311 



CHAPTER I. 



SOURCES OF SINGHALESE HISTOEY. — THE MAHAWANSO AND 

 OTHER NATIVE ANNALS. 



It was long affirmed by Europeans that the Singhalese 

 annals, like those of the Hindus, were devoid of interest 

 or value as historical material ; that, as rehgious dis- 

 quisitions, they were the ravings of fanaticism, and that 

 myths and romances had been reduced to the semblance 

 of national chronicles. Such was the opinion of the 

 Portuguese writers De Barros and De Couto ; and 

 Valentyn, who, about the year 1725, pubhshed his 

 great work on the Dutch possessions in India, states 

 his conviction that no reliance can be placed on such of 

 the Singhalese books as profess to record the ancient 

 condition of the country. These he held to be even of 

 less authority than the traditions of the same events 

 which had descended from father to son. On the in- 

 formation of learned Singhalese, drawn apparently from 

 the Rajavali, he inserted an account of the native sove- 

 reigns, from the earhest times to the arrival of the Portu- 

 guese ; but, wearied by the monotonous inanity of the 

 story, he omitted every reign between the fifth and 

 fifteenth centuries of the Christian era.^ 



A writer, who, under the signature of Philalethes, 

 published, in 1 81 6, A History of Ceyloyi from the earliest 

 period^ adopted the dictum of Valentyn, and contented 

 liimself with still further condensing the " account," 

 which the latter had given " of the ancient Emperors 



^ Valiinttn, Oud en Niciiw Oost-Indien, i^-c, Landbeschryving van f Eylancl 

 Ceylon, ch. iv. p. 60. 



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