Dear All,

A student of mine is trying to identify the Ceylonese/Sri Lankan toponym „Cauragashing“ mentioned by the British sailor Robert Knox in his book An Historical Relation of Ceylon (1681), p. 4. According to the author, it is a mountain „about the middle of the land“ obviously separating the Wet and Dry zones of the island he had personally visited, describing his experience as follows: „as oftentimes I have seen, being on the one side of a Mountain called Cauragas hing, rainy and wet weather, and as soon as I came on the other, dry, and so exceeding hot, that I could scarcely walk on the ground, being, as the manner there is, barefoot.“

One may infer that Knox refers to the Central (Kandyan) highlands, playing the role of a major watershed, a natural geographic divide; if so, could anybody explain the local name Cauraga(s)hing? If one may venture a speculation, couldn’t it refer to the whole mass of the highlands where the rebels (sinh. caura, cora) go to (sinh. ga) – perhaps, in haste (sinh. hingu)? Sincere apologies to all knowledgeable colleagues for unsubstantiated fantasizing and many thanks for elucidating.

With best regards,

Jan Filipsky, Praha