Page:Indian Shipping, a history of the sea-borne trade and maritime activity of the Indians from the earliest times.djvu/63

 Vijaya's followers. Their wives and children, making up more than seven hundred, were also cast adrift in similar ships. The ship in which the lion-prince, Sińhala, sailed from some unknown part of Jambudvīpa to Ceylon contained five hundred merchants besides himself. The ship in which Vijaya's Pandyan bride was brought over to Ceylon was also of a very large size, for she is said to have carried no less than 800 passengers on board. The Janaka-Jātaka mentions a ship that was wrecked with all its crew and passengers to the favourite number of seven hundred, in addition to Buddha himself in an earlier incarnation. So also the ship in which Buddha in the Supparaka-Bodhisat incarnation made his voyages from Bharukaccha (Broach) to "the Sea of the Seven Gems" carried seven hundred merchants besides himself. The wrecked ship of the Vālahassa-Jātaka carried five hundred merchants. The ship which is mentioned in the Samudda-Vanija-Jātaka was so large as to accommodate also a whole village