512 



SCIENCES AND SOCIAL ARTS. 



[Part IV. 



CHAP. X. 



SINGHALESE LITEEATURE. 



The literature of the ancient Singhalese derived its 

 character from the hierarchic ascendency, which was 

 fostered by then* government, and exerted a prepon- 

 derant influence over the temperament of the people. 

 The Buddhist priesthood were the depositories of all 

 learning and the dispensers of all knowledge : — by the 

 obhgation of their order the study of the classical Pah ^ 

 Avas rendered compulsory upon them^, and the books 

 wliich have come down to us show that they were at the 

 same time famihar with Sanskrit. They were employed 

 by royal command in compihng the national annals^, and 

 kings at various periods not only encom^aged their la- 

 bours by endowments of lands*, but conferred distinction 

 on such pursuits by devoting their own attention to the 

 cultivation of poetry^, and the formation of hbraries. ** 



The books of the Singhalese are formed to-day, as they 

 have been for ages past, of olas or strips taken from the 

 young leaves of the Tahpat or the Palmyra palm, 

 cut before they have acquh^ed the dark shade and 

 strong texture which belong to the full grown frond. ^ 



^ Pali, whicli is tlie language of 

 Buddliist literature in Siam, Ava, as 

 well as in Ceylon, is, according to 

 Dr. INIiLL, "no other than the Ma- 

 gadha Pracrit, the classical form in 

 ancient Behar of that very peculiar 

 modification of Sanskrit speech which 

 enters as largely into the drama of 

 the Hindus, as did the Doric dialect 

 into the Attic tragedy of Ancient 

 Greece." In 1826 MM. Btjunottf 

 and Lassek published their learned 

 " Essai sur le Pali,'''' but the most am- 

 ple light was thrown upon its struc- 

 ture and history by the subsequent 

 investigations of Turnotjr, who, 



in the introduction to his version of 

 the Maliaioanso, has embodied a dis- 

 quisition on the antiquity of Pali as 

 compared with Sanskrit (p. xxii. &c.). 



2 Rajaratnacm-i, p. 106. 



3 Ibid., p. 43-74. 



4 Ihicl, p. 113. 



^ Rajavali, p. 245 ; Mahawanso, 

 eh. liv., Ixxix. 



^ Rajavali, p. 244. 



■^ The leaves of the Palmyi'a, simi- 

 larly prepared, are used for writings 

 of an ordinaiy kind, but the most 

 valuable books are wi'itten on the 

 Talipat. See ante, Vol, I. Pt. I. ch. iii. 

 p. 110. 



