Chap. IX.] 



LIGHTNING CONDUCTORS. 



509 



The chief interest of the story centres in the words 

 " to serve as a protection 

 against lightning" wliich do 

 not belong to the metrical 

 text of the 3Iahawanso, but 

 are taken from the expla- 

 natory notes appended to it. 

 I have stated elsewhere, that 

 it was the practice of authors 

 who wrote in Pah verse, to 

 attach to the text a com- 

 mentary in prose, in order 

 to illustrate the obscurities ^ ^.'■/>^^" «''.'''« ^'»=°''^ , ,„ 



B. 1 he capital, with the sun on each of the 



incident to the obhgations c. xhe'spke!' 



p 1 ii T i1 • • D. The umbrella or chatta, gilt and surrounded 



OI rnytnm. in tins m- by " chuuibatan,- a diamond drclet. 



Asgiria (wlio was Ttjrnotjr's in- 

 structor in Pali), Wattegamine Un- 

 nause of Kandy, BuUetgamoue 

 Unnanse of Galle, Batuwantudawe, 

 of Colombo, and De Soyza, tlie trans- 

 lator Moodliar to the Colonial Secre- 

 tary's Office. Mr. De Alwis says, 

 *' The epithet anagyhmi, ' invaluable ' 

 or ' priceless,' immediately preceding 

 and qualifying jvajira in the original 

 (but omitted by Turnour in the 

 translation), shows that a substance 

 far more valuable than glass must 

 have been meant." " Chxmbatan,^' 

 Prof. Wilson supposed to be the Pali 

 equivalent to the Sanslait chxmbakam, 

 " the kisser or attractor of steel ; " 

 the question he says is whether wajira 

 is to be considered an adjective or 

 part of a compound substantive, 

 whether the phrase is a diamond- 

 mof/nct 2}ifi)iac!e, or conductor, or a 

 conductor or attractor of the thunder- 

 holt. In the latter case it would 

 intimate that the Singhalese had a no- 

 tion of lightning conductors. Mr. De 

 Alwis, however, and Mr. Gogerly 

 agree that chumba/ca is the same both 

 in Sanskrit and Pali, whilst chumbate 

 is a Pali compound, which means a 

 circular prop or support, a rinr/ on 

 which something rests, or a roll of 

 cloth formed into a cii'cle to form a 



stand for a vessel ; so that the term 

 must be consti-ued to mean a diamond 

 circlet, and the passage, transposing 

 the order of the words, will read 

 literally thus : 



thapapesi tatha muddhani thupassa 

 he placed in like manner on the top of the thui)0 



anagghan wajira-chumbatan. 



a valuable diamond hoop. 



TuENOUK wrote his translation whilst 

 residing at Kandy and with the aid 

 of the priests, who being ignorant of 

 English could only assist him to 

 Singhalese equivalents for Pali words. 

 Hence he was probably led into the 

 mistake of confounding wajira, which 

 signifies " diamond," or an instrument 

 for cutting diamonds, with the modern 

 word widura, which bears the same 

 import but is colloquially used by 

 the Kandyans for "glass." However, 

 as glass as well as the diamond is an 

 insidator of electi-icity, the force of 

 the passage would be in no degi-ee 

 altered whichever of the two sub- 

 stances was really particidarised. 

 Turnour was eqviaUy imcertaia as 

 to the meaning of chumbatan, which 

 in one instance he has translated a 

 "pinnacle," and in the other he has 

 left without any English equivalent, 

 simply calling " wajira-chimibatan" 

 a " chumbatan of glass." — Maha- 

 wanso, ch, x.\xviii. p. 250. 



