![[Last]](greyleft.gif){kind=small}
[Home]
![[Next]](greyright.gif){kind=small}
The gratifying reception with which the following pages have been honoured by the public and the press, has in no degree lessened my consciousness, that in a work so extended in its scope, and comprehending such a multiplicity of facts, errors are nearly unavoidable both as to conclusions and detail. These, so far as I became aware of them, I have endeavoured to correct in the present, as well as in previous impressions.
But my principal reliance for the suggestion and supply both of amendments and omissions has been on the press and the public of Ceylon; whose familiarity with the topics discussed naturally renders them the most competent judges as to the mode in which they have been treated. My hope when the book was published in October last was, that before going again to press I should be in possession of such friendly communications and criticisms from the island, as would have enabled me to render the second edition much more valuable than the previous one. In this expectation I have been agreeably disappointed, the sale having been so rapid, as to require a fourth impression before it was possible to obtain from Ceylon judicious criticisms on the first. These in due time will doubtless arrive; and meanwhile, I have endeavoured, by careful revision, to render the whole as far as possible correct.
J. EMERSON TENNENT.
The call for a third edition on the same day that the second was announced for publication, and within less than two months from the appearance of the first, has furnished a gratifying assurance of the interest which the public are disposed to take in the subject of the present work.
Thus encouraged, I have felt it my duty to make several alterations in the present impression, amongst the most important of which is the insertion of a Chapter on the doctrines of Buddhism as it developes itself in Ceylon. 1 In the historical sections I had already given an account of its introduction by Mahindo, and of the establishments founded by successive sovereigns for its preservation and diffusion. To render the narrative complete, it was felt desirable to insert an abstract of the peculiar tenets of the Buddhists; and this want it has been my object to supply. The sketch, it will be borne in mind, is confined to the principal features of what has been denominated "Southern Buddhism" amongst the Singhalese; as distinguished from "Northern Buddhism" in Nepal, Thibet, and China. 2 The latter has been largely illustrated by the labours of Mr. B.H. HODGSON and the toilsome researches of M. CSOMA of Körrös in Transylvania; and the minutest details of the doctrines and ceremonies of the former have been unfolded in the elaborate and comprehensive collections of Mr. SPENCE HARDY. 3 From materials discovered by these and other earnest inquirers, Buddhism in its general aspect has been ably delineated in the dissertations of BURNOUF 4 and SAINT HILAIRE 5 , and in the commentaries of REMUSAT 6 , STANISLAS JULIEN 7 , FOUCAUX 8 , LASSEN 9 , and WEBER. 10 The portion thus added to the present edition has been to a great extent taken from a former work of mine on the local superstitions of Ceylon, and the "Introduction and Progress of Christianity" there; and as the section relating to Buddhism had the advantage, previous to publication, of being submitted to the Rev. Mr. GOGERLY, the most accomplished Pali scholar, as well as the most erudite student of Buddhistical literature in the island, I submit it with confidence as an accurate summary of the distinctive views of the Singhalese on the leading doctrines of their national faith.
A writer in the Saturday Review 11 , in alluding to the passage in which I have sought to establish the identity of the ancient Tarshish with the modern Point de Galle 12 , admits the force of the coincidence adduced, that the Hebrew terms for "ivory, apes, and peacocks" 13 (the articles imported in the ships of Solomon) are identical with the Tamil names, by which these objects are known in Ceylon to the present day; and, to strengthen my argument on this point, he adds that, "these terms were so entirely foreign and alien from the common Hebrew language as to have driven the Ptolemaist authors of the Septuagint version into a blunder, by which the ivory, apes, and peacocks come out as 'hewn and carven stones.'" The circumstance adverted to had not escaped my notice; but I forebore to avail myself of it; for, although the fact is accurately stated by the reviewer, so far as regards the Vatican MS., in which the translators have slurred over the passage and converted "ibha, kapi, and tukeyim" into [Greek: "lithôn toreutôn kai pelekêtôn"] (literally, "stones hammered and carved in relief"); still, in the other great MS. of the Septuagint, the Codex Alexandrinus, which is of equal antiquity, the passage is correctly rendered by "[Greek: odontôn elephantinôn kai pithêkôn kai taônôn]." The editor of the Aldine edition 14 compromised the matter by inserting "the ivory and apes," and excluding the "peacocks," in order to introduce the Vatican reading of "stones." 15 I have not compared the Complutensian and other later versions.
