192 SPOLIA ZEYLANICA. 



Marks of punctuation are very few, and kundali ( ,^vi«t^ ), the 

 principal of them, is used generally at the end of a paragraph, and 

 at the commencement and close of a quotation or a stanza. The 

 words are not separated. 



For the most important books, such as the text and commentaries 

 of the Buddhist scriptures, and other voluminous religious works, 

 leaves of the largest dimensions are used, the longest used being 

 generally two feet three inches and the broadest three inches ; nine 

 or ten lines are generally written on a page. Shorter and narrower 

 leaves are employed for scientific and poetical works, and the 

 small pieces which are not suitable for books are utilized for wiiting 

 short notes and letters. 



A book ^^Titten on well-prepared talipot olas will last more than 

 a thousand years. The age of the oldest books now extant in Ceylon 

 is about 500 years, absence of older manuscripts being due to the 

 destruction which the Sinhalese literature has suffered from time to 

 time. The oldest manuscript found in India is one on talipot leaves 

 (with the wi'iting in ink), and is dated in 1132 a.d. 



The Sinhalese ola manuscripts are some of the best in the world, 

 and rank next to Burmese manuscripts (which are also on talipot 

 leaves) in point of durability. The following observation has been 

 made by Dr. A. C. Burnell : — 



" The meanness which is so characteristic of S. India displays 

 itself conspicuously in the MSS. written there. It is very seldom 

 that the least attempt is made (except in Malabar) to trim the leaves 

 and to provide proper covers for them. In Ceylon, Burma, and 

 Indo -China, on the other hand, the palm-leaf MSS. ai'e always 

 beautifully written, and are often real works of art. In S. India, 

 MSS. are hung up in the kitchen chimney ; in the Ceylon monasteries 

 I observed that each one of importance is preserved carefully in a 

 box made for the purpose and to fit the MS." 



All the manuscripts of this library, with a few exceptions, are 

 written on talipot olas, the exceptions being a few palmyra ola books, 

 such as the Hilekammitiya (a register of paddy fields in Uva, 123 

 leaves) and the Dutch, Sinhalese, and Tamil Vocabulary (words of 

 each language being written in its own characters, 83 leaves) ; one 

 paper manuscript of the Diyasevul Sandesaya (" Water cocks' 

 message," a Sinhalese poem), and a copy of the Satipatthana (a 

 discourse of Buddha) on twenty-four copper leaves with wooden 

 side boards covered with brass. 



^Most of the manuscripts are in Sinhalese characters and are 

 locally made ; the largest portion of the rest, consisting of books of 

 the TripitakUythe Milinda Paw/ia (questions on Buddhism of King 

 MUinda — identified with Menander — and replies thereto by Naga- 

 sena Thera), and the Mahavansa and Dipavansa (two histories of 

 Ceylon composed in Ceylon), the Mahavansa Tika (a commentary 

 on the Mahavansa, also composed in Ceylon),* and a few other 

 I'eligious works, are in Burmese characters ; the remainder, consisting 

 of the Mahavansa and the Mahavansa Tika, presented by Her late 

 Majesty Qaeen Victoria's Consul at Bankok, and the Mangalat- 

 thattha Dlpani (a commentary on Mangala SuUa, a discourse of 

 Buddha), are in Cambodian characters. 



* All these, which are with gilt edges, were presented by His late Majesty 

 the King of Bumna. 



