7'2 



Forms of Salutation and Address 



according to Mr. Armour, in his Kandy Law, descending with 

 the parveny lands. 



Mr. Alwis however, says," Situ, equivalent to an English 

 Baronet, was a rank which was conferred by the Sovereign 

 on account of the great wealth of a person. It may be consi- 

 dered as a grade of the peerage of our forefathers. A person 

 who had this rank conferred on him had access to the royal 

 household, and was altogether one (as we gather from books) 

 who controlled the councils of the State." Sidath Samjarawa, 

 by Mr. Alwis, p. clviii. But there is some misconception 

 here, as to the grounds on which the comparison is made ; 

 and it is not unlikely that office and wealth, the latter the 

 foundation of the former, were the great elements of consi- 

 deration among the Singhalese. To this day they are tena- 

 cious to a degree of their parveny or hereditary land. 



The Government Agent is sometimes styled Dissave. But 

 there can be no analogy among officers in systems of govern- 

 ment so very different as respects the distribution of official 

 power and duty as the English and Singhalese ; and it only 

 tends to perpetuate misapprehension to use the names in- 

 discriminately. 



The above, namely, the Adigars, Dissaves, and Ratte- 

 mahatmeyas, were the principal officers under the Singhalese 

 government; and in the Convention of 1815, entered into 

 after the conquest of Kandy by the English, for the cessation 

 of hostilities and the settlement of the country by a formal 

 declaration of the power and principles of the new Govern- 

 ment, they are mentioned or alluded to as the principal chiefs 

 of the Kandyan provinces, and the Mohottales, Coralles, 

 Vidahns, and others, the subordinate headmen from the 

 provinces. 



Budha is toahanse of course ; and the stories of his births 

 or previous states of existence, Jdtaka pot ivahanse, the worthy 

 books Jataka, a composition so highly regarded by Bud- 

 hists, that, says Clough, " they will offer to it and worship 

 it." The term is also applied to the Budhist priesthood in 



