CULTIVO CONVENCIONAL (CC)

-in the Register III. Division

IV. Korale(1)

V. Toitn or Village VI. Site

VII. Class VIII. Sovereign

IX. Year X. Remarks

The poove Is exactly the system which Bell had

introduced over thirty years before Hocart was appointed.

Furthermore, Bell had followed this right throughout his period of office. There were obviously several reasons for the limited scale of epigraphical summaries. For instance, only a very limited fund was available for the printing ^survey reports. oP But Bell's very C on cst repo+bs

served a purpose,for his summaries display at a glance the epigraphical wealth of the country. Hocart's new numbering and general labelling do not refer to the old number and old labels. 1 failed to see Hocart's much promised continuity with the old system. It is not clear

(1) A Korale is a group of villages,normally something between five and ten in number. There seem to be no exact word in English with this meaing, for the Korale is often large in area.

-69-exactly which material Hocart found, for it seems that Bell's estampages were not always preserved. This

anoittaWe- o+ £

lack of precision on Hocart's part);vunavoidably ,puts us into a predicament, and leaves many points of interest in a state of uncertainty. Furthermore, we have no indication as to how many new inscriptions were brought to light during the intervening period (1912-20). Are we to assume that not a single inscription was brought to light during this period of eight years?

Hooart writes,the year after his reorganisation* of the Department, that to all intents and purposes, he had

suspended taking squeezes of inscriptions. He discouraged and disapproved of taking estampages that could not be

properly edited and published. It seemed to him to be a waste of time, money and energy. He does report a certain number of inscriptions in his report of 1921-22.

He writes "The following^are'"newt - No. 72. From the so- called Dhatarmandcraya. No. 66. A slab found buried in the bund of Topavava... ... A few others may or may not be newn .^ ^ Here it is clear that Hocart had some estampages and apart from that, he was not sure of new or old, even after reorganisation'.

However, Hocart did realize the absolute necessity and prime Importance of having an archaeological map for

(1) A.S.C.A.R. 1921-22, p. 7

Ceylon. He, therefore^ made Immediate arrangements with

>

the Survey Generals Deportment, to include ancient sites on their maps, and had plans for ultimately rbinging out

r

an archaeological aides of the Island, which is still unavoidable and urgently needed. In the present work.

the need has been filled as far as available material allows.

Hocart lacked the spirit and zeal of the early pioneers, Turnour, Goldrchmidt and Bell. But he had a practical mind and did all he could to arouse official interest in archaeological matters. He writes "To explore Ceylon single-handed would be a big enough task

clS

if the Island were as bare ad Mesopotamia or ^gypt: but considering that it is mostly covered with a Jungle, which the eye cannot penetrate further than 30 or 40 yards, the endeavour is hopeless. The explorer is entirely depend­

ent on the information gathered from others; the tillager can almost be ruled out because his information IS vague, and gives no idea of values; it is necessary to go and see for oneself in every case, but this is impossible

with the numberless remains about the jungle. The return of Architectural and Archaeological remains and other

antiquities compiled in 1887 does not help. It does not) give as a rule^ any information as to place beyond the name awe of the village and korale, snd as korales are very large

-7/.

in the North-Central province, and the variety of names /nftjf

is so small that three villages of the same name*occur in onoa korale; e it is not easy to find the ruins, nor

Srt is^possible to decide whether they are worth finding, for no information is given as to the age, type, materials, etc. Wo have had, therefore, to begin all over again.

After much deliberation, it was decided to enter monuments under korales, giving each korale a sheet in the loose jeaP

ledger. un this sheet is entered the number of the mon­

uments (a new series is begun with each korale) the names of the monuments, of the villages, the one mile”°£>n which

,k is are

they /situated, the numbers of plans, a short description, references to literature, the numbers of Inscriptions and negatives and remarks. The site with its number is cnte.'Od on the one mile m a p ... Thus it is quite

t o

evident that Hocart set himself out et lay the foundation of an historical geography of the country, which would serve as a general reference book for the Archaeological Department and scholars in general.