The Rev. Mr. CURETON, of the British Museum, who, at my request, collated the passage in the Chaldee and Syriac versions, assures me that in both, the terms in question bear the closest resemblance to the Tamil words found in the Hebrew; and that in each and all of them these are of foreign importation.
J. EMERSON TENNENT.
LONDON: November 28th, 1859.
1: See Part IV., c. xi.
2: MAX MÜLLER; History of Sanskrit Literature, p. 202.
3: Eastern Monachism, an account of the origin, laws; discipline, sacred writings, mysterious rites, religious ceremonies, and present circumstances of the Order of Mendicants, founded by Gotoma Budha. 8vo. Lond. 1850; and A Manual of Buddhism in its Modern Development. 8vo. Lond. 1853.
4: BURNOUF, Introduction à l'Histoire du Bouddhieme Indien. 4to. Paris. 1845; and translation of the Lotus de la bonne Loi.
5: J. BARTHELEMY SAINT-HILAIRE Le Bouddha et sa Religion. 8vo. Paris. 1800.
6: Introduction and Notes to the Foĕ Kouĕ Ki of FA HIAN.
7: Life and travels of HIOUEN THSANG.
8: Translation of Lalitavistára by M. PH. ED. FOUCAUX.
9: Author of the Indische Alterthumskunde; &c.
10: Author of the Indische Studien; &c.
11: Novemb. 19, 1859, p. 612.
12: See Vol. II. Pt. VII., c. i. p. 102.
13: 1 Kings, x. 22.
14: Venice, 1518.
15: [Greek: Kai odontôn elephantinôn kai pithêkôn kai lithôn]. [Greek: BASIA TRITÊ]. x. 22. It is to be observed, that Josephus appears to have been equally embarrassed by the unfamiliar term tukeyim for peacocks. He alludes to the voyages of Solomon's merchantmen to Tarshish, and says that they brought hack from thence gold and silver, much ivory, apes, and Æthiopians—thus substituting "slaves" for pea-fowl—"[Greek: kai polus elephas, Aithiopes te kai pithêkoi]." Josephus also renders the word Tarshish by "[Greek: en tê Tarsikê legomenê thalattê]," an expression which shows that he thought not of the Indian but the western Tarshish, situated in what Avienus calls the Fretum Tartessium, whence African slaves might have been expected to come.—Antiquit. Judaicæ, l. viii. c. vii sec. 2.
The rapidity with which the first impression has been absorbed by the public, has so shortened the interval between its appearance and that of the present edition, that no sufficient time has been allowed for the discovery of errors or defects; and the work is re-issued almost as a corrected reprint.
In the interim, however, I have ascertained, that Ribeyro's "Historical Account of Ceylon," which it was heretofore supposed had never appeared in any other than the French version of the Abbe Le Grand, and in the English translation of the latter by Mr. Lee 1 ,was some years since printed for the first time in the original Portuguese, from the identical MS. presented by the author to Pedro II. in 1685. It was published in 1836 by the Academia Real das Sciencias of Lisbon, under the title of "Fatalidade Historica da Ilka de Ceilão;" and forms the Vth volume of the a "Colleção de Noticias para a Historia e Geograjia das Nações Ultramarinas" A fac-simile from a curious map of the island as it was then known to the Portuguese, has been included in the present edition. 2
Some difficulty having been expressed to me, in identifying the ancient names of places in India adverted to in the following pages; and mediæval charts of that country being rare, a map has been inserted in the present edition 3 , to supply the want complained of.
The only other important change has been a considerable addition to the Index, which was felt to be essential for facilitating reference.
J E.T.
1: See Vol. II. Part vi. ch. i. p. 5, note.
2: Ibid. p. 6.
3: See Vol. I. p. 330.
[Top]