The History of Buddhist Thought c28.5

c28.5

Burnouf was well aware of the importance of Pāli for the prosecution of his subject. In fact everything of a chronological nature that he had to say came from Pāli works. He was (with Lassen) the first to make the Pāli language known in Europe,³ and his unpublished papers show that he had copied Pāli manuscripts and inscriptions, and had made extensive studies in grammatical, doctrinal, and historical works.¹ But the whole of the Pāli Canon was still in manuscript, and although George Turnour of the Ceylon Civil Service (1799–1843) had issued translations of portions, and in 1837 had published the text and translation of the first thirty-eight chapters of the *Mahāvaṃsa*, it was not till 1855 that any portion of the Canon was published in Europe. Since then, through the labours of V. Fausböll, H. Oldenberg, and especially T. W. Rhys Davids, the whole of the Canon of the Theravāda school is now printed.²