No. 5. — 1850.] THE ELU LANGUAGE. 



293 



this Island to regard him as a king of Ceylon ; nor indeed 

 is he named by the grammarian with a dignified expression 

 such as to justify a like supposition. And that he was a 

 minister of the ruling sovereign, and clothed with the 

 authority of a petty governor, we may without difficulty 

 believe, since we have numerous instances of the kind in 

 the " Mahavansa." 



Having thus far arrived in the chain of our investigations, 

 the question presents itself, When did Patiraja flourish ? We 

 can only obtain an answer to this in case his identity with 

 Wfrasinha Patiraja, "the supreme minister" named in 

 the following extract, be established : — 



" It is well that good people, having given their ears and bent 

 their minds, should hear the Elu version of the History of the 

 Lives, composed without departing from the method of the writer 

 of Atuwa, and with the assistance of the Supreme Minister 

 Wirasinha Patiraja, and at the lequest of the good Minister 

 Parakrama, who commended the translation into the Elu of the 

 lectures called ' The Five Hundred and Fifty Lives,' " &c. — 

 Introduction. 



The like laudable exertions in either case bestowed by the 

 minister in the promotion of native literature, besides the 

 similarity of name given to the chieftain mentioned in each 

 of the above selections, prove the identity of the patron under 

 whose auspices the " Pansiyapanas Jatakaya" was trans- 

 lated into Elu, with the provincial chieftain who directed 

 the publication of the Elu Grammar. Taking their identity 

 to be thus established, we are enabled — with the assistance 

 of a tradition current in this Island, and supported by 

 evidence as to its truth, that the " Pansiyapanas Jatakaya " 

 was translated during the reign of a king of the name of 

 Parakrama Bahu, who had Hastisalapura (KurunSgala) 

 for the seat of government — to ascertain as nearly as 

 possible the date of the " Sidatsangarava," by fixing 



upon Pandita Parakrama Bahu IV. (a.d. 1300 — 1347), 



M 2 



