Essay
ධම්පියා අටුවා ගැටපදය
Not translated into English
Anonymous · 930
Synopsis
A glossary in Sinhala of the Pali commentary on the Dhammapada, the great collection of Buddhist tales: it picks out its difficult words and turns of phrase in order to explain them to its readers.
Context
The work is attributed to King Kassapa V, who reigned at the beginning of the tenth century, from 913 to 923 or from 929 to 939 depending on the chronology. It is what the tradition calls a getapada, a glossary: unlike the classical prose of the following centuries, these glossaries freely admit words from Sanskrit and Pali. D. E. Hettiarachchi devoted a study to it in 1933, in the Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society of Ceylon.
Who it is for
A scholarly text in Old Sinhala, with no translation: a tool for anyone studying the language or Buddhist texts, not a book to be read at a sitting.
Prizes and reception
Regarded as the oldest surviving work of Sinhala prose, and as such as a witness to the language in the tenth century.