Chap. I.] SOURCES OP SINGHALESE HISTORY. 



3i3 



the government of the district of Saffragam, and being 

 resident at Eatnapoora near the foot of Adam's Peak, 

 he was enabled to pursne his studies under the guid- 



aiies then existed to assist in defining 

 the meaning of Pali terms which no 

 teacher could be found capable of ren- 

 dermg into English, so that Mr. Tur- 

 uour was entirely dependent on his 

 knowledge of Singhalese as a medium 

 for translating them. To an ordinary- 

 mind such obstructions woidd have 

 proved insurmountable, aggravated 

 as they were by discouragements 

 arising from the assumed barrenness 

 of the field, and the absence of all 

 sympathy with his pursuits, on the 

 part of those aroimd him, who re- 

 served their applause and encour- 

 agement till success had rendered 

 him indilierent to either. To this 

 apathy of the government officers, 

 Major Forbes, who was then the re- 

 sident at Matelle, formed an honour- 

 able exception ; and his narrative of 

 Eleven Years in Ceylon shows with 

 what ardour and success he shared 

 the tastes and cidtivated the studies 

 to which he had been directed by the 

 genius and example of Tm-nom*. So 

 zealous and unobtrusive were the 

 pm'suits of the latter, that even his 

 immediate connexions and relatives 

 were imaware of the value and extent 

 of his acquirements till apprised of 

 their importance and profundity by 

 the acclamation with which his dis- 

 coveries and translations from the 

 Pali were received by the savans of 

 Europe. Major Forbes, in a private 

 letter, which I have been permitted 

 to see, speaking of the difi^lculty of 

 doing justice to the literary cha- 

 racter of Turnom", and the ability, 

 energy, and pei-severance which he 

 exhibited in his historical investiga- 

 tions, says, " his Epitome of the His- 

 tm'y of Ceylon was from the first 

 correct ; I saw it seven years before 

 it was published, and it scarcely re- 

 quired an alteration afterwards." 

 "VVTiilst engaged in his translation of 

 the 3Iahmvanso, Ttjunouk, amongst 

 other able papers on Buddhist History 

 and Indian Chronology in the Journal 



of the Bengal Asiatic Society, v. 521, 

 vi. 299, 790, 1049, contributed a 

 series of essays on the Pali-Buddhis- 

 tical Annals, which were published in 

 1836, 1837, 1838.— Jbwr/?. Asiatic 

 Soc. Bengal, vi. 501, 714, vii. 686, 

 789, 919." At various times he pub- 

 lished in the same journal an account 

 of the Tooth Relic of Ceylon, lb. 

 vi. 856, and notes on the inscriptions 

 on the columns of Delhi, Allahabad, 

 and Betiah, &c. &c., and frequent 

 notices of Ceylon coins and inscrip- 

 tions. He had likewise planned 

 another undertaking of signal im- 

 portance, the translation into En- 

 glish of a Pali version of the Bud- 

 dhist scriptm-es, an ancient copy 

 of which he had discovered, mien- 

 cumbered by the ignorant commen- 

 taries of later writers, and the fables 

 with which they have defaced the 

 plain and simple doctrines of the 

 early faith. Pie annoimced his in- 

 tention in the Introduction to the 

 Mahaioanso to expedite the publica- 

 tion, as "the least tardy means of 

 effecting a comparison of the Pali 

 with the Sanskrit version" (p. ex.). 

 His correspondence with Prinsep, 

 which I have been permitted by 

 his family to inspect, abomids with 

 the evidence of inchoate inquiries 

 in which their congenial spirits had 

 a common interest, but which were 

 abruptly ended by the prematm-e de- 

 cease of both. Turnour, with shat- 

 tered health, retm-ned to Europe in 

 1842, and died at Naples on the 

 10th of April in the folloAving year. 

 The fii'st volume of his translation 

 of the Mahaioanso, which contains 

 thirty-eight chapters out of the hun- 

 dred which form the original work, 

 was published at Colombo in 1837 ; 

 and apprehensive that scepticism 

 might assail the authenticity of a 

 discovery so important, he accom- 

 panied his English version with a 

 reprint of the original Pali in Roman 

 characters with diacritical points. 



