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Two Royal Titles of the Early Sinhalese, and the Origin of Kingship in Ancient Ceylon.

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  15 March 2011

S. Paranavitana
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Extract

Among the royal titles used by the early Sinhalese kings there are two which, as royal titles, were not adopted by any of the dynasties known to us in India, and were therefore peculiar to Ceylon. An investigation into the history of these two titles is likely to throw some light on the origin of kingship in ancient Ceylon, and I therefore propose in this paper to pursue this line of study so far as the material available at present allows us to do so. The conclusions at which I have arrived by a study of the available data on this may not, in the present state of our knowledge, be taken as definitely established; but they might, nevertheless, be worthy of consideration by scholars interested in the early history of the Sinhalese people.

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Articles
Information
Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society , Volume 68 , Issue 3 , July 1936 , pp. 443 - 462
Copyright
Copyright © The Royal Asiatic Society 1936

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References

page 443 note 1 The dates of kings given in this paper follow DrWickremasinghe's, Chronological Table, Epigraphia Zeylanica, vol. iii, pp. 1–47Google Scholar.

page 444 note 1 Anurādhapura was known to Ptolemy as Anurogrammon, i.e. Anurādhagāma. See McCrindle, , Ancient India as -described by Ptolemy, p. 250Google Scholar.

page 444 note 2 In Festschrift für M. Winternitz zum Siebzigsten Geburtstag, Leipzig, 1933, pp. 313–321Google Scholar.

page 445 note 1 Annual Report of the Archæological Survey of Ceylon for 1933, p. 14.

page 445 note 2 See Ceylon Journal of Science, Section G, vol. ii, pp. 99 ff. and 175–6.

page 446 note 1 For grāmaṇī in Vedic literature see Macdonell, and Keith, , Vedic Index, vol. i, p. 247Google Scholar; Grassmann, Wōrterbuch zum Rigveda, s.v.; Law, N. N., Aspects of Ancient Indian Polity, p. 88Google Scholar; Majumadar, R. C., Corporate Life in Ancient India, p. 133Google Scholar, and Jolly, , Becht und Sitte, p. 93Google Scholar. For gāmaṇī in Pāli literature, the following passages may be referred to: Vinaya Pitaka, Oldenberg's, edition, vol. ii, pp. 296–7Google Scholar; Aṅguttara Nikāya, , P.T.S. edition, vol. iii, p. 76Google Scholar; Saṁyutta Nikāya, , P.T.S. edition, vol. iv, pp. 305 ff.Google Scholar; Thera Gāthā, , P.T.S. edition, p. 71Google Scholar; Jātaka (Fausboll's, edition), iv, p. 351Google Scholar; vi, p. 579; ii, pp. 258 and 300.

page 446 note 2 A king named Gāmaṇī is the hero of the Jātaka, Gāmaṇī (Jātaka, i, p. 136)Google Scholar. In the canonical verse of this Jātaka, however, there is nothing to show that gāmaṇi was the name of a king. It is only in the Commentary, written in Ceylon in the fifth century, that King Gāmaṇī is mentioned.

page 446 note 3 P.T.S. edition, vol. iv, p. 310.

page 446 note 4 Jātaka, vol. v, p. 260.

page 447 note 1 See A.S.G. Seventh Progress Report, p. 47.

page 447 note 2 See E.Z., vol. i, pp. 25 and 38.

page 447 note 3 It has been suggested that parumaa is derived from Tamil perumakan. This is hardly likely. If there is any connection between the two words, it appears to be from the fact that the Tamil word itself is derived from the Skt. pramukha.

page 447 note 4 Mukherjee, Radbakumud, Local Government in Ancient India, p. 47Google Scholar.

page 448 note 1 Jātaka, vi, p. 515.

page 448 note 2 See Law, B. C., Kṣatriya Tribes of Ancient India, p. 85Google Scholar.

page 449 note 1 See Parker, , Ancient Ceylon, p. 444Google Scholar, where, however, that portion of the inscription containing the name of the princess's husband is omitted.

page 450 note 1 Vaṁsatthappakāsenī, commentary on the Mahāvaṁsa, , P.T.S. edition, vol. i, p. 306Google Scholar.

page 451 note 1 In the Cūḷa Sīhanāda Sutta, occurring in the Majjhima Nikaya (, P.T.S. edition, vol. i, pp. 63–8)Google Scholar there is nothing in the contents which would reasonably have given a commentator the justification for inserting, in his comments, a long account of the abhiṣeka ceremony of Devānampiya Tissa and other historical details. But the author of the Mahāvaṁsa-ṭīkā also says in another place (P.T.S. edition, p. 193) that the details he gives about Aśoka's birth and childhood were taken from the same source, and it is evident that the old Sinhalese commentary of this Sutta contained legends concerning Devānampiya Tissa and Aśoka.

page 451 note 2 See Law, N. N., Aspects of Ancient Indian Polity, pp. 193–4 and 200–3Google Scholar.

page 451 note 3 See, for example, Dīgha Nikāya, , P.T.S. edition, vol. iii, p. 60Google Scholar.

page 451 note 4 See EZ., vol. i, pp. 225 and 237, and vol. iii, p. 300.

page 452 note 1 Mahāvaṁsa, chap, xi, v. 10.

page 453 note 1 Ibid., translation, p. 78. Professor Geiger has later adopted Dr. B. C. Law's interpretation of yaṣṭi (see note 3 below) and has amended his translation accordingly. See Cūḷavamsa, translation, vol. ii, p. 362.

page 453 note 2 Colombo edition of 1924, p. 333.

page 453 note 3 DrLaw, B. C. (Indian Historical Quarterly, vol. vi, p. 571)Google Scholar interprets yaṭṭhi as meaning “necklace”, as the Sanskrit yaṣṭi occurs with that meaning in the Arthaśastra of Kauṭilya. The whole trend of the Mahāvaṁsa narrative is, however, against the interpretation suggested by Dr. Law. The rendering, according to this interpretation, of the compound veḷ-yaṭṭhi by “bamboonecklace” does not give much sense.

page 454 note 1 P.T.S. edition, p. 164.

page 454 note 2 Chap. 49, v. 38.

page 455 note 1 A Short History of Ceylon, London, 1929, pp. 12 and 16Google Scholar.

page 456 note 1 Hultzsch, , Inscriptions of Asoka, p. xxixGoogle Scholar.

page 457 note 1 Edited by Cowell and Neil, pp. 523–8.

page 457 note 2 Winternitz ascribes this work to about the third century of the Christian era. See Geschichie der Indischen Litteratur, Band, ii, p. 223Google Scholar.

page 457 note 3 Jātaka, iv, p. 351.

page 458 note 1 Pridham, , Ceylon and its Dependencies, vol. i, p. 8Google Scholar.

page 459 note 1 See Law, N. N., Aspects of Ancient Indian Polity, pp. 2 et seqGoogle Scholar.

page 461 note 1 See Epigraphia Zeyfonica, vol. i, pp. 142 and 144.

page 462 note 1 See Müller, , Ancient Inscriptions of Ceylon, p. 109Google Scholar, and Epigraphica Zeylanica, vol. iii, p. 115.

page 462 note 2 The last king, so far as is known, who used this title was Kuṭakaṇṇa-Tissa (circa 17–39 a.d.). According to Dr. Wickremasinghe, the title was used as late as the reign of Mahallaka-Nāga (196–202 a.d.), but this view is due to the wrong identification of the kings mentioned in the Maharatmalē inscription (see E.Z., vol. iii, pp. 156–7).