Buddha, and the most prominent of the obligations undertaken by the priesthood is directed to its preservation even in the instances of insects and animalculae, casuistry succeeded so far as to fix the crime on the slayer, and to exonerate the individual who merely partook of the flesh.[1] Even the inmates of the wiharas and monasteries discovered devices for the saving of conscience, and curried rice was not rejected in consequence of the animal ingredients incorporated with it.  The mass of the population were nevertheless vegetarians, and so little value did they place on animal food, that according to the accounts furnished to EDRISI by the Arabian seamen returning from Ceylon, “a sheep sufficient to regale an assembly was to be bought there for half a drachm."[2]

[Footnote 1:  HARDY’S Eastern Monachism, ch. iv. p. 24; ch. ix. p. 92; ch. xvi. p. 158.  HARDY’S Buddhism, ch. vii. p. 327.]

[Footnote 2:  EDRISI; Geographie, &c., tom. i. p. 73.]