Catalogue of the Sinhalese Manuscripts in the British Museum

CORNELL UNIVERSITY LIBRARY BOUGHT WITH THE INCOME OF THE SAGE ENDOWMENT FUND GIVEN IN iS^I BY HENRY WILLIAMS SAGE Cornell University Library Z 6621.B862S6 Catalogue of the Sinlialese manuscripts i 3 1924 023 065 315 Cornell University M Library The original of this book is in the Cornell University Library. There are no known copyright restrictions in the United States on the use of the text. http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924023065315 : CATALOGUE OF THE SINHALESE MANUSCRIPTS IN THE BEITISH MUSEUM BY DON MARTINO DB ZILVA WIOKREMASINGHE EPIGBAPHIST TO THE ABCH^OLOGICAL SUEVEY OF THE CEYLON GOVERNMENT PRINTED BY ORDER OF THE TRUSTEES UonBon SOLD AT THE BRITISH MUSEUM, AND BY LONGMANS & CO., 39, Paternoster Eow; BERNARD QFARITCH, 15, Piccadilly; ASHER & CO., 13, Bedford Street, Covent Garden; KEGAN PAUL, TRENCH, TRUBNER & CO., Paternoster House, Charing Cross Road ; and HENRY PROWDE, Oxford Uniteesitt Press Warehouse, Amen Corner. 1900 [All rights reservecl.~\ U (if : l\lp3lpiL^^ LONDON PRINTED BY GILBERT AND RIVINGTON, LIMITED, ST. JOHN'S HOUSE, CLERKENWELL, E.C, PEEFACE, This Catalogue has been compiled by Don M. de Zilva Wickremasinghe, Bpigraphist to the Archffiological Survey of the Ceylon Government, and forms part of the series of Catalogues of Manuscripts in the languages of India which is in course of publication by the Trustees of the • British Museum. The plan on which it has been arranged, and the system of transliteration which has been adopted are indicated in the Preface. ROBERT K. DOUGLAS, Bbitish Museum, Keeper of the Department of January, 1900. Oriental Printed Boohs and MSS. AUTHOE'S PEEFACE. The present collection of Sinhalese MSS., with the exception of five MSS. acquired from Sir Hans Sloane's Library, and two contained in the Old Eoyal Library, have been collected in the ordinary course, by purchase and presentation. With regard to the plan on which this Catalogue is arranged, it is enough to say that the system adopted in previous Museum catalogues of Oriental manuscripts has been followed, with such modifications as were found necessary in the present case. In classifying the manuscripts I have adopted a plan suitable to a literatui-e which consists chiefly of interpretations of Pali and Sanskrit works, religious or otherwise. The system of transliteration followed here is that adopted in the recent Oriental catalogues, with certain variations and additions which will be seen on reference to the annexed table. It may perhaps be mentioned that, with the exception of Westergaard's descriptions of the forty-two Sinhalese manuscripts in the Royal Library of Copenhagen,* the present Catalogue is the first published catalogue of its kind, although some of the libraries in Ceylon and in Europe possess valuable collections of Sinhalese manuscripts. In conclusion, I beg to acknowledge the assistance I have received in compiling this Catalogue from Professors C. Bendall and J. P. Blumhardt, as well as from the Eev. G. Margoliouth and Messrs. A. Gr. Ellis and P. H. M. Corbet. DON M. DE ZILVA WICKREMASINGHE. British Museum, December, 1899. * " See Codices Indioi bibliothecae regise Havniensis . enumerati et descripti a N. L. Westergaard." Havniae, 1846. pp. 63—79. TABLE OF TEANSLITEEATION. ^ . : viii TRANSLITERATION. The aspirate visarga is marked by two small circles one above the other, thus 3 The virdma* is expressed by the symbols '" and '^ appended to consonants, the latter to letters ending in a coronal curve. When, however, these two symbols are attached to vowels and vowel- consonants, they denote long vowel-sounds. The symbol » stands for ya, as in caDssJM Sdkya. It in conjunct consonants is represented, when initial, by the repha (*) written above the second consonant, as in fc)l) dharma ; but when Gahra. non-initial it takes the form ^ , as in €)^ In Pali texts the letters S) and S often stand for €© cca and SS) hla respectively. Other conjunct consonants which should be noticed here, owing to their abridged forms, are ^ kva, £^ Ttsha, «Si gdha, e^ jna, Qb ttha, 22) tva, -at) ntha, S^ nda, sSi ndha, -^ nva. * Called in Sinhalese Al- (or Hal-) kirime lakuna, or simply Al- (or Hal-) lakuna, " the consonant-sign." Hal is a mnemonic term in Panini's Sanskrit Grammar for all the consonants divested of their inherent vowel. In Hindi and other North Indian dialects consonants are often called hal, probably after PaninL — § INTEODUCTION. The literary history of Ceylon may be divided into four periods, namely : — (1), from fifth to the twelfth the earliest times to the fifth century A.D. ; (2), from the century the fifteenth century ; and from the fifteenth century A.D. ; (3), from the twelfth to (4), century to the present time. Period I. From the earliest times to the fifth century