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| There can be no doubt that Sindbad's sixth voyage was to Serendib, as the island is mentioned by name. This voyage ended in disaster, when monsoon winds drove his ship towards the base of a mountain rising sheer from the sea. The ship was dashed to pieces, but the crew managed to scramble to safety. |
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| "I had good reason for my terror when, an instant later, the largest of the animals wound his trunk round the stem of my tree and with one mighty effort tore it up by the roots, bringing me to the ground entangled in its branches." |
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| Mythical Roc birds attack Sindbad's ship |
The tales from the Thousand and One Arabian Nights are based on ancient oral tradition and are therefore highly allegorical. For instance, the enmity of the Great Bird and the Gigantic Serpent symbolizes the contrast between the solar force and the fluid energy of the terrestrial oceans. Indeed, in many cultures, the sun is symbolized by a bird; in India the name of this solar bird is Garuda, “the slayer of serpents”. Such symbolism and deeper significance is weakened or lost altogether when myths devolve into folktales, as with the Arabian Nights.
The 13th-century writer al-Kazvini was convinced that the Valley of Diamonds was located on Serendib. Although diamonds don’t occur on the island, many varieties of precious stones are found in the alluvial deposits on valley floors. However, it appears that beliefs regarding a valley from which gems were collected using carcasses and carrion birds were widespread. It was Valentine Ball’s conjecture in 1881 that such stories originate from a common Asian custom. When a new mine is opened, animals are often slaughtered as an offering to the spirits. The carcasses generally end up providing a feast for birds. It is conceivable, Ball suggested, that outsiders who witnessed such sacrifices believed this ritual formed an integral part of gem retrieval.
There can be no doubt that Sindbad’s sixth voyage was to Serendib, as the island is mentioned by name. This voyage ended in disaster, when monsoon winds drove his ship towards the base of a mountain rising sheer from the sea. The ship was dashed to pieces, but the crew managed to scramble to safety. In some versions of the story, this mountain is described as a lodestone, or magnetic rock. Many ancient writers referred to a magnetic rock in the Indian Ocean and told of how ships with iron fastenings were attracted to it. Palladius, in the fourth century, even advised that vessels sailing for Serendib should be fastened with wooden pegs.
With no possibility of scaling the mountain, Sindbad and his shipmates abandoned themselves to their fate. Soon they started to die of tropical fever. Sindbad discovered a river that flowed out of sight beneath a rocky archway. Exploring further, he saw that the area around this subterranean river was encrusted with diamonds, rubies and emeralds. After burying the last of his companions, Sindbad built a raft, collected some of the gems and floated off into the darkness of the tunnel. Hours of perilous travel passed. He fell asleep and later awoke to find himself in a beautiful country surrounded by friendly-looking people.
Emerson Tennent, in his Ceylon (1859), wrote of an extraordinary well near Puttur, on the Jaffna Peninsula. The water level of the well, which was some 60 metres deep, was said to rise and fall a few centimetres every twelve hours. Also, the level could not be reduced below a certain point, however much water was extracted. It was believed that the well connected with the sea, eleven kilometres distant, by way of a subterranean flyer.
“This legend of a subterranean river in Serendib was carried westward by the Arab mariners in the Middle Ages,” Tennent asserted, suggesting that it formed the basis of Sindbad’s adventure.
The problem with Tennent’s assertion is that there is no mountain for many kilometres around. In the December 1887 issue of his journal, The Taprobanian, Hugh Nevill advanced a more plausible theory. He believed that Sindbad had been shipwrecked at Okanda, which is at the northeastern corner of the modern Yala National Park and is the only place on the island’s entire coastline that is hemmed in by a high hill. From time immemorial, sailors have landed at Okanda to make offerings to Skanda, the god of Kataragama. It is said that Skanda beached here, and that his boat turned into stone.
Nevill pointed out that a ship crossing eastwards in the southwest monsoon would be driven ashore at Okanda, “if it lost its course and went so far northwards that it could not clear the southeast corner of the island”. Furthermore, he revealed that, in the sacred geography of Serendib, Okanda was known as Usikanda, or “high hill”. In Sinhala, this word also means lodestone. “It seems quite probable,” Nevill surmised, “that foreign merchants confused it with that of the great place for votive offerings, the Usikanda peak.”
There remains the mystery of Sindbad’s passage through the mountain by subterranean river. Nevill suggested that this was an exaggeration that came about because Sindbad traveled through many places with names derived from “rock” or “mountain”.
“Such mistakes would constantly occur when a sailor’s brief notes were employed by others with no local knowledge,” Nevill wrote. “So also the votive offerings at the rock shrine on the beach would quickly grow into the costly merchandise piled along the shore.”
