No. 54—1903.] DRAMATIC POETRY. 91 
by Sinhalese authors. Learning was confined to the Bud- 
dhist temples. The more important Sinhalese literary works 
have been composed by the Buddhist Bhikkhus, and the 
encouragement of drama was not compatible with their 
religious views. This may account for the absence of 
dramatic works in the old Sinhalese literature. Mr. R. W. 
o 
levers, in his " Manual Jof the North-Central Province," p, 25, 
in summarizing the description of Anuradhapura given by 
the Chinese Bhikkhu Fa-Hian, writes: " The sacred tooth was 
publicly exposed on sacred days in the capital, and thence 
was carried in procession to the mountains without fear 
(Abhayagiri and Mihintale), while dramatic representations 
of events in the life of Buddha, illustrated by scenery and 
costumes, were given." 
The paragraph, if it is the correct rendering of what 
Bhikkhu Fa-Hian has written in describing Anuradhapura, 
shows the existence of sacred drama performed with scenery 
and costumes in Ceylon so far back as 414] a.d. However, on 
reference to the latest edition of the " Travels " by Bhikkhu 
Fa-Hian, translated by Prof. James Legge and published at 
the Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1886, the passage referred to by 
Mr. levers reads quite differently. It does not in any sense 
give the slightest ground for the allegation that Fa-Hian 
witnessed any dramatic performance. It reads : and 
when this proclamation is over the king exhibits so as to line 
both sides of the road the five hundred different bodily 
forms in which the Bodhisatava has m the course of his 
history appeared, here as Sudana, there as Sama, now as 
the king of elephants, and then as a stag or a horse. All 
these figures are brightly coloured and grandly executed, 
looking as if they were alive. After this the tooth of 
Buddha is brought forth and is carried along in the middle 
of the road. Everywhere on the way offerings are pre- 
sented to it, and thus it arrives in the hall of Buddha in 
the Abhayagiri Vihara." 
It appears til at after the occupation of the Island by 
European nations old traditions and prejudices against 
H 2 
