Mediaeval Sinhalese Art c20.s1.2

c20.s1.2

The other book is both larger and later; it was written in A.D. 1811 by Iriyagama Dhammadassi at a cost of 200 ridis, at the request of a certain official and court favourite who wished to perform a meritorious action for the benefit of the soul of the late Queen Mother who had been his patron. Full details of the many lands and offices held by this man are given in the long colophon, translated below; affording an interesting sidelight on Kandyan court life 100 years ago. The book is written on 150 leaves (two blank) of Dutch paper measuring 13⅞ inches by 9½ inches, thirty-three lines to the page, and is plainly bound in leather; folios 1-146 are numbered consecutively, the text beginning as above stated, after the usual invocation of Buddha; folios 2-4 are painted on the recto side only, with 7, 8, and 8 of the 24 assurances (*savisi vivaraṇa*); the text begins on folio 5 (numbered 1) and ends on folio 145 (numbered 141) with the last of the 24.