NO. 5.— 1850.] THE ELU LANGUAGE. 



307 



gance and correctness of expression. Its diction is simple, 

 and its imagery sterling and rich. It was written by a 

 Buddhist priest of the name of Totagamuwe (after his 

 native village in the south of Ceylon), properly called 

 Sri Rahida Sthavirayo, who was the teacher of the cele- 

 brated Chandrabharati, the author of Bauddha-satake 

 ,{©S)ojeDc5303@i23) and two other valuable works— one of 

 which is a commentary on Sanscrit Prosody and the other 

 the well-known Virttimdldkhydva, (^esfteibQoabcte).) 

 Totagamuwa converted his Hindu pupil to Buddhism, 

 and thereby received the thanks of his countrymen, 

 including his sovereign, Sri Parakrama Bahu VI., 

 1410. a.d. The poet was a favourite of the king, and 

 continued to benefit by his patronage to the same extent 

 that he had, before taking holy orders, been fostered in the 

 king's household. The priest was not ungrateful to his 

 benefactor. He gave him the most invaluable token of his 

 regard, — the use of his pen ; and, besides dedicating the 

 work under consideration to the Princess Royal, Ulkuda 

 Devi, at whose request it was composed, he addressed to the 

 king several stanzas of great beauty. He possessed a 

 correct knowledge of several Oriental languages besides 

 the Elu.* Hence the self-importance which he seems to 



* The foreign languages of which this scholar was a proticieut are 

 enumerated in the paraphrase to the Selalihini Sandese. They were 

 six in number : Sanskrit, Maghadi (or Pali), Apahhranse, Paimchi^ 

 Sureseyni, and Tamil. 



Most of our readers are probably acquainted with what is meant by 

 Sureseyni ; but it may not be amiss to state that it is the Zend. The 

 Edinburgh Review for April, 1810, at pp. 396-97, in reference to a paper 

 written by Dr. Leyden, on the language and literature of the Indo- 

 Chinese nations, says : " Dr. Leyden imagines that the Pali may be identi- 

 fied with the Magahdi, and the Zend with the Sureseyni of Sanscrit 

 authors ; but without stating the grounds for the conjecture. We con- 

 ceive that the emigration of the Sureseyni under Crisna, from the banks 

 -of the Yamuna to the shores of the ocean on the west of Guzerat, 

 would afford much countenance to the conjecture, if supported by other 

 proofs." 



57—87 N 



