NO. 44—1893.] EPIC OF PARAKRAMA. 



61 



language in the best portions is easy and clear, and 

 the metre — one well adapted to narrative — is used with 

 admirable flexibility. 



While this may be said of the Mahdwansa as a whole, its 

 historical and its literary merits are not similarly distri- 

 buted — one part excels in historical value, another in 

 literary charm. Without now inquiring which portions are 

 most valuable as history, or even what is the degree of 

 historical value of the section which concerns Parakrama, I 

 may certainly treat this section as standing among the 

 highest in literary merit. 



I ought here to say how greatly I am indebted to the 

 Sinhalese translators, Sumangala Terunnanse and the late 

 Pandit Batuvantudawe, and to the English translator, L. C. 

 Wijesioha Mudaliyar. I have not actually borrowed from 

 their works (with a small exception) the translations which I 

 shall quote, but I could have done nothing without them. For 

 the identification of the few places to which I have referred, 

 I am indebted to the learning and courtesy of Velivitiya 

 Dhammaratana Terunnanse of the Yidyodaya College, 



Parakrama the First, justly called Parakrama the Great, 

 who flourished in the latter half of the twelfth century of 

 the Christian era, is the most prominent figure in Ceylon 

 history, and the hero par excellence of the Sinhalese nation. 

 There is only one name that can rival his, that of Duttha- 

 gamini, who drove out the invaders of his country fourteen 

 centuries before, and whose figure on the historic canvas is 

 invested with even more romance, but with far less of reality. 

 The chapters which treat of Dutthagamini are highly 

 poetical, but they are altogether a slighter matter than the 

 long and detailed section which records — and, as I believe, 

 with much historical accuracy — the exploits of the later hero. 



It is not as history, however, whether accurate or otherwise, 

 that I am considering this section of the Mahdwansa to-night, 

 but as a poem, or material for a poem. I propose to show in 

 what degree it has the qualities of an epic poem, in unity 

 and dignity of subject, and imaginativeness and beauty of 



