A History of Pali Literature v2.c15.2

v2.c15.2

In the present chapter we have to deal with seven metrical compositions, the Anāgatavaṃsa, the Jinacarita, the Telakaṭāhagāthā, the Pajjamadhu, the Rasavāhinī, the Saddhammopāyana, and the Pañcagatidīpana, which were evidently the literary productions of Ceylon¹ and which belonged mostly to the closing period of Pāli literary activities of Ceylon ranging from the tenth or eleventh to the fourteenth or fifteenth century A.D. Amongst them the Anāgatavaṃsa stands as a supplement to the canonical work, Buddhavamsa; the Jinacarita occupies the same place in Pāli as the Buddhacarita in the Sanskrit Buddhist literature, the Telakaṭāhagāthā and the Pajjamadhu represent two interesting examples of the Śataka type of poetry, the Pañcagatidīpana and the Saddhamopāyana are written for the edification of certain select topics of Buddhism and the Rasavāhinī is a most charming book of folk-tales narrated in elegant and simple style, in prose and in verse. Most of these works show a tendency towards the sanskritisation of Pāli and display that amount of literary excellence and poetic imagination as may be expected from the people of Ceylon in general and the Buddhist monks in particular.