[Footnote 1:  For an account of the earliest trade in cinnamon, see post Part v. ch. ii. on the Knowledge of Ceylon possessed by the Arabians.]

[Footnote 2:  Mahawanso, ch. xxii. p. 134, &c. &c.]

[Footnote 3:  Ibid., ch. xxiii. p. 142; ch. xxxi. p. 186.]

[Footnote 4:  A.D.459. Mahawanso, ch. xxxviii. p. 258.]

[Footnote 5:  Ibid, ch. xxiii. p. 138.]

[Footnote 6:  Ibid, ch. xxix. p. 169; ch. xxx. p. 179.]

[Footnote 7:  Ibid., ch. xxiii. p. 139; Rajaratnacari, p. 49.]

[Footnote 8:  Ibid, ch. xxix. p. 169; Rajaratnacari p. 51.]

[Footnote 9:  Mahawanso, ch. xxx. p. 177; Rajavali, p. 269.  Woollen cloth is described as “most valuable”—­an epithet which indicates its rarity, and probably foreign origin.]

[Footnote 10:  Mahawanso, ch. xiv. p. 82; ch. xv. p. 87; ch. xxv. p. 151; carpets of wool, ib. ch. xxvii. p. 164.]

Intercourse with Kashmir.—­Possibly the woollen cloths referred to may have been shawls, and there is evidence in the Rajatarangini[1], that at a very early period the possession of a common religion led to an intercourse between Ceylon and Kashmir, originating in the sympathies of Buddhism, but perpetuated by the Kashmirians for the pursuit of commerce.  In the fabulous period of the narrative, a king of Kashmir is said to have sent to Ceylon for a delicately fine cloth, embroidered with golden footsteps.[2] In the eighth century of the Christian era, Singhalese engineers were sent for to construct works in Kashmir[3]; and Kashmir, according to Troyer, took part in the trade between Ceylon and the West.[4]

[Footnote 1:  The Rajatarangini resembles the Mahawanso, in being a metrical chronicle of Kashmir written at various times by a series of authors, the earliest of whom lived in the 12th century.  It has been translated into French by M. Troyer, Paris, 1840.]

[Footnote 2:  Rajatarangini, b. i. sl. 294.]

[Footnote 3:  Rajatarangini, b. iv. sl. 502, &c.]

[Footnote 4:  “La communication entre Kachmir et Ceylan n’a pas eu lieu seulement par les entreprises guerrieres que je viens de rappeler, mais aussi par un commerce paisible; c’est du cette ile que venaient des artistes qu’on appelait Rakchasas a cause du merveilleux de leur art; et qui executaient des ouvrages pour l’utilite et pour l’ornement d’un pays montagneux et sujet aux inondations.  Ceci confirme ce que nous apprennent les geographes Grecs, que Ceylan, avant et apres le commencement de notre ere, etait un grand point de reunion pour le commerce de l’Orient et de l’Occident.”—­Rajatarangini, vol. ii. p. 434.]

Of the trade between Ceylon and Kashmir and its progress, the account given by Edrisi, the most renowned of the writers on eastern geography, who wrote in the twelfth century[1], is interesting, inasmuch as it may be regarded as a picture of this remarkable commerce, after it had attained its highest development.