Lanterna Rally

Author: C. J. R. Lemesurier

Publisher:

Published: 2015-07-27

Total Pages: 166

ISBN-13: 9781332024926

Excerpt from Niti-Nigha uva: Or, the Vocabulary of Law; As It Existed in the Last Days of the Kandyan Kingdom Shortly after the cession of the Kandyan Provinces to the English Government, and the appointment of the Board of Commissioners to administer the affairs of the newly acquired territory, the Home Government asked for an account of the ancient institutions, customs, feelings and prejudices of the Kandyan people. This request was communicated to the Board in November, 1818, when it was agreed that the members should each draw up a separate memorandum on the subjects, to be discussed and forwarded to Government with the remarks of the collective Board, This intention does not seem to have been carried out. The only member of the Board who prepared anything like a detailed account was the Resident, Sir John D'Oyle, and his, though an exceedingly valuable document, was very fragmentary and imperfect. At or about the same time, however, a committee of the chiefs was assembled, under the direction, it is believed, of Mr. Sawers, the Judicial (afterwards the Revenue) Commissioner, and this committee prepared a code of Kandyan law, which was arranged as far as possible in a systematic manner by their secretary, a priest it is said, of the Malwatta Monastery. Though I have been unable, either from intrinsic or extrinsic sources, to discover the exact date of the compilation of this work, its after history is fairly clear. The original copy of the manuscript was for a long time in Mr. Armours possession, after which, it, or a copy of it, passed into the hands of Wgodapola, the present lay High Priest of the Pattini Dawdle. This is still extant. From him, Welagedara, then Kordla of Pallpan, afterwards Ratmahatmaya of Kotmale, obtained a copy; and from this gentleman Pdnabokke Banda, the Ratmahatmaya of Udapaldta, secured another, which his nephew, Mr. Pdnabokke, the President of Dumbara, transcribed and made a rough translation of. This came into my hands in 1876, since when I have, to the best of my ability, re-translated and re-cast it into its present form. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works."