311 



CHAPTER I. 



SOURCES OF SINGHALESE HISTORY. THE MAHAWANSO AND 

 OTHER NATIVE ANNALS. 



IT was long affirmed by Europeans that the Singhalese an- 

 nals, like those of the Hindus, were destitute of interest or 

 devoid of value as historical elements ; that, viewed as re- 

 ligious disquisitions, they were no better than the ravings 

 of fanaticism, and that myths and romances had been re- 

 duced 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, pub- 

 lished 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 their 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 commenced an account of the native sove- 

 reigns, from the earliest 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. 1 



A writer, who, under the signature of PIIILALETIIES, 

 published, in 1816, A History of Ceylon from the earliest 

 period, adopted the dictum of Valentyn, and contented 

 himself with still further condensing the " account," 

 which the latter had given " of the ancient Emperors 



a VALENTYX, Oitd en Nicuw Oost-lndi&i, ^-c., Landbeschryving van Eyland 

 Ceylon, ch. iv. p. GO. 



x 4 