Sindbad awoke after his river journey to find himself surrounded by Serendibian farmers who had come to irrigate their fields. On hearing his adventures, the farmers insisted that he be presented to their king, so they all set off to the City of Serendib. The king proved to be so delighted with Sindbad’s adventures that he ordered them written in letters of gold and placed in the archives. Sindbad was provided with a chamber inside the palace and a retinue of slaves. He had an audience with the king every day; the rest of the time he amused himself by touring the city and countryside. His description of the island has recognizable elements.
“Serendib being situated on the equinoctial line, the days and nights there are of equal length,” the mariner stated. “The chief city is placed at the end of a beautiful valley, formed by the highest mountain, which is in the middle of the island. I had the curiosity to ascend to its very summit, for this was the place to which Adam was banished out of Paradise. Here are found rubies and many precious things, and rare plants grow abundantly. On the seashore and at the mouths of rivers, divers seek for pearls.”
But Sindbad soon grew homesick and requested the king to allow him to return to Baghdad. Eventually the king consented and entrusted Sindbad with a royal present and letter for Haroun al-Rashid. The king’s letter was written in blue characters upon a rare parchment. It began: “The King of Serendib, before whom walk a thousand elephants, who lives in a palace, of which the roof blazes with a hundred thousand rubies, to the Caliph Haroun al-Rashid, sends greetings. Though the offering we present to you is unworthy of your notice, we pray you accept it as a token of our esteem and friendship for you.”
The royal gift was anything but unworthy of notice. It consisted of a fabulous goblet, or grail, carved from a huge ruby and lined with the choicest pearls, and an enormous snake skin with spots the size of a large coin, which would preserve from sickness all those who slept on it. Then there were large quantities of aloes wood and camphor. Lastly, there was a beautiful slave girl who “shone like the moon”.
On his return to Baghdad, Sindbad conveyed these gifts to the caliph, who demanded to know whether the king of Serendib was really as rich and powerful as he claimed to be. “Nothing can equal the magnificence of the king’s palace,” replied Sindbad. “For state processions a throne is set for him upon a huge elephant. On this elephant’s neck sits an officer, his golden lance in hand, and behind him another bearing a great mace of gold, at the top of which is an emerald as long as my hand. A thousand men on horseback clad in gold brocade and silk go before him.”
The caliph was well satisfied with Sindbad’s report and sent him home. It was not long, however, before the caliph summoned Sindbad and commanded him to deliver a letter and present to the king of Serendib. Reluctant though he was, Sindbad set out on his seventh and last voyage. He sailed uneventfully to Serendib, was greeted by the king with great joy and displayed the caliph’s gifts. They included a sumptuous bed with gold hangings, 50 robes of rich embroidery, an agate goblet carved with an archer aiming at a lion and a priceless table that had once belonged to King Solomon.
Misfortune befell Sindbad soon after he began his voyage home. His ship was attacked by pirates, and he was sold into slavery to a master who made him an ivory hunter. Each day, he had to go into the forest, hide in a tree and kill an elephant as the herd passed by. One day, though, the elephants surrounded Sindbad’s tree and knocked it down. The terrified Sindbad was amazed when the leader picked him up gently and carried him to a place where the bones of many elephants lay strewn around. The elephants wanted to show Sindbad where he could obtain ivory without killing their kind. On revealing the location of the graveyard to his master, Sindbad was freed and returned to Baghdad.
Tim Severin, the writer-explorer who has made a name for himself by reenacting epic voyages, decided nearly 20 years ago to turn his attention to Sindbad. In his dhow Sohar, Severin sailed eastwards from Muscat to China, retracing Sindbad’s voyages. Sohar docked at Galle for nearly a month, as Severin investigated the elephant-graveyard aspect of the Sindbad story. His findings are recorded in his book The Sindbad Voyage (1982).
There has been much speculation over the centuries regarding the existence of elephant graveyards. Tennent, for example, linked the Sindbad story to an ancient belief that elephants, when about to die, traveled to a valley among the mountains to the east of Sri Pada (Adam’s Peak). The elephants reached this valley by a narrow pass and, there by the side of a lake of clear water, lay down for the last time. Severin questioned the country’s game wardens and was told that elephant bones are rarely found.
The answer to this and other mysteries concerning Sindbad’s adventures in Serendib may never be known. What is significant is that the island figures prominently in the Sindbad tales, and that it is portrayed as a storybook kingdom governed by a wise ruler, a place where the magical and the miraculous are commonplace. For Serendib was regarded as not only a centre of early trade, but also as an enchanted island abounding in wisdom and majesty.