A.D. During this period, two important events bearing on the present subject are recorded in the chronicles of the island. One was the introduction of Buddhism by Mahinda Thera, son of King Asoka of India, in the third century B.C.,* and the other was the committal to writing for the first time of the Buddhist scriptures and their commentaries, in the first century B.C.f In the preface (p. Hi.) to his edition of the Vinaya Pitaka, Dr. Oldenberg states as his opinion that " the naturalization of the whole of the great Buddhist literature in the island of Ceylon does not look as if it had been brought about by the sudden appearance of missionaries from the Magadha kingdom, but as if it were the fruit of a period of long and continued intercourse between Ceylon and the adjacent parts of India." In other words, the learned professor seems to suggest that Mahinda and his colleagues merely gave a fresh impetus to the propagation of Buddhism already existing in the island. In support of this theory, we may mention the myths concerning the visits of Gotama Buddha to Ceylon and the conversion of the so-called Yakkhas then inhabiting the island, J as well as the tradition that the Buddhist king Asoka and Devanampiya Tissa were friends even before Mahinda came to Ceylon. In view of these arguments, and of the references to Ceylon as an emporium of trade in pre-Christian writings of the Greeks and of the Chinese, coupled with the information contained in Sanskrit literature regarding the frequent intercourse between India and Ceylon in prehistoric times, it is no wonder that the Sinhalese, so early as the third century B.C., should have possessed a rich and elegant language, in which Mahinda and his companions found no difficulty in preaching the Buddhist doctrine as well aa in interpreting the text of the canon in the form of atihakathas. * Mahavamsa, ch. xiv. -j- Ibid., ch, xxxiii. 102-104. X Ibid., ch. i. § Ibid., ch. xi. 18-42. 6 . X INTRODUCTION. Althougla there is no record, in the native annals, of the composition of even a single work until about the year 80 B.C., there is every reason to suppose that a written literature must have existed at least a century or two before, if not still earlier. Through the exertions of Mahinda and his followers, Buddhism became the dominant religion. Kings and princes vied one with another in their services to the church; monasteries were established in all parts of the island ; and, in buildings set apart for the purpose, learned monks expounded the tenets of Buddhism before large congregations. The result was a steady improvement in the literary and religious education of the people. In the Mahavamsa we read that King Vijaya in the fifth century B.C. despatched a letter to his brother Sumitta (ch. viii. 3) ; that King Abhaya (B.C. 474—454) wrote to Prince Pandukabhaya not to cross the river Mahaveliganga (ch. x. 48) ; and that Prince Uttiya, a grandson of King Uttiya (B.C. 267—257) sent a " secret letter " to his brother's queen by a man disguised as a Buddhist friar (ch. xxii. 15), In chapter xxiii. (25 and 37) mention is made of letters which passed betwieen Prince Duttha-Gamani* and a Brahman named Kundala. In chapter xxvii. 6 there is a reference to an " inscribed golden plate " found in the king's palace. In Mayiirapada's Pujavaliya it is stated that in each lecture hall King Duttha-Gamani caused to be placed a priceless canopy, a pulpit, a carpet, a stand for books of copyists, book-covers, a blanket, a fan, and a lana- book. But the most important record is that of a punna-potthakam, "register of deeds of piety," which this king kept and which he made his secretary read publicly at his death-bed. f It is, therefore, most probable that registers were kept by kings and others, and to this class of written historical documents the Sihalatthakathd- Mahavamsa, ^ so often referred to in the Mahavamsa Tika, evidently belonged. They also undoubtedly furnished materials for the composition, in after times, of the two historical works, the Dipavarnsa and the Mahavamsa. In the presence of all this direct and indirect evidence in favour of the existence in Ceylon of a written literature prior to the reign of Vatta-Gamani Abhaya (88—76 B.C.) we are justified in supposing that there is some exaggeration in the statement commonly made that the Buddhist canon was only orally transmitted until towards the close of the reign of this king. The real state of affairs was most probably that in those days, as to some extent at the present time, the monks, as a body, knew most of the canon by heart. That such was the case as late as the tenth century A.D. we learn from the Mihintale inscription of King ^ri Sanghabodhi Abhaya, which records ibenefactions to special monks for reciting certain sections of the scriptures.

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