NOTES ON ANCIENT SIMHALESE INSCRIPTIONS. 23 



a 



na kot isa maSg-giya piya-giya no wadna kot isa dunu- 

 mandul melat cri rad kol kaamiyan no wadna kot isa wseri- 

 yan gam gen geri no ganna kot isa gad miwun no wadna 

 kot wadaleyin a me kap par ha kureli senim isa me kap par 

 nawa turse ssengim isa kucla sala dal siwim isa kolpattra 

 sanga setalu wse sep me tuwak dena 



D. 



mo ek sewa awud me Gitelgamu gam at attani psersehser 

 denu ladi. 



1) Ma see IV. 3, 



2) purmwka, see I. 1. 



3) Pasaloswan "the 15th," wan (late? Wanu, modern 

 weni), I believe, is simply the participle wana " becoming 

 being" (= bhavana) from wenawa Skt. bhu " being 15, 

 making 15, L e. "the 15th."*) The oldest ordinals I have 

 met with are dutiya, tatiya (1st to 4th century A.D.) the 

 next do not occur before the 9th or 10th century, when wan, 

 wana had come to be employed. 



4) Ne. This word is always used with ordinals to indi- 

 cate the king's reign ; in more modern literature it is, by 

 a mistake evidently, changed to nehi. I cannot make out 

 the real meaning of it, but it must be a separate word. 



5) Naroayce Genitive of nawaya. At present this month 

 (February, March) is called nawam masa (nava + karman 

 + masa) " new month." It seems strange that February 

 should be called " the new month," the Singhalese year 

 beginning with bah masa (April, May.) But originally the 

 Hindu year began with January (comp. Wilson's Works ed„ 

 Dr. Kost, Vol. II., "on the Religious Festivals, etc.") Now 

 in Ceylon the ancient Hindu months, for what reason or at 



* A different explanation is given by Child ers, Notes II., 4, 



