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Art. IX. —On the Form of Government under the Native Sovereigns of Ceylon
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 15 March 2011
Extract
There being unquestionable historical facts and monumental ruins to testify to a considerable amount of civilization amongst the Sinhalese at an early period of their history, it may not unreasonably be supposed that they had a code of written laws, and a regular Government with a suitable executive. This cannot well be doubted, since it appears that law itself formed, in ancient times, a subject of study in the island. No regular records of these things, however, have come down to us, owing, in all probability, to the wanton destruction of literary records and libraries during the several invasions from the continent of India. Sinhalese historians with one voice deplore the devastations committed by the Cholas about the commencement of the thirteenth century, when the island suffered irreparable losses, both in a literary and political point of view, from the Saracenic fury of the invaders.
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- Copyright © The Royal Asiatic Society 1876
References
page 298 note 1 “The infamous Anulâ,” as she is called in the Mahawansa, who, in the year B.C. 47, after having poisoned her husband and her son, seized upon the throne, was the first female sovereign of Ceylon on record.
page 299 note 1 The last King of Kandy, Srî Vikrama Râja Sinha, had a third Adigâr called Siya Pattu Mahâ Nilamê. This king, in order to fill his treasury, created several new offices, and divided the large Dissâwanies into smaller provinces with Dissâwas appointed to each. This was also one of the proximate canses of the disaffection of his subjects and his unpopularity, which attained their climax in the exasperation caused by his treachery to the troops under Major Davie and other British subjects, and his barbarous cruelties to the family of Ehalepole, and his own subjects, generally; the result being the annexation of the Kandyan provinces by the British in 1815.
page 301 note 1 Râjakâriya was abolished by the English Government. An order of the King in Council, proclaimed September 28th, 1832, abolished compulsory labour in the Colony.
page 302 note 1 The Portuguese in the low country, making the title of Mudiansê a military rank, invested its recipient with a sword and belt. The Dutch made it not, only a military, but also a civil rank.