Mediaeval Sinhalese Art c18.6

c18.6

“The making and painting of images have been in the hands of a particular section of the Sinhalese; not being versed in the Sanskrit, and not understanding the texts, it is plain that they only took care to have the paraphrase jotted down, to enable them to take the measurement, regardless of the accuracy of the Sanskrit verses. Hence the work is full of errors, and I have had great trouble to get the verses corrected and put into proper metre before commencing the translation.