(Ταπροβάνη/Taprobánē). The most common name for the island of Ceylon from the time of Onesicritus (in Str. 15,1,17 and Plin. HN 6,81) and Megasthenes (Plin. HN 6, 81) onwards, Ancient Indian Tāmraparṇi, Middle Indian Tambapaṇṇi.
The unrealistic geographical ideas of Antiquity, which are probably based on Eratosthenes [2], are noteworthy: in all Greek and Latin sources T. is much larger than in reality and extends far to the west. Nevertheless, in Ptolemaeus [65] for instance, who devotes a whole chapter to T. (7,4), modern C…