JXO. 45. — 1894.] , SINHALESE INSCRIPTION. 



133 



NOTE ON A SINHALESE INSCRIPTION OF 1745-46 A.D.* 



By Mr. D. M. de Z. Wickremasinghe. 

 Text 



(1) essa &£do$&d eaSw3«>ic>ffi>aac) Oi^teSf 



(5) 2S?as©ogtt zs>d(*q£)etf J J 



Transcript. 



r (1) S'ak varsha ekvd dalias set siya heta hatata peminif 



(2) Krodha% namvumema varshayehi Isvarddhipatiwu a 



(3) ntima vi?isatiyehidi Satara Korale Disdva^ lebi ti 



(4) hena Lewuke\ tenanneha^ visin** vecla karavd da 



(5) kkavdpu\\ Jcdla tuwakkuivayi.%% 



Translation. 



This is the cannon which Lewuke, the minister holding 

 [the office of] Disawa over the Four Korales, has had made 

 and presented [to the Dutch] in the year named Krodha, the 

 1667th of the Saka era [which is] in the last vinsati (period 

 of twenty years) of the cycle under the regency of Is vara 

 (Jupiter Cyclus). 



* Engraved on an old cannon lying in the Royal Museum in Amsterdam , 

 deciphered from a pencil rubbing- furnished by Dr. Kern, Professor of 

 Sanskrit and Comparative Philology of the University of Ley den (Leiden). 



f The date on the inscription — Saka 1667 — covers portions of the two 

 years 1745 and 1746 of the Christian era. In the absence of a more definite 

 date, it is not possible to say if the presentation of the Sinhalese cannon to 

 the Dutch took place in 1745 or 1746. The word pemini, " arrived "or " ap- 

 proached," seems, however, to point to the commencement of the Saka 

 year, which may, therefore, fall in the latter half of 1745. 



% Krodha, in Indian astronomy the 59th year of the 60 years cycle of 

 Isvara or Jupiter. 



c 2 



