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THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY.
[JUNE 7, 1872.
As regards the translation : in the first half of the not appear to be so questionable as Mr. Bhandarkar s'loka there is a double entendre, the compound is disposed to think. RAJENDRALALA MITRA. word margguna-guna gramagraho meaning "ap- Calcutta, 218t May 1872. preciation of the sum total of the merits of beggars," when referring to dâne (liberality), and "his hold THE JAYA SRI MATIA BODEN WAHANSE IN of the multitude of strings of his arrows,"
CHANCERY. when corresponding to the " overthrow of the
ALL who have read Sir E. Tennant's charming irresistible forces of the enemies" (Durvvârâri- work on Ceylon, or have glanced into Turnour's varthini-pramathane). In the second half the Maháwanso, will recollect that the great Bo tree of most enigmatical is the phrase-kunjaraghat& Anuradhapura is the oldest historical tree in the varshena. Word for word it means "elephant," world, and the highest earthly object of veneration * collection," and "rain," or "year." Being in the to millions of Buddhists. When it was brought instrurnental case, if it be taken as an epithet of over to Ceylon more than 2,000 years ago, DewánamGandapatina, the meaning of the vahuvrihi com- piya-Tissa, the then king of Ceylon, appointed the pressed may be, as suggested by Mr. Bhandarkar, chief who brought it, lord over the district, and
by him who rains a crowd of elephants." But the gave him and his heirs the right to appoint for ever compound is such an awkward one, it is so far re- the chief priests of the sacred Bo tree. Like the moved from its noun, and the raining of elephants best among the Rajput chiefs the Newara Wewa is so unnatural a metaphor, that I feel very unwill- family traces itself back through chiefs and rulers ing to accept this interpretation as correct. The to that memorable time. The last young chief conjecture about varshena' being a mislection of however died suddenly of cholera, leaving no male
varshman' is not supported by the fac simile, and issue : and a man has come forward claiming to be must therefore be at once rejected. I am driven
descended from the last chief but one ; but the therefore to the necessity of accepting 'varsha' to descendants in the female line saying that he is no mean a year, and the two words preceding it for Sir Roger and only some Tom Castro or Arthur the figures of the year. Now, 'kunjara' unques- Orton, and have elected a rival priest and brought the tionably is equivalent to eight, the elephant regents estates and the most ancient and honourable "faof the eight quarters, and ghata' after it can only mily living in the world into the District Court of imply a crowd or several eights the lowest limit of Anuradhapura. In historical romance the trial is which is three, the plural beginning with three, and likely to be most interesting. The late young is therefore a more fixed quantity than any other chief's grandfather was beheaded by the last tyrant number. In connexion with numerals no other of Kandy for marrying a Telugu princess : and his meaning is admissible, and I do not think it forced father was banished to Galle for high treason to accept the word for three-fold," that is three- against the then newly established English Governeights standing in a row, and not the multiple of ment. It is in banishment that he is said to have 8 by 3. Against this Mr. Bhandarkar urges the married the daughter of another banished chief objection that to imply the year in which & and to have had issue the present claimant. work is completed the locative is more appropriate than the instrumental which is used to
Query 8-Rámes'vara. indicate the total period occupied in completing a
SIR-Can any of your correspondents tell me work. But he has himself solved the difficulty by who founded the temple of Rames'wara at Cape the alternative meaning he has suggested in the Kumari, and what has been its history? The Taremark" or at least that it took the 888th year to
mils here say that it was built by Rama B. C. circa be constructed." In the absence of all information
5000, which would be interesting, if probable. On as to the size of the temple I cannot positively
an inscription at Dambula it is said of Parakrama assert that it was completed in course of a year,
Bahu the Great [1153-1188 A.D.) that after his conbut the only grammatioal objection to my reading quest of South India " as there were then no rivals of the date thus disappears. Were it otherwise
“ (pratriwalla) left in all the continent of India, he still I do not think the misuse of the instrumental
"staid at Rámes'wara, and filled the bearts of all the for the locative by a writer who has clearly sinned
“poor by gifts of his own weight in precious things, against grammar by using the neuter bhushana' in
"and drove not the poor away. Having put up a the masculine gender, is such as to justify the re
4 column of victory to endure for many ages, he jection of the interpretation. It is possible also
built the dérale called Nissankeswara, and surthat with a view to indulge in a double entendre, rounded by his four-fold winy returned to Ceylon." similar to what occurs in the first half of the s'loks, The name of the king of Pandi at that time is and make one word-serve both for a date and anstated in Sinbalese books (see Turnour, Mahawanso, epithet of his royal patron, the poet has submitted lxvi) to have been Kulas'ekra. to a slight infraction of the rules of grammar, of I should be glad to have an explanation of the which men of his class are generally much less words in italics. mindful than of rhetoric. Anyhow the date does Anuradhapura.
T. W. Rhys DAVIDS.
