514 



SCIENCES AND SOCIAL ARTS. 



[PAKT IV. 



The wiharas and monasteries of the Buddhist priest- 

 hood are the only depositaries in Ceylon 'of the national 

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

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

 those relating to religion and ecclesiastical history, being 

 of the remotest antiquity. 



Works of the latter class are chiefly written in Pah. 

 Treatises on astronomy, mathematics, and physics are 

 almost exclusively in Sanskrit, 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 from Sanskrit and 

 Pah. 1 But of the works which have come down to 

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

 ponderance of those in Pali and Sanskrit, that the 

 Singhalese can scarcely be said to have a literature in 

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

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

 almost all which are not either ballads or compilations, 

 are translations from one or other of the two learned 

 languages. 



I. PALI. Works in Pali are written, like those 

 of Burinah and Siam, not in Nagari or any peculiar 

 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 original of the great Pali grammar of Kachcha- 



cords that King Prakrama Bahu I. 

 made it a ride that " when permanent 

 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." 



to the Maha- 

 wanso, p. xiii. A critical account of 

 the Elu will be found 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 Simijant, ;i 

 grammar of Singhalese, written in 

 the fourteenth century. Colombo, 

 1852. Introd. p. xxvii. xxxvii. 



