No. 5.— 1850.] 



PKOCEBDINGS, 1850. 



343 



A letter was next read from Mr. S. C. Chitty, accompanying 

 several inscriptions taken from stones near Puttalam, &c. 



Chilaw, May 12, 1850. 



Sir, — I have the pleasure of transmitting to the Society a copy 

 of an inscription taken from a stone slab, which is placed upright 

 in the ground, at the head of the grave of a Muhammadan saint 

 at Piramanenkandel, a deserted village situated to the eastward 

 of the Mi-oya, about ten miles from Puttalam in a north-east 

 iirection. You will observe that the characters of this inscription 

 are not Arabic, but an ancient and obsolete form of Pali, and I 

 am therefore inclined to believe that it records some event connected 

 with the history of Buddhism in Ceylon, and has no reference to 

 the Muhammadan saint. 



The ruins of Tammana-nuwara, of which I have published an 

 account in volume VI. of the Journal of the Royal Asiatic 

 Society, are not very far from Piramanenkandel, and it is likely 

 that the stone slab was removed by the Moors from those ruins 

 and placed in its present situation. 



I avail myself of this opportunity to send to the Society a copy 

 of another inscription engraved on a flat stone (4 feet long, I foot 

 and 5 inches broad, and 5 inches thick), which the inhabitants 

 of Dummaladeniya have removed from a neighbouring jungle, and 

 fixed on the side of the high road leading from Chilaw to Kaimal 

 through their village, as a boundary stone. The inscription in 

 question is in ancient Grantha character, and it covers all the 

 four sides of the stone, but on one side alone it is legible. 



I have the honour, &c, 



Simon Casie Chitty. 



To the Secretary of the Ceylon Branch, 

 Royal Asiatic Society, Colombo. 



The Secretary then read a Report from the " Exhibition 

 Committee, " dated the 20th instant : — - 



First Report of the Committee appointed at the Anniversary 

 Meeting of the Asiatic Society of Ceylon, on March 23, 1850, 

 to promote the objects of the Industrial Exhibition of 1851. 



Your Committee, impressed with the great importance of the 

 object for which it was appointed, and fully sensible of the 

 necessity for obtaining the best information upon which to 

 proceed, lost no time in seeking the assistance of the various 

 Government Agents, which was done under the sanction of His 

 Excellency the Governor. The returns requested from these 

 sources have not as yet been received . Your Committee, aware of 

 the obstacles invariably met with in collecting data in this country, 

 are still in hopes of obtaining the information sought at an early 

 period. 



