514 



SCIENCES AND SOCIAL ARTS. 



[Part IV. 



Tlie wiharas and monasteries of the Buddhist priest- 

 hood are the only depositaries in Ceylon of the national 

 hterature, and in these are to be found quantities of ola 

 books on an infinity of subjects, some of them, especially 

 those relating to rehgion and ecclesiastical liistory, being 

 of the remotest antiquity. 



Works of the latter class are chiefly WT^itten in Pah. 

 Treatises on astronomy, mathematics, and physics are 

 almost exclusively in Sanslmt, whilst those on general 

 literature, being comparatively recent, are composed in 

 Elu, a dialect which differs from the colloquial Sin- 

 ghalese rather in style than in structure, having been 

 liberally enriched by incorporation fi'om Sanskrit and 

 Pah.^ But of the works which have come down to 

 us, ancient as weU as modern, so great is the pre- 

 ponderance of those in Pah and Sanskrit, that the 

 Singhalese can scarcely be said to possess a hterature 

 in their national dialect ; and in the books they do pos- 

 sess, so utter is the dearth of invention or originality, that 

 almost all which are not either baUads or compilations, 

 are translations from one or other of the two learned 

 languages. 



I. Pali. — Works in Pah are written, hke those 

 of Burmah and Siam, not in Nagari or any pecuhar 

 character, but in the vernacular alphabet. Of these, 

 as might naturally be expected, the vast majority are on 

 subjects connected with Buddhism, and next to them 

 in point of number are grammars and grammatical com- 

 mentaries. 



The oiiginal of the great Pali grammar of Kachcha- 



cords that King Prakrama Bahii I. 

 made it a rule that '' Vvdien pei'inaneut 

 grants of land were to be made to 

 those who had performed meritorious 

 services, such behests should not be 

 evanescent like lines drawn on water, 

 by being inscribed on leaves to be 

 destroyed by rats and white ants, 

 but engraved on plates of copper, so 

 as to endure to posterity'." 



1 Tuknoije's Introd. to the 3Iaha- 

 wanso, p. xiii. A critical accoimt of 

 the Elu wiU be fomid in an able 

 and learned essay on the language 

 and literature of Ceylon by Mr. J. 

 De Alwis, prefixed to his English, 

 translation of the Sidath Sam/ara, a 

 grammar of Singhalese, written in 

 the fourteenth century. Colombo, 

 1852, Introd. p. xxvii. xxxvii. 



