NO. 50,-1899.] ALAGIYAVANNA MOHOTTALA. 



115 



ALAGIYAVANNA MOHOTTALA, THE AUTHOR OP 

 " KUSAJATAKA KAVYAYA." 



By D. W. Ferguson. 



Mr. A. Mendis Gunasekara, Mudaliyar, the learned 

 author of the 44 Comprehensive Grammar of the Sinhalese 

 Language," in his scholarly edition of Kusajdtaka Kdvyaya 

 (1897), says, on pp. xi-xii. of the Preface : — 



Like most other authors who flourished in this country in early 

 times, very little is known of the author of Kusajdtaka Kdvya. 



Mohottala " or " Mukaveti " affixed to his name designates his office, 

 that of registrar held by him under the Dutch Government, or, as 

 usually applied, " secretary or writer to the household of a native 

 chieftain of high rank." His father, Dharmadvaja, who was himself 

 a poet and a man of great learning, was a native of Hisvella, a 

 village which may be identified with the modern Hissella in Gangaboda 

 pattu of the Si'na korale, which, according to the Census of 1891, 

 contained 340 inhabitants. It is possible that Alagiyavanna was born 

 here and received his education under his father. Having received 

 his appointment from King Rajasinha II. (1634-1684 a.d.) at the 

 instance of the Dutch Government, he travelled in various parts of 

 the maritime districts of Ceylon which were then under that Govern- 

 ment, and collected materials for the' compilation of the valuable 

 Government record known as the Dutch " Tombu."* It is said that 

 he was invested with much authority, and had the power to sentence 

 to death a number of persons not exceeding six at a time, and that 

 accordingly a " low caste " man named Alagiya, who, on being asked 

 for his name, impertinently replied " That is the same as your own," 

 was ordered by him to be put to death by his two legs being tied to the 

 trunks of two adjoining arecanut palms brought together by ropes, 

 which were afterwards cut asunder, so that the man's limbs were torn 

 in two by the receding force of the two trees. 



* A correspondent of the Ceylon Observer (June 14, 1897) says : — "The 

 Dutch in the 17th century, when the maritime provinces passed into their 

 hands from the Portuguese, requested the help of Raja Singha II. in drawing 

 up a register of the inhabitants and lands of their new possessions. The 

 services of Alageyawanna Mohotala, the eminent Sinhalese poet, were placed 

 at their disposal, and the result was the compilation of the famous Lan?i 

 Thombo, or the Sinhalese Domesday Book." — D. W. F. 