After the retirment of Bell in the year 1912, the character of the general reports of the Archaeological Survey of Ceylon changed. It must be confessed that Hocart’s Annual Reports were rather meagre, especially

(1) A.^.O.A.R. 1921-2, p. 8

7.2.

-with regard to epigraphy. This branch of archaeology wao indeed neglected for about 15 years, nothing being

done beyond sending few estampages to the Government Epigraphist in London -D .M .ie £ . u/;c/<femas<ngKe f

t.© the Epigraphia Zeylanica. However, Volume II did not appear until 1927.

Hocart writes in 1924 "Their Surveyors (Survey General^ Department of Ceylon) have been instructed to look out for and report all ancient remains. The more important of these will appear in the maps under prepara­

tion, and this will be of considerable assistance to us.

atccrcL* 1 5

In the meantime, we are continuing to locate sites,, to our lights, but sometimes the light falls altogether,

u/wU* t# ^{ItC A ti}

and we are quite*some sites within many miles without the aid of the Survey D e p a r t m e n t " T h e above lines show Bell's strength, waa- that he was man of the spot with complete and full knowledge of the sites, whereas Hocart was an office man.

Indeed Hocart expressed his doubts ad to the signi­s

ficance attaohed to the inscriptions of Ceylon. He was

indeed somewhat sceptical about treating these as historical documents of great importance. He says "Now it is true

(1) A.S.C.A.H. 1922-23/p.4

7 3

-that there are accumulated arrears to make up, neverthe­

less it is questionable whether Ceylon inscriptions are of sufficient imoortance to justify such preferential

' *•

treatment as against more important branches of archaeology.

There seems to be an idea abroad that there is a special

virtue in inscriptions; now inscriptions,like all historical materials, are only valuable in so far as they yield

information, and it must be confessed that the inscriptions of Ceylon are not very productive, because they were

mostly inscribed as legal documents,*not as records of events or customs” Hocart was, of course, not himself an epigraphist. He was essentially a socialogist; his interest was in the social habits and customs of the people.

However, under his direction in 1927 saw the completion of the 2nd volume of Epigraphia Zeylanica. (2 )

Hocart’8 efforts to register all ancient sites and

p

epigraphs on the maps of the Survey Generals Department eventually bore fruit. He wrote "Our future explorations will be greatly facilitated by the new topographical

survey,of which a complete Set has kindly been

supplied to this Department by the Survey^General• Mr. P.J.

May,, took the greatest pains to get all the information he

( 1 ) A . S . C . . t . R . 1 9 2 3 - 2 4 / p . 5

( 2 ) A . S . C . A . R . 1 9 2 4 - 2 5 / p . 6

7*

-cpuld from the surveyors, and not only have the sites been marked, but the nature of the ruins has been

lndi-*■ (1)

cated/far as possible*

Paranavitanm. was appointed as Epigraphical Assistant to the Commissioner of Archaeology in the year 19 2*.

According to Hocart, he visited the Southern Province and Uva in quest of inscriptions and he was very much dis­

appointed by the results of his tour. He (Hocart) says

" ...Monaragala, near Buttala, where an inscription dating from about the period of Mahanama (5th century A.D) and another short record of the 10th century were copied;

Yudarii^anava, Katugahagatge, and other places near Buttala were visited. The inscriptions copied from these two places will be of interest in tracing the old road from Magama to the capital... At Veragala near Tanamalvila

two inscriptions of the 6th and 7th centuries were copied.

