CHAP. IX.] 



LIGHTNING CONDUCTORS. 



The chief interest of the story centres in the words 

 " to serve as a protection 

 against lightning" which do 

 not belong to the metrical 

 text of the Mahawanso, 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 * grown of the Dagoba. 



B. The capital, with the sun on each of the 



incident to the obligations c T h f e u s r P ire e8 ' 



Of rhythm. In this in- i T^^ 



the Asgiria (who was TURXOUR'S 

 instructor in Pali), WATTEGAMINE 

 UNXANSE of Kandy, BULLETGAMONE 

 UNNANSE of Galle, BATTJWANTTJDAWE, 

 of Colombo, and DE SoYZA,the trans- 

 lator Moodliar to the Colonial Secre- 

 tary's Office. Mr. DE ALWIS says, 

 " I 1 he epithet anagghan, ' invaluable ' 

 or ' priceless,' immediately preceding 

 and qualifying wajira in the original 

 (but omitted by Tumour in the 

 translation), shows that a substance 

 far more valuable than glass must 

 have been meant." " Chumbatan," 

 Prof. WILSON supposed to be the Pali 

 equivalent to the Sanskrit chumbakam, 

 " 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- 

 magnet pinnacle, or conductor, or a 

 conductor or attractor of the thunder- 

 bolt. 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 chumbafca is the same both 

 in Sanskrit and Pali, whilst chumbato 

 is a Pali compound, which means a 

 circular prop or support, a ring on 

 which something rests, or a roll of 

 cloth formed into a circle to form a 



stand for a vessel ; so that the term 

 must be construed 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 thupo 



anagghan wajira-chumbatan. 



a valuable diamond hoop. 



TTJRNOTJR 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 icajira, 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 weD as the diamond is an 

 insulator of electricity, the force of 

 the passage would be in no degree 

 altered whichever of the two sub- 

 stances was really particularised. 

 TCRNOTTR was equally uncertain as 

 to the meaning of chumbatan, which 

 in one instance he has translated a 

 " pinnacle," and has left in the other 

 without any English equivalent, sim- 

 ply calling "wajira-chumbatan" a 

 " chumbatan of glass." Mahawanso, 

 ch. xxxviii. p. 259. 



