Grandeur of old written in stone
View(s):Book facts
Historical Data compiled from the
Sri Lankan Inscriptions of 1st to 3rd Century AD by Dr. Benille Priyanka, University of California, Los Angeles.
Published by Godage Brothers (Pvt) Ltd.
Reviewed by Nandasiri Jasentuliyana
In the era of social media with zillions of messages per second hurtling around the world which are being instantaneously erased, rewritten, and edited, it is mindboggling that our forefathers toiled to inscribe on stone with no margin for error! They composed poetry, created works of art and literature, and recorded contemporaneous events all on stone. Those remarkable inscriptions were written mostly in Prakrit Sinhala with a Brahmi script, making them illegible to us today.
The author Dr. Benille Priyanka
Of such inscriptions, Sigiriya graffiti is well known among Sri Lankans and even among the historians, archaeologists, artists, poets, and tourists from many parts of the world. Through decades of painstaking effort, Prof. Senarath Paranavithana deciphered and published Six Hundred and Eighty-Five graffiti from the Mirror Wall at Sigiriya, while Dr. Benille Priyanka through an equally laborious process added Eight Hundred more in a later publication titled, Recently deciphered records at Mirror wall at Sigiriya, published by Godage Publishers, which won the State Literary Award for best Academic Publication. Together, they have made an incomparable contribution to the history and literature of Sri Lanka.
Stone inscriptions in Sri Lanka are found in caves, rocks, slabs, and pillars. All the heritage cities of Sri Lanka have stone inscriptions that show off the old grandeur and speak of important events that happened in our history. Some four thousand such inscriptions have been identified, and they have recorded our history and supplemented and substantiated the descriptions in our historical chronicles and often help clarify differing descriptions of historical events. They also illustrate the evolution of the Sinhala script and the development of the language.
Dr. Priyanka has now brought to us an invaluable publication of rock stone inscriptions of Sri Lanka. While the Sigiriya graffiti gave us an understanding of the language and poetry, the stone inscriptions give us a good understanding of the entire functioning of the social order in the ancient and medieval times. Dr. Priyanka’s publication has shed light on many aspects of the reign of kings, the political history, economic, social, and cultural evolution of the nation. He has also described the background of the locations of the inscriptions concerned, as well as names, villages, hierarchical titles mentioned in the inscriptions and other relevant background information.
While 3rd century B.C. to the 16th century B.C. provides a rich collection of inscriptions, nearly 3000 inscriptions have been found for the period 3rd century BC to the 4th century A.D. alone. Dr. Paranavithana had read 195 inscriptions of the 1st to the 3rd Century A.D., and was intending to prepare a manuscript for publication when he unexpectedly passed away in 1972. His valuable work was later compiled in two parts by Dr. Saddamangala Karunarathna and Dr. Malini Dias and published in English by the Archaeological Department in 1983 and 2001 respectively.
We are now presented with a new and valuable addition to this archaeological literary collection by Dr. Priyanka. He has assiduously combed through Dr. Paranavithana’s work as published by the Archeological Department and identified the relevant material for categorizing under various aspects of societal life. Having done so, he has written a most comprehensive commentary of the material which, I believe in deference to Dr. Paranavithana, he modestly calls an introduction. In bringing out this outstanding publication Dr. Priyanka has made several contributions to Archaeological literature: he has categorized the material under useable headings that shed light on various facets of society as it existed at the time; provided meaningful explanations of the classified material; and published the invaluable work of Dr. Paranavithana in Sinhala. Dr. Priyanka has made a unique contribution by exposing the Sinhala reading public to this historical material for the first time.
Dr. Priyanka has compiled the material deciphered by Prof. Paranavithana covering the inscriptions of 1st, 2nd and 3rd centuries and meticulously and methodically assembled them in 15 chapters. Each of the chapters cover subject areas relating to; temples; clergy, Nikaya, offerings, festivals and customs; about currency; tanks and paddy fields that are offered to temples; incomes and taxes from tanks, irrigation works, paddy fields and villages; commercial establishments and information relevant to commerce;
nformation concerning towns and related matters; inscriptions recording names and information concerning temples, villages, historical places, places of worship, people with titles and those without. Places where the inscriptions were found, the approximate dates of the inscriptions, and the names of kings mentioned in the relevant inscriptions.
His presentation is woven together from the invaluable information gathered by Dr. Paranavithana from his painstaking work deciphering the stone inscriptions of that era. Where Dr. Priyanka felt that he could not agree with some of Prof. Paranavithana’s views he has not hesitated to give the essence of why he could not agree with such views. Where there were gaps in Prof. Paranavithana’s work, he has used the commentaries of other scholars to supplement the void, and at the same time use such to critically analyze the material he has presented, always indicating where he differed with the views of such commentators. In pointing out where and why he differed from the views of Prof. Paranavithana and that of the commentators, he had done so with the expressed hope that a discussion of his own views will provide a new academic discussion to clarify the issues raised by him.
He has provided an exhaustive index at the end of the publication giving a list of locations where the inscriptions were found, the estimated period of their inscription, and a list of kings mentioned in those inscriptions.
Without a doubt, Dr. Priyanka has published an opus that is of indispensable value to the students and professionals who study history and archaeology as well as the political, economic, and social development of Sri Lanka. He should indeed be commended for producing what could be regarded as a national treasure, akin to the contributions of Prof. Paranavithana, and that of his own covering the Sigiriya graffiti.
(The reviewer is a former
Deputy Director General
of the United Nations)