Near Palatupanajthere is an extensive site containing a large number of caves and ruined stupas. This site is called Magulmaha Vihara. There is reason to believe

that Vijayabahu I's stronghold named Palutjiapabhata in the Mahavarosa was among this cluster of rocks, and the place is worth a more detailed inspection than was possible during this .xsit. Some of the caves contained Brahmi

(1) A.S.C.A.R. 1925-26/p.8

-7S-inscriptions of the 2nd century B.C.” ^ It must be admitted that thie casual and random manner of

recording end commenting on inscriptions added greatly to the difficulties of the present work.

However, it appears that the Epigraphical Assistant

• did travel very widely in connection with the publication of the 3rd and 4th Volumes of the Epigaphia Zeylanica.

Paranavitanm was then serving as^Epigraphical Assistant and it was he who brought out these two volumes in full collaboration with H.W. Codrington.

Unfortunately, Bell's syfcematic method of fully

registering new inscriptions had been abandoned and from this time onwards the Annual Reports do not provide

clear information as to the new material recorded. It became increasingly difficult therefore to provide a

list of new inscriptions from year to year. . For instance Winger, who was acting Archaeological Commissioner after

Hocart's retirement, writes "The total number of inscrip­

tions copied during the year is 73. Of those, 28 are Brahml inscriptions on the drip-lines (a-ie.) of caves and difficult of access for obtaining estampages. As the trouble involved In p tting up scaffoldings was not comm­

ensurate with the results gained, eye copies^Were made of

(1) A.S.C.A.R. 1926-27/p.7

-76-4a other

these records. Inked estampages were prepared of*45 other epigraphs. Of the above number, 26 inscriptions have been copied by thiA Department previously! but fresh squeezes were made as those at present in our collection are not

good enough. The other 45 inscriptions were copied for the first time this year by the Department. Of the new discoveries, the following deserve special

mention*-(1) A pre-Christian record from P u l m o ^ a i in the Trinco- malee Dlst. contain some word forms not found elsewhere!

(2) a pillar inscription of Dappula V found at Defcagamuva, a mile to the south of Kataraytma, and now preserved in

the temple at the latter place (3) a rock inscription at Kndigala in the Vanni hatpattu is the only Inscription so far found of Vankanasika Tissa...it ^

From this example it will be realised that the Annual Reports on Epigraphy of the succeeding year (up to 1950) take us no where. Here is another example "The E^igraph- ical Assistant visited the following places:- Western

Province,- Pokunuvita and Velmilla in the Raydgam Korale

4k a.

of,Kalutara Dist. Province of Sabaragamuva,- Salgal^anaya, Lenagala, Hunuvela, Mamplta and Yatahalena in the Bell^al Korale of Kagalla Dist... North Western Province. -Kurunagala Dist:- Humbuluve Vihara, Habbllikanda, Puhule Vihara, Madavala Vihara... "

(1) A.S.C.A.R. 1928-29/p.7.

-77-"Estampages have been prepared of 99 inacriptiona and eye copies have been made of 49 records, on the Kataraa of cavea, not easily accessible, and for the

moat part of no historical interest. Of the total number of 148 inscriptions, 106 have not been previously copied by this Department. The maJoVi^ty of these inscriptions are, as usual, either short or fragmentary. However,

&YC

among the inscriptions copied this year*several are of historical value" ^

He proceeds to comment on certain selected inscriptions without giving the reproduction, which records, he deems to be of historical importance. These random remarks without placing before the public what are the historical and linguistic problems of Ceylon, take us nowhere.

15 years after Bell's retirement, lists of inscriptions of the Archaeological Survey of Ceylon began again to appear in the pages of Ceylon Journal of Science, Section 0.

The system adopted is similar to Bell's Epigraphical

Summaries in the Annual Reports• The only order, which Paranevitane followed in the these series of Epigraphical

in Summaries is that of the Serial Humber, as he found it/the Archaeological Survey Register of Estampages. He writes

in his introduction to the first of these Epigraphical Summaries as follows?-"The table attached below contains a

(1) A.S.C./.R. 1950-31/p.4.

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7S--list of inscriptions copied by the Department from