Tennent's Ceylon - 1860

CONTENTS

OF

THE FIRST VOLUME.

PART IV.

SCIENCES AND SOCIAL ARTS.

CHAPTER I.

POPULATION, CASTE, SLAVERY, AND RAJA-KARIYA.

• Population encouraged by the fertility of Ceylon 421
• Evidence of its former extent in the ruins of the tanks and canals 422
• Means by which the population was preserved 423
• Causes of its dispersion—the ruin of the tanks 424
• Domestic life similar to that of the Hindus 425
• Respect shown to females 425
• Caste perpetuated in defiance of religious prohibition 425
• Particulars in which caste in Ceylon differs from caste in India 425
• Slavery, borrowed from Hindustan 425
• Compulsory labour or Raja-kariya 426
• Mode of enforcing it 427

CHAP. II.

AGRICULTURE, IRRIGATION, CATTLE, AND CROPS.

• Agriculture unknown before the arrival of Wijayo 429
• Rice was imported into Ceylon in the second century B.C. 429
• The practice of irrigation due to the Hindu kings 430
• Who taught the science of irrigation to the Singhalese (note) 430
• The first tank constructed B.C. 504 431
• Gardens and fruit-trees first planted 432
• Value of artificial irrigation in the north of Ceylon 432
• In the south of the island the rains sustain cultivation 432
• Two harvests in the year in the south of the island 432
• In the north, where rains are uncertain, tanks indispensable 432
• Irrigation the occupation of kings 434
• The municipal village-system of cultivation 434
• "Assoedamising" of rice lands in the mountains 434
• Temple villages and their tenure 434
• Farm-stock buffaloes and cows 435
• A Singhalese garden described 435
• Coco-nut palm rarely mentioned in early writings 436
• Doubt whether it be indigenous to Ceylon 436
• The Mango and other fruits 437
• Rice and curry mentioned in the second century B.C. 437
• Animal food used by the early Singhalese 438
• Betel, antiquity of the custom of chewing it 438
• Intoxicating liquors known at an early period 439

CHAP. III.

EARLY COMMERCE, SHIPPING, AND PRODUCTIONS.

• Trade entirely in the hands of strangers 440
• Native shipping unconnected with commerce 440
• Same indifference to trade prevails at this day 441
• Singhalese boats all copied from foreign models 442
• All sewn together and without iron 442
• Romance of the "Loadstone Island" 443
• The legend believed by Greeks and the Chinese 443
• Vessels with two prows mentioned by Strabo 444
• Foreign trade spoken of B.C. 204 444
• Internal traffic in the ancient city of Ceylon 445
• Merchants traversing the island 445
• Early exports from Ceylon,—gems, pearls, &c. 445
• The imports, chiefly manufactures 446
• Horses and carriages imported from India 447
• Cloth, silk, &c., brought from Persia 447
• Kashmir, intercourse with 447
• Edrisi's account of Ceylon trade in the twelfth century 448

CHAP. IV.

MANUFACTURES.

• Silk not produced in Ceylon 450
• Coir and cordage 450
• Dress; unshaped robes 450
• Manual and Mechanical Arts—Weaving 451
• Priest's robes spun, woven, and dyed in a day 452
• Peculiar mode of cutting out a priest's robe 452
• Bleaching and dyeing 452
• Earliest artisans, immigrants 452
• Handicrafts looked down on 453
• Pottery 453
• Glass 454
• Glass mirrors 454
• Leather 454
• Wood carving 454
• Chemical Arts—Sugar 455
• Mineral paints 455

CHAP. V.

WORKING IN METALS.

• Early knowledge of the use of iron 457
• Steel 457
• Copper and its uses 457
• Bells, bronze, lead 458
• Gold and silver 458
• Plate and silver ware 458
• Red coral found at Galle (note) 459
• Jewelry and mounted gems 459
• Gilding.—Coin 460
• Coins mentioned in the Mahawanso 460
• Meaning of the term "massa" (note) 460
• Coins of Lokiswaira 461
• General device of Singhalese coins 461
• Indian coinage of Prakrama Bahu 462
• Fish-hook money 463

CHAP. VI.

ENGINEERING.

• Engineering taught by the Brahmans 464
• Rude methods of labour 464
• Military engineering unknown 465
• Early attempts at fortification 465
• Fortified rock of Sigiri 465
• Forests, their real security 466
• Thorns planted as defences 466
• Bridges and ferries 466
• Method of tying cut stone in forming tanks 467
• Tank sluices 467
• Defective construction of these reservoirs 467
• The art of engineering lost 468
• The "Giants' Tank" a failure 468
• An aqueduct formed, A.D. 66 469

CHAP. VII.

THE FINE ARTS.

• Music, its early cultivation 470
• • Harsh character of Singhalese music 470
  • Tom-toms, their variety and antiquity 471
  • Singhalese gamut 472
• Painting.—Imagination discouraged 472
• • Similarity of Singhalese to Egyptian art 472
  • Rigid rules for religious design 473
  • Similar trammels on art in Modern Greece (note) 473
  • And in Italy in the 15th century (n.) 474
  • Celebrated Singhalese painters 475
• Sculpture.—Statues of Buddha 475
• • Built statues 477
  • Painted statues 477
  • Statues formed of gems 477
  • Ivory and sandal-wood carved 477
• Architecture, its ruins exclusively religious 478
• Domestic architecture mean at all times 478
• Stone quarried by wedges 478
• Immense slabs thus prepared 479
• Columns at Anarajapoora 479
• Materials for building 479
• Mode of constructing a dagoba 480
• Enormous dimensions of these structures 480
• Monasteries and wiharas 481
• Palaces 482
• Carvings in stone 483
• Ubiquity of the honours shown to goose 484
• Delicate outline of Singhalese carvings 488
• Temples and their decorations 488
• Cave temples of Ceylon 489
• The Alu-wihara 489
• Moulding in plaster 489
• Claim of the Singhalese to the invention of oil painting 490
• Lacquer ware of the present day 490
• Honey-suckle ornament 491

CHAP. VIII.

SOCIAL LIFE.

• Ancient cities and their organisation 493
• Public buildings, hospitals, shops 493
• Anarajapoora, as it appeared in 7th century 493
• The description of it by Fa Hian 495
• Carriages and Horses 495
• Horses imported from Persia 495
• Furniture of the houses 496
• Form of Government.—Revenue 497
• The Army and Navy 498
• Mode of recruiting 499
• Arms.—Bows 499
• Singular mode of drawing the bow with the foot (note) 499
• Civil Justice 500

CHAP. IX.

SCIENCES.

• Education and schools 501
• Logic 502
• Astronomy and astrology 503
• Medicine and surgery 504
• King Buddha-dasa a physician 504
• Botany 505
• Geometry 505
• Lightning conductors 506
• Notice of a remarkable passage in the Mahawanso 507

CHAP. X.

SINGHALESE LITERATURE.

• The Pali language 512
• The temples the depositaries of learning 512
• Historiographers employed by the kings 512
• Ola books, how prepared 513
• A stile, and the mode of writing 513
• Books on plates of metal (note) 513
• Differences between Elu and Singhalese 513
• Pali works
• • Grammar 514
  • Hardy's list of Singhalese books (note) 515
  • Pali books all written in verse 515
  • The Pittakas 515
  • The Jatakas—resemble the Talmud 516
  • Pali literature generally 516
  • The Milinda-prasna 516
  • Pali historical books and their character 517
  • The Mahawanso 517
  • Scriptural coincidences in Pali books (note) 518
• Sanskrit works:
  • Principally on science and medicine 520
• Elu and Singhalese works:
  • Low tone of the popular literature 520
  • Chiefly ballads and metrical essays 521
  • Exempt from licentiousness 521
  • Sacred poems in honour of Hindu gods 521
  • General literature of the people 522

CHAP. XI.

BUDDHISM AND DEMON-WORSHIP.

• Buddhism as it exists in Ceylon 523
• Which was the more ancient, Brahmanism or Buddhism 523
• Various authorities (note) 523
• Buddhism, its extreme antiquity 524
• Its prodigious influence 524
• Sought to be identified with the Druids (note) 524
• Buddhism an agent of civilisation 525
• Its features in Ceylon 526
• The various forms elsewhere 527
• Points that distinguish it from Brahmanism 528
• Buddhist theory of human perfection 528
• Its treatment of caste 530
• Its respect for other religions 530
• Anecdote, illustrative of (note) 530
• Its cosmogony 531
• Its doctrine of "necessity" 532
• Transmigration 533
• Illustration from Lucan (note) 533
• The priesthood and its attributes 534
• Buddhist morals 534
• Prohibition to take life 534
• Form of worship 535
• Brahmanical corruptions 536
• Failure of Buddhism as a sustaining faith 537
• Its moral influence over the people 538
• Demon-worship 539
• Trees dedicated to demons (note) 540
• Devil priests and their orgies 541
• Ascendency of these superstitions 542
• Buddhism as an obstacle to Christianity 543
• Difficulties presented by the morals of Buddhism 544
• Prohibition against taking away life (note) 544