68 



JOURNAL. R.A.S. (CEYLON). [Vol. VIII. 



write sentences on their productions. If potters possessed 

 the knowledge of writing, we may be sure that the higher 

 castes, too, would not be ignorant of it. It seems to me 

 that such negative evidence as the absence of rock inscrip- 

 tions of a very early date proves little. It is one thing to 

 write a few sentences on a leaf, but quite another — and a 

 thousand times more difficult and tedious — to cut them on a 

 rock. But it was easy to scratch the letters on the partly- 

 hardened clay, and these workmen appear to have amused 

 themselves by doing so. Not only can this be deduced, 

 but an examination of these letters leaves no doubt that 

 many, if not all, were engraved with some sharp-pointed 

 instrument similar to the style now in use. Considering 

 this fact, and the indubitable age of the inscriptions, my 

 conclusion is that the art of writing had been introduced 

 into Ceylon at a period long antecedent to the cutting of 

 the first rock inscriptions in the Island ; and I not only see 

 nothing unworthy of credit in the earliest references to it 

 contained in the Mahavamsa (p. 53, 54, 60, and 131), but 

 every likelihood of their being a strict adherence to fact. 

 The art must necessarily have been in existence in India 

 for centuries before the first Indian rock inscriptions were 

 cut, and it is unlikely that none of the early settlers, 

 especially those from the courts of the Indian Kings, should 

 be acquainted with it. At any rate, it is certain that the 

 art of writing must have been brought to Ceylon long before 

 the knowledge could spread to people of the lower castes. 



It is much to be regretted that no full sentence has been 

 discovered on the pottery, and only two or three complete 

 words. In nearly all cases there is only a letter or two. 

 The two longest inscriptions read : — 



No. 1 ke Dayapn saha Aba 



No. 2. Gapati swam. 



The letters discovered are : — 



A, E, ka, aa, da s ta, na,pa, ba, ma, ya, ra, va, sa, 

 ha % and all the short attached vowels. The sa is 

 of the angular form, like the Greek digamma. 



Mode of Burial. 

 Nothing to illustrate the earliest form of burial in Ceylon 

 has come to light, but an interesting example of a much 



