The Mahavansi, Raja-Ratnacari, and Raja-Vali are sacred historical texts from Sri Lanka, translated from Singhalese in a three-volume set. They document the island's history, kings, and Buddhist traditions. The Mahavansi high-lights ancient royal lineages, while the Rájá-Ratnácari and Raja-Vali emphasize governance and Buddhism's role. With tracts on Buddhist doctrines, they offer a rich perspective on Sri Lanka's heritage.
Edward Upham (1776-1834) was an English bookseller, antiquarian, and orientalist from Exeter. He served as sheriff (1807) and mayor (1809) before retiring to write. A fellow of the Society of Antiquaries and the Royal Asiatic Society, he authored works on Buddhism, Ceylon's history, and the Ottoman Empire.
THROUGH the labours of Sir William Jones, of Mr. Wilkins, Mr. Colebrooke, and other distinguished Oriental scholars, the rich and varied stores of Sanscrit literature have been laid open to the Western world with no sparing hand; not only have the lighter pro-ducts the pearls and flowers of Hindu imagination been introduced to the notice of the learned and the tasteful in Europe, but the more severe and complex, and more profound and subtle portions of its lore, have been also studied and explained by the persevering and enlightened zeal of our countrymen in the East. They have not bounded their labours with having rendered the philosophical and ethical systems of the Hindus comparatively familiar to our minds, but they have ventured, and not unsuccessfully, to develop the abstruse dogmas and mysterious tenets of the Brahmanical faith.
Much, it is true, remains to be done even in this branch of Oriental research; but while our knowledge has been so widely extended with respect to the opinions and learning of the followers of Brahma, - while they themselves have, as it were, been made to give evidence on these and other interesting points, - we have been left almost in total ignorance respecting the history, the religion, and the opinions of the disciples of the great rival religious system of India and the surrounding countries; a body which, in every point of view, merits at least equal attention, and its literature equal research, with the more orthodox worshippers of the Hindu Pantheon and their important records. Yet have we been left, as it were, to grope our way amid the conflicting statements of persons who have learned the little they know on the subject from authorities either decidedly inimical to, or, at the best, very imperfectly acquainted with, the system they professed to elucidate. The scanty and obscure in-formation occasionally gleaned from the Buddhist re-cords themselves, owing to the variations both in the system itself and its practice, which have been introduced by its teachers and professors in the various countries in which it prevails, have tended rather to perplex by their contradictions, than to give confidence by their authenticity. To expatiate on the value of authentic and original explanations and illustrations of Buddhist faith and practice, as the only authorities on which we can or ought to depend for forming our judgment as to the merits or defects of this widely spread, and therefore important doctrine, is quite needless; and it is, consequently, with increased plea-sure that, whilst we observe in other quarters indications of attempts to disperse the mist, we present in these volumes the first specimen of an original and genuine Buddhist history that has been offered to the public.
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