216 
H. M. Vidyabliiishan — Study of Sanskrit in Ceylon. [No. 3, 
work, the “ Janaki-harana.” Being himself a great scholar, he was able 
to appreciate its excellence. He caused a Pandit to restore ten verses 
of the work from the said sanna, or Singhalese commentary. 
I here quote his remarks on the poem : “ The Janaki-harana is a very 
ancient and very interesting Sanskrit poem. A Singhalese Sanna, or 
literal translation of it, alone has been discovered. It is, however, 
possible that the original work may still be found in sonic nook of an 
old monastic library. Like all Singhalese Saunas, tliis translation quotes 
the words of the original in their integrity, and it is therefore not 
impossible to restore the words to their original poetical form ; though, 
we confess, the manuscript in our possession requires much correction 
after comparison with other copies, which, we hope, may yet be found. 
But its restoration into metro is undoubtedly a very arduous work. 
Considering, however, that this poem, according <o the opinion of the 
learned in Ceylon, is ‘ not inferior to the works of Kalidasa,’ the 
Indian Shakespeare, and that it may be ranked amongst the Maliakavyas, 
or great poems, it may be well worth the trouble of some Oriental 
scholar in Europe to undertake the work of restoration.” 
I am glad to notice here that recently Bhikshu Dharmarama, 
the learned Principal of the Yidyalankara Oriental College, Ceylon, 
has done great service to Oriental scholarship by restoring Kumaradasa’s 
Janaki-harana into metre from the Singhalese literal paraphrase. He 
has collected several manuscripts of the sanna, and has built an edifice 
with the material contained in them — which, I may hope, will be found 
to resemble its prototype — the lost Janaki-harana, if found out in future. 
Had Mr. D’Alwis been living now, how glad he would have been to see 
the realization of his hopes about the work in the labours of Bhikshu 
Dharmarama — twenty years later. 
To enable us to form an estimate of the comparative value of tlio 
restored verses, I subjoin a transcription in Devanagari of the first 10 
verses of the Canto IX from the present edition, side by side with those 
restored by Mr. D’Alwis. (See Appendix I.) 
Prom a careful examination of the above it will be seen that the 
spirit of the verses given by Dharmarama and D’Alwis is the same, 
though a slight alteration in the arrangement of the lines may be noticed 
here and there. 
The occasional deviation of Dharmarama’s slokas from those given 
by Mr. D’Alwis is due to the use of synonymous words. This is chiefly 
due to the fact that Dharmarama had access to more correct and trust- 
worthy manuscripts than Mr. D’Alwis had access to twenty years ago. 
It is also to be noted that he took greater pains than Mr. D’Alwis, as 
he had gleaned materials from different sources with a view to publish 
