Even in the sixth century Cosmas Indicopleustes declares unhesitatingly that the Sielediva of the Indians was the Taprobane of the Greeks.
It was only on emerging from the general ignorance of the Middle Ages that the doubt was first promulgated.

In the Catalan Map of A.D.

1375, entitled _Image du Monde_, Ceylon is omitted, and Taprobane is represented by Sumatra (MALTE BRUN, _Hist.

de Geogr._ vol.i, p.

318); in that of _Fra Mauro_, the Venetian monk, A.D.1458, Seylan is given, but _Taprobane_ is added over _Sumatra_.