216 THE SINGHALESE CHRONICLES. [PART III. 



Sri, partly from Singhalese works brought back to the 

 island from Siam (whither they had been carried at 

 former periods by priests dispatched upon missions), and 

 partly from native histories, which had escaped the 

 general destruction of such records about the year 

 1590, in the' reign of Eaja Singha I, an apostate from 

 Buddhism, who, during the period when the Por- 

 tuguese were in occupation of the low country, exter- 

 minated the priests of Buddha, and transferred the care 

 of the shrine on Adam's Peak to Hindu Fakirs. 



But the Mahawanso, although the most authentic, 

 and probably the most ancient, is by no means the only 

 existing Singhalese chronicle. Between the 14th and 

 18th centuries several historians recorded passing events ; 

 and as these corroborate and supplement the narrative 

 of the greater work, they present an uninterrupted His- 

 torical Eecord of the highest authenticity, comprising 

 the events of nearly twenty-four centuries. 1 



From the data furnished by these, and from corrobo- 

 rative sources 2 , Tumour, in addition to many elabo- 

 rate contributions drawn from the recesses of Pah 

 learning in elucidation of the chronology of India, was 



1 In 1833 Upliam published, under 

 the title of The Sacred and Historical 



which is the most valuable of 

 these volumes, was translated for Sir 



Books of Ceylon , translations of what Alexander Johnston by Mr. Diony- 



professed to be authentic copies of sius Lambertus Pereira, who was then 



the Mahaicanso, the Rajaratnacari, Interpreter-Moodliar to the Cutchery 



and Rajavali; prepared for the use I at Matura. These English versions, 



of Sir Alexander Johnston when i though discredited as independent 



Chief-Justice of the island. But authorities, are not without value 



Tumour, in the introduction to his in so far as they afford corroborative 



masterly translation of the Maha- \ support to the genuine text of the 



wanso, has shown that Sir Alexander : Mahaicanso, and on this account I 



had been imposed upon, and that the J have occasionally cited them, 

 alleged transcripts supplied to him | 2 Besides the 3Iahaican$o, Rajn- 



are imperfect as regards the original ! ratnacitri, and RujaraU, the other 



text and unfaithful as translations, j native chronicles relied on by Tur- 



Of the Mahawanso in particular, Mr. nour in compiling his epitome were the 



Tumour says, in a private letter Pujavali, composed in the thirteenth 



which I have seen, that the early part j century, the Xik<n/a-tanf/raha, written 



of Upham's volume " is not a trans- 

 lation but a compendium of several 

 works, and the subsequent portions 

 a mutilated abridgment." The Raju- 



A.D. 1347, and the Account of the 

 J-'niJitixxi/ to tiifiHi in the reign of Raja 

 Singha II., A.D. 1739 47, by WILBA- 



GEDEKA 31CDIANSE. 